“Lost Cause” was another damn fine episode of True Blood, even if it was hampered slitghtly by a script that forced characters to say things like “We are motherfucking celebrating life” and “You better fuckin’ fuck me before you go to Dallas.” I swear, the only word this show uses more than “vampire” is “fuck,” and sometimes it forgets how to do it properly. But the performances were all top-notch, and “Lost Cause” managed to pack a lot of developments into its compressed timeframe.
To wit: Eric releases Willa in the cold open. Willa doesn’t want to accompany Pam and Eric on their hunt for Sarah Newlin, because she’s pissed at Eric – and rightfully so. She calls him out on being a shitty maker, and Eric, surprisingly, agrees with her instead of compelling her to join him. When he sinks into his throne at Fangtasia, he looks like King Lear, world-weary and beaten. He releases Willa, which is good for two reasons: 1, it gives some closure to a storyline that was more or less an afterthought, and 2, it allows him and Pam to team up, which is always a great combination. The relationship between the two of them has always been more important than the one between Eric and Sookie, or Eric and Nora, or Eric and Willa, or even Eric and Godric. Shit, I just realized that Pam hasn’t had a whole lot of agency in the past.
Sookie, pretty world-weary herself, is joined by Lafayette and James at her house. I have a hard time with Sookie grieving, because not only was it explored better in last week’s “Death is Not the End,” but also because it entails True Blood asking us to believe Sookie would be this broken up over someone who by her own admission she didn’t love that much. Lafayette (who keeps calling Sookie “Sook,” which is an even stupider name than Sookie) sends her to bed, and when she awakes (apparently twenty-four hours later), he’s lit about a million candles and invited literally everyone to the house for a party. If my friend did that to me I would fucking kill myself. Wouldn’t even think twice. “Hey, Trevor, we know you’re pretty broken up, so we invited over a shit ton of people to – ” BLAMMO! Anyway, Sookie has a party.
The party goes as every party does: there’s a DJ playing shitty music on a Macbook, a couple gets into a fight, the host gets too drunk, and there are more than a few ill-advised hookups.
I was impressed by the party because True Blood managed to advance the story without making it feel like it was making a sprint to the series finale. Andy proposes to Holly, in a genuinely sweet scene. James and Lafayette kiss and then have sex, which Jessica catches them doing. In comforting Jessica, Jason ends up having sex with her, which Violet overhears because people in Bon Temps suck at hooking up discreetly. Lettie Mae shows up – because what party is complete without a hysterical caricature? – and delivers a pretty great eulogy to Tara. As I was watching this scene, I thought, “This would be a great series goodbye for Lettie Mae, just put a cap on this character,” but no, True Blood gonna do what True Blood gonna do, so Lettie Mae attacks Willa, trying to get her blood so she can communicate with Tara. So I guess we’re still sticking with this subplot. Sigh.
I guess the impending end of the series has lit a fire under everyone’s ass, because all of the principal players were in top form tonight (except for Sam, who barely registered at the party, and Nicole, whose character is so inconsequential that I had to look up her name on IMDb). True Blood did itself a HUGE favor last week by getting rid of the h-vamps and the angry townspeople, because those storylines had become stale. One wonders where the show can go from here, now that the primary conflict has been done away with, but if the episodes are this good week to week, I’m happy to come along.
A Few Thoughts
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Not sure what the point of Bill’s flashbacks were, other than to show that he was the only non-racist in Antebellum Louisiana
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James having sex with Lafayette would have been a lot more surprising if we didn’t already know that Luke Grimes, the former James, quit because he didn’t want to do the gay scenes
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I didn’t talk much about Eric and Pam, but how great were their scenes? They were friendly and playful as they dressed each other in their shitkicking Republican outfits, and tender and mournful when confronting Eric’s death
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Don’t know how I skipped this in the writeup: Bill has Hep-V. Interesting move, True Blood
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Lastly, here is a link to the beautiful Beck song from which this episode takes its title
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