S07.E08: Almost Home

[shrewd.buddha]

So, there was no Tara storyline this entire time -- it was just a Lettie Mae storyline. And it's conclusion with the gun was lame.

 

Fangtasia should have been a mess after the Hep-V, Vigilante battle. But, whatever .. guess they didn't want to spend more money on sets. And Pam's utter devotion to Eric is just weird now. She just runs around yelling "Eric!" "Eric!" "Eric!!". She gets captured which causes Eric to capitulate to demands of others, and threatens to kills herself if Eric doesn't capitulate to her demands. (She's done these things multiple times.)  At this point Pam is no longer bad-ass, just a snarky vampire with codependency issues.

 

The series ending does not seem to be building towards anything resembling the notion of epic. 

Edited August 11, 2014 by shrewd.buddha

[Chicken Wing]

We have two episodes left to wrap up everything and it barely feels like there's even been a plot to this season at all.

[Dirtybubble]

So Tara comes back and basically nothing happens.

IKR?!  All this build up and for what, so Lettie Mae can "go on living" and forgive herself?!  Pfft boring!

 

And while I am glad Hoyt killed this stupid Violet story line what I don't understand is how did Hoyt know to have a silver bullet in his gun to kill vampires?  How did Hoyt did Hoyt even know where to find Violet's hangout?  Did I miss something?  And aren't vampires suppose to be wiser as they get older?  How did a supposedly 1,000 yr old vamp let herself get snuck up on and killed ?  Russell would have seen that coming a mile away.

[sjohnson]

I thought the dialogue clearly established that Tara couldn't move on because Lettie Mae was hanging on to her. (The notion that the living keep the ghosts around has been used before, as most notions are, for instance in the late lamented Miracles TV show.) And one of the defining miseries of Tara's life was her anger at her mother. For Tara's spirit to be liberated from haunting Lettie Mae, the blame game had to stop. At least, that's what I saw.

[Chicken Wing]

I assume it was a wooden bullet, actually, and Hoyt would know these things. He only erased his memories of Jason and Jessica, after all, not of everything he knew about Bon Temps and all the crazy that happens here. As to how he knew where Violet's place was, I figured he probably hopped in his truck and followed Jason and Bridget after they left. But yes, you'd think a super-old vampire would have sensed something like that long before it came. Russell had a bit of an excuse when he got staked - he was high on faerie blood and probably didn't have all of his wits about him at the moment. Perhaps Violet's rage acted the same way, lol.

[90PercentGravity]

When Hoyt was acting all angry and sad about nothing but bad memories, I thought they were going in a direction that erasing Jason erased all his good memories and turned him into a bitter creep, but then they never went anywhere with it.

 

I thought  Bill refused the blood because he didn't want to drink from someone who was unwilling.

[Chicken Wing]

It's a little late in the game for Bill to turn into Mr. High and Mighty.

 

I think he just wants to resign himself to his fate. He's done and he's ready to die.

[redapplecigs]

I can't believe that was the point of Tara's whole storyline. Even accepting sjohnson's interpretation of its intended meaning (which I agree with), it just seems ridiculous. The storyline only becomes meaningful if you accept that Tara had to die this season, which of course she didn't.

Did Tara really have to die to make room for Beeeel's endless flashbacks and Jason's boner for Hoyt's girlfriend, and James' endless stoner monologues? I am by no means Tara's biggest fan, but good lord they fucked her character over on a level of magnitude I cannot understand.

Was anyone really clamoring for a final season that heavily featured Lettie Mae????? I would have much preferred Tara coming to terms with Lettie Mae's shitty, neglectful abusive parenting following Lettie Mae's death than this shit show we got.

Whatever, I need this show to be done now.

[roctavia]

I assume it was a wooden bullet, actually, and Hoyt would know these things. He only erased his memories of Jason and Jessica, after all, not of everything he knew about Bon Temps and all the crazy that happens here. As to how he knew where Violet's place was, I figured he probably hopped in his truck and followed Jason and Bridget after they left. But yes, you'd think a super-old vampire would have sensed something like that long before it came. Russell had a bit of an excuse when he got staked - he was high on faerie blood and probably didn't have all of his wits about him at the moment. Perhaps Violet's rage acted the same way, lol.

 

 

Jason left Bridgett in his car with a wooden bullet filled gun. She probably called Hoyt or Hoyt followed them... and then he took the gun from her to see what was going on. Jason did mention a crazy vampire...

 

Violet wasn't expecting anybody else to show up at her house, she had all of the players as far as she knows... and she was pretty distracted with all of her fancy torture devices, so I can buy that she wasn't paying enough attention to hear Hoyt approach. It's not like he came stomping through her house, he was probably attempting to be somewhat quiet so he could follow Violet's ranting.

[TiffanyNichelle]

So that was Tara's storyline for this year? The redemption of Lettie Mae that no one was asking for? Fantastic! What a waste.

 

BTW does anyone still work at Bellefleur's? So far it only looks like Arlene and Big John do. Lafayette and Sookie haven't been near the place at all.

 

I need for Hoyt to shave and wash his face but man I still love him and Jessica. I love that he's still drawn to her no matter what. I guess the show wasn't building to a Jessica/Jason redux but a Jessica/Hoyt reunion. Aw. Also love that Hoyt killed his mother's killer without even knowing it.

 

The dumb kids were saved. Yay?

[Primetimer]

By rekindling an ugly romance, True Blood makes us wonder if it was glamoured, too.

Read the story

[phoenix780]

I think Tara was killed off episode 1 to establish the stakes of the season.  They had to off someone relatively major to show how dangerous it was, they picked her.  It was just idiotic to have it happen off-screen and then build it up (slightly- most of the build-up was because they weren't resolving it) to nothing, imho.  But, having the night to think about it, I'll take the writers' lesson and just let Tara (and the blame thrown their way for what they did with the character) go. 

 

Although there is something interesting about the idea of Lettie Mae preventing Tara from moving on, especially since the answer seemed to be found by getting high.  It makes me wonder if Bill is holding dead people hostage by pining for the days when he was a would-be slave liberator; or if Arlene was doing the same with Terry.  Thank the gods Sookie doesn't give a damn about Alcide so he can rest peacefully!

 

I almost hate to ask- but are we done with Willa, Eric's other progeny?

[Quickbeam]

In all fairness, when it comes to Sookie, I don't consider Anna Paquin to be problem, it's that Sookie is written to be such a shitty character.

 

I think Paquin has done a terrific job with the character. I read all the books, even the last few awful ones and she IS Sookie as written. 

 

I thought the digging in the ground bit for the gun was incredibly lame but that the actors did their very best to give it some dignity. 

[terrymct]

From the recap:

 

if Bill were to drink her faerie blood on the reg, they both really could live in the daylight. Right? We'll see!

 

Would that actually work?  Vampires have drank Sookie's blood at various points since the first season.  Sookie never gave them the ability to walk in daylight.  She's too diluted or some such thing, isn't she?

[fliptopbox]

Judging from the clips from next week it looks as though Bill will probably die and Sookie ends up with Eric after all. In on scene he flies off with someone in his arms, who appeared to be blonde. That can't be anyone but Sookie. Blah.

 

Talk about a character I don't give a shit about....we had to redeem Lettie Mae after all this time? They felt that was an important storyline? Ugh. I'm just glad it's finally over. Ditto with the Violet shit. It also wouldn't surprise me if Jason and Hoyt swap ladies. Hoyt can have Jess and Jason can have Bridget. Seems they've been drooling over each other's women, so why not?

 

I'm ready for this series to be over. Between the cowboy Yakuza guys and dragging pretty much all the minor characters back for a cameo is just getting so tiresome. Next week maybe those inbreds from Hotshot will be back!

[Enigma X]

And did I hear right? Bill was procuring Sookie for Sophie Ann to make her a sex-breeding slave?

[DollEyes]

  This was better than last week, but not much. Hoyt's giving Violet her long overdue True Death was glorious, plus it gave new meaning to "Circle of Life" because he killed his mother's killer and he doesn't even know it, because of Jason. As for Bridget, she's working my last nerve. Her trying to plan Hoyt's life while he's still grieving Maxine was bad enough, but her butting in official police business because Hoyt hurt her feelings was bullshit. Bridget's tantrum could've gotten herself, Jason, Adalin, Wade and Jessica killed, putting Hoyt through even more Hell that he doesn't need or deserve. Jason's comparing his relationship with Jessica to "floating around the earth in a bubble" was childish. Living in one's own world seems nice in theory, but it's the other people stuck on Earth who have to deal with the fallout, specifically Hoyt, Andy, Holly, Adalin and Wade, via Violet. Violet's problem was that she wanted Jaosn's worship and his obedience, not his love. Just because Jason has the IQ of a dog on a good day that doesn't mean he should be treated like one. Like too many vamps, Violet had gotten so used to controlling humans that she had forgotten that she used to be one, which lead to her downfall. One of Violet's many mistakes was using Adalin and Wade to punish Jason and Jessica. Adalin and Wade are dumb, horny kids who let their hormones cloud what little good judgment they had, but Jason's cheating on Violet wasn't their fault. They had nothing to do with it and crushing Wade's skull or ripping Adalin's tits off doesn't change that.

 

  Violet didn't just kidnap two ordinary kids; she took a Wiccan's son and a cop's daughter. if Hoyt hadn't True death-ed Violet, then Andy and/or Holly might have. Violet not only richly deserved the True Death she got, that it was at Hoyt's hands made it even better. Re Jessica and Hoyt's reunion, those aren't sparks between them; that's a full-fledged backdraft. my unspoiled spec is that Jess is going to turn Hoyt and Jason will end up with Bridget.

 

  Re Bill/Sookie, Bill's rambling about doing Sophie-Anne's bidding re Sookie was pointless and boring of course, but at least we weren't subjected to anotherflashback nor more Bill/Sookie sex, for which I'm eternally grateful. When Sookie saw that Eric was cured, Sookie being Sookie, she did something stupid for the umpteenth time for Bill's sake, first by invading Fangtasia all by herself then by going back after Eric saved her dumb ass by pretending to glamour her. However, Sookie and Bill did manage to do a couple of things right, such as Sookie's telling Sarah that even when she's not talking that she's more trouble than she's worth and Bill's refusing to drink Sarah's blood after all. It might lead to yet another one of Bill's martyr complexes, but as long as he meets the True Death, I don't care.

Edited August 16, 2014 by DollEyes

[Amethyst]

I thought the dialogue clearly established that Tara couldn't move on because Lettie Mae was hanging on to her. (The notion that the living keep the ghosts around has been used before, as most notions are, for instance in the late lamented Miracles TV show.) And one of the defining miseries of Tara's life was her anger at her mother. For Tara's spirit to be liberated from haunting Lettie Mae, the blame game had to stop. At least, that's what I saw.

 

And I wish they would have just left it at that; Tara wanting to forgive her mother and in turn, needing Lettie Mae to let her go. 

 

Tara was victimized by her mother for years, put up with her addictions, and to add insult to injury, Lettie Mae disowned Tara when she was turned, something that Tara had no control over.  Even in death, Tara had every right to be angry with Lettie Mae.

 

If this was just Lettie Mae holding onto Tara's ghost because of her own guilt, then I could understand why Tara couldn't move on.  But shoehorning in some bogus plot implying that Tara is somehow responsible for her mother's issues because she didn't kill her father when she was child isn't just absurd, it's cruel.  What would killing him have done anyway, besides putting the burden of murder on a five year old?  

 

Blaming Tara robs that moment of any kind of poignancy to her final departure, because Lettie Mae's redemption wasn't earned, and it continues to dump on Tara when that's all that ever happened to her in the series.  We never saw Lettie Mae show any kind of remorse for her actions, and when she did, she used her newfound religion as a scapegoat so she wouldn't have to admit to her own failures.  

 

Lettie Mae turned her back on her daughter when she most needed her and now we're supposed to see the beauty in Tara moving on when they drop this bomb that Tara's failure to pull the trigger has caused all the shit her mother has done? To hell with that.

[Enigma X]

There are so many reason why the Tara/Lettie Mae stuff sucked, and addictive LM needing a "drug" to "receive" Tara's message was one of them.

[Athena]

Would that actually work?  Vampires have drank Sookie's blood at various points since the first season.  Sookie never gave them the ability to walk in daylight.  She's too diluted or some such thing, isn't she?

 

It's happened at least twice. They need ALOT of her blood to day walk. Both times she almost died. When Bill was blood crazy and almost drained her completely in the car trunk, he was able to be in the sunlight briefly and enter Fairyland. Second time was Eric and Russell in S3. They briefly day walked and that's how they trapped Russell in the concrete. 

[annlaw78]

So, essentially the character of Tara just existed... to provide Lettie Mae redemption in the end?  Ugh.  I don't care about Lettie Mae.  The same could have been accomplished by having Lettie Mae shuffle off this mortal coil in the season opener, and then have Tara have visions/remember how her mother was "made" into the mess she was, and forgive her.  That would have put the agency and primacy where it should be -- on the main character.

Edited August 11, 2014 by annlaw78

[Addlepated]

Was I dreaming, or wasn't there a substantial portion of a previous season devoted to how Lafayette is a powerful medium, who can contact those who have gone beyond?  People like, say, his cousin Tara, who seemed to have a message for her mother?  Instead of tripping on V for 8 hours, why not ring her up on the Lafayette-phone for 5 minutes to get the GPS coordinates for the revolver?

[fliptopbox]

I still don't get why they even kept Lettie Mae around at all as a character. Couldn't she have drank herself to death back in season 1? Possibly after her fake exorcism. Then none of this nonsense would even have had to happen.

[Kris117]

So, there was no Tara storyline this entire time -- it was just a Lettie Mae storyline. And it's conclusion with the gun was lame.

 

Yes, that's what really bugged me about this whole thing. Tara's been a major character up until this season, with Lettie Mae on her periphery. Now, they flipped things, as if I'm supposed to believe that Lettie Mae has really been the major character all along, with Tara around just to provide story lines for her. Nothing against the actress, of course, but this feels like glamouring on the writers part. 

 

It's a little late in the game for Bill to turn into Mr. High and Mighty.

 

I think he just wants to resign himself to his fate. He's done and he's ready to die.

 

I agree. I think the point of all the flashbacks of his family was to show that he wants to die and be with them. Hey, that was a good thing about this episode—no Bill flashbacks! Unless there was one and I mercifully forgot it. 

 

This was better than last week, but not much. Hoyt's giving Violet her long overdue True Death was glorious, plus it gave new meaning to "Circle of Life" because he killed his mother's killer and he doesn't even know it, because of Jason.

It hadn't even occurred to me that Hoyt killed his mother's killer. That's what the problem with this season is—interesting moments get buried under an avalanche of stupid. Stupid moments, such as Sookie going to Fangtasia not just once, but twice after Eric told her he would be there. While it was stupid of her to go back the second time, even stupider was dragging a dying Bill along with her to Fangtasia. She could have driven to Lafayette's, gotten a syringe, collected blood, and brought it back to Bill. 

Edited August 11, 2014 by Kris117

[phoenix780]

Lettie Mae turned her back on her daughter when she most needed her and now we're supposed to see the beauty in Tara moving on when they drop this bomb that Tara's failure to pull the trigger has caused all the shit her mother has done? To hell with that.

 

I don't think it was intended to be Tara's actual failure.  It was more her belief that she had somehow failed, and that's what caused Lettie Mae's issues. 

 

So, essentially the character of Tara just existed... to provide Lettie Mae redemption in the end?  Ugh.  I don't care about Lettie Mae.  The same could have been accomplished by having Lettie Mae shuffle off this mortal coil in the season opener, and then have Tara have visions/remember how her mother was "made" into the mess she was, and forgive her.  That would have put the agency and primacy where it should be -- on the main character.

 

Even if we stick to a dead Tara and living Lettie Mae, what failed in my opinion, was that they had Tara quickly shut down her mother's words with a line about not blaming anyone.  The idea of flipping things is spot on, I think, in that it should have been Tara whimpering and crying and asking what to do while Lettie Mae had some dialogue about letting go.  After all, Tara was tied to a cross with a snake and speaking in tongues, right?  That should have meant something, it should have been played more as Tara needing to be free.  

 

In the end, Tara didn't really seem to need resolution.  She just needed Lettie Mae to stop being selfish and let her go, which to me is a whole 'nother concept, and I'm not sure what I take from that with respect to Lettie Mae in terms of redemption (to the extent that I care...which isn't much).  She wasn't freeing/helping Tara, as the start of this mini-plot suggested; it was all about her.  She dragged in two humans, a vampire, and got Willa expelled from safety as part of that.  She's kind of a dick, though I will admit that I loved the scenes with Tara if I forget the context.

 

Also- it'd have been nice to see Pam involved at some point.  When they go subtle they really go there- I'm choosing to believe her extreme devotion to Eric (as noted above) is because of Tara's true death, which Pam barely reacted to, visibly.

Edited August 11, 2014 by phoenix780

[CletusMusashi]

As funny as I thought Violet was last week, she quickly proved herself too stupid to live. Hoyt sneaking up on her was a surprise, but someone sneaking up on her really wasn't. For all V knew, Jessica might have communicated to someone where she was going. That not only means that the sheriff himself might be coming in the door, but so might any of his varying number of deputies. Or... if Jessica told Bill, Bill could have called someone. "Hey, I'll give you three million dollars if you go to this address and save my progeny. " Could have been a group of vampires sneaking in, could have been a group of heavily armed human professionals, could have been Rhino Sam, could have been a whole new story arc about Wade gaining forgiveness from a pack of were-tigers. I mean, it's an unlocked front door in Bon Temps. Not the best of security plans, especially if you're going to take the time to go all Bond villainess.

Edited August 11, 2014 by CletusMusashi

[Chicken Wing]

See, that's the problem with crazy villains who decide to lure their prey by sending them a message to come to a location where they can enter on their own. Somehow it does not occur to the villain that someone else might just as easily come along and enter the place, too.

[jcin617]

When Hoyt was acting all angry and sad about nothing but bad memories, I thought they were going in a direction that erasing Jason erased all his good memories and turned him into a bitter creep, but then they never went anywhere with it.

Yeah... I thought that when they were perusing that photo album they would come across a picture of Hoyt and Jason as friends that would have started unwinding the memory wipe.

 

Of course, I've never quite understood how that all works.  Hoyt mentioned to Jason that he "always liked Vampire Bill";  so does he know who Sookie is?  (I'm guessing not the same way, since he never said something like "Oh, Deputy Stackhouse, are you related to Sookie?")  What various misadventures of Bon Temps does Hoyt even recall?   It seems like erasing only Jessica and Jason would leave some wierd holes in his memory.

Edited August 11, 2014 by jcin617

[Chicken Wing]

(I'm guessing not the same way, since he never said something like "Oh, Deputy Stackhouse, are you related to Sookie?")

 

Actually he did ask Jason that, in the episode when he left, as he was driving out of town and Jason pulled him over to try one last time to connect with him despite the glamour.

 

I try not fuss over the specifics of what happens if you erase an entire person's existence from your memory and whether it would affect all of your memories of things they were connected to or part of. It'll just make my head hurt if I think about it too hard.

[fliptopbox]

I'm also kind of surprised since Hoyt mentioned being on the high school football team that there was no question of what did Jason do in high school? I mean if Hoyt remembered Sookie then obviously her brother would be (probably) close in age and....I dunno. This whole mind wipe thing makes me think too hard. But you'd think in his mementos he'd run into something involving Jason, since they were so close. I am assuming a glamour would not erase photos, or yearbooks, or any actual physical mementos of someone.

Edited August 11, 2014 by fliptopbox

[Bec]

I do have some old photos with people from high school whose names I don't remember. I'm about Hoyt's age. Maybe I've been glamoured. Hee.

 

 

 

this post-glamouring Hoyt seems to have had a couple dozen IQ points taken away.

Hey, if we learned anything from Ginger, it's that glamouring kills your brain cells.

 

I'll be disturbed if Jess and Hoyt gets back together while he's still mindwiped. It would be like a shoe that's always waiting to drop. Can't imagine that would be good for any relationship.

 

Violet definitely made the classic Bond villain mistake of monologuing for too long so that someone had a chance to foil her plans (I thought it was Andy at first, having already forgotten that he was too far away, that's how much attention I'm paying to the show these days). Anyways, the little winking smilie in her threatening text message cracked me up. As does the idea that she would type in text-speak. Why would you do that if you can type with super-vampire-speed and it's not a long message anyway?

 

Edited because I wanted to add: Violet also made the classic mistake of making her plans to destroy everyone too complicated.

Edited August 11, 2014 by Bec

[nodorothyparker]

Maxine had a line at some point in a past season to Jessica that glamoring all memory of her and Jason away was the only good thing she'd ever done for Hoyt, so she did know about it.  I could fanwank that Maxine took it from there and destroyed all photos or mementos of them since the stuff was in her house, but that would mean I'm probably putting more thought into it than the writers did.

 

I still want Hoyt to be Jason's endgame.  That would finally make all of this nonsense and swapping partners have a point.

[sjohnson]

^^^If Jason still can't be happy with a woman after all that looking, it must mean his happy ending can only be Hoyt? That makes a kind of sense.

 

Sophie-Anne's plan to breed Sookie was actually pretty sensible if she had a breeding partner on tap. Bill not turning her in to my mind made up for going there. But then I thought offing good old Great-Uncle Bartlett did a whole lot. I should think the full circle/revisiting old stories theme should mean that one too but I'm not good at figuring this season out at all. I thought they were going to milk Violet for all she was worth but that was just setting up Hoyt as the Hero who wins Jessica (or at least impresses her finally.)

[Mei]

Eric is finally cured!  But, wait!  Bill gets to opportunity as well, but refuses!  Has he gone all emo, now?  All "I don't deserve to live!", or some shit like that?!  Whatever, Bill.  Such a drama queen.

 

 

Get off the cross, Bill, we need the wood.

 

Comedy gold, here. Thanks for the lolz!

[Pixel]

As for Bridget, she's working my last nerve. Her trying to plan Hoyt's life while he's still grieving Maxine was bad enough, but her butting in official police business because Hoyt hurt her feelings was bullshit. Bridget's tantrum could've gotten herself, Jason, Adalin, Wade and Jessica killed, putting Hoyt through even more Hell that he doesn't need or deserve.

 

I agree. Unfortunately, she was the best MacGuffin the writers came up with to get Hoyt and Jessica back together.  Without her jumping in Jason's car, Hoyt wouldn't have followed.  

 

There should have been a better way, because I wanted to punch Bridget for getting into the car, and Jason for letting her.

[Insomnia]

I said this for Dexter, and I'll say it for True Blood as well; as much as I hate "It was all in their head" endings, maybe, just maybe that's what's happening here. All of this is happening in Sookie's head from when Bill put her in a coma and she didn't have a blood type. In fact, I'm adding that part as part of the dream as well, the not having a blood type.

 

Also, they tried to fix her being drained of blood by giving her acid instead of blood.

 

This is all an acid coma.

 

If you excuse me, I think I'm going to go self-induce a coma, sadly without vampires or acid involved.

[Pogojoco]

IKR?!  All this build up and for what, so Lettie Mae can "go on living" and forgive herself?!  Pfft boring!

 

And while I am glad Hoyt killed this stupid Violet story line what I don't understand is how did Hoyt know to have a silver bullet in his gun to kill vampires?  How did Hoyt did Hoyt even know where to find Violet's hangout?  Did I miss something?  And aren't vampires suppose to be wiser as they get older?  How did a supposedly 1,000 yr old vamp let herself get snuck up on and killed ?  Russell would have seen that coming a mile away.

Someone's probably already pointed this out, but Jason empties a gun, reloads it and gives it to Hoyt's girlfriend (and she asks about HepV vampires) before he goes into the house. I figured they are wooden bullets. And I also assumed he just got in his car and followed them there. 

Edited August 11, 2014 by Pogojoco

[SourK]

It's genuinely offensive to me that the whole point of this Tara thing was for her to absolve Lettie Mae of responsibility for her monstrously abusive parenting.

 

I agree in principle -- it's a big retcon to add a part where Lettie Mae was a good mother for five minutes and redeem the character, which makes it kind of annoying, but I somewhat liked this resolution. In real life, people aren't all one way. Even shitty, abusive parents can have moments where they were loving and kind. I think Tara and Lettie Mae finally understood that they were both victims of Tara's father and that, whatever happened after, there was a part of Lettie Mae that had meant well and tried to love Tara, at least in the beginning. I found it kind of touching, but I have a troubled relationship with my own parents, so I freely admit that I brought my own baggage to those scenes.

 

Violet's torture chamber was just sick and really not appropriate for this silly show, IMO. Why was she so pissed at Wade and Adalyn anyway?

 

The Violet stuff, more than anything, made me wish this were a better show. I find it really interesting to consider what it would be like if you had people from medieval times hanging around in the present day. When she went on describing all the sick, messed-up ways that she was going to torture them she also mentioned that that was how they used to do it in the old days, and I think you could make such a fascinating show about that idea -- of having people from the distant past, who lived in different (and sometimes harsher) eras stepping out of history like that. But, of course, on True Blood, it doesn't really fit the tone and just seem randomly intense.

 

I did, however, understand her torture chain when she explained it. The ultimate goal was to make Jason suffer, and Jason suffered more if Jessica suffered, and Jessica suffered more if Adilyn suffered, and Adilyn suffered more if Wade suffered, and Wade was just kind of unlucky.

 

It's curious that Bridget is a microbiologist.  When she was first introduced, I figured that she'd somehow be involved with the cure of HepV maybe by culturing a microbe that produces the cure or something.   It seems like a fairly specific and unusual occupation and one that wouldn't be all that common up in the oil fields of Alaska where Hoyt has been working, unless he was hanging out in bars near one of the university campuses or near a Federal lab. 

 

I didn't even notice that, but I think this idea makes sense. It would definitely seem like a strange career for them to give her, if she's got nothing to do with the Hep-V story.

 

Was anyone really clamoring for a final season that heavily featured Lettie Mae????? I would have much preferred Tara coming to terms with Lettie Mae's shitty, neglectful abusive parenting following Lettie Mae's death than this shit show we got.

 

I agree with this. They put the focus on the wrong character. Nobody really cared about Lettie Mae, and she hijacked one of the major B-plots of the final season. It would have been better if we had had a story about Tara coming to grips with her past where Tara was actually present.

[3 is enough]

I am not surprised that Bill turned down the cure.  All the flashbacks to his human life have certainly shown that he is done, and ready to die. 

[Pogojoco]

I am not surprised that Bill turned down the cure.  All the flashbacks to his human life have certainly shown that he is done, and ready to die. 

DIE BILL DIE. 

[Anne Elk]

The Violet stuff, more than anything, made me wish this were a better show. I find it really interesting to consider what it would be like if you had people from medieval times hanging around in the present day. When she went on describing all the sick, messed-up ways that she was going to torture them she also mentioned that that was how they used to do it in the old days, and I think you could make such a fascinating show about that idea -- of having people from the distant past, who lived in different (and sometimes harsher) eras stepping out of history like that. But, of course, on True Blood, it doesn't really fit the tone and just seem randomly intense.

I think they sort of did attempt a bit of that with the Marianne storyline in Season 2. What would it be like if this wild, amoral magical creature from ancient times suddenly showed up in Louisiana? They seemed to get as far as "There'd be orgies!" but couldn't get past that. And of course they were hampered by having to find a way to connect it all with vampires and shapeshifters and Tara's boyfriend and so on. Anyway, they never really went there again. Interesting to think what a different show this might have been ...

[Blakeston]

I think the writers killed Tara off because a) the writers couldn't think of a good storyline for her, and b) they wanted to set the tone for the season by showing us that any character - even a major one - could die when we least expect it.

 

(Of course, it would have helped if they'd actually shown her dying, because then viewers would have actually believed she was dead when it happened.)

 

But that wasn't the end of the Tara stuff, because this is a show that loves to drag out its goodbyes. And they probably figured that Tara's relationship with her mother was the one big issue in her life that was unresolved.

 

If that's the case, I'd say they were completely wrong. I think Tara needing to say goodbye to Pam would have made a lot more sense.

Edited August 12, 2014 by Blakeston

[mledawn]

The thing about Violet is, while she is a vampire from the middle ages, she has lived through the progression of the world beyond that state. I never understood it with Marianne, either. Yeah, you're thousands of years old, but you have LIVED those years. My grandparents adapted to the world around them and they were in their nineties.

[Pixel]

My grandparents adapted to the world around them and they were in their nineties.

 

But could they Tweet?  

 

Yeah, I have never liked the conceit that an immortal (or very long lived) being is stuck in the norms of the time from which they originated. There was no Internet until I was in my late teens, and yet I've learned to use it and work in IT.

Edited August 12, 2014 by Pixel

[mledawn]

But could they Tweet?

 

Unfortunately they passed away before Twitter but they emailed and loved the internet.

 

Topic: two episodes left, and I've no clue of the show's endgame. I don't even know what the writers want me to be worried about (other than Bill - but who gives a shit about Bill)

[Aging Goth]

I believe that the Lettie Mae arc was because LM finally accepted the vampire Tara and that she apologised for what she had done to Tara in the past.  It was also the fact that Tara not only died trying to save her but that she lost her chance to make good with Tara while she was still living.  The story line was to show LM's grieving process and that ghost Tara was trapped by her mother's guilt from way back when she succumed to her husband's (and Tara's father) beatings and abuse and that her baby girl was about to use a gun which she felt would have been even worse for Tara.  The guilt from that day is what started LM on the downward spiral in the first place.  Her shame and guilt was what held Tara to this plain and kept her from moving on.  Lettie Mae had to be forgiven to release Tara as she was actually suffering from LM's guilt.

Edited August 12, 2014 by Aging Goth

[GaT]

I believe that the Lettie Mae arc was because LM finally accepted the vampire Tara and that she apologised for what she had done to Tara in the past.  It was also the fact that Tara not only died trying to save her but that she lost her chance to make good with Tara while she was still living.  The story line was to show LM's grieving process and that ghost Tara was trapped by her mother's guilt from way back when she succumed to her husband's (and Tara's father) beatings and abuse and that her baby girl was about to use a gun which she felt would have been even worse for Tara.  The guilt from that day is what started LM on the downward spiral in the first place.  Her shame and guilt was what held Tara to this plain and kept her from moving on.  Lettie Mae had to be forgiven to release Tara as she was actually suffering from LM's guilt.

It could be exactly this, but this is not the storyline they should have come up with for a major character in the last season with limited episodes. Lettie Mae has been part of this season more than all other seasons combined, nobody cared about her before, why would the show suddenly think we would be so interested in her for the final season?

[Avaleigh]

I honestly find it stunning that any of the writers on this show would think that the bulk of the TB audience would be at all interested in a LM story let alone a LM story where Tara is dead and can only be shown via flashbacks or dream sequences. Then on top of that she's nonsensical in the dream sequences and both the audiences and characters had no idea what was going on. What was the point of the constant presence of the snake? Why have Tara speaking in tongues? Then we find out that this is more about Tara's guilt than LM's. Why did human Tara not ever mention the sympathy she obviously had for her mother wrt her father? I'm not saying she would have necessarily needed to have a conversation with LM but some other character so that we'd have at least have an idea that she's been guilt tripping over this for some twenty plus years.

I feel like first season Tara would think it was all bullshit.

And if Tara was trying to make her loved ones come to peace with certain things and with having a better time of accepting her loss, why would Tara not be interested in passing along some message to Lafayette and/or Pam?

Edited August 12, 2014 by Avaleigh

[sjohnson]

Lettie Mae was the one who wasn't letting go. It was because Tara was so angry at Lettie Mae that what she thought still mattered. 

 

I'm not so sure the point was that Tara really should have shot the man as that she forgot that she and Lettie Mae were once allies instead of enemies.

[AudienceofOne]

two episodes left, and I've no clue of the show's endgame

 

 

 

As long as it's not Bill and Sookie 4EVA with a magic baby made possible by fairy Hep V and their LOVE, then I won't kill myself. I may, however, just harm someone violently if she randomly ends up with Sam.