True Blood – Russell stakes his claim

True Blood ends on a pretty major cliffhanger this week, as we are left to assume that Russell has killed Roman already. Since he is played by Chris Meloni, that actually would be kind of shocking. The fact that Russell’s little iStake app doesn’t go off means that someone else in the Authority, aside from the fanatic Nora, seems to officially be a Sanguinista. Blah — this vampire theology is kind of aggravating, so I am glad Russell is back to bring chaos to it all. I agree with Alcide that it was stupid to keep him alive, but he’s so awesome that I am also grateful they did. What will he do next, and will the Authority survive it?

After Sookie and Alcide help out Bill and Eric (and Alcide gets glamored and de-glamored), they are both free to return to plots about their own kind. Sookie goes with Jason to investigate their parents’ deaths in the fairy Moulin Rouge and finds out, predictably, that her blood caused it. It will probably be good for her to stay out of vampire business for a while. Meanwhile, Alcide goes off to boringly challenge the pack leader, and we are left dangling as to his and Sookie’s relationship in the future. I am sure the writer’s want to draw this out as long as they can, as they did with Sookie and Eric.

I am actually kind of mad that the Tara/Pam plot line disappeared after one scene early on. I am enjoying Tara much more now that she is a baby vampire at loggerheads with Pam, which just proves that more Pam makes everything better. Instead, we get Andy and Sam investigating the shifter shootings, Terry deciding he has to leave his family, and Lafayette visiting his crazy mom. This last one also gets short shift, but I am interested to find out what message Jesus has for Lafayette.

I wonder, if True Blood took a survey of its audience asking which characters they care about seeing on screen, if that would get them to tighten up the plots. The actors involved are mostly great, but the show can’t service them all in concurrent plots, as the scattered-ness of this episode shows. I can’t fast forward, obviously, but I am interested in whether any of you out there fast forward through certain plots, and if so, which ones? Let me know in the comments!

Notes and Quotes:

• I love Pam dragging Tara away by her hair.
• Eric healing a wounded, shirtless, Alcide? The scene that launched a thousand fan fics.
• The wolf cub was SO CUTE.
• Pam, to Tara: “You did good out there fighting, made me proud. Proud the way a human is proud of a well-trained dog.”
• Russell, as the Authority drags him away: “You’re fucking worse than humans! You might as well be praying to leprechauns, or unicorns, or the motherfucking Kardashians! That makes just as much sense!”
• Eric, blaspheming: “Lilith can fucking blow me.”
• Sookie, contemplating her sucky life: “Bye. I’m just gonna stay here and quietly slip into a coma.”
• Claude, explaining why some fairies went off on their own: “That, and that cunt Mab’s insistence that we dress like fucking Disney characters.”
• Russell, to Roman: “You were a pompous, self-righteous prick in the Renaissance! And you still are one today!”
• Russell, on staking Roman: “Peace is for pussies!”

Clacked by Christina Furtado
on Jul 16, 2012 @ 12:28 EST5EDT