Finally, the eighth episode of season four of True Blood, titled Spellbound, was the episode where everything really started to make sense. Season four thus far was surely epic, with more characters, plots, and mythical creatures than ever, but these factors couldn’t help but seem…disconnected. Spellbound is the episode where each of these ingredients comes together to create a scandalous concoction.
Last week’s True Blood left off with the witches necromancing the vampires into the sun, even getting Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) to open the doors to the light despite her silver chains. Of course, as if there was any doubt, she was heroically saved by Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten), boy-toy turned hero. Marnie/Antonia (Fiona Shaw) the witch queen was pretty disappointed, because the only fanger that met the sun was a shy, old vampire lady.
Time for politician/lobbyist/forlorn lover-boy King Bill (Stephen Moyer) to make a statement on the news to cover up the vampire’s death. He tells us that “this ‘vampire suicide’ was no doubt the result of the sentiment against vampires..” blah blah blah. Next, he makes a call to Marnie, requesting that they meet and perhaps sign a magical peace treaty. She surprisingly agrees.
Sookie (Anna Paquin) and Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) are still in their honeymoon haven relationship, and they even swap blood to “become one,” which apparently means going into a trippy dream world where it snows without clowds. Eric wants to take Sookie and run away, but Sookie reminds him that they can’t abandon her boyfriend (ahem, “Eric’s king”), Bill, to fight the witches alone.
Unfortunately for Bill, some vampires, like his very own creation Jessica, have other errands to run. The baby vamp has to dump Hoyt (Jim Parrack), because honestly, he’s not enough. As Bill would say, she “is vampahr,” afterall. Hoyt fittingly rips the girl to shreds verbally, letting her know that if he can give her all his love and all she can give him is “sorry,” then she’s not good enough for him. And you know what, he’s right.
Then, the love triangle begins. Jason and Hoyt, bestest buddies since the first grade, and Jessica, Hoyt’s love and ex-girlfriend/latest object of Jason’s flavor-of-the-week affection after having drank her blood. Not much happens this episode besides Jason’s hero moment, because although Jessica wastes no time after kicking Hoyt to the curb, Jason turns her down. For now.
It’s in the world of side stories that things are starting to weave together. Take for example Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis): after he and Jesus (Kevin Alejandro) left the witches’ coven, they pretty much didn’t have anything to do with anything. Then, we found out the Lafayette is a medium. He starts seeing a mysterious old-timey lady floating around Arlene’s baby.
Meanwhile, Arlene (Carrie Preston) thinks her baby is haunted, because he writes “not your son” on the wall, keeps making a creepy old doll appear out of thin air, and sort of burned their house down. And here it comes, Lafayette becomes possessed by the woman, who thinks that Arlene’s baby is her own. Yes, it still doesn’t make sense, but at least these stories are getting somewhere.
Two more seemingly random tangents that finally fold into place are the lives of Sam (Sam Trammell) and Alcide (Joe Manangiello). I love Sam and all, but without Tommy, he was pretty boring. And I really can’t stand Alcide at all, whose love for Sookie rivals only that of Bill’s. In Spellbound, Alcide has just joined a werewolf “pack,” and the leader is the crazy baby-daddy of Sam’s new girl. Twist!
Tommy (Marshall Allman) still has little-to-nothing to do with anyone else, but his plot thickened this week and started to get pretty cool. After transforming into Sam and causing a ruckus, we now know that Tommy, having killed his parents, is a “skinwalker” who can shift into other humans. First course of action? Turn into Mrs. Fortenberry (Dale Raoul) and nail down that oil money.
The episode ends with the epic witch-on-vampire showdown, which predictably doesn’t go well. One minute, Marnie and Bill are making peace, and the next minute, Marnie covers the place in fog, and the killins’ start. A few unknown bystanders are killed, but who cares? Bill is taken away in silver, Eric is hypnotized by Marnie, and Sookie is shot in the gut and scooped up by Alcide.
Will Sookie go back to the (evil) fairy after-life? Whatever happened to those werepanthers? Why do vampires always wear black leather jackets? Check in next week to find out!