by Chris Saccaro
In a season that spent a majority of its time building up such unnecessarily complex storylines, tonight’s episode of “True Blood,” suitably titled “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” finally pays off.
One of the things that “True Blood” often has trouble with is the pacing of a story, especially this season. At the beginning of the season, the Authority never seemed as menacing as it could have. It soon became a boring cycle of endless boardroom scenes and religious ramblings. However, now that the ball is rolling, everything involving the Authority is happening a lot faster. As Bill suggested last week, they are already well underway with burning down all of the Tru-Blood factories. Even more surprising, we are seeing the effects of this immediately through Tara and Pam.
The change of character dynamics between Bill and Eric is perhaps one of the more interesting things to come from the Authority storyline. After a season of working together, this change is welcome. Eric vehemently opposes the Authority and its Sanguinista mentality. Bill, on the other hand, as Eric unfortunately learned, has become a devout Sanguinista. As much as I loved them working together, it’s nice to see them on opposing sides, without Sookie being caught in the middle (though she does still come into the picture as a positive aspect of mainstreaming).
The idea of a war between the humans and the “supes” has also been hinted throughout the season, and now it’s slowly finding its way to all of the characters. It seems monumental for “True Blood” to have this level of cohesion, especially when the earlier episodes of this season have been so scattered. But with the war brewing, everyone somehow gets caught up with his or her own version of the humans vs. “supes” struggle. This was handled really well, showing both the political rumblings through the Authority as well as the grassroots reaction through the hate group.
After getting some help from the spirit of her grandmother (and Lafayette, who is getting back to his old self, thankfully), Sookie questions Sheriff Dearborne about the death of her parents, and how it relates to the vampire vision she had last episode. She soon discovers that Sheriff Dearborne is at the center of the hate group. Or rather, his girlfriend seemingly runs the show. Either way, Sookie is drugged and about to become pig food. This hate group stuff has become some of the more interesting subjects that the show has tackled. The parallels to the real life struggles of minorities are a bit heavy-handed, but they are welcome nonetheless.
Sam and Luna come to the rescue, followed by Jason and Andy. While Sam and Luna were using their shifting skills to spy and solve crimes, Russell was kidnapping Luna’s daughter. This will efficiently link most of the stories, with Sam and Luna serving as the Authority’s connection to the small folk of Bon Temps.
While the title of the episode claims that “everybody wants to rule the world,” I think that’s a bit of a misnomer. The characters on both sides of the spectrum definitely want to rule the world with their own ideology. But the people caught in the middle just want to live their lives. What “True Blood” did best this episode was show the struggle between the ruling class, and the regular people just trying to get by.
Chris Saccaro is a staff writer. Email him at entertainment@nyunews.com.
