True Blood Finale (Plus: Season 4 Awards!)
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 5:17PM The final episode of True Blood's witchy season four had a cleft heart, one half beating only for past glories (i.e. Season 4 ... or even earlier seasons) and the other half beating for an imagined future (Season 5 if you'd like to get cynical about it). You could just about divide the sprawling cast down the center as to which half they belonged to, some characters hanging on to the past either tearfully, fearfully or violently (Marnie, Eric, Bill, Debbie, Hoyt, Arlene, Pam), others ready to forge ahead and move on with varying degrees of optimism, fear, and willpower (Sookie, Jessica, Jason, Tara, Sam, Holly & Andy). It's the very drama that infuses the episode's opening conversation with Jesus & Lafayette. Isn't that always the drama of the heart?
Jesus and Lafayette (who is actually Marnie!) over breakfast eggs.
4.12 "And When I Die"
Not that True Blood thrives on "the universal". Most of us don't have to worry about malevolent spirits possessing our lovers, stabbing our hands over breakfast, duct-taping us to our chairs, and stealing our demon-headed magic while thrusting a butcher knife into our heart. But maybe Jesus, familiar with both violence-prone spirits and demon-headed Crazy, should've worried himself towards a protection spell or some such! Goodbye Jesus (2010-2011) we hardly knew you. Goodbye Kevin Alejandro, go-to guy for "regular cast" killings (see also: Southland).
True Blood's season finale had a cleft heart but its body was divvied up into smaller pieces, drawn and quartered one might say.
If that sounds torturous, it definitely was... at least for the characters. And maybe some audiences members who wanted a more cohesive finale. More after the jump, plus best & worst of the season.
As it turns out Marnie's bloody war from beyond the grave claimed only Jesus since Sookie and Tara rescued Bill & Eric from her vamp-hating clutches (again) with the help of Holly (quickly becoming a favorite character!). But semi-happy resolutions aside, there's enough Post Tramautic Stress to go around: there are funerals to attend from last week's episode (Sam & Maxine, memorably, are the only ones who show to Tommy's), ghostly visitations due to the Marnie-defeating rescue spell in which the dead are summoned (poor Arlene, face to face with her serial killing ex again), and explosive scares to set up Season 5. The latter include everything from Jason visited by his vamp-hating old pastor (now a vampire), Bill & Eric realizing there's a vamp war brewing and killing Nan who they know can threaten Sookie (damnit. Loved Nan), Debbie's bloody rampage against Sookie, and her ex Alcides realizing that King Russell (Denis O'Hare) has escaped his cement burial from the tail end of Season 3. Or, rather, the audience realizing that since Alcides is too dense and/or often sidelined from the details to understand the full story. Ever.
Fresh Meat: Scott Foley is playing an old military friend of Terry's. He's clearly trouble; Body Count: 1 vampire (Nan), 1 werewolf (Debbie), 5 humans... two of them regular title credit characters (Jesus & Tara). Although with Tara (Rutina Wesley)... Season 5 could always hold a "she was only mostly dead" surprise. You know how this show do.; Sex Scenes: 1 twixt the boy toy (Ryan Kwanten) and the boob-shy (Deborah Ann Woll); Trashiest Moment: 'That's quite a costume you've got there Lisa, what are you supposed to be?'
Janelle from Teen Mom Two.
Arlene's daughter is a pregnant teen for Halloween. LOL. This Halloween scene also lets the True Blood writing team get in a fun meta zinger about pop culture "Zombies. They're the new vampires, haven't you heard?" Funniest Moment: Maxine manages to say "church shoes" "stole a pair of panties" "call me Mamma from now on" and "pork rind casserole" all in the space of 45 seconds. At a funeral. She's too much! By which I mean Perfect. Best Sookie Moment: Dumping Eric & Bill simultaneously. Yes!; MVP: Jason (Ryan Kwanten) making peace with himself if not Hoyt and falling hesitantly for Jessica. He's been good all season of course... once loosed from that terrible were-panther plot (but more on that soon); Episode Grade: B-
SEASON 4 AWARDAGE / SUMMARY
I'm just a fairy honey, aint nuthin' scary about that."
WORST STORYLINE: the were-panthers (runner up: evil fairies)
BEST STORYLINE: Eric's memory loss.
BEST PROMOTED PLAYER: Lauren Bowles as "Holly", the wiccan with a tart but never mean spirited tongue, an actress with a uncanny likeability, and a sly sideways approach to the drama and comedy. You're not always sure you're there until you're there. On a show overflowing with supernaturals Holly is refreshingly and relatably human and not trapped in endlessly looping romantic dramas (yet). She's Arlene II albeit with less comedy.
WORST PROMOTED PLAYER: Kevin Alejandro as "Jesus"... they were weirdly tame about his relationship to Lafayette and weirdly vague about his magic too. All that build up just to kill him off?
WORST SEASON 5 PLOT SET-UP: King Russell again? Ugh. I get that many fans liked him but repeating your Big Bad on a series that already has plot loop problems is Maximum Danger Zone.
BEST SEASON 5 PLOT SET-UP: I take it that the werewolf chief's murder must be addressed? Which means more Sam (yay) and more integrated Alcides storylines.
WEIRDLY NONSEXUAL HYPERSEXUALIZATION: Alcides (Joe Mangianello), who is rarely successfully integrated into the storyline, seems to exist solely as eye candy... so why is his storyline always so bereft of actual sex?
WEIRDLY ASEXUAL GIVEN THE SHOW'S HYPER SEXUALITY: Lafayette & Jesus. The only main characters without sex scenes. (Yes even Arlene, Terry and Andy got action). Is it the gay?
BEST SEASON 5 CHARACTER ARC SET-UP: If if holds, Sookie as a single woman. New storylines, even new romantic ones, would taste more delicious than any fairy blood!
WORST SEASON 5 CHARACTER ARC SET-UP: You know... pretty happy with where they seem to be taking everyone... but for Tara, who finally got some different less-anger based stuff to work with and seemed to be improving as characters go. And Death is the answer? :(
BEST SEASON 4 CHARACTER ARC: Jessica's ongoing journey to self-actualized vampire and sex-fiend (loved that randy Little Red Riding Hood getup in this last episode).
WORST SEASON 4 CHARACTER ARC: In mulling it over, was it just me or did Lafayette have literally nothing interesting to act this season, despite the magic medium bit.
MOST UNDERUTILIZED VALUABLE PLAYERS: Sam & Arlene... Sam Trammell and Carrie Preston are two of the most gifted actors on the show... and too often sidelined.
MOST OVERUTILIZED TWOSOME: Bill & Eric. They've hogged so much plot for four years that both might be revitalized if they took a back seat to the vampires they sired, at least for half a season, storywise.
JUST RIGHT: True Blood's showrunners seem to know just when a little helping of Maxine, a moment with Holly or Hoyt, a juicy dripping side with Pam and even a tiny pinch of Ginger (who would be unbearable in large doses) are needed and beneficial... now if only they'd get the right balance with Bill, Eric, Sam and Sookie.
MOST FRUSTRATING RECURRING VISUAL MOTIF: Jason constantly horizontal -- and not for sexual purposes -- nearly all season, whether he was chained to beds, almost burned alive, or beaten up and left for dead. This had a weird echo in the abundantly recurring visual of the main vampires chained to their beds with silver... though that visual at least had comic energy... especially when Nan was threatening everyone with True Death. LOL. Good times.
ABANDONED PLOTLINE HALL OF FAME: We don't wish for its return but you have to admit that it made zero sense that Cristal the were-panther never returned. She was definitely not getting Jason's message about staying clear of him in her Haze o' Crazy.
BODY COUNT: 15 vampires (8 regular, 6 in flashback, 1 queen), 15 humans (7 of them employed by vampires -- always a high risk job that one hopes comes with high hazard pay and massive life insurance policy), 2 shifters, 2 fairies, 2 werewolves, 1 werepather, 1 snake, 1 goat. Finally, we salute 1 witch (in ye olden times) and 1 bird who died twice and thank them for all the beautiful trouble they caused this season.
SEX SEX SEX: 5 scenes: Jason; 4 scenes: Sookie, Eric; 3 scenes: Bill, Jessica; 2 scenes: Luna; 1 scene: Andy, Sam, Arlene, Terry, Hoyt, Tommy, Alcides, Debby, and Tara
BEST SEX SCENE: Both three way dream sequences were fun (Sookie + Bill & Eric and Jason + Jessica & Hoyt!?) but maybe this one goes to Jason & Jessica's romp in this last episode: hot, character-driven.
WORST SEX SCENE: I'm sorry but WTF with that snowy dreamland for Eric & Sookie?
GROSSEST DEATH: Eric's preferred yank heart out move, with its gross shades of King Russell.
gif via Foolish Flower
BEST EPISODE: #4.2 "You Smell Like Dinner" (runner up: #4.10 "Burning Down the House")
WORST EPISODE: #4.1 "She's Not There" (runner up: #4.12 just discussed)
SEASON MVP: Eric (Alexander Skarsgøård) in the first half of the season before Sookie's vagina unfortunately tamed him, Marnie (Fiona Shaw) in the second half of the season when the magic made her cuckoo.
SEASON 4 GRADE: B+ It came and went with a whimper but there sure was a lot of BANG inbetween.
Season 4 True Blood
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-
4.8 "Spellbound" MVP: The Fortenberrys (Hoyt & Maxine); Grade: B+
4.9 "Let's Get Out of Here" MVP: Sam; Grade: B
4.10 "Burning Down the House" MVP: Marnie; Grade: A-
4.11 "Soul of Fire" MVP: Marnie; Grade: B+
4.12 "And When I Die" MVP: Jason; Grade: C+
Reader Comments (17)
Great post, as always, Nathaniel!
.
I am sad season 4 is over because now I have to wait one year tor read again your True Blood coverage!
Thanks Ferdi. it feels so lonely writing about this since people are shy about sharing their True Blood feelings.
Am I the only one who wants Eric with Pam??? I know he is her maker and therefore there's the whole parental angle but maker/progeny romantic/sexual relationships are not unheard of (Bill/Lorena. Russel/Talbot), and while there'sw Pam alleged lesbianism, sexuality can be fluid and vampire sexuality seems to be even more so. Pam loves Eric more than anyone and is fully and completly devoted to him. She accepts his darkness, his (original) immorality, his shades, his arrogance and both do think vamps are superior to humans, they share the same ethic, core values and a past. He had to turn into an entirely diferent person for Sookie to accept him enough to be with him, and this relationship did nothing but dumb him down.
I think Eric/Pam could be really interesting. And HOT!
Sookie needs to be single for a while. If not, her character, who is beyond annoying as of now, will be upgraded to unbeareable.
More Pam, Jessica and Sam next season, please!!
I liked Laffy and Jesus! I thought they were sweet!
I never got the point of Alcide, other than to be next in line to be head over heels in love with Sookie. Why is he on the show to begin with?
Oh, thyank God the werepanther are gone, hopefully never to be heard from again!
Apparently Tara is not dead, which would really be awful because even if I haven't LOVED Tara since season one I do love Rutina. The closer was fair, not riveting and not terrible but sometimes annoyingly on-the-nose. I did love that Holly had a significant role in saving the day.
And OMG Yes on the were-panther thing. An absolute waste of just about everybody's time.
We're super on point with one another here, Nat! Although I think you probably don't have the happy butterflies in your stomach over your "grossest death" while it was probably my single favorite moment all season long.
As for Layfayette and Jesus (good riddance, I hate Kevin Alejandro), I keep getting the feeling that Nelsan Ellis isn't comfortable with the man-on-man stuff. There could be nothing to that, hell he could be a great actor who was simply playing up Layfayette's reticence to a healthy relationship EVERY SINGLE MOMENT they were within touching distance of each other, but he never came off as comfortable with it, at all, to me.
I really didn't think they could make me like Jessica finding her way after Hoyt I loved those two together so much, but that scene with her and Jason was so perfectly played, whoever is writing her stuff deserves an Emmy all their own.
i like the final episode, it was more character and less plot. and the directions to the next season are very promissing. i do hope tara is dead (i like the character more than the other people) and will not be made a vampire in order to survive.
sooki needs a good storyline asap.
I was kind of upset but not surprised that Jesus got killed. I totally wanted at least one nude scene out of him. Stop judging me! You were thinking it too.
and i totally sympathized with Pam during her 'fucking Sookie' moment with Ginger. If there is one person who deserve to give Sookie a slap, its Pam....or Tara.
Poor Tara! i mean, i'm almost certain she's not dead, but Sookie is pretty much the worst best friend ever and Tara literally took a bullet for her. Debbie made me laugh after she blew chunks of Tara's head all over the walls and still had to nerve to ask Sookie not to kill her. Bitch, please.
I generally liked the finale though. I thought Nelsan Ellis did a better Marnie/Fiona Shaw than i imagined (especially when he flared up his eyes) and i was a little creeped out when the spirits of the dead started coming for Marnie. Embarrassing to admit, i know.
and i would be happy to never hear the phrase 'Ghost Daddy' ever again. *shudder*
I'm still confused by Arlene's evil baby though. Does he have some sort of darkness or was that spirit controlling/influencing him?
and finally, i totally welcome new vampire Rev. Newlin,
@ JA, I completely agree with the Lafayette/Nelsan Ellis being uncomfortable. Whenever Jesus kissed him, they might as well have been distant brothers being forced to kiss by their mother. There always was a lingering feeling that Nelsan wasn't totally into it. No oomph!
Derreck & JA -- i agree with this take... which is sad and another reason why it's sometimes better to just hand the gay roles to gay actors and stop lauding straight people to be "brave" enough to play one. It ain't brave to play any role unless you're 100% committted to it.
"it feels so lonely writing about this since people are shy about sharing their True Blood feelings."
Aw Nathaniel, I suspect that the few posts on TB are not due to lack of interest per se, but that many truebies (true blood fans) are on boards/websites completely devoted to TB.
As for commentary from TFE readers that are also TB fans, we're obviously a smaller demographic. Hence, the fewer posts. I sometimes don't comment because I don't see the point of the "I agree!' or "Me too!" posts.
Anyway, as season finales go, this was quite hit and miss for me. Twas not the glory of years past, true. But not bad. I think Alan Ball is keeping tabs on vocal fan reaction and decided to kill off a bunch of the less popular characters. Ex: Tommy, the Mickens, Tara. Though I don't mind Rutina Weasley as an actress, I wasn't a big fan of Tara. Though admittedly, Tara could come back as a vampire or even zombie next season. That meta commentary about Zombies almost can be read as foreshadowing.
Personally, I hope she is dead. We've mentioned cast bloat in past TB reviews, and I think the cast could do with some shrinkage. Too many characters = too many story lines, not all of which are good or drive the main story forward. Ex: the creepy doll that wasn't for Arlene's Baby.
Incidentally, I don't believe the were-panther storyline was dropped at all, merely delayed till next season. I expect Crystal to show up next season pregnant and/or with little were-panther babies that Jason fathered.
BTW, isn't it kinda sad that Anna Paquin is the main character but she's never been named MVP on her own show? I like Anna, but even so, I do think she's uneven as an actress. From what I've read from other TB sites, many fans of the Sookie Stackhouse novels actually really despise AP because they feel she isn't good looking enough or a good enough actress to fully bring Sookie to life. Criticism is such that they believe Sookie to be Rogue, version 2.0.
Be that as it may, I think AP as an actress is quite gracious, and tries to find work for her older friends in the industry. Alfre Woodard (who played Lafayette's Mom), J. Smith-Cameron (Melinda Mickens, Tommy and Sam's mother), and Fiona Shaw (Marnie) all worked with Anna previously, when she was still quite young. Woodard with AP in 'Member of the Wedding', Smith-Cameron in 'Margaret' (to finally be released this Fall, after a near 6 year wait!), and Shaw in 'Jane Eyre' (AP played a young Jane).
blinking -- you're probably right about the True Blood fandom. i do think AP is a good actress. I just think that the Sookie storylines are weirdly almost defiantly resistant to variation. And that's a big problem for long running shows.
GREAT post, as usual. Loved that you were totally committed to doing this. Also, Rutina Wesley has confirmed...she's still signed on for Season 5. I've got my own theory as to how....and it involves Tara with fangs.
Thanks again for a great review and your summarizing of the whole season!
I really enjoyed the development of Jessica.
I absolutly agree with your two MVP, especially with Eric; I hated Marny so much but this of course can be tributed to the great acting.
I also agree with your best promoted player.
Nat I don't watch True Blood but I've read every one of your posts about it - you've saved me from having to watch it. except I've loved the screen caps of Marnie, so I may have to see a few episodes eventually just to witness her awesomeness.
Janice - thanks. that's interesting to hear (i'd assumed if people didn't watch they weren't reading. but i'm glad to be of some proxy service. although the show has issues it is an absolute must see for people who like B material with A production. and camp and supernatural stuff in general.
Thank you we love you,your such a word smith. How ever we're baffled that Eric not only got his long term memory back but also short term memory! Do the writers think its a far more creative direction i.e. story line ?. We all thought that by not remembering what had happened to him... would create sexual tension,humour, vague flashbacks that could be threaded thru'out next season, and the next ! .
But more important we also felt that something was "amiss" with the whole Sookie,Eric,Bill, couch (campy matching robes was ingenious) parting was a let down script wise. What's your thoughts???. We need professional guidance so we can move on ! and sleep.