On the sidelines, Sam is still being hounded by Nicole and her Vampire Unity Society, who he thankfully declines again. Giving up on shifters, the group heads out to the werewolves, hoping to catch some shots of them transforming. Instead, they’re caught with their recording equipment and promptly attacked by the pack (sans Alcide, apparently trying to make up for being an insufferable douche as of late). Sam uses this distraction as an opportunity to get Emma, but takes a detour and tries to help Nicole escape as well.
The good reverend Steve Newlin makes an appearance too! Captured by the governor’s forces, he’s brought into the camp and interviewed by a doctor about Eric. His ex-wife also stops by, and the dialogue between the past lovers is easily the highlight of the season so far. Newlin represents everything about True Blood that I love, so if he were given a few episodes to himself I wouldn’t mind at all.
Finally, Bill is still testing out his Lilith powers, settling on facing the sun in a fire match. Of course, Bill loses and promptly bursts into flames. Confused about this lack of power, he comes to the conclusion that a new form of Tru Blood must be created, complete with faerie blood so that all vampires can live under the sun. For this task, he enlists Jess to dress up like a sexy schoolgirl and seduce the professor that first created the drink. Why she had to dress up like this doesn’t matter. Just go with it.
Bill himself approaches Sookie about using her blood for the drink, but she’s had about enough of him, sending him on his way after a bitter exchange of words. On his walk home, Andy pulls over and reminds Bill about the curfew. Bill notices toys in Andy’s backseat, prompting him to tell Bill about his new daughters (now 11 years old in a span of months). Bill’s sinister grin as he’s leaving can only mean bad news for the girls, since he’s got a new source of faerie blood for his new drink.
As I said before, the plots are flying forward at full force, for better and for worse. Warlow still has yet to show up and make himself a known threat, meaning the Stackhouse clan is sitting in their living room for about twenty minutes doing absolutely nothing. Every time the phrase “faerie princess” is uttered, a True Blood fans kills a puppy. Sam’s hunt for Emma and Alcide’s transformation into the pack master he always said he wouldn’t be are infinitely more interesting, yet given about five minutes each episode to shine. For once, Sookie and her issues don’t deserve to hog the spotlight.
Luckily, Eric’s vendetta against Burrell and Bill’s continued discoveries of his new powers are compelling enough to carry the season through. The quicker pace set for this season means that there is more concentrated True Blood per episode, but we still need to pick a few bits of lacking story out before the show can return to its former glory. That being said, this season is easily better than at least the past two, and it looks like it will only get better. If more focus is put on the better plots, then fans will be in fanger heaven by the time the season finale rolls around.
