If this is how True Blood operates on a ten episode schedule, then maybe the next few seasons should follow suit. Despite attempting to juggle enough plots to fill a holiday-named ensemble turd, each respective story is moving forward at a faster pace than usual, something that hindered past seasons of the show. For once, I don’t feel like I wasted an hour watching the characters slowly discover what the audience already knows.
The two main conflicts are still found in Sookie’s fear of Warlow and Eric’s retaliation against Governor Burrell’s crusade against fangers. Sookie takes the path of defense, sitting around her house with Jason and their grandfather, the King faerie (ugh), eventually including Ben in the ordeal. Each night is spent waiting for Warlow to attack, with grandpa taking off every now and then to try and be slightly proactive. Through his wanderings, he finds that the faerie club has been attacked and all attendants killed at Warlow’s hand. Despite this massacre, Warlow is still an off screen force that has yet to do much of anything other than scare the Stackhouse clan into staying inside for a few days.
Every second spent with Sookie is used to foreshadow something, whether it’s the conflict with Warlow or the true identity of Ben, who, in regular True Blood fashion, will most likely not be what he appears to be. The added reveal that she is a faerie princess (ugh again) hasn’t done much other than give the writers a lame plot device to keep some sort of danger on Sookie’s tale for the season. Jason, while trying to help protect Sookie, is being impaired by some unseen force, another plot twist that hasn’t quite made itself clear yet. Maybe it’s those mystery pills he took that Lafayette left at their house?
Eric and his band of misfits take the fight to Burrell, kidnapping his daughter Willa and squeezing as much information out of her as they can. Remember that camp that Bill saw a vision of in the last episode? It seems that his Lilith sense was right, because Burrell is setting up a facility to imprison and experiment on vampires. Not much information is given on what exactly he plans to do with the prisoners, but the True Death wouldn’t be a bad guess.
Tara and Pam join Eric on his quest for revenge, eventually ending up at Ginger’s house for a humorous reunion with the empty-headed bartender. Even though they offer their help, Pam and Tara are obviously not pleased about keeping Willa alive, instead urging Eric to rip her to shreds and leave the body as revenge. While hiding out at Ginger’s, Willa and Eric share a coffin, leading to an interesting revelation about the fangophobic governor: his wife (Willa’s mother) left him for a vampire. Not only that, but Willa herself is very interested in fangers. Like, trying to lick Eric’s blood interested. Whether it’s a ploy to escape or she’s fallen for everyone’s favorite viking-vampire, we’ll have to wait to find out since Tara ran off with her at the end of the episode. No matter, since the governor had traced their location anyways.