Sean Guard sinks his teeth into the season four finale of the popular U.S. vampire series True Blood – “And When I Die”…
My fellow fans of one of the better HBO original series, I write to you this time with a shocked and rather saddened demeanor. If you’ve been following my re-caps of the show that I sometimes refer to as the Blood that is True, then you may already have an idea as to why I am so sad. As much as I would love to begin this final review of the fourth season with that very reason, I must start at the right spot. That spot being the beginning.
Jesus quickly realizes that something is not quite right with the love of his life, Lafayette, when he tries to kiss his boyfriend goodbye. After a pretty awkward lip-to-lip exchange, he receives a fork through the hand for his discovery. Elsewhere, everything seems pretty normal after the battle with Marnie. Even though Halloween is upon the town of Bon Temps, its citizens are all carrying on as normal. At least as normal as they can.
Sam pays his last respects to his brother, Tommy, as he is finally laid to rest. Mrs. Fortenberry unexpectedly shows up and says some nice words to Sam about his brother. The arrival of Luna and her daughter makes it an even better burial for Sam as he realizes that he is not alone. Back at the restaurant, Arlene and Terry welcome Sookie back in full Halloween theme. Zombie-fied in their costumes, they direct her to the reason why she has returned, which is to speak to Sam.
Back at Lafayette’s place, Marnie/Lafayette has Jesus tied up and threatens to cause Lafayette’s body some serious harm if she doesn’t get what she wants. What she wants is relieve Jesus of his dark demon-side magic to use for herself. She does this by stabbing Jesus directly in the chest and licking the blood off of the knife that pierced his skin. The wound that she leaves upon Jesus’ chest proves to be fatal as he eventually dies. Kind of sad to see him go. He was a good dude, especially for our usually pissed off Lafayette.
Sookie finds Sam in his office and offers her condolensces for the death of his brother. He gives her her job back and says that she has to start right away. Immediately after this, she runs into Alcide at the bar where he drops some pretty heavy, philosophical words of wisdom on her. In a somewhat roundabout kind of way, he comes pretty close to what we all already knew; that he has feelings for her. He also makes it known that he is now completely finished with Debbie and wants to be drama-free before receiving a phone call. He quickly excuses himself, but not before instructing Sookie to make sure to stay alive.
We then cut to Tara arriving at her cousins’ home and discovering Jesus’ body, lifeless. She quickly, somehow (a somehow that is not explained to us), deciphers that Marnie has taken over Lafayette’s body. She gathers up Sookie and Holly and takes them to where Marnie/Lafayette now has Bill and Eric silvered and tied to a stake, helpless. Holly performs a spell to protect the two vampires from Marnie while she is distracted. All of sudden, Antonia, Sookie’s Gran and many other dead folk appear and stop Marnie from her madness. Despite trying to fight them, pleading that her work isn’t done yet, she eventually leaves with them, to take her place in the after-life, and rest in peace.
You would think the episode is nearly over. You, of course, would be severely mistaken. Jason decides to confess his sins to Hoyt about his sexual escapade with Jessica. To this news he receives a beat down at the hands of now ex-best friend. Later in the episode, Jessica, dressed as a very naughty Little Red Riding Hood, pays Jason a visit and I don’t need to tell you what happens next. She does, however, make it very clear that all she wishes to have with Jason, at this point, is sex and nothing more. She doesn’t want to hurt Jason as she hurt Hoyt and is scared to become truly intimate with him. After the sex, she rushes off and there is an immediate knock at Jason’s door. In front of him stands Reverend Newlin from Season fricking 2! He’s back and with fangs! Don’t invite him in Jay!
After Arlene meets an old Marine buddy of Terry’s who makes a surprise visit, she receives a stopover from another unforeseen guest; Rene! His ghost almost startles her into a heart attack behind Merlotte’s. He warns her of remaining with Terry for he has a dark past and she should be aware of their future together. Elsewhere, Sam and Luna enjoy some kissy-face before Luna decides it’s time for her to take her daughter home. She warns Sam of getting to comfortable with their “relationship” because things always manage to go awry with her when they are looking up. After she leaves, Sam finds himself face-to-face with a growling wolf. Who could it be? We all saw Marcus die, perhaps one of his pack member’s? We’ll just have to wait and see.
On possibly the lightest note of the entire episode, Andy tries to make amends with Holly. He confesses his “V” problem to her and that he is ready to make someone happy, if they would only let him. She tells him that she isn’t really ready for anything but would welcome a hug. The scene ends with the two of them locked in an embrace.
A quick check-in with Pam shows her at a very vulnerable time. She is truly fed up with the one that they call Sookie. She can’t understand what hold Sookie has over her maker, Eric. This is probably the most emotional, except for last week, that we’ve ever seen Pam. We find Alcide answering the call that he got earlier. He arrives at a parking lot to find a tremendous hole in the cement ground. Within the hole lies a silver chain. This means only one thing; ex-vampire king, Russell Edginton, is back.
Back to more drama, as we find the threesome of Sookie, Bill and Eric back at Bill’s mansion. A long conversation about whom she should pick ends with her choosing…..no one. A good choice if I do say so myself. I for one got tired very early of their love triangle story line. A bit too Twilight-ish for my tastes. She leaves and the former face of the AVL arrives. She explains that she’s been fired and was instructed to deliver the true death to both Bill and Eric. She offers to form an alliance with them both to which they respond by killing her.
Now we arrive at the worst part of the episode. Sookie arrives home looking for Tara who has just finished comforting Lafayette over the loss of Jesus. She walks among the darkness to find Debbie, armed with a shotgun nonetheless, lurking amongst her kitchen. She points the weapon in Sookie’s direction and pulls the trigger. Just then, Tara shows up and jumps in front of the bullet catching it in her head. Now, it was somewhat hard to see, I’m sure the producer’s did this on purpose, whether or not she got shot directly in the head or the bullet just grazed her. But there was a lot of blood for simply a graze. After Tara collapses to the ground, Sookie tackles Debbie to the ground overcome by rage and anger. She points the shotgun at Debbie’s throat. Despite her pleas for Sookie to not kill her, her brains are splattered all over the refrigerator that stood behind her when Sookie pulls the trigger. She then finds her back over to Tara and the episode ends with her screaming for help. I think this episode had more people dying that any other they have shown. Must be some kind of record.
My guess is that both Bill and Eric will come rushing to her aid and pour their blood down Tara’s throat, saving her life. This could result in so many possibilities, seeing as how the receiver of vampire blood usually becomes connected to the giver and lusts after them sexually. That could get hairy seeing as how both of them are Sookie’s exes. Either that or the producers have killed off my favorite character on the show. Now we will never get to see her naked. Seriously, I loved, I mean love Tara. She needs to not die so much. My pleas are to please not kill her off. I’d rather see Sookie die than see Tara die and she’s the true main character of the entire thing.
In other thoughts, I loved this fourth season. I think it was the best one out of all of them. It had so much going on. Storylines galore and drama to keep you busy for months. I will only remove a point due to the annoyance that was Sookie, Bill and Eric. We’re all going to truly need to grasp onto the goodness that this season delivered because we must now wait until next summer to see how everything turns out. Yes, that is a long time, a very long time. All in all, I hope that next season is just as good as this one, if not better. They can achieve this by firstly reviving my girl, Tara. I can’t emphasize enough just how much this needs to happen. I give True Blood Season 4 “9 loooong months of waiting sucks out of 10”.
“I’m so over Sookie and her precious fairie vagina and her unbelievably stupid name. F**k Sookie!” – Pam
Sean Guard
Follow me on Twitter @Sean_Guard
