by Sarabeth Pollock:

True Blood Recap: “We’ll Meet Again”

Original Air Date (HBO): Sunday July 1, 2012

Season 5 Episode 4

Greetings, Fang Nation! I have to say, even though we’re only four episodes into this season, tonight’s True Blood felt different. I can’t exactly explain what “different” means other than to say that as I watched it, I knew that reviewing it would prove difficult because it seemed disjointed. I daresay we spent more time with Terry and Patrick than the past three episodes put together, and Sookie’s house seemed really clean even though the last time we were there it was all torn apart. But I digress.

The writers didn’t leave us hanging with Tara. She was still in the tanning bed at Curl Up and Fry, roasting alive, when Pam rushes in to save her. Admit it, we all knew this would probably happen. The surprising thing is that when Tara tries to argue with pam about ending her life, Pam locks her back in the bed and flips the switch. She takes that opportunity to send a command to her progeny (while she has a “captive” audience) to never try to kill herself again. Is it that Pam doesn’t want to be interrupted by such things…or has she warmed up to her new child?

At Merlotte’s, Sookie tries to apologize again to Alcide as he drives away, and then she gets into a heated argument with her only ally, Lafayette, who is strangely incensed that Sookie confessed Debbie’s murder to Alcide. Sookie believes that the only way to continue is to tell the truth. Lafayette tells Sookie that all she does is leave a trail of bodies, and he calls her an angel of death. This accusation hits Sookie like a ton of bricks.

Somewhere in Louisiana, Bill and Eric are released from an Authority van with the missive not to mess up. Together they think of where to start. Only four people knew about Russell Edgington’s cement resting place. With the click of a button, a car alarm chirps and headlights illuminate the bushes. Seems like the Authority has at least provided transportation for the unlikely duo.

At the Authority’s New Orleans headquarters, Roman lies in bed with his Mac on his lap. It isn’t hard to figure out that he’s watching a video of Nora’s interrogation and subsequent torture. Salome enters the room and suggests that they continue torturing Nora until she gives them names of her co-conspirators. Roman agrees, but he wants Salome to interrogate her. They have a close relationship, perhaps she’ll spill it to someone she sees as a sister.

Back in Bon Temps, Sookie bangs on Jason’s door until he lets her in. She blurts out that she’s turning herself in, that she killed Debbie Pelt. Jason, as you’ll recall from the previous episode, was having a crisis of conscience about the women he’d slept with. However, this crisis doesn’t interfere with his desire to protect his sister. He tells Sookie not to talk about it at all, and the more Sookie talks, the more anxious he gets. His anxiety stems from something else. Sookie takes him through the timeline, that she told Alcide everything, that Lafayette was there, that Tara jumped in front of her and took the bullet, and that Pam turned Tara into a vampire; “I ruin people’s lives,” she finishes. Jason is visibly shaken that Tara is a vampire, but he’s also thinking about the fact that he wasn’t alone in the house. Jessica bursts in, having heard the whole story.

Pam returns to Fangtasia with Tara in tow. The bar is empty, and before she can rail on Ginger, Eric’s voice rings out saying that he sent everyone home. Pam backpedals, clearly considering how to react. She resorts to her usual swagger, telling Eric that they can let “bygones be bygones and bi-girls be bi-girls.” She begrudgingly greets Bill when she notices him sitting at a table, watching. Eric’s eyes are on Tara. Pam introduces her: “I made her. She’s mine…congratulations, you’re a grandfather.” Bill escorts Tara into the back office while Eric talks to Pam. Bill tells Tara, who has changed into a Fangtasia shirt, that the urge to kill herself will diminish with time as she learns to control her vampire instincts. Tara tells him that she took the bullet trying to save Sookie—she wonders how many people have died trying to save her. Bill asks if Sookie is safe, and Tara points out that Sookie is always safe, that there’s always some fool there to save her.

In the bar, Eric has Pam pinned to a table. He wants to know if she had a hand in freeing Russell, since she was one of the four people who knew his whereabouts. She insists that she knows nothing and would never betray him. Pam wants to know what happened to Eric to have triggered such a change in him. She tells him she’d die for him. Eric seems pained by this, but he stays strong and says he doesn’t trust anyone, not even Pam, and she shouldn’t trust anyone either. She calls his bluff and tells him to release his bond as her maker. He backs off and joins Bill in the office. Pam knows nothing, Eric reports. Bill wants to know if Eric had revealed anything to Nora, who might have released Russell to create a martyr for her cause, which Eric finds insulting. There’s a leak somewhere. But where?

The chancellors are tracking Bill and Eric through their iStake apps. Their control is slowly slipping away as uprisings are reported on 4 of 7 continents. They switch over to watch footage of Nora in her cell. Her arms are spread out in the shape of a cross as she prays to Lilith. Not all of the chancellors are on the same page when it comes to the Vampyre Bible. Some take it seriously (though clearly not literally), while others, like Dieter, scoff at it: “I knew the guy who wrote it and he was high the whole time.”

The Judge returns to the Sheriff’s Office to thank Andy for clearing up his son’s ticket. If only Andy could clear up all of his son’s problems, he sighs, but Andy isn’t a gynecologist. He wants to take Andy and Jason out for a good time in return for their help. They make plans to meet, but before he leaves, he tells Andy to be careful about pictures on Facebook: if there are pictures of his Johnson on the internet, it won’t “stand up” in court. Sound advice, really.

At Merlotte’s, Arlene tells Sam that “Barack and Hilary” want to speak to him. They’re fellow shifters, ones that we saw last season during the shifter dinners that Sam and Luna went to. Sam hasn’t been answering their phone calls, they tell him, and when Sam tries to get out of it, they tell him that they want he and Luna to run with them again. Sam reluctantly agrees. In the back, Sookie is washing up when Holly comes in. Though she seems friendly on the outside, Holly’s thoughts are racing and she isn’t happy about what happened to Tara. Sookie rushes out and is confronted with angry thoughts from everyone in the bar. Not one single person is happy that Tara has been turned, and they don’t hold back with their opinions of Sookie. She rushes into Sam’s office, overwhelmed by the malice directed at her. Outside, Lafayette spots Sookie’s car. Rage pours through him and the Brujo demon manifests, casting a spell on her car that literally lifts it off the ground.

Alcide shows up at the Pelt’s hotel room. He tells Barbara and Gordon Pelt that he knows what happened to their daughter. She is dead, he says, but he tells them that Marcus was the one who killed her. After he abjured her, he says, Marcus moved in and wanted Debbie for himself. She resisted and he got physical with her. Alcide admitted that he killed Marcus. We know what really happened, of course, but Alcide crafted this tale with such care that it’s entirely believable (Marcus can’t protest, obviously, and Sookie and Lafayette wouldn’t have a reason to contest his story) Alcide breaks down in tears and confesses that he always cared for Debbie. Gordon starts to attack Alcide, since he abjured her in the first place, but he and his wife accept that Debbie is dead.

On the drive home, Sookie’s old yellow car starts to accelerate on its own. She’s going dangerously fast so she jumps out, right before the car crashes into a tree. She stares at the wreck, aware that she almost died.

Somewhere along State Route 85 in South Dakota, Patrick and Terry drive along in search of their comrade, Eller. Terry slips into a flashback from his time in the Al Anbar province in Iraq. He and his team are celebrating the Fourth of July with some smuggled alcohol. Eller is put on watch duty while the group climbs a tower to watch the missiles raining down on the nearby town. An Iraqi man walks out and starts talking to Eller, presumably about the men being on the tower, and Eller shoots him. The noise triggers the villagers to come out, and they become upset when they see the man’s body. Gunfire interrupts the scene as a sniper fires at them all from a window. Once the sniper stops shooting, Terry realizes that all of the villagers are dead. This looks to be the origin of Terry’s PTSD. He starts freaking out, standing among the bodies, and he wakes up in the car, clearly shaken.

It takes Sookie until nightfall to make it home, and when she gets there, she heads straight for the booze.

Jason wants to know how much Andy knows about Debbie Pelt. Andy tells him that the Pelts called and said they got the information they needed. They’re heading back to Mississippi. But Andy doesn’t want to let go of the case. He figures he can use the judge’s help to get a search warrant that would cover the area around Debbie’s abandoned car. This would include Sookie’s house, but Andy assures Jason that he would personally take care of her property. Jason, who wanted Andy to drop the case given the fact that the Pelts have backed off, is now alarmed at the thought of Sookie being involved. That’s when Jessica shows up. She glamours Andy into forgetting everything about Debbie Pelt and the case. Jason tells Jessica she’s a good friend to have, to which Jessica agrees.

Pam rises the next evening, wearing a cute pink velour suit. She checks on Tara, who is still sleeping. Eric comes down and tells her that Bill is running an errand. They sit on the stairs together. Eric admits that searching for Russell is a suicide mission any way you look at it. Either Russell will kill them, or the Authority will kill them for treason because they didn’t kill Russell in the first place. He wants her to know that the end may be coming, and if it does, he doesn’t want her there. Pam is his only child, he reveals, and he can’t allow any harm to come to her. His progeny—his legacy—must live on. She was right, he must release her. Pam accepts this news, though it’s clearly killing both of them. She was descended from Eric, who was descended from Godric, he says, and so she was “born into greatness.” Now she’s a maker, and through Tara their legacy will live on. Eric releases her, and they share a long mournful embrace.

The Judge picks up Andy and Jason in a limo. The car is full of girls and they put hoods on the men until they arrive at their location. Nothing about this can be a good thing, right?

Back at Bill’s mansion, Bill and Jessica search for bugs in Bill’s office. Jessica asks him if he’s still the King, to which Bill replies that he is until the Authority changes its mind. During his search, Bill finds a joint. Jessica hastily tries to cover it up, telling Bill that she’d had a few people over (but no one died or was drained, she assures him). Bill smiles and gently reminds her that it’s her house, too. But this is “low quality shit,” he says of the marijuana. Relieved, Jessica changes the subject and tells Bill that he should go to Sookie, that she’s falling apart and their relationship, no matter what, is different than any other. He must go to Sookie, she insists. Bill beams with a father’s pride. He cradles Jessica’s face and tells her that he has done well with her.

In New Orleans, Roman and Salome go to Nora’s cell. Salome tells Nora that the righteous do suffer, and Nora seems resigned to accept her fate. Roman plays with her, telling her that he doesn’t see her as a leader so there must be someone else who has infiltrated his group. He threatens to kill Bill and Eric, and Nora feigns apathy until he shows her the iStake app that can kill them instantly. Salome offers her blood and swears on Lilith that if Nora reveals a name, Bill and Eric will be safe. Somehow I just don’t think Salome is exactly trustworthy, but in this case, Nora doesn’t have much of a choice.

The limo arrives in a field…the same one that the mysterious awesome-smelling man disappeared in last week. The women lead the men out of the car, and in a rush of glowing light they all appear in a bar. It’s not a bar, exactly. It’s like a strip club and bar and dance hall, all wrapped up in one. It’s Moulin Rouge and The Birdcage thrown into a blender. Scantily clad men and women dance all over. The club, it seems is open by invitation only. Andy sees the woman he had sex with last season, the woman with the glowing finger. Her name is Morella. He tells her he thought she was a dream, which makes her laugh, and he asks if this is a dream. It isn’t.

Back at Sookie’s, Sookie is having a party with the fruitier versions of Jack Daniels and Captain Morgan. She’s blasting Jimmy Buffet’s “If You Like Pina Coladas,” only she’s changed the lyrics to incorporate vampires. Lafayette calls her from where she left her wrecked car. He seems to remember what happened with the Brujo, and he wants to talk to her about it, but she blows him off. Besides that, Alcide is at her door. She tells him he smells like Aqua Velva, and he tells her about his visit with the Pelts. Thinking he’d told them everything, she hopes he’ll like seeing her in an orange jump suit. He explains that they deserved to know that their daughter was dead, but he didn’t tell them the truth. Sookie apologizes for putting Alcide in the middle of everything and invites him to share a fruity drink. Alcide says he’ll need more than one drink.

Somewhere in South Dakota, Patrick and Terry search what looks to be an abandoned building. They find a trap door, and underground they find the evidence of Eller’s madness. Pictures of horrible images line the walls, and there are gas cans all over. Eller is also there, and he’s armed.

Pam wakes Tara up and offers a girl named Melanie to her for breakfast. Tara resists, to which Pam sighs about having a three-day old vampire with an eating disorder. She orders Tara to bite, and once Tara complies she instructs her on the proper way to feed. As a vampire, Tara is on top of the food chain, Pam says, and humans are there to be savored.

In New Orleans, Roman pulls an ancient stake out that, according to legend, has a tip made from the melted silver from Judas’ coins. He tells the other chancellors that their quarters are being searched. He already knows of one defector, so why can’t there be two? A guard brings in a laptop. Roman sets it in front of Chancellor Drew, the boy vampire, and asks if the images belong to him. We don’t get to see the images, but apparently they show the boy feeding on a human, and the images have been sent in an encrypted file to Authority members around the world. Drew tries to explain that he was merely trying to infiltrate these groups, but Roman is out of patience. He stakes Drew, and, as blood drips down his face, he tells the others that they will fall in line.

Sookie fixes Alcide one of Tara’s special concoctions made up of amaretto and triple sec, among other things. She tells Alcide that they whole world hates her, and even though she killed his ex-girlfriend, he is still there with her. She smiles and says that it’s because Alcide is in love with her. As she crawls on top of Alcide (who doesn’t resist, I might add), the scene cuts to the exterior of the house, where Bill is watching. Eric arrives and suggests that they return to their search for Russell. Bill says that Sookie could be useful to them, and when Eric doubts that she would be willing to help them, Bill replies that she won’t have a choice.

At the mysterious strip club, Jason sees his cousin Hadley. Hadley is shocked and relieved to hear that Sookie is alive. She thinks Jason is there to take refuge from the vampires the way she and her son are, but he says he isn’t. She can’t understand why Jason isn’t hiding from vampires after they killed his parents (Jason looks confused—a flood killed his parents, he says).

Hadley is led away before she can divulge anything else. Jason and Andy are expelled from the bar and two of the fairies shoot light beams at them…and the episode comes to a close.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, readers of the books will rejoice that Claude’s bar (and strip club) has finally arrived! Though tonight’s episode seemed fragmented (what was the deal with the dead shifters?), we made good progress on the storyline. I’m going to remain optimistic and hope that all of these pieces come together and form something incredible. It’s going to happen. I just know it. Let me know what you think…at this point, anything can happen!

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DarkMedia contributor Sarabeth Pollock is an avid writer, reader, and pop culture fan. Follow her on Twitter at @SarabethPollock and check out her blog at http://sarabethpollock.wordpress.com.