True Blood S1E12 (11/24/08)

Sitting in his jail cell, Jason pours his heart out to Rene. He’s so sad: “Something inside me … it’s just wrong.” Rene says naw, it’s not like you killed a bunch of innocent women - they were all fangbangers. Jason thinks this is a little curious but just then Hurricane Sookie bursts in, telling him she wishes he’d talked to her before confessing to something he didn’t do: “I’m real close to figuring out who the real killer is,” she promises him as the camera changes its focus to a suddenly serious Rene in the background.

She tells him (and Rene) that it was “Drew Marshall.” She doesn’t have any proof, and she doesn’t even know what Drew looks like (Rene heaves a sigh of relief), but she’s all over it. Jason is upset, calling for Detective Andy to get rid of his sister. She asks if her fax showed up, but Andy don’t know nothing about that. Disgusted at Andy’s incompetence, Sookie storms out.

Tara wakes up in a big, clean white bed. Maryann has left a robe for her to put on; downstairs, a silent man serves a lovely breakfast to her. Maryann greets her warmly. They start to talk and Tara muses that she didn’t just wreck her car, she totaled her whole life: she got a fake exorcism and a DUI, but has lost her job and all her friends. Maryann calls this an opportunity to remake herself into whatever she wants. Tara doesn’t know what that might be, having never allowed herself to dream for herself. She does want to know why Maryann is being so nice to her: because I can, says Maryann. Upstairs, the silent man makes Tara’s bed and silences her ringing cell phone, sticking it into his pocket.

The phone call was from Sam, pissed off but worried about Tara and wanting to talk to her. He is surprised when Sookie comes in to take her lunch shift, thinking she might have wanted some time off to deal with Jason. She says she’s going to need all the money she can get to hire a PI to find this Drew Marshall.

Meanwhile, Jason is getting another visitor: a representative from the “anti-vampire church.” Jason is skeptical: I hated vampires until I got to know one, who was a pretty nice guy … until I killed him. The church guy tells Jason that he did the human race a favor by killing that vamp. He goes on to say that while the Church can’t condone Jason’s killing the fangbanging human girls, they do recognize that his intentions were pure. He tells him that the Church is taking up a collection for Jason’s defense, hands the younger man a pamphlet and tells him that he will be saved. Jason: uh, okay.

Back at Maryann’s, Tara goes for a swim in a teeny red bikini. She’s laughing, enjoying herself. There is a huge and gorgeous spread of fresh fruit laid out in the house when she comes in. There’s also a handsome young man playing the guitar: Benedict, call me “Eggs.” He’s staying with Maryann until he gets on his feet. “Collectin’ stray black people a hobby of hers?” wonders Tara. Eggs says that Maryann is a miracle worker but Tara replies that she won’t be sticking around that long. Eggs reassures her that she can relax here – sometimes good shit happens too.

Out in the yard, that giant pig is hanging out with Maryann. Her eyes are shut and her entire body is flickering in and out of sight. The pig doesn’t really care one way or another.

Rene strolls into Sam’s bar for lunch. In between serving her tables, Sookie is livid as she watches Andy holding forth for a number of townspeople about how he captured Jason (“sleazy little man-slut goddamn murderer”) … soon enough the peoples’ thoughts roll and echo through her head, sickening and overwhelming her and she has to leave. Her car won’t start, however. Luckily (ha!), Rene is there and offers to give her a ride home. She says she’s not supposed to be alone so then he offers to drive her home and stay with her until Sam gets off work. Smooth work there, girl-strangler. On the drive, he asks her about how hard her telepathy must be. She notes that his thoughts don’t have an accent and he laughs uneasily. Sookie is sad about losing Jason and Rene is very sweet, offering her a hanky.

At Arlene’s house, she walks in to the living room to find her daughter (and a friend?) nearly shell-shocked and watching the Jason/Maudette sex tape. “Where did you get this?” Arlene screeches. The little girls say that it’s Rene’s tape and they found it in the garage. She sends them away and starts pawing through the box the girls found: there are several videotapes with names on them, and a cassette tape titled “Cajun Accents for Actors.” Arlene looks confused and a little scared.

At the bar, Sam finds Rene’s road crew vest that he left behind. As he goes to put it in lost-and-found, he catches a sniff of it which brings back the scent from Dawn’s bed after she was killed. Sam learns that Rene took Sookie home and takes off after them.

Sookie is pouring some iced tea for Rene when she catches a stray thought from him, remembering killing her grandmother in this very kitchen – he thought he’d find Sookie at home and killed the old lady to cover his tracks. Sookie scurries into the next room and manages to get her hands on her shotgun but Rene has already taken the shells out. So she screams and clubs him over the head with it, knocking him down, and then bolts from the house. Good girl!

Rene, all traces of Cajun accent gone, chases after her, his memories of killing his sister, and Maudette, and Dawn, and Amy, inundating her. Rene stops, screaming, that he can feel her in his head, then keeps on chasing. Sam jumps out of his truck at Sookie’s house and shouts for her. He takes a deep breath, catching her scent, and then books it down the lane after her and Rene. Just for me, he peels off his shirt as he goes.

Sookie finds herself in the cemetery near Bill’s house and stops, gasping for air. Deep in his daytime cellar dwelling, Bill pops wide-awake, feeling her terror. He emerges from his house, dazzled and pained by the sunlight. His skin blisters and burns but he is determined to find her.

Sookie is hiding in an open grave, terrified. Cleverly, Rene THINKS that he’ll go check in the woods for her and when she stands up from her hiding spot, he’s right behind her. He yanks her out of the grave by her neck, throwing her against a headstone, and starts to punch and choke the bejeezus out of her. Bill is still lurching towards them – he is looking extra-crispy.

But Sam gets there first, in dog-form, launching himself at Rene and muckling onto the side of his neck. Rene grabs a piece of statuary and clobbers the Sam-dog with it. The dog collapses with a yelp and Rene starts kicking it … until it shifts back into Sam, and then the incensed Rene starts kicking him, yelling “What the fuck are you? Fucking freak of nature!”

Bill is within sight of the unconscious Sookie and falls to his knees, whispering her name. Something gets through to her because her eyes pop open and she sees Rene whaling on poor naked Sam. (She doesn’t see Bill.) Sookie gets up and grabs a shovel from near the new grave and, just as Rene is about to brain Sam with his piece of statuary, she clobbers him in the back of the head. He goes down, spitting blood. He’s not done yet, though, and grabs her ankles, sputtering curses. So she brings the shovel down hard, through the back of his neck. Now he’s done.

Sam limps over to her but she has no time for him: she’s seen Bill, smoldering in the field. She runs to him. He’s still alive and mutters that he’s sorry. Sam tells her that they have to get him out of the light and, nice guy that he is, picks Bill up and puts him in the empty grave. As he shovels dirt onto the horribly burned vampire, Sookie can only stand there and cry.

She wakes up later at home, with an amazing shiner, with Tara, Lafayette and Sam hovering over her. She’s a little loopy from the pain meds and tells them that Sam saved her life: turned into a dog and bit Rene. Sam chuckles nervously and Lafayette grins that he’s going to need some of those painkillers. They let her rest but not before she babbles that Sam needs to let people see the real him – kind, brave, nothing there not to love! Right back atcha, says Sam. Then, Arlene rushes in with a big bunch of flowers. Sookie just looks at her, tears streaming, and Arlene bursts into tears, beside herself.

At the sheriff’s office, Andy is ordered to let Jason go since the marks on Amy’s neck match Rene’s belt. Andy is pissed OFF about it but lets him out.

Tara and Sam stand on Sookie’s porch (Lafayette takes off for his shift at the bar). He wants to know where she’s been; she didn’t get any of his messages (because Maryann’s man deleted them), but doesn’t want to talk about it now. She says that Sookie’s right, Sam is a good man and deserves everything he wants – but she does too. As Maryann drives up, Tara tells Sam to take care of Sookie and gets into the car. Sam stares at Maryann, hissing “What the hell are you doin’ here?” Maryann: “Did you think I wouldn’t find you? You silly, silly dog.” Ooh, that’s interesting.

Jason rushes into the house and gives his sister a huge hug. He tells her that he had a lot of time to think while he was sitting in jail (for what, like four hours, right?). He tells her that he’s been saved – all the bad stuff that happened to him, happened for a reason and he’s going to do something important with his life. Not sure what, but something. His sister chuckles and tells him to take care of himself.

Lafayette bitches as he takes the garbage out at the bar. Something watches him from the trees and then rushes towards him. He sees the movement and flings himself up onto the dumpster, gasping “Oh my god!” Oh – do NOT kill off Lafayette. That would be a bad, bad move.

Sookie is curled up on her couch, watching an old movie, when something rushes up to the front door and rings the doorbell. It’s Bill, looking as good as he ever had. She’s nearly speechless, breathing, “You’re alive!” Bill: “Well, technically not, but I am here.” Heh – good one, Bill. He says he fed (was it on Lafayette?) and she invites him back into her house. He wants to give her more of his blood so her injuries will heal but she tells him that she just wants to feel human right now. They kiss, gently at first, then with more urgency.

Two weeks later: Vermont legalizes human/vampire marriage and it’s all over the news. The gang is watching on the bar TV. Arlene gets all giddy, saying now Sookie and Bill can get married! Sookie dithers about it (but he hasn’t asked me, and I don’t know what I’d say) and Sam gets his knickers in a twist over the idea. He also snarls at Tara if she knows where Lafayette is as he’s about to give away his job after two weeks being AWOL. She doesn’t know anything about that.

Oh dear, Jason is going to services at the anti-vampire church. The congregation goes wild as the preacher says they will bring the sun (or the Son, I dunno) down upon every last bloodsucking abomination. Jason jumps to his feet, praising and hallelujahing with the best of them. Does this mean we won’t be seeing him mostly nekkid next season because I heartily disapprove of that.

Bill is playing the piano at his home – a nice ragtime-y tune – when Eric, Pam and Jessica show up. Pam says that the baby vamp is VERY annoying and they’re giving her back to Bill. The elder vampires stalk out over Bill’s feeble protests and Jessica throws herself onto Bill’s couch. “So, who’s good to eat around here?” she giggles nastily.

Sam stomps around, locking his office door. He takes a huge amount of cash out of a hidden safe and stuffs it in a garbage bag. Is he running again or paying someone off?

Sookie and Tara walk a drunk Andy Bellefleur out to his car, hoping to keep him from driving home. The car isn’t where he left it and when he opens the door, a foot with red-painted toenails slides out. It’s attached to a body that we can’t see (Lafayette, is that you?) and Tara and Sookie scream and scream, high girly screams.

And that's it for the first season of True Blood - I ended up liking it better than I thought I would although I never really warmed up to Vampire Bill. Enough other people liked it that Season 2 is already in production (but until it gets here, I can cancel HBO and save myself a little coin). Thanks for reading!