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True Blood: Karma

"Well, hell. He was a bona fide vampire god six months ago."

One thing about True Blood that I've often complained about is a lack of focus on the main characters. Not this season. It's all about our main characters resolving their issues, and that is definitely working for me.

Karma really is a bitch, and Eric and Pam, with their new ally Mr. Gus Junior, have almost caught up with her. It would be a nice way for Sarah to make just a tiny bit of amends for causing the Hep V plague in the first place, but will she? Is it only Sarah that can cure vamps? Because seriously, there isn't enough of her to go around. What about Amber, now that she's been cured? Wouldn't it be nice if the vampire cure could travel around the world like a chain?

One more time. Please, please, please, True Blood powers that be, don't let Eric die. If he does, it will leave a bad taste in my mouth and almost certainly ruin the series for me. I'll never watch it again. Did you hear me? I'm not even hoping any more that he'll end up with Sookie, since it's now obvious that it's going to be Bill.

And maybe I'm okay with that, because I was surprised how unhappy I was about Bill's rapidly advancing Hep V. Is it going so quickly because Sookie is part fairy, or just to enhance the drama? That whole long sequence at the lawyer's office was so frustrating, although I'll give them props for their obvious takeoff of the waiting room in Beetlejuice, as well as giving an attorney with a vampire practice the name "Kapneck" right before Bill capped her in the neck. Hey, waiting in line for nine hours could drive anyone to murder.

It's also frustrating and sad that Bill can't just leave everything to Jessica. Can he leave it all to Sookie, who can give it to Jessica? No, wait – I don't want Bill to die, so never mind. I'll just take it as it's supposed to be: a reminder that vampires don't have civil rights, a parallel to gay rights, etc.

The Jessica/Sookie scenes about Bill were so sweet. So were the Sookie/Jason scenes. (Whenever Anna Paquin and Ryan Kwantan have scenes together, I always think, wow, they really do look like brother and sister.) I liked how Sookie helped Jason work through his issues with Violet, while Jason was Sookie's sounding board about her love for Bill as special because he was her first. At least Sookie acknowledged that she had real feelings for Eric as well as Alcide.


I've got last season-itis big time because I'm now worried about everyone dying – even Jason. As he walked up to his door the second time, I honestly thought Violet was going to kill him dead. (I might have to add Jason to my list of Characters Who Cannot Die in the Last Season of True Blood.) Did they come up with this whole Adilyn/Wade romance just to get Adilyn out of the house so that Violet could use her to set a trap for Jessica?

(And hey, repeat after me: getting married does not magically make people blood relations. Really, Andy, Adilyn and Wade will never be brother and sister, even if you marry Holly.)

The Lafayette/Lettie Mae thing is continuing to confuse me, but at least Lafayette's participation has confirmed that it's really happening. And at least Tara is off her crucifix now and is running around in a white dress digging holes in the yard at her old house. I have no idea where they're going with this. Did Tara bury a jar of quarters or something?

Bits and pieces:

-- The three brightly colored imported cars driving up to the Bush library in unison was pretty funny. So was Eric saying wearily, "Really?" as he was massacring his opponents. (Is "massacring" a word?)

-- Arlene came home to Merlotte's Bellefleur's, and found an unholy mess.

-- Sam has been almost an afterthought so far this season, and now Nicole is leaving him. Sam told her that Bon Temps is the only place he's ever felt safe. Considering everything that has happened to him in the last six seasons, that's a bit ironic.

-- James is staying with Lafayette, which isn't a surprise. I really liked how he just matter-of-factly gave Lettie Mae and Lafayette his blood and said, "Enjoy the ride."

-- I was proud of Lettie Mae for standing up to the Rev, but sad that it might be over for them.

Quotes:

Pam: "I imagined my death many times but I never thought I'd meet the sun in someplace with wall to wall carpet."

Sookie: "There's some woodpeckers moving into my frontal lobes. Bam bam bam bam bam."

Nicole: "You, you’re the mayor of crazy."
He is. But still, Nicole, you're so very pregnant and he's the father… okay, on second thought, if I were Nicole, I'd leave Bon Temps, too.

Arlene: "Well, shit happens, Holly. You clean it up."

Attorney Kapneck: "They sell anti-glamoring contacts at the Walgreens now."
They didn't do her a lot of good, though.

Not quite as good as the last two, but a very good episode. Please don't kill Eric! Three out of four anti-glamoring contacts,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

5 comments:

  1. I haven't watched True Blood since season five, but my hotel room has HBO so I watched this episode last night and can I just say that Eric's outfit is one of the best things ever.

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  2. Mark, Eric was undercover in the last episode as a Republican. :)

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  3. This was a great episode. I liked how all the different storylines were connected (indirectly and not).

    I'd imagined that the yakuza was after Sarah for bankrupting Gus Junior's corporation. It was such a neat twist to see that Sarah Newlin's got an ace under her sleeve.

    Like you, Billie, I thought of Beetlejuice as soon as Bill walked into the lobby area of the lawyer's office. I can't say I'm as sad about his (potential? imminent?) true death as Sookie and Jessica are, but Stephen brought a lot of gravitas to scenes that could've turned cheesy really quick.

    I'm still trying to process Lafayette and Lettie Mae's V-trip.

    The only eyerolling moment for me happened during Sam and Nicole's scene. I don't really care about their story arc. And, hey, maybe it'd be safer for Nicole to move away from Bon Temps. OTOH, I can't believe that she's waiting until now to say "hmm, this isn't a good place for me."

    (And hey, repeat after me: getting married does not magically make people blood relations. Really, Andy, Adilyn and Wade will never be brother and sister, even if you marry Holly.)

    OK, technically, yes, they're not brother and sister by blood. However, they will be considered step-siblings for the duration of their parents' marriage. And, I think that Adilyn and Wade's relationship will be seen as, considered to be, and expected to be that of siblings. So, anything that goes beyond that might create a lot of backlash (even though it's pseudo-incest rather than actual!incest). I mean, I know that the show's playing it for laughs, but I think it's distracting (as a plot). I guess it was kind of a set-up for Violet to get her revenge over Jason.

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  4. I'm enjoying this season a lot and I was also really worried about Jason - I want him to live happily live after at least even if no one else can! (though I expect Sookie and Bill will as well, which will make my Mum - who hasn't watched since mid-season 2 - very happy).

    I was kind of annoyed that Sookie's love for Eric got the dismissive "in my own way" qualifier, especially since in the books (which I realise the show left behind long ago) I felt like she loved Eric at least as much as Bill if not more (and I have a personal dislike of the whole obsession TV has with first loves). Paquin and Skarsgard have so much chemistry, I feel like they never really fulfilled their potential as a couple, since they've never actually been together while both were in possession of their full faculties. But Sookie and Bill is clearly endgame.

    Nicole needs to go away, she's dull, irritating and she and Sam have no chemistry at all. Though where that leaves Sam, I don't know. Arlene?!

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  5. Billie,
    I am with you about not wanting Bill to die as well as being okay with the idea that he and Sookie may end up together.
    I didn't love this episode but there were a few really dear classic TB moments in 'Karma' and I'm going to hang onto them in my memory for this one! Not surprisingly, you pointed them both out in this terrific review: Pam's line about wall to wall carpeting and James' loose laid back nonjudgmental demeanor about the v trip. As an aside, I really like him more and more and feel hopeful for his and Lafayette's future love paradise.

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