True Blood 4.8 "Spellbound"
Monday, August 15, 2011 at 11:00PM Possessing Ghosts. Confused Mediums. Witchy Necromancers. Restless Werewolves. Angry Humans. Ambivalent Vampires. Horny Shifters. Horny Sookie. True Blood is hugely crowded this year. And busy. There's as many plot elements as characters.
You dropped something.
True Blood Season 4 has thrown a lot of balls in the air but remarkably the only one it seems to have dropped is the one it needed to (were-panthers). All hell broke loose on Sunday night's episode so now the show is not only juggling but juggling while running at vamp speed.
"Spellbound"
"Did I do that?" Jessica asked over the bloody body of Bill's guard Bucky after Jason saves her from self-immolation (see last week). Yup. Another thing for her to cry those bloody tears about. In many ways, Jessica is the most human of all the characters this season, continually plagued by self-doubt, regret and romantic confusion. She thinks about her actions and their affect on people. Like Hoyt.
Poor little-boy Hoyt...
Or is it... Cruel big-man Hoyt?
Jim Parrack gets to play both in two break-up sequences as Jessica dreams of leaving him and then actually does. The first time he plays it raw and embarrassingly needy and Parrack's acting is just heightened enough that you can question its reality. When the scene is actually happening, you can still see the needy boy inside the cruel man. This doubled rejection sequence gets mirrored for Jessica who is then expelled from two houses where she was previously welcome.
While Jessica's arc is becoming the most interesting of the season, Sookie's is growing stale. Seriously, does she ever think about her actions? She has no impulse control. Not that many people wouldn't consider the marathon love-making with Alexander Skarsgård but would they be up for it in a surreal snowstorm even if he was muttering inane continual declarations of love? What the hell with that winter/fantasy scene?
"Why is there a bed?" Good question. GET OUT OF BED. YOU'RE BORING.
Sookie & Eric were such fun in the first half of the season and now they've become tiresome, like bad friends who dump their friends once they have a new crush.
Oh my gravy* I'm going on and on....
These three things go down: Lafayette gets possessed by that ghost that's haunting Arlene's baby and we finally find out why; Tommy pretends to be Maxine and sells her property for money (uh-oh); Bill tries to broker peace with Marnie/Antonia and all hell breaks loose with the fighting with casualties on both sides. Pam nearly kills Tara (again) but Bill stops her.
The happiest turn of events in the episode is that the werewolves -- who are worried about the witch/vamp war -- are finally joined with the other plots, in ways both "duh!" and "ooh". The ooh being Marcus, the alpha, turning out to be Luna's (Sam's new girlfriend) ex which also helps yanks the underutilized Sam back into the thick of it. At least we hope.
Luna: Do not start anything Marcus. It's bad for Emma. It's bad for me. It's bad for you.
Luna doth protest too much. It'll be good for the show.
*"Oh my gravy" is but one example. This show has the most hilarious exclamatory phrases. See also: week's funniest moment below.
Body Count: 3 (2 human, 1 vampire) that we see but who knows in that foggy battle; Sex Scenes: 2 both with Eric & Sookie. Yes that mutual feeding counts. Sookie needs a sassy gay friend. She's a stupid betch; Fresh Meat: 'hot dog' Chuck (Drew James), a werewolf who is obviously going to get himself killed; Best Sookie Moment: Sookie's echoing of Eric's "my liege" to Bill with great discomfort. "my... Bill";
Trashiest / Funniest Moment: Jason and Andy reunited over a dead vampire.Andy would seriously eat a dead pile off Buella Carter off the ground!
Andy: Jesus, Tits, and God America, Jason! What the fuck is happening to me? I'm only good on the V dude. It's the only time I ever feel like I'm not watching myself not living up to people's expectations and hating those people for having expectations and then thinking about hitting them in the head with a bat.
Jason: [pause] oh sorry man -- I stopped listening about halfway through.
Episode MVP: It's hard to miss how much fun Fiona Shaw is having with Antonia/Marnie: her inability to deal with technology, her lazy spell-like hand gestures even when she isn't casting them, her mad delight in her power and contempt for all things vampiric... except, one suspects perversely, when she's possessing them.
The hilarious Dale Raoul playing Tommy playing Maxine.
But I want to give this one to the Fortenberrys, Hoyt (Jim Parrack) and Maxine (Dale Raoul). The mother & son team may be estranged but the actors responsible were united in excellence in "Spellbound" bringing the drama and comedy respectively. People obsess over the randy bodies and the bloodlust but, honestly, True Blood would never have been the huge hit it is without its very colorful second and third tier players who make the show so damn fun and lively. Episode Grade: B+ (almost an A- but that Sookie/Eric mushiness is getting old fast and this Lafayette storyline is sloooooo slow.)
4.1 "She's Not There" MVP: Marnie; Grade: C
4.2 "You Smell Like Dinner" MVP: Eric; Grade: A
4.3 "If You Love Me Why...?" MVP: Eric; Grade: B+
4.4 "I'm Alive and On Fire" MVP: Sookie; Grade: B+
4.5 "Me and the Devil" MVP: Arlene; Grade: A-
4.6 "I Wish I Was the Moon" MVP: Pam; Grade: B
4.7 "Cold Grey Light..." MVP: Jessica; Grade: B-
Reviews, TV, True Blood
Reader Comments (10)
OMG, Sookie totally needs a Sassy Gay Friend, since Lafayette is busy being a medium. (seriously, wtf? does everyone need some sort of power? What's next? Terry being half-unicorm?)
This episode was all over the place, but i loved both of the Hoyt-Jessica breakup scenes. I can't believe i fell for the fake-out in the first one. I actually screamed. and then the second one! damn, Hoyt was COLD. Completely justified (and oh, so real) but damn!
and no sex scene with Eric/Sookie can compare to the 'oh my' hotness of Bill/Sookie. They made graveyard sex seem hot. Honestly, that is one of my all time favorite True Blood scenes. Sookie stupidly believes Bill is dead, goes to his grave and gets the shit scared out of her when he grabs her leg. He uses it to rise out of the ground, (naked, of course) and has his way with her right there. I would've been completely traumatized, but not Sookie. She gets turned on. That scene pretty much embodied everything that is True Blood.
I feel like these last two episodes were building up to one insane finale and i can't wait.
Derreck -- that's my favorite sex scene from True Blood too. So potent! So The Series!
The Sookie arc this season has been beyond dull even with the inclusion of a naked Alexander Skarsgard in the mix. I really thought her fairy family would be in more of the season based on the trajectory last year and the premiere. Of course with witches, shifters, werewolves, ghosts, werepanthers all taking up space, I guess it made sense to put the fairy stuff in the backburner but to the detriment of the MAIN character? Just a weird decision. Then again Sookie has always been my least favorite part of the series, so I'm not entirely crushed by it.
Jessica is awesome. Her chemistry with Jason is ridiculous and I never knew I loved them together until I did. Both of her fights with Hoyt were also wonderfully done. I thought the second one was a fake-out too with how cold Hoyt was being, but when you realized it was real, it broke your heart all over again.
Can't stand Sookie anymore!!! And she is dragging Eric down with her. She is annoying as hell. Her scenes with Eric right now are a maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaajor bore! Please, let it end soon! Eric was a much more interesting, deep, layered and complex character before he became this child-like Sookie puppet.
Bill, on the other hand, is light-years more interesting now that he is away from Sookie. She has been annoying from day one, but she is getting more and more annoying as time goes by, she gets worse and worse, and takes people down with her. She is an "handsome-vampire" ruiner. She ruins those around her. Keep the handsome vampires away from her!!!
LOVED both breakup scenes, both so well acted!!! I really liked Hoyt's reaction to the real breakup. Yes, he was cold, insensitive and angry, but you could hear his heart breaking into a million pieces, and his world falling apart. His reaction was so raw and so real....Amazing scene.
I Love Jessica almost as much as I love Pam. Eric needs a lot more Pam and a lot less Sookie.
The story is getting interesting as well, reminding me of the series' best moments. Hoyt + Jessica + Jason. Bill + Marnie/Antonia + Eric. Alcide + Debbie + Pack + Pack Leader + Sam. Sam + Tommy (HATE Tommy) + Tommy's victims. Bill + VLA. Bill + Pam + Tara + Witches.
I'm fairly amused at the Sookie loathing, but the writers aren't using her well at all which is a shame because she was great last season in particular. I can't say yay to the Jason/Jessica fiasco because even though I like Kwanten anything that makes Hoyt unhappy is NOT acceptable. And, really, I can't buy that relationship because Jason and Jessica have had frightfully little contact so as nice as they look I still feel it's residual blood making him go crazy over her.
The problem with the eric/sookie storyline is that they are making eric too much of a child. In the books he was just a horny impulsive vamp when he lost his memory. It also doesn't make sense with the continuity of eric. Wasn't he a horny Viking Prince, bedding all the women BEFORE he becamse a vampire? Did that side get erased with the vampire stuff too?
I think that there shouldn't be a single line of dialog in those vampire blood scenes cause it ruins them. How much better would that scene have been if they had just stepped out the shower into the snow and had sex on the bed?
I'm enjoying how much fun the secondary characters seem to be having as Tommy playing them. The stuff with Sam 2 weeks ago and Maxine this week. Can I hope for more skinwalking?
The "Tommy skinwalker" scenes are very well done and extremely well-acted. Both sam trammel -who is a very good actor that's usually underserved-and the lady who plays Mrs. Fortenberry acted the shit out of this storyline!
Just saw her name is Dale Raoul! Dale raoul, you rocked last episode! Well done!
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