True Blood is a show I want to hate, and did hate for a time, until the previous season, which was a bit better than seasons four and five. The news that this is the last season hit me unexpectedly, because it seems like the kind of show that has no viable end in sight. There are somethings to speculate about, such as, will Sookie become a vampire? Who else is going to die? Will Bill ever become not annoying? Will Eric ever be cool again? Will Alcide ever become a meaningful character, or just be an annoying figure for my wife to gawk at?

So, this first episode of season seven starts where six ended. With a huge vampire brawl – the uninfected vampires vs the vampires infected by the Hepatitis-V virus. Several people were killed, but the big shock of the show is the second death of Tara, who likely isn’t dead, because this show refuses to save us from Rutina Wesley’s extremely fake accent and poor acting. According to this interview, she is indeed dead, which is strange, because I would have expected her death to actually be shown.

The town is rattled by this attack, and Sookie is rattled by the thoughts she is hearing. Everyone thinks she is a “vampire whore” and a “shameful slut.” Of course it bothers her, everything bothers her. You would think she would have reigned her emotions in by now, but that would be expecting too much. Oh, yeah, this attack happened at a mixer party, where vampires and humans establish their coexistence – Vampires feed on humans, humans receive protection from evil things. And no, not everyone is cool with this idea.

Bill seems to be completely out of the crazy house now, and he is willing to work with others. We see some relationships established, particularly the vampire and human kind. Sheriff Andy Bellefleur is against this idea strongly, because his fairy daughters were killed by a vampire. Jessica, the vampire that drained his daughters, took the burden of protecting Adilyn Bellefleur, and luckily for Adilyn, because Jessica saved her. Jessica felt a duty to protect her, and even though Andy tells his daughter not to trust the dirty vampire, she does. Will we watch Jessica grow up and put her duty before her lust for that delicious fairy blood? Who knows. The way she was holding Adilyn makes me wonder if the other kind of lust will come into play.

Hearing the banter between Jessica and Adilyn is actually rather deep. Jessica is trying to atone for her sins and Adilyn knows who she is and what she did. The tension is very strong, but to see the forgiveness taking place in the whole process, the eventual acceptance, and the teen girl talks, is great storytelling because Jessica has never really had a chance to be a teenager, she has been dealing with vampirism this whole time.

Remember this scene? Last season ended with the women-wower Eric roasting under the sun. Instead of dropping the Eric character, I suppose we are going to be treated to a season spanning search for everyone’s favorite viking vampire. It all starts with the ever so pessimistic Pam facing off in a weird vampire version of Russian Roulette, with a vampiric Muslim who has apparently won many of these games because of Muhammad. As luck…or faith…or lack of faith…would have it, Pam wins. She did this because someone in MOROCCO has information on Eric. Eventually she gets a map, where to? COMING SOON!

Jason Stackhouse’s vampiric guardian is Violet. They have a face off with some vigilantes who have some issues with her because she is protecting Jason. Jason is disappointed with her, of course, but that lasts so long because they end up having some of that “OMG THIS SHOW AIN’T GOT NOTHIN’ BUT DIRTY DEVIL SEX!” sex on the hood of a car.

Lafayette also has his own vampire protector and they both get stoned, with CGI pot, and he lets his protector have supper. His bodyguard tells him the story of how he became a member of the undead. Apparently, he was a draft dodger during Vietnam and his best friend’s dad took a bat to him because, well, guess what? Lafayette’s vampiric protector was having “THE EVIL GAY SEX” with his son. If this paragraph confuses you, I apologize.

Bill and Andy work together to look for some of the folks taken captive by the H-vamps. They come to a warehouse, where those that were fed upon were hanging in an old meat locker. Andy loses dinner, because apparently he hasn’t adjusted to the smell and sights of dead bodies yet. They are confronted by Vince (who confronted Jason and VIolet earlier) and well, it goes about as planned. You can’t mess with Andy and get away with it. The scene then transfers over to the new area where the H-Vamps are feeding on their new crew of hostages. Among these hostages are Holly and Arlene and yeah, they are terrified as they watch one of the vampires violently ravage a deputy.

The episode ends with a church scene. Sookie enters and Lettie May (Tara’s mother) blames her for Tara’s death. The whole town is there and Sookie starts hearing those opinions of theirs. Losing patience, she leaves, and lets everyone know how she feels. She ends her dialog with “I wanna help. Please, let me help.” Can Sookie really help anyone?

So, what did you think of this episode? What do you think will happen?

This is the first article of a series of articles about this season of True Blood. Each article will end with a poll. Today’s poll is:

Will Tara be back? No, she's dead!

Yes, she can't die!

Even though she is dead, she will be in a flashback.

She is probably a new kind of monster.

Don't care, she was dead to me the moment I heard her fake accent. View Results