True Blood Review: “In The Evening” (Season 6, Episode 7)

I guess when they said that a few major characters wouldn’t see the end of this season of True Blood, they meant it. I balked a bit when Terry was killed since he hadn’t been a major player in a few seasons, but I’m willing to bite my tongue for now. The fact that the show is so willing to start killing off characters is making this that much better, because for once, the stakes are actually raised. Bill’s premonition from earlier is no longer just a plot device, it’s an actual threat to most of the main cast.

None of that really affects Sookie, however, since she’s been busy doing plenty of nothing. After her faerie sex/rave thing with Warlow, she hears Arlene in the graveyard and re-enters the human world to comfort her, leaving Warlow behind for the whole episode. Sookie spends the rest of the episode learning what we already know about Terry’s death, but to her credit, she does find out that a life insurance policy was taken out for Terry days before he died. Arlene’s too busy mourning and doing some grief drinking to be bothered with that news, so she’s spared for now.

Sam isn’t being much more useful, although he finally makes his smartest move of the season: he sends Nicole home with her mommy. After deciding to go back to Bon Temps to help everyone deal with Terry’s death, despite Alcide’s “suggestion,” he says his goodbyes to his favorite piece of curly-haired baggage. It’s just a shame she won’t stay gone forever, since Alcide’s pack picks her and her mom up after finding out that Alcide lied about killing them. Looks like his season-long douchebaggery is finally catching up to him.

On the political side of things, Governor Burrell’s death brings about an interesting turn of events. Sarah Newlin, the first to stumble across his bodiless head, makes the decision to have the body hidden from the public, announcing that the governor is now in hiding and still ruling from an undisclosed location. Baurrell wasn’t exactly a friendly leader, but Sarah is looking to be much, much worse news for our gang of fangers. Her first order of business is to fire Jason and throw him into the female vampires’ holding cell, with a bloody wound nonetheless. Tara jumps to his rescue, but the head vampire lady from a few episodes ago claims him for herself. A glimpse into her story would be nice right about now.

Before Jason’s unfortunate turn of events, he does manage to do some good for Jess like he promised. Surprisingly, she doesn’t jump at the chance for escape, rather embracing her fate and instead asking to meet the vampire who refused to have sex with her in the copulation study. Of course, once they meet she just has sex with him anyways. When’s the last time Jess made a good decision? And seriously, why isn’t she leaving the camp? We get it, you hate yourself for killing the faeries. How about you live to make up for it instead of moping like a vampire Terry?

Pam continues to make progress in the camp as well, using her hold over her psychiatrist to get into gen pop and warn the others of the Hep-V virus that Burrell spiked the new batch of Tru Blood with. Her seduction scene with the shifty-eyed doctor reminded me why I’ve loved her since the beginning. She may be impulsive, brash and unpleasant at times, but she’s always been one of the funniest, most resourceful characters on True Blood.

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