It seems almost pointless to review “Thank You,” True Blood‘s series finale, because I think it would be more appropriate to talk about the series as a whole. But if you think I’m going to write a 2,000 page thinkpiece on fucking True Blood when there’s a Simpsons marathon on, you’re out of your damn mind.
“Thank You” was a plodding, frustrating episode that every so often offered glimpses of beauty. In that regard, it was pretty indicative of the show as a whole. It managed to jam in three finale tropes into just one hour: a wedding, a death, and a holiday meal. Also, at one point Alexander Skarsgard bobbed his head to techno music, and I’m positive it was done to remind everyone of this:
How does this rank among other series finales? Well, it’s not as bad as Dexter‘s, but it was still pretty bad. Eric and Pam had a good scene in the beginning (I love that he always calls her “Pamela”), then checked out until the epilogue, because True Blood is so certain of viewers’ investment in Hoyt and Jessica’s rekindled relationship that we’d be okay with the show’s two best characters beings sidelined for most of the proceedings. “Thank You” didn’t totally drop the ball with Eric and Pam, because as annoying as it was to not have them on my TV for a good forty-five minutes, it would have been unforgivably lame if they just showed up to make nice with everyone in Bon Temps.
That’s what we’re really saying goodbye to: not the show, but the city. I think True Blood might have, um, overestimated the impact that this small Louisiana town had on our lives. This ain’t Springfield, it ain’t Deadwood; hell, the show’s roster of characters is so shallow that at the Thanksgiving dinner at the end, Jane Bodehouse is a guest, and the face of Sookie’s new beau (also, presumably, the father of her child) isn’t even shown.
Oh yeah, Bill’s dead by this point. He asked Sookie to kill him with her fairy magic, and she considered doing so before realizing that if she did she’d lose her powers, thus repeating her character arc from X-Men 3. She gives him the true death, and I’ll give credit to True Blood for not skimping on the gore; Bill splatters all over the place, and Sookie is literally covered in his blood.
As far as send-offs go, “Thank You” isn’t terrible; it’s not great, but then, neither was this season. There were some pretty great episodes – like “Death is Not the End” – and some incredibly shitty ones, like “Almost Home.” Overall, I feel like this season was a bait-and-switch on the part of the whole series; a war between vampires and humans was teased for a while, and just when True Blood had the opportunity to go through with it, it decided instead to dedicate almost ten hours of television to people talking about how great Sookie is. I think that’s the real theme of this show.
So for all its ups and downs (and there were a lot of the latter), I can’t deny that I spent more time enjoying True Blood than hating it. And for that (and I can’t believe I’m writing something so obvious), I have to say thank you.
“Thank You” Grade: 2 1/2 Stars
Series Grade: 4/5
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