It seems like the even-numbered episodes of the True Blood final season are going to be higher in quality, because “Death is Not the End” was a vast improvement over “Fire in the Hole,” the way that “I Found You” was way better than “Jesus Gonna Be Here.” This was an admirably stripped-down hour for True Blood, and exhibited a quality that I haven’t seen too often in this show: grace. The cold open was remarkably strong, cutting between Sookie informing Alcide’s father of his son’s death, and Jason calling Hoyt to tell him that Maxine was killed. Jason’s phone call was especially heartbreaking, as he had to pretend to not know Hoyt (remember, Jessica glamoured away all of Hoyt’s memories of her and Jason). Ryan Kwanten gave his best performance of this whole season so far, as he tried unsuccessfully to hold back tears and gave his condolences to “Bubba.” That’s how “Death is Not the End” surprised me: in its depiction of grief. It’s not an easy subject to tackle, nor is it a very exciting one, but if done right (like in the pilot episode of The Leftovers), it can make for powerful television.
The big set piece of the episode is the attack on Fangtasia, as Sookie, Bill, Eric, and several others aim to eliminate the h-vamps and release their prisoners. It’s a well-done sequence, especially when more pissed-off townspeople arrive, hurling Molotov cocktails (Pam, as usual, remains the best, coolly putting out the fire with an extinguisher, rather than watch her bar burn to the ground, which is what I expected to happen). Bill unceremoniously dispatches Vince, which is good because fuck that guy. I’ve taken shits that are better villains, and if True Blood aims for this level of quality each week – and I hope it does – then it deserves a better bad guy.
Where the episode stumbles is its treatment of Sookie: as in, this show fucking loves her tonight. She is never presented as less than caring, tough, gutsy, and so on. It’s dangerous for a show to fall in love with its main character to such a degree, otherwise the show will end up like Crossbones.
What’s important is that by the end of “Death is Not the End” – which, like season two’s “Beyond Here Lies Nothing,” is named after a Bob Dylan song! – the h-vamps, and the main contingent of angry townsolk, are eliminated. It’s very smart of True Blood to reset the board this early in the season; after the breathless pace of these first four episodes, the show has earned some breathing room.
A Few Thoughts
– Most Eric and Pam flashbacks serve only to illustrate how cool Eric and Pam are (very), but I really enjoyed tonight’s history of Fangtasia, especially the bit about Pam stealing credit from Ginger for the idea. And Alexander Skarsgaard with Zach Morris hair is something I didn’t know I needed until now
– Eric, to Bill: “Pam tells me you’ve written a book where you claim you’re no longer an asshole.”
– Jason, about Officer Kevin: “He was a good man…with a funny voice.”
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