by Chris Saccaro
As “True Blood” comes closer to the end of the season, everything still feels like it’s setting up for a grand finale that I have no doubts will happen. But for now, it’s slowly setting up the pieces of the elaborate game. Thankfully though, many of the storylines are starting to combine, making much more sense together than they ever have apart.
The most surprising instance of this are the links between Lafayette and Terry’s storylines. Lafayette has been noticeably all over the place this season. However, giving him a purpose again is proving to be just what his character needed. Granted, Terry’s ifrit curse is still ill fitting and far removed from “True Blood’s” general narrative, but at least now it has one less degree of separation from the main characters.
On a similar note, Hoyt is finally forced to confront Jessica. This has been in the making all season, and the pay-off makes the long wait well worth it. While it was clear that he wasn’t going to actually kill her, having him confront his feelings about her was a great way for him to get over her.
This also brings Sam and Luna into the mix, though I’m still not convinced that I should be caring about their relationship. It doesn’t help that the most emotional scene between the two characters happened between Sam and himself (more specifically, between Sam, and Luna, who transformed into Sam). I tend to forget that “True Blood” is also meant to be humorous, but the scene didn’t help me feel bad for Sam or Luna, despite the fact that Luna will probably die the same way Tommy did last season.
Perhaps the best thing to happen to “True Blood” this week was giving The Authority more of a purpose. After seeing the vision of Lilith, all of the members are preparing to get more vamps to abandon the idea of mainstreaming. I really love that Bill and Eric are split on how they want to handle this. Bill has clearly drunk the koolaid, while Eric wants no part of it. Bill’s plan to explode the TruBlood factories, forcing vampires to drink real blood, is a feasible plan that would send the vampire world into a panic.
As of late, all of the recent “True Blood” episodes have been coming close to a big chaotic finale, but haven’t quite hit it. At the end of every episode, I find myself itching for the next week’s episode, hoping that there will finally be some big moment. But then, as was the case with this episode, more specific details are sorted out, raising the stakes for the inevitable conclusion. This isn’t entirely a negative problem. “True Blood” is just slowly piecing the stories together to get the biggest dramatic stakes it can get.
Chris Saccaro is a staff writer. Email him at entertainment@nyunews.com.
