True Blood You’ll Be The Death of Me
Original Air Date: Nov 23, 2008
Andi - TwoCents Reviewer
andi@thetwocentscorp.com
The season finale opens up on Jason Stackhouse in the big house (yes, yes, that was my lame attempt at a pun, feel free to throw tomatoes) and he’s busy allotting out his belongings to... Rene! Jason! Don’t do that. You can’t trust him to make sure people get the right stuff, he’s a murderer remember?! Oops, spoiler. I think you all knew that though. Sookie shows up and makes a big deal about her Dick Tracy work and effectively alerts Rene to how close she is to finding the murderer. Smart. But Jason’s having none of her assurances and continues to insist that he killed those women.
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[photo: HBO.com]
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The season finale opens up on Jason Stackhouse in the big house (yes, yes, that was my lame attempt at a pun, feel free to throw tomatoes) and he’s busy allotting out his belongings to… Rene! Jason! Don’t do that. You can’t trust him to make sure people get the right stuff, he’s a murderer remember?! Oops, spoiler. I think you all knew that though. Sookie shows up and makes a big deal about her Dick Tracy work and effectively alerts Rene to how close she is to finding the murderer. Smart. But Jason’s having none of her assurances and continues to insist that he killed those women.
ReplyDeleteCut to Tara waking up in what might just be a Soap Opera. She wanders downstairs and I need to amend my statement. I think she’s on the Island of Dr. Moreau. A manservant that I’m just going to call Baldie serves her breakfast as Maryann shows up and they talk about how royally screwed Tara is and some other self-help topics. Meh.
Cut to Baldie making the bed and stealing Tara’s phone as Sam calls her. Ruh roh!
And in a cut that actually makes sense, we shoot on over to Sam leaving Tara a message, worried and annoyed.
Over at the pokey, Jason gets a visit from a man with The Fellowship of the Sun who spews some nonsense about FotS being a church dedicated to the preservation of the human race. Jason actually makes a somewhat intelligent statement and implies that if they were an anti-vampire group he’d have a problem, since he was so fond of Our Dear Departed Kidnapped Vampire Eddie. But Jason caves a little at the mention of God loving him. I guess he’s scared of going to hell?
Cut to Dr. Moreau’s Island Mansion. Tara takes a swim, eats some fruit and finds a sexy music man called Eggs. This place is evil, do you hear me, evil!
Outside the house somewhere, Maryann is standing beside her trusty hog and vibrating. Yep, just vibrating. No, I don’t know why.
Meanwhile over at Merlotte’s, Rene shows up fresh from a jaunty drive in Jason’s truck, Andy regales the yokels with his capture of Jason, Bud looks disgusted (good man!) and Sookie nearly has a breakdown. She convinces Sam to let her go for a drive and clear her head and he agree so long as she keeps the doors locked and comes straight back. That is easier said than done though, as Sookie finds her car not working and Rene waiting nearby, ready to help. He offers to drive her home and wait with her until Sam is off work (remember, because Sam’s standing in as Prince Charming) and she agrees. On the drive she notes that his thoughts don’t have an accent and because she’s wearing a tight, white t-shirt, has blond hair, and recently lost her virginity, Sookie’ll be playing the roll of Horror Movie Stereotype today. Sheesh.
Cut to Arlene’s house where her children are watching porn. Oh. My. God. Not just porn, but the Maudette and scary, bald vampire porn! Arlene walks in and is understandably upset. Oh, Rene, don’t you know you’re not supposed to keep evidence from your crimes? Or that Learn To Speak Like A Cajun tape either, lest your fiancé finds it?
Speaking of Rene, he and Sookie reach their final destination (see what I did there? Get it? Because of the – oh, never mind) and Sookie rushes off to make iced tea because it’s hot and she’s southern. And we get some really fun dolly work in these Rene-centric shots. I really liked the cinematography on these shots in the house. Kudos. Plus, whoever is doing the music in this episode really kicks out the jams and whoever is editing this episode cuts from a close up of Rene looking creepy to…
Merlotte’s. And they stay with the music. It’s a nice transition. So, Sam and Lafayette find Rene’s work vest in a booth and Sam’s Spidey Sense kicks in and he realizes with a whiff of the vest who the killer is. He rushes off to save the day!
Sookie is making tea. Still. But Rene can’t keep his mind off of the death of Gran and Sookie catches on soon enough. She tries to play it casual and calmly walks to where the shotgun is kept, but Rene follows just as faux casually and infinitely more creepy. This is done in one long shot, tracking backwards never leaving Sookie’s face with Rene in the background. See what I meant? Cool camera work in these scenes. So, Sookie gets the gun but he’s pulled a John McClain and let her have it because he’s removed the shells. Because she’s resourceful, Sookie hits him upside his fool head and makes a run for it. Rene gives chase.
Jump cut to Bill jolting awake in his hidey-hole.
Cut back to check in on Sam, who’s just arrived at Sookie’s, sniffed the air, and gone off running in her direction, shedding his clothes as he runs.
Sookie’s in the neighboring cemetery hiding in a grave while Rene pretends to apologize. He finds her pretty quickly. She could take a lesson or two about hiding in dark corners from Harry Potter or maybe Xander Harris. Anywho, Rene beats her around a bit before the cut to….
Bill. Who is wandering around in the middle of the afternoon. Apparently he didn’t get the memo about how vampires burn all up in the daylight. He’s sort of bubbling and smoldering and it’s pretty gross. He’s also super unhelpful, as he’s mostly dead and at least ten yards away from the ruckus.
The Border Collie of Great Vengeance appears and pounces on Rene as he’s strangling Sookie, but because the show has neutered Sam’s actual ability, Rene soon overpowers the Border Collie of Great Vengence. Knocked out cold, he shifts back into Sam and Rene freaks out. Violently. Somewhere over in the background, Bill is still bumbling about in the daylight (why is he not a pile of fiery goo?), but he somehow wakes Sookie up or telepathically alerts her or something because she’s suddenly up and beating Rene with a shovel. Then she drives it right through his jugular. Sweet!
Sookie sees Bill’s charcoaled body and rushes over to…have a heart to heart? Right there. In the daylight. Cover him the hell up! Sheesh! Sam comes over and does just that because apparently Sookie’s brain has fallen out of her ass.
Later on, Sookie’s asleep and she’s sporting one heck of a shiner. Tara and Sam and Lafayette are there. Jason stops by, fresh from the slammer, and so does Arlene. There’s a lot of talking and character-y stuff. Maryann picks up Tara and taunts Sam who appears to know and hate her. Ruh roh. Again.
We take a quick trip to Merlotte’s via the Creature’s Eye View Camera and see Lafayette taking out the trash. He turns and yelps and the camera attacks him before we cut to Sookie’s yard in the same shaky handheld POV shot. Sookie’s watching TV and the doorbell rings. It’s Bill. He’s still undead. (Well, I can’t very well say he’s alive, can I?) Sookie and Bill make with the face sucking.
TWO WEEKS LATER
The TV announces that Vermont has legalized vampire marriages (Get it? Huh? Do ya?) and then we’re hit with the Exposition Bomb. We learn that: Sam still loves Sookie, Tara’s oddly zen, Terry likes Arlene, Lafayette’s (GASP!) missing, Bill’s not proposed to Sookie, and Jason’s whooping it up at a Fellowship meeting. What about Our Dear Departed Kidnapped Vampire Eddie?
Bill’s doing his impersonation of Edward Cullen and broodily (it’s a word, really, I swear) playing the piano. Eric and Pam (who appears to be wearing a fabulous turquoise Chanel suit!) show up in quite the snits. They have Jessica in tow and they are done babysitting. About time!
Back at Merlotte’s, Andy’s drunk and wandering around the parking lot looking for his car. Sam’s unloading the cash in the safe. Tara and Sookie are following Andy around because he’s too drunk to drive, and when they all get to his car to discover the door ajar! They open it and a black man’s foot with red painted nails falls out! Ruh Roh! Again. Some more!
So, that’s it my friends. Season one is over! What did you think? Share your cents, all two of them!
Hubs & I had to rewind the last shot 4 times as we could not agree on the color of skin on the leg ... If they killed of Lafayette I'm going to be REALLY disappointed!! He is my favorite character! (And dang it I liked Renee too).
ReplyDeleteWHAT is with Andy? His poor-miserable-me routine is getting old already.
Jason's gone from stupid on V to stupid in an anti-V cult. Eh. At least it'll give him some new scenes for next year.
LOVED Pam & Eric dropping the teenager back off at home! ROTFLMAO ~ just the few scenes Pam's had have made love her -- will she be bigger in the coming season?
Why does Maryanne seem so familiar to me? Has she been in another show recently, or am I supposed to know her from this season (I kept thinking she was the girl who turned Bill, I had to go back & watch that epi to be certain).
Is it a bad thing when I really don't care that much about Sookie ~ it's the rest of the story lines that keep me hooked!
Well, I know who the foot belongs to - at least I do if they stuck to the plot of book two, which I heard they were going to do. Sorry. :(
ReplyDeleteI was way bored by Andy too.
Jason's such a mess. His story line is so different from the books that I really don't know what they're doing with him.
Pam is awesome. So is Eric. In the book series they grow to bigger levels of involvement and importance, so hopefully that will happen on the show as well.
She's played by Michelle Forbes who was on Battlestar Galactica (Admiral Cain) a few seasons ago. And she was in 24 and Homicide: Life on the Street for a while. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000405/ - her IMDB page.
You know, I love Book!Sookie, but TV!Sookie isn't capturing me in quite the same way. So, no, it's perfectly fine. LOL :D
Andi
Random thoughts...
ReplyDeletePoah Lafayette is DAID!
Boy, Sam's bar makes a LOT of money. Is that a month's total take? Even so, he's rolling in it. Or does he keep the rent from the apartments in his safe too. Still, that much cash in hand is suspicious.