S07.E10: Thank You

[Aging Goth]

On Babyvamp-Jessica.com, Jessica put her wedding pictures up and a brief good bye note.  They were very cute!

[LisaBLingLing]

I just can't agree that this was anywhere near the worst finale ever.  Sure there was stuff that seemed weird and slapped together by writers who didn't really know where to go and no Lafayette (writers who didn't know their audience either), but nothing about this ending made me wish I'd never even watched the show - unlike Lost.  Season 6 of Lost made me wish I'd never even started with it.  I will miss True Blood's awesome, if sometimes misguided, craziness. 

 

As to Jessica and Hoyt - they both seemed very grown up by the end of the series.  Hoyt went off to Alaska a wounded kid and came back a man who knew himself.  He could have asked to be unglamoured.  Jessica worked out all her adolescent vampire crap and they were ready for each other when they weren't the first time around. I think overall the show did a good job of making it seem like the actors playing the vampires hadn't aged.  Hoyt as a character is much more mature and at least part of that is because Jim Parrack looks older - not old, but older.  I think his looks changed the most over the course of the show, maybe because he went away and came back, but definitely changed. 

 

Jason and Sookie both wind up with characters we neither know (well) nor care about which is kinda sad.  If they knew they were going to Kill Bill, perhaps they could have spent some time this last season adding the human love interest for Sookie.  And yeah, Bill shoulda just met the sun, although with the fairy vagina strain of Hep V perhaps that wouldn't have worked?

[phoenix780]

I'm a little bitter that they bothered to kill off Tara now that I know they went the "everyone gets happy" route.  They should have swapped her story for Lettie Mae's so it was one of acceptance that she didn't protect her mother- not when she was 5, not when she was a vampire.  Then she could have been smiling and eating Thanksgiving dinner with everyone.  They didn't need to kill her- or any major character- as a way of showing how high the stakes were, because in the end the stakes weren't really high at all.

 

Setting that aside, when the credits rolled at the end I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it as a finale.  Not as a part of larger storylines- if your big threat can be wiped out in two seconds, like the Yakuza, I don't see the point in setting it up as a threat.  But, they avoided some of the bigger soap opera cliche's and that was good, I think.  It could have been a double wedding.  They could have panned out from dinner to show ghost Bill with his family all happy and smiling.  

 

Bill's death left me unmoved, to the point where I forgot they killed a major character by the end of the episode.  Trying to pull Sookie into some weird murder-suicide(ish) deal was really selfish, but it forced her to learn to love her fairy side I suppose.  Jessica marrying Hoyt...I wonder if she'll turn him at some point, before he ages too much.  At least we know, as mentioned upthread, that all anyone needed to be happy was for him to die. 

 

I thought the background music in the Bill's death sequence was really good.  I probably shouldn't have noticed it, seeing as it's background music, though.

 

All in all though, they went for the cheesy happy route, and I think they did a fair job of that.  The Pam/Eric ending was the highlight for me.  They're lucky Dexter has reset my benchmark for crappy finales, though.  It'll take a lot for anyone to match that level of awful, imho.

 

And, I'll always be amused by the compressed timeline of the action on this show.  This last season was, what, a week?  And most of them found peace/happiness during it.  Good for them.

[AustenChick]

This is coming from someone that was honestly a Bill fan -- I didn't despise him when he refused to take the cure. But asking Sookie to kill him? I don't know. That made me dislike him a lot. Maybe they were just embracing the dick that Bill became over the last two seasons -- but I just couldn't get emotional about that scene because I kept thinking -- Bill is asking to die for the "good" of Sookie. So Sookie agrees to kill him and then has a human husband and babies. All of which means to say, Bill was right? A guy making the decision for a woman is okay? I get the reasons behind his actions, but I can't help but feel they are condescending. Like, that Bill knew what was best for Sookie in the end. (Except for the fact she kept her powers). And the Jessica/Hoyt thing. Did they have to get married? The idea was vaguely moving, but I couldn't get past the idea that Bill needed to make sure Jessica had a man to take care of her. 

Edited August 25, 2014 by AustenChick

[Pixel]

I didn't love or hate the finale. It was ok. I was disappointed by a few things, and enjoyed a few things.  I have fanwanked, however, that Bill would have turned human if Sookie had used her fairy ball-o-light on him, because it might have killed the vampire and left human behind.  After all, she was hearing his thoughts earlier. Maybe that was a clue that he was more than just vampire at the end.  "Feeling" human wouldn't have provided a physiological change that would allow her to hear his thoughts (I think the books describe it as the dead not having actual synapses firing, so that's why she can't hear them).

 

I guess we'll never know though, because Sookie chose to keep her light and turn him to goo instead.

[snowblossom2]

Sookie ending up with a rando human makes no sense. Her telepathy made it impossible, or near so, to maintain a human relationship - that's a lot of the allure of vamps (who she can't mind read), and weres/shifters (who she had trouble reading).

[Chicken Wing]

I did love Jason telling Hoyt about putting everything into "prescription." Thank you, writers, for at least giving me one last one of those.

[kieyra]

Sookie ending up with a rando human makes no sense. Her telepathy made it impossible, or near so, to maintain a human relationship - that's a lot of the allure of vamps (who she can't mind read), and weres/shifters (who she had trouble reading).

 

Excellent point, although now we know why the flashback scene with Gran occurred--Sookie's all 'ew boys are gross, I'll never have a normal life' (with the point being she can hear the thoughts of her male peers), and Gran comes in and tells her she can have any kind of life she wants. 

 

In short, we're supposed to believe Sookie can get through her telepathic 'handicap' with humans if she just tries really hard.

 

Yeah, she should have ended up with Alcide. He would have known her backstory/baggage, had plenty of his own, I think she can't totally read his thoughts? Although maybe that is more book-canon than show-canon, and presumably they might have had human kids. It could have even been a character arc for Alcide, since he starts the show being so opposed to reproducing. 

 

EDIT: And they could have had a cute denouement with Eric, where he shows up and gives some sort of grudging blessing to the Sookie/Alcide union. Ugh. The fanfic urge is strong. 

Edited August 25, 2014 by kieyra

[larapu2000]

Yeah, she should have ended up with Alcide. He would have known her backstory/baggage, had plenty of his own, I think she can't totally read his thoughts? Although maybe that is more book-canon than show-canon, and presumably they might have had human kids. It could have even been a character arc for Alcide, since he starts the show being so opposed to reproducing. 

 

EDIT: And they could have had a cute denouement with Eric, where he shows up and gives some sort of grudging blessing to the Sookie/Alcide union. Ugh. The fanfic urge is strong. 

 

I think it would have been pretty poetic and tragically sad if Sookie killed Bill, then took a pregnancy test and found out she was going to have Alcide's baby.  Ha ha, Bill, you died for nothing.

 

The LOST finale was fucking epic compared to this shit.

[marceline]

So basically we got to spend this entire episode watching Bill emotionally blackmail everybody around him in to situations with serious, lifelong emotional, physical and financial consequences. He pushed Jess into some rushed Las Vegas style marriage to a man who is so emotionally stable that he is stupid enough to do it one day after ending his last relationship. He tried to force Sookie to give up the fairy part of herself because HE thought it was best. Because he didn't want other vampires lining up for the chance to make her theirs regardless of whether Sookie would want that. He pushed Andy into renting the house to the vampire that wiped out half his family. (Sorry but that's never going to be a good relationship.) When Sookie decided to keep her fairy powers and she asked Bill if he still wanted to die, I wanted her to say, "Well the sun will be up in a few hours." But no, he still had to force her into a horrible experience. 

 

I really don't have a problem with how things worked out for Sarah. She went full on Nazi last season. Experimenting on vampires, trying to have James rape Jess, etc...That's a fitting end for her. 

 

As someone who got sick of the shipper wars around Sookie, I'm loving the fact that she just ended up with some rando!

Edited August 25, 2014 by marceline

[Enigma X]

As much as the season was a clusterfuck and the 90% of the episode was an extension of that, the sap in me was glad to see that the majority of the cast found happiness.

 

And I have no sympathy for Sarah.

 

(Wow. I was able to say something good about this episode. I am even shocked.)

[roctavia]

I read them and I was thinking the same thing.  At first the "warm" comment didn't really mean anything to me, but then Sookie could read Bill's thoughts.  So, I thought for sure that was what as going to happen.  I also noticed that the tears on the picture looked a little pink, but mostly like tears.  I looked at Bill's face when they showed him in the grave and there was blood around his eyes, so that must be where the alternate ending picked up.  I didn't even know about the ending floating around that Bill was going to turn human, but I was convinced that's where it was going to go.  Not that I was happy with it- there was very little I was happy with.  This finale sucked. 

 

It's dumb to scratch an entire ending just because some people on the internet leaked something.  Look at how many of us commented on here that we didn't know about that alternate ending.  I bet MOST of the viewers didn't.  You know why?  Because no one really CARED at this point.  We were all watching for closure. 

 

Penelope79- It made sense to me that no other vampires were at the wedding.  Jessica decided to have the ceremony THAT DAY.  It was daylight when everybody (human) arrived.  The only vampires at the ceremony were those who lived in the house so they didn't have to go out in the daylight.  Also, someone commented way above about them not having the daybleeds.  I believe Bill did.  He used a tissue to rub his eyes and then his ears at one point.  He wasn't gushing blood, but I saw it.  Why Jessica wasn't having daybleeds, I don't know.

 

Jessica had the bleeds, that's part of why she was going through so much tissue, not just the crying. At one point they had blood about to drip from her nose.

 

 

Stephen Moyer in his live tweet Q&A said that he knew before filming started for the season that Bill was going to die... so I guess the turn human spoilers were just crap. SM did say the writers thought about the turning human thing, but it sounds like for the most part, Bill's story was always going to end this way. :( 

 

While I will never be okay with Bill dying, i think there are ways they could have done this that would have made it much easier to handle and that made more sense. As if killing Bill didn't traumatize an already traumatized Sookie...

On Babyvamp-Jessica.com, Jessica put her wedding pictures up and a brief good bye note.  They were very cute!

 

There is also a video to her from Bill that is very sweet, but also heartbreaking...

[roctavia]

So basically we got to spend this entire episode watching Bill emotionally blackmail everybody around him in to situations with serious, lifelong emotional, physical and financial consequences. He pushed Jess and Hoyt into some rushed Las Vegas style marriage to a man who is so emotionally stable that he is stupid enough to do it one day after ending his last relationship. He tried to force Sookie to give up the fairy part of herself because HE thought it was best. Because he didn't want other vampires lining up for the chance to make her theirs regardless of whether Sookie would want that. He pushed Andy into renting the house to the vampire that wiped out half his family. (Sorry but that's never going to be a good relationship.) When Sookie decided to keep her fairy powers and she asked Bill if he still wanted to die, I wanted her to say, "Well the sun will be up in a few hours." But no, he still had to force her into a horrible experience. 

 

I really don't have a problem with how things worked out for Sarah. She went full on Nazi last season. Experimenting on vampires, trying to have James rape Jess, etc...That's a fitting end for her. 

 

As someone who got sick of the shipper wars around Sookie, I'm loving the fact that she just ended up with some rando!

 

While the whole assisted suicide thing is annoying, and i really wish it would have been done in a different way.. I don't think Bill was asking Jessica to get married that day.  I think he just wanted to know that it was something that was going to be in Jessica's future- that she was going to have someone after he was gone. I don't think he was specifically saying she needed a man to be happy, but having her reunited with Hoyt got him thinking about it. But he also does come from a human time that is a little bit different when it comes to relationships.

 

It was Jessica's idea to do the wedding that day, and not what Bill was expecting.

 

As for Sookie... I think he was asking her to do what he thought would give her the best chance at a normal life... and she eventually was agreeing with his logic. He wanted her to be safe and happy and the whole series she'd been whining about how mind reading made her life miserable- she even told Niall that being what she was sucked. So Bill asking her to give it up really made her think about it so she could make the right decision for herself. Her not wanting to give up her light didn't change the fact that Bill was ready to die.

 

But I would have much preferred they spent the last few hours of the night just hanging out and then the sun could do it's job when it came up instead of Sookie having to be the one to kill him. Or that he just didn't die at all....cause that part will always suck no matter how it happened.

[henripootel]

I barely remember what happened.  I spent the whole episode hoping Bill would splat at inappropriate moments (Hugging Jess, hand shaking Andy, the wedding, just as Sookie is about to kill him...)

Ha - Mrs. Pootel and I kept awake through the lean parts of this episode by playing "BLORCH".  

"Hoyt, I wonder if you've given thought to someday marrying my sweet Jessi- BLORCH'.  

'Who gives this woman to be wed?'  'I d- BLORCH'.

'Sookie, I don't mean to be rude, but if you could just hurry up with the fairy-fireball, I ... uh, nevermind. BLORCH'

Edited August 25, 2014 by henripootel

[sjohnson]

Asking Sookie to do the deed with the ball of light was asking her to do what she needed to do and get rid of that fairyness that was drawing all that madness and murder to her. I think Bill was right. There was Sophie-Anne at the beginning of a long line and the line never ends. 

 

But it was Sookie who broke her promise to do it that way and it was Sookie who would otherwise have left Bill in his coffin, all prepared for the end. I'm sorry but for Sookie just to have run off, chirping "Screw you being prepared, die of hep-v or burn alive when the sun comes up," would have been pretty unfeeling. The happy ending for Sookie contradicts the special attractiveness of her fairy blood which has been not just established but beat into the ground. Sookie losing her nerve isn't so surprising, she's not much smarter than Jason nor nearly as nice, but at least she didn't leave Bill in the dirt.

 

I suppose we could just imagine that off  screen Sookie blitzed an unwilling vampire? Human Sookie can have a Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving.

 

As for Bill's bossiness in pushing Jessica, asking isn't bullying. Having a wedding now while a loved one is still alive isn't exactly oppression by a domestic tyrant. 

 

I am still a little surprised that so many people think Eric and Pam had a happy ending. 

 

Thinking about it a little more, I think the most unbelievable aspect by far isn't Bill's accepting death. All those flashbacks established that he missed being human too much too long. I think the most unbelievable thing was Hoyt asking Jason to be his best man. An initial rush of good feeling at the idea that Hoyt is back in Jason's life helped cover it while watching. But I don't think the new Hoyt was going to accept Jason like that with no more price than an awkward moment asking about Bridget. 

[Chicken Wing]

I can buy Hoyt's rekindled friendship with Jason a lot more than I buy his rekindled love for Jessica, as he and Jason spent a lot of time together since he got back to town and there was a real "new" bro-ship beginning to grow between them. As much as I love Hoyt and I love Hoyt and Jessica together, I'm a little squicked out by how quickly and deeply everything has moved between them when he is still glamoured and still doesn't really know anything -- having Jessica recite the facts to him doesn't really mean much, as far as I'm concerned. So jumping to a wedding out of nowhere, I felt like I was watching an amnesia patient get tricked into joining a cult or something. If Hoyt and Jessica had to be endgame, and I love that they are, I would have rather he be told the facts and, from there, they slowly get to know each other again. Because Hoyt doesn't know her. He met her the day before and became infatuated immediately. I think when she came and told him that they used to be together and in love and happy, it felt more like he was enamored with the idea of this fairy tale connection they had, that this strange girl actually is supposed to be the love of his life even if he doesn't know it. Yay. But he doesn't know her. He doesn't know anything. Go sit down!

[BadArcher]

I expected Sookie to be pregnant from Bill since he seemed to be turning human again and they where together earlier. This is the coda I expected, Sookie telling her son about his father, Vampire Bill.

 

Either that or having a fairie pregnancy and "popping one out" just in time for Bill to see his child before he meets the sun.

[RedHackle]

Like everyone else here, I will never understand how a show that had such strong first and second seasons could go off the rails as badly as this.  The season finale was like a montage of everything that went hideously wrong with this show in the last several seasons.  How in the name of all that is good and holy do we get three freaking scenes with that asshat Sara Newlin and not one with Lafayette?  And if you're going to bring Hoyt back, why turn him into a douchebag on the show?  They should have left him in Alaska.  And I never grew to hate Bill like, apparently, everyone else did.  But yes, the whole "kill me because I'm too much of a pussy to go out like Godric, and also, destroy your superpower in the process" - WT actual F?  All of that was stupid, pointless and hateful.  And yes, I balked too at Jane Bodehouse et al ending up at Thanksgiving at Sookie's.  Don't know if the faceless guy in the beard was supposed to be her baby daddy or not but,I also don't care.  I could not have imagined that they would find a way to come up with worse ending for show than the one Harris came up with for the books, but congratulations, you did it, you lowered the bar even further, show.

I would very much like to give a shout-out to Craig Chester, the wrtier they brought in for a couple of episodes in season 7 who did everything humanly possible to repair the damage to the show, but it was just too far gone, I guess.  So, from now on, in my mind, TB ended after two seasons.  Just like there was only one Matrix movie.  I'll echo the others who say that this is down there with the Dexter series finale for complete crappery.  Blech.

[annlaw78]

 

So basically we got to spend this entire episode watching Bill emotionally blackmail everybody around him in to situations with serious, lifelong emotional, physical and financial consequences. He pushed Jess and Hoyt into some rushed Las Vegas style marriage to a man who is so emotionally stable that he is stupid enough to do it one day after ending his last relationship. He tried to force Sookie to give up the fairy part of herself because HE thought it was best. Because he didn't want other vampires lining up for the chance to make her theirs regardless of whether Sookie would want that. He pushed Andy into renting the house to the vampire that wiped out half his family. (Sorry but that's never going to be a good relationship.) When Sookie decided to keep her fairy powers and she asked Bill if he still wanted to die, I wanted her to say, "Well the sun will be up in a few hours." But no, he still had to force her into a horrible experience.

I'm kinda with the lawyer (that, you know, sweet, wonderful, isn't-it-so-sad-he's-really-really-dead Bill murdered in his hissy fit): humans get about 80 years; he's had double that.  It's been a good run.  Everyone in Bon Temps (including people whose children were murdered by Bill's child) bending over backwards to "comfort" Bill and cross things off his "bucket list" (which, what has he been doing for the past 180 years?) is pretty bizarre.  Hoyt's going to marry a woman he doesn't remember.  Andy's going to let Jessica (his daughters' murderer) live in a house he has to pay taxes on.  Sookie's going to give up her magic. 

Edited August 25, 2014 by annlaw78

[Pixel]

Eh, everybody has differing opinions, obviously, but I've watched all of Dexter and all of True Blood and Dexter's finale was incredibly, incredibly shitty. At least this one, while disappointing, wasn't a total WTF.

[DollEyes]

My verdict: better than I expected, but I didn't expect much. it didn't give me everything I wanted, but it did give me some of the things I wanted most: the suffering of Sarah Newlin, Eric and Pam being badasses, the end of Bill/Sookie and best of all, the True death of Bill Compton. I've thought that Bill and Sookie were wrong for each other for years and it was about time that Bill realized it. Unfortunately, Bill just had to be shitty to Sookie one more time by trying to make her do his own dirty work and kill him instead of him doing it himself. If Bill really wanted to spare Sookie more suffering, then he shouldn't have asked her to watch him die nor to finish him off. Sookie may have loved Bill, but he couldn't give her what she wanted most: children. Like the saying goes, "If you love someone, set them free" so Bill freed Sookie and Jessica. That said, Bill's doing right by Jessica and Andy was beautiful. Bill's giving Andy his house and making sure that Jess and Hoyt could live there for the rest of their lives was classy-a word I've never used to describe Bill. Hoyt and Jessica's wedding was touching, in a way. It might've been more so if Jessica had unglamoured Hoyt so that he could remember all the shitty things she did to him. Hoyt made mistakes, but mostly they were in response to Jessica and Jason's betrayal. Kudos to Sookie for proving once and for all that she's not Bella Swan. Unlike Bella, Sookie didn't sacrifice every part of herself for a vamp. ITA that not seeing Sookie's husband was a copout and that it should've been Alcide. A litter of were/fae hybrids would've been intriguing, if written right, but given most of the writing this season, the odds were against it.

 

  Re Eric and Pam, I'm glad they got the happy ending they deserved. That Sarah suffered was just a bonus. Sarah got what she deserved, IMO. She committed cold-blooded murder, she imprisoned, tortured and experimented on innocent vamps, got her parents killed, made her sister meet the True Death and caused a global pandemic that got untold numbers of innocent humans and vamps killed. As far as I'm concerned, the only thing better than Sarah's being haunted  by Steve's ghost would've been if the ghosts of her sister Amber, their folks and Ms. Suzuki were there too. If Sarah thinks that being chained up in a basement and being fed on by rich vamps is bad, rotting in a human prison for the rest of her live would've been just as bad or worse. Eric and Pam's kicking Yakuza ass, Eric's driving the Yakuza car with the corpses in the backseat, becoming the makers of New Blood  and getting rich in the process were hilarious. Seeing Eric and Pam "live" (sort of) to do damage indefinitely is awesome.

 

  Hated that they couldn't give Lafayette at least one scene of dialogue nor made room for one more appearance by Tara's ghost, checking in on her loved ones (or Lettie Mae) to make sure they were happy and safe. As finales go, while this one wasn't the best, for my money, the Dexter and How I Met Your Mother finales were much worse.

Edited August 27, 2014 by DollEyes

[Chicken Wing]

Not showing Sookie's new love was a little disconcerting, but I'm fine with it. I mean, what kind of reveal were we supposed to expect? It's not like it's going to turn out to be someone we know and it's like, surprise!, Sookie wound up with him. There's no one left for that. Every other man on the show is accounted for in some way or another. Whoever the guy was, it was going to be someone new that we didn't know anyway. And to actually show his face, well, that would have been nice, but then the comparison sheets would have come out. Did Sookie trade up or down? Does this guy hold a candle to the hotness that is Eric or Alcide or Bill? Does he look like the kind of guy one imagined Sookie falling in love with and spending her life with, if she couldn't be with any of the above? There was no guy they could have shown that would have provided a satisfying answer to those questions, and everyone would have had an opinion about it. Whoever he was and whatever he looked like isn't the point. The point is that Sookie eventually moved on and she found someone and she's starting a family and she's happy, and that's all that mattered. That's all Bill wanted.

Edited August 25, 2014 by Chicken Wing

[snakenax]

Well... that ending was about as misogynistic as I expected given all the post-3 seasons of the show. Main female protagonist of the show is totally sidelined for her emo boyfriend from four seasons ago who is bossing her around and making everything about him(also the show treats his fate as some great tragedy when he is by far worse than Sarah Newlin in every way including body count, considering her body count is only a extension of his own because Hep V and vamp camp is directly related to his stint as a religious terrorist). Emotional climax of the finale isn't really about female protagonist, but about her relationship from four seasons ago and how that makes her emo ex-boyfriend feel. Female villain is damned to eternal rape and it's portrayed as a good and positive thing. The entire Bill pushing Hoyt and Jessica to marry thing was just gross.

 

While the book ending was a bit of a clusterfuck, it looks like the purest art ever seen in comparison to the dreck of this last season.

[TexasGal]

Hated that they couldn't give Lafayette at least one scene of dialogue nor made room for one more appearance by Tara's ghost, checking in on her loved ones (or Lettie Mae) to make sure they were happy and safe. 

Ditto!  When Sookie was driving all over Bon Temps getting on advice whether or not to lose her fairy-ness, she couldn't have gone to ask Lafayette?  Because I bet that conversation would have been gold.  Ring ring hooker!

[vibeology]

But it was Sookie who broke her promise to do it that way and it was Sookie who would otherwise have left Bill in his coffin, all prepared for the end. I'm sorry but for Sookie just to have run off, chirping "Screw you being prepared, die of hep-v or burn alive when the sun comes up," would have been pretty unfeeling. The happy ending for Sookie contradicts the special attractiveness of her fairy blood which has been not just established but beat into the ground. Sookie losing her nerve isn't so surprising, she's not much smarter than Jason nor nearly as nice, but at least she didn't leave Bill in the dirt.

But there were options beyond climbing down into his grave with him and staking him that wouldn't have left Bill alone. They could have hung out together until dawn. The writers had Bill ask something of Sookie that was awful and manipulative because somewhere along the way they decided on that image of Sookie staking Bill and built the entire season around it regardless of if it made sense. If was awful to make her promise to give up her light and it was awful to expect her to kill him. I've never loved Sookie and Bill but that was a particularly cold way to end that key relationship.

[ichbin]

And in my headcanon, Sookie married Will Wheaton.

That is exactly who I thought the new man looked like too!

[marceline]

But there were options beyond climbing down into his grave with him and staking him that wouldn't have left Bill alone. They could have hung out together until dawn. 

 

Exactly. That's what Eric did for Godric. He was with Godric in his last moments but wasn't left with the knowledge that he was responsible for the death of a person he loved. Bill was being his usual arrogant ass of a self. His last act on earth was manipulating Sookie.

Edited August 25, 2014 by marceline

[ichbin]

Sookie ending up with a rando human makes no sense. Her telepathy made it impossible, or near so, to maintain a human relationship - that's a lot of the allure of vamps (who she can't mind read), and weres/shifters (who she had trouble reading).

Who's to say she wound up with a human?

[Chicago Redshirt]

I take Bill at face value that he wanted Sookie to use her fairy fireball to kill him because then he thought that once all the fairy was out of her, she would no longer be drawn to vamps, or them to her. She could have a normal life that wouldn't be inhibited by the fact that she gets to read the not-so-pretty thoughts that any potential human partner might have from time to time. 

 

In other words, he could have chosen to meet the sun, stake himself, or just die of the "rapidly spreading" Hep V. (In quotes because despite the commentary from the other characters about how Bill looked, he didn't actually look that bad, and he never once showed any signs of the behavior of the H-Vamps in terms of being blood-crazed or anything like that.) But doing so would still mean that Sookie would go for a life with Eric or whatever vamp came sniffing around next. He was trying to make his last act save her as well.

Which, OK. But I don't see why he, or Sookie, or we should think that belief is true that she will always be drawn to vampires and they to her. Prior to the show beginning, no vamps were attracted to Sookie, or vice versa, that we know of. Sookie has enough agency to decide not to sleep with vamps, and not all vamps are attracted to the magical fairy vagina she's got. 

[Amethyst]

  Re Eric and Pam, I'm glad they got the happy ending they deserved. That Sarah suffered was just a bonus. 

 

  Hated that they couldn't give Lafayette at least one scene of dialogue nor made room for one more appearance by Tara's ghost, checking in on her loved ones (or Lettie Mae) to make sure they were happy and safe. 

 

I gave myself the night to think it over, and I still can't muster up any sympathy for Sarah.  If anything, she just made me angrier.  Her speech at the carousel was it for me.  Her callously asking Pam to turn her so she could replace Tara was bad enough but then she made it ten times worse.  

 

Sarah thinks becoming a vampire makes sense because she's a lousy human being, and vampires do bad things.  But she doesn't believe that she actually deserves punishment.  It's the ultimate delusion.  The gravity of her actions seems to have finally caught up with her, but it rings hollow because she has no real regret for them.  If she had been remorseful, then I would have been sympathetic to her fate.  

 

I was also surprised that we didn't get one last Tara appearance from the great beyond.  I can't believe the really ended her plot like that.  But we did get one from Adilyn, Arlene's new BF, and even Jane Bodehouse.  What a joke.

Edited August 25, 2014 by Amethyst

[Nascar]

I also think that Bon Temps is a magical place without property taxes... Or all of Bill's money was going to end up as Andy's as well.

 

if I'm not mistaken, Andy pulled up to the wedding in a full-sized Mercedes.  Don't think he's hurting for money.  I thought the ending was OK.  The problem with long series like this is there's so many story lines that it's hard to end them all concurrently.

[vibeology]

if I'm not mistaken, Andy pulled up to the wedding in a full-sized Mercedes.  Don't think he's hurting for money.  I thought the ending was OK.  The problem with long series like this is there's so many story lines that it's hard to end them all concurrently.

 

I assume that with the house also comes all of Bill's book money. They've established that he's a millionaire from that Billith book he wrote and that sort of money, tucked away in an investment could cover all the costs of the property for as long as Jessica and Hoyt were living there.

[annlaw78]

 

if I'm not mistaken, Andy pulled up to the wedding in a full-sized Mercedes.  Don't think he's hurting for money.  I thought the ending was OK.  The problem with long series like this is there's so many story lines that it's hard to end them all concurrently.

Bill's supposedly a smart man who was the King of Louisiana, and should know how to add a person's name to the deed(s) of his real estate holdings, bank accounts, mutual fund accounts, etc., or simply make a gift before he dies.  This whole legal problem (vampires can't bequest property at death because they are already dead) makes really no sense, unless the government says that vampires cannot own property because they are dead.  The government isn't doing that, and there's no reason why Bill can't dispose of his property during his "vampire life."  That he chose not to do so, well, that's just stupid.  He obviously had time.

 

Instead of going to the lawyer (and then, you know, killing her), the show could have instead had him call his financial adviser to come to the mansion with the necessary paperwork to gift his property to Jessica.

Edited August 25, 2014 by annlaw78

[AustenChick]

Also this? Sookie: “Bill, I’ll never forget you.” Bill: “I wish I could say the same, but I don’t know what happens next.”

 

Sigh. That's like, the worst thing to say to someone right before they do you the favor of killing you.

[roctavia]

Who's to say she wound up with a human?

 

Well, he had a plate of food and bottle of beer. I suppose he could have been fae (which, good on those vamps for keeping it under control!) or a were/shifter... but she can still read the minds of all of those creatures... though another fae would be able to read hers back.

[kieyra]

Well, he had a plate of food and bottle of beer. I suppose he could have been fae (which, good on those vamps for keeping it under control!) or a were/shifter... but she can still read the minds of all of those creatures... though another fae would be able to read hers back.

 

Worst. Relationship. Ever.

Edited August 25, 2014 by kieyra

[Amethyst]

Yeah, I took Bill's message to Sookie was to stay away from vampires, not all supernatural creatures.  She can still have babies and a normal life with a shifter, wolf, fairy, whatever.  Plus, they can all walk in the daylight.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Amethyst

[sjohnson]

But there were options beyond climbing down into his grave with him and staking him that wouldn't have left Bill alone... If was awful to make her promise to give up her light and it was awful to expect her to kill him. 

On the first item, I forgot about Bill manipulating her into breaking the shovel. I guess the image of him left mutely hanging stuck too hard. 

 

But on the second, I didn't think her light was who she was but a power she had repeatedly proved herself unable to handle, leading only to victimization The woman had so little use for her so-called "light" (and therefore so little competence in using it) that it took the whole first season for her to use telepathy to find an ordinary serial killer! The woman was barely equipped to handle ordinary, much less special. 

 

But if Bill really was asking for her in effect to give up her soul? Then staking him would be just an appropriate punishment for lese majeste.  

[Insomnia]

Except, Sookie was loosing her powers anyway; the big ball of lightning was going to be an instant thing, that's all. But they told her the more she used them, and I for one have no doubts that Sookie wouldn't listen in to people until she ran her batteries out.

 

I mean, eventually... supposedly.

 

*hic*

[RachelKM]

For me, it was that Bill's request seemed condescending and paternalistic.  Telling Sookie that he thought it was a good idea that she get rid of her fae abilities to protect herself?  OK.  But asking her to use them on him to 1) make his death her responsibility and 2) confirm she does what he thinks best immediately and at the exact moment he might be gone was a bit much.

 

It is Sookie's power and decision.  And Bill was acting like she was his child he had to make sure was secured before he left.  I'm glad she declined to let him make that call for her, if nothing else.

[Jaundiced Eye]

I really expected the finale to suck, and True Blood did not disappoint. As much as I hated the Dexter finale, I think this one was worse, just because it was so boring. I found myself not even paying attention half the time.

Like everyone else, Eric killing the Yakuza and driving their bodies around while jamming to the radio was fun. Have we ever seen Eric drive before? I think this may have been the first and only time.

RIP, True Blood. Can't say I'll really miss you, but I will miss many of the actors.

[Dirtybubble]

I loved Pam and Eric, they were the best part of the episode.

While I do generally agree they were the best part of this episode/series I hate the way the writers turned them into complete douche nozzles!  I was hoping Eric would make Sarah's blood available to everyone infected so they can get a complete cure.  But NO it's decided they are going to become filthy rich off the half baked cure-in-a-can and then charge, how much $100,000 I think, for the actual complete cure.  Yeah it may have been an attempt to point out the current health care system or how the pharmacy is keeping AIDS patients alive on their current cocktail of pills but why, WHY did you decide to put that on the 2 favorite characters of the show?

 

Good riddance to everyone else.

[annlaw78]

 

While I do generally agree they were the best part of this episode/series I hate the way the writers turned them into complete douche nozzles!  I was hoping Eric would make Sarah's blood available to everyone infected so they can get a complete cure.  But NO it's decided they are going to become filthy rich off the half baked cure-in-a-can and then charge, how much $100,000 I think, for the actual complete cure.  Yeah it may have been an attempt to point out the current health care system or how the pharmacy is keeping AIDS patients alive on their current cocktail of pills but why, WHY did you decide to put that on the 2 favorite characters of the show?

Yeah, I never got the impression that Eric and Pam were hard up for money.  Eric's been around for what, a millenia, and has had plenty of time to sock away some significant coin.  I would much rather have had Eric and Pam "give away" the cure and get the world back on mainstreaming course which, if I recall (and perhaps I'm misremembering, because the whole mainstreaming plot was sort of dropped seasons ago, only to be picked back up by the Sanguinista/Authority season) Eric and Pam were fine with.  And then they could have done something more creative and less misogynistic/torturey with Sarah Newlin. 

[bosawks]

Well, if Pam gave Eric a blue French horn while dressed as a lumberjack I, for one, think that would've been awesome.

Edited August 25, 2014 by bosawks

[apgold]

Bill's death was so drawn out so when Sookie finally staked him, I cheered.  Talk about insufferable.

 

In the end, if didn't matter who Sookie ended up with, as long as he was a human who could impregnate her.   Oddly enough there were a few happy human/vampire couples at the table but I suppose having kids the natural way isn't important to them (esp James/Lala).  It reminded me of the epilogue in Harry Potter where everyone married a Weasley and had 2.5 kids.  The only person who didn't have a happy ending was Sarah, who is reaping what she's sown.

 

I did have to laugh at the infomercial that Pam & Eric did in the epilogue and them ringing the bell at the Stock Exchange.  

[TV Anonymous]

If they knew they were going to Kill Bill, perhaps they could have spent some time this last season adding the human love interest for Sookie.

 

They did. His name was Alcide Herveaux*. See what good that love interest did.

 

*I know that Alcide was not exactly human, but he was much more human than Bill was. He could stay in the sun, he ate human food and he could have children with her.

[editorgrrl]

According to producer Brian Buckner:

We felt like it was irrelevant, honestly, who Sookie wound up with. What we wanted to know was that she was happy and living the life that she wanted to lead, and to introduce some other stranger in the last five minutes of the finale wouldn’t have made a lot of sense. So we made a choice it’s everyman, it doesn’t matter. So we didn’t have a version where we revealed him. I mean, we basically cast the man with the best arms from our stunt crew.

 

[thuganomics85]

 

 

According to producer Brian Buckner:

We felt like it was irrelevant, honestly, who Sookie wound up with. What we wanted to know was that she was happy and living the life that she wanted to lead, and to introduce some other stranger in the last five minutes of the finale wouldn’t have made a lot of sense. So we made a choice it’s everyman, it doesn’t matter. So we didn’t have a version where we revealed him. I mean, we basically cast the man with the best arms from our stunt crew.

 

 

Eh, at this point in the game, I would have rather they just said "Fuck it", and give a shout-out to Anna Paquin's other franchise, and casted Shawn Ashmore for that cameo.  Rogue and Iceman reunion!

[roctavia]

According to producer Brian Buckner:

We felt like it was irrelevant, honestly, who Sookie wound up with. What we wanted to know was that she was happy and living the life that she wanted to lead, and to introduce some other stranger in the last five minutes of the finale wouldn’t have made a lot of sense. So we made a choice it’s everyman, it doesn’t matter. So we didn’t have a version where we revealed him. I mean, we basically cast the man with the best arms from our stunt crew.

 

 

I get the point that they were trying to make, but I think they failed miserably at it. The plan from the beginning of the season was for Bill to meet the true death and have Sookie end up with a rando... okay, fine... but they could have had it make more sense. Bill's story this season, even with all of his human flashbacks, wasn't showing us that he was tired of his vampire existance, that he was ready for his life to end... that would have helped. It was just about how he had kids and a family (even though he never got to actually raises those kids or enjoy being part of a family- since his kids were like 4 and an infant when he left) and he thought that Sookie wanted kids and a family and he couldn't give her that. (ever heard of adoption? Sperm donors?), and also how Hep V makes people suicidal... take the cure, man...if you still want to die after you're healed, then go for a nice early morning walk!

 

It was a huge cop out to the whole Bill/Sookie true love thing that they've played up for all 7 seasons (love it or hate it, it's always been a main part of the show) And then they talk about miracles and all that bullshit just for him to die? ugh... it's making me angry all over again.

 

I could have handled Bill dying if they were able to execute what they were after properly, but it just didn't have the right set up for this viewer... up until the flash forward, Sookie seemed pretty certain that the life she wanted to lead involved Bill... which is why she kept trying to convince him again not to die.

 

I don't mind the faceless beard for her husband in the future (though i'd much rather they had gone the Bill turns human route) but I wish Bill's death had served a better purpose.

Edited August 25, 2014 by Jjrmt

[hertolo]

Yes, this episode was... special. 

 

I did like the "not showing Sookie's life partner", that was a good statement. Now why this couldn't have been Alcide I don't know. Shock value I guess? The same reason they didn't let Bill take the cure at the end of an episode. I can live with these kind of irregularities and technicalities (like the house tax - that's just technical details between Jessica and Andy). I do raise an eyebrow on their insistence of children = happiness in that montage at the end though.

 

What left me really uneasy about the finale though (except for Lafayette and Tara not showing up) was Sarah's fate. When everybody (=named characters, not nonsensical seasonal villains aka yakuza) gets a happy end, it just feels wrong to punish someone. Even Bill got what he wanted for. But Sarah gets punished by years (!) of kidnapping with psychological torture (glamouring fries your brain, see ginger) and real torture (selling them out to vampires). I mean how many innocents have Eric and Pam killed? I am supposed to root for them just because they are cool? But Sarah "deserves" this? No, show, no just no. Nobody deserves that, rather rule of law, "human" rights and proper prisons, not vigilante 'justice'.

 

I know it's just tv and it's normal that people die faster and punishments and happiness are both exaggerated for visual effect. But I woul prefer more "character moments" and less "action" generally on TV. This last season has just failed horribly on that front for me.