TRUE BLOOD Leaves Mr. Doggett Scratching His Head
Season 4, episode 9: “Let’s Get Out of Here”
[all photos: John P. Johnson/HBO]
Last week we ended right in the heat of the battle between the vamps and the witches. Both sides suffered losses and the cliffhanger was Sookie getting shot and Eric falling under Antonia’s spell.
This week gives us the conclusion to that battle, if you can really call it that, and then leaves me scratching my head a lot in confusion.
Alcide has come to Sookie’s rescue once again and is running away from the battle with his wounded fairy when out of nowhere Bill zooms in and scoops her right out of his hands and back to her house. Alcide wasn’t far behind because no sooner does Bill have her on the couch trying to force feed her his blood than Alcide runs in. It’s looking pretty bad for Sookie to the point the boys consider stooping to prayer. But the juice finally kicks in and she is getting up like nothing happened.
Of course the first concern she has is for Eric, which doesn’t sit well with Bill or Alcide. Fed up, her would-be rescuer realizes he can’t compete with the vamps for her interest and has had enough. He storms out and heads back to Debbie who at least he knows loves him back. Meanwhile Bill vows to look for Eric.
What he should have focused on was looking for Antonia. She’s still on the loose and now she has Eric has her personal weapon. Back at the Witch hut Antonia tells everyone that they are going to use the vampire to attack humans at the next nights “Rally for Tolerance”. Tara and the rest of the gang have hit their personal limits of being on the chopping block for her whims when Bill had offered them a truce. While Antonia doesn’t mind walking around in Marnie’s body she sure took offense when Tara called her Marnie. That was actually kind of funny. That’s also when Tara and everyone else realized she was completely off the deep end and they needed to get out. Not so fast says Antonia. No ones runs out on her. And to make sure of it she cast a spell to keep them inside.
Sam talks Luna into going camping with her daughter as a way to get away from their troubles with Marcus. She is hesitant at first but Sam is really doing all he can to be charming because he’s got a lot to make up for.
Last week Lafayette was possessed by the spirit of a woman named Mavis and then stole Arlene’s baby. This week Mavis shows up at Hoyt’s house of all places with baby in tow and waving the pistol he/she stole from Andy. Seeing Hoyt there sets Mavis off and she screams for him to get out of her house. Freaked out himself he calls Jason who is already at Arlene’s handling the break-in/kidnapping call. The whole gang including a strung-out-on-V Andy descends on Hoyt’s place. Andy almost gets himself shot because the V’s got him thinking he’s super cop or something so Jason finally calls in Jesus to help. Jesus goes in and quickly figures out about Mavis and convinces her that he can help with his own witchcraft mojo. Turns out she did live in that house long ago and it is the place where she and her baby were killed and buried out in the back yard.
Arlene gets her baby back safe and sound while Jason, Hoyt, and Jesus dig up Mavis and her child in the backyard. The whole time Lafayette/Mavis, Arlene and Terry just watch. Finally hitting pay dirt Jesus hands the sack of baby bones to Lafayette so Mavis can hold her son one last time. He then tells her it’s time for her to go, does some chanting, and poof out of Lafayette she goes. But, and this is a big but, everyone can see her. I mean everyone.
Later that night Jason helps Hoyt repair his front door. In the process he notices a box labeled ‘Monster Box’ and inquires about it. Hoyt explains it is everything he has that belongs to Jessica. In fact, he says “I want you to give it to her”. Jason tries to talk his way out of it but no dice. When he does deliver it to her he was kind enough to scratch out the ‘Monster Box’. Vampires have feelings too. She invites him in but he says he doesn’t thing that would be a good idea. Turns out what he actually meant was that he just wanted her to come outside so they could make love in the back of his truck under the night sky. That Jason sure is slick.
Now that she has both Bill and Eric’s blood in her, Sookie starts having erotic dreams of both the vamps in her life. In her dream she tells them they’re just going to have to share her because she loves them both.
Marcus shows up at Merlotte’s looking for Sam. Instead he finds Tommy there who eagerly agrees to pass on a message to Sam. Later that night Tommy shows up at the requested meeting place to talk with Marcus. Only he shows up shifted into Sam. Marcus is there with several members of his pack including Alcide who only agreed to help Marcus ‘scare’ Sam. Well, Tommy being Tommy, the talk quickly turns physical when Tommy starts talking back. The pack starts really tearing into him when Alcide finally tries breaking it up. They finally beat Tommy enough that he shifted back into himself and they all see they just beat up the wrong guy. Alcide is ticked at them for taking it so far and picks up Tommy and takes him to get help.
Debbie ends up sitting down with Sookie and have a nice little girl chat. Later Debbie shows up at Antonia’s offering to help lend werewolf support to her cause against the vampires. Intrigued Antonia lets her in to talk in more detail. Turns out Debbie is just a decoy so Sookie could sneak in the back way and find Eric. She does find him, but he’s pretty much mindless at this point and only does what Antonia wants him to do. Tara pulls a gun on Sookie and yells at her, subtlety getting her to read her mind to warn her about Antonia’s plan for the Rally and how she is holding them all hostage there. They mind read their way into an escape for Sookie. Debbie is able to slip back out once Antonia’s attention turned to Sookie. The two of them then hook back up in the car and head to warn Bill.
Pushed too far, Antonia takes Eric and one of her other followers and leaves for the Rally to exact their revenge. With another spell she locks all the doors behind her trapping Tara and the others. Tara reaches for the doorknob and it turns red hot burning her hand very badly. So what do they do? Yell to another person to try the back door. What do you think happens? Yep. Red hot doorknob. Burned hand. Screaming fool.
Once at the Rally Antonia and crew are quickly intercepted by the vamps working security. But since she’s used the control spell a couple of times recently she is getting really good at it and they are under spell before they can do anything to stop her.
At the Rally Bill and Nan are holding center court up on stage and Bill is giving yet another political speech about vampires and humans living in harmony, etc. Just as Sookie rushes in through the back of the crowd the Antonia-controlled vamps appear on a balcony holding up the bodies of Bill’s human security guards. They toss them down to the crowd and proceed to bounce and feed as the crowd of humans start scurrying for safety. Sookie keeps her focus on Bill and shouts to warn him that Eric is coming for him.
As I mentioned earlier this week left me with some head scratchers.
Head Scratcher #1 – Tommy
First, why in the world is he hanging out Merlotte’s when Sam told him he never wanted to see him again – ever? Seemed very strange that he would go there even if it was to leave a ‘sorry’ note.
Second, I know Tommy is not the brightest bulb in the world but why would he pretend to be Sam knowing that Marcus and his goons were probably going to beat him to a pulp? Did he think this would fix everything between him and Sam?
Head Scratcher #2 – Andy
Still hooked on V. Still acting the fool. How many weeks is this going to drag on? This is a head scratcher because Jason had his own experience with V and overcame it and knows that Andy is using. Yet he doesn’t do anything to help him.
Head Scratcher #3 – Lafayette/Mavis
All of the stuff this season with Arlene thinking her baby was a demon or was haunted by the ghost of his biological killer father ends with the whole Mavis possession story? Kind of a letdown if you ask me.
The only thing I’m excited about next week is that we get to see a little of the old Eric even if he’s only being bad because he’s spellbound. This meek Eric has been boring me to death.
