True Blood Season 7 Episode 5 Review: “Lost Cause”

I wanna SPOIL bad things for you!

Well, then. At least the party didn’t crash as spectacularly as I feared, even if many of the people there left in not as happy states as they hoped. That’s the thing about large parties, they have a way of bringing awkward or uncomfortable feelings to the surface at the least opportune times.

Getting ahead of myself.

In the aftermath of the raid on Fangtasia that cleared out the H-Vamps and the more gun-ho human vigilantes in one fell swoop, Eric and Pam take a brief moment to get comfortable in their old nest before making their next move against Sarah Newlin. Willa is still pretty pissed with Eric for his poor job as her maker, saying Tara was basically the one who raised her. Eric acknowledges it, but Eric wants Willa’s help to help locate Sarah since she was her stepdaughter for a brief time. Willa is so angry with Eric that she wants Eric to release her in exchange for information.

True Blood Season 7 Episode 4 Review: “Death is Not the End”

At first, I thought Eric might say a pseudo incantation and trick Willa into thinking he released her, but he actually went through with it. Willa gasps as she feels Eric’s control lifted from her. Pam notices. “Feels like getting kicked in the cooch by a honey badger, doesn’t it.” Oh Pam, such a charmer.

Willa reveals that she deduced that Sarah has a vampire sister in Dallas. Pam and Eric make to leave at once. But Ginger is adamant that, before Eric leaves, and likely dies, that he makes good on keeping her as a non-sex sex slave for fifteen years and #@$% her. Eric isn’t interested, “I’m infected, Ginger.” “So am I!” Why am I not surprised? Last we see of Ginger before the opening credits is her sprawled and clinging to the top of Eric’s transport coffin before being kicked off. Poor Ginger, on the scale of 1 to Ginger, how much did your life as a groupie suck?

With her friends returned to safety, Sookie is now feeling the full force of the loss of Alcide, with his father having to take back his son’s stuff. But leave it to Lafayette, who in his infinite laid back wisdom wants to throw a town wide party at the Stack-house, to chase away the town’s woes and celebrate all that they still have. Sookie is understandably not keen on it. But the party does come at it is rockin’! Violet certainly makes her quaint, brutal, sympathies to Sookie, saying that she’s sorry for her loss, but that the first few out of hundreds of boyfriends are hard to get over. Way to go, Vi.

Everybody, Human and Vampire are having a genuine good time, especially the rescues of the raid. They are knocking the liquor back. We catch up with Jess outside who gets approached by Andy. Jessica’s contrition is apparent still, but Andy tells her that her acting all mortified over his fairie daughters only reminds him of how painful it is and that life is too precious to always be looking back. Speaking of life and precious, Andy asks Jessica if he can borrow one of her rings to give to Holly, for, you know. Jess surmised Andy’s intention and says right away that she can’t propose to Holly with one of these rinky dink rings. But Jason has his grandmother’s ring that’s been saved for a special someone.

After consulting with the Stackhouses, and the possessive Violet of course, Jason agrees to let Andy have his ring. And so the tremendously awkward tearjerker begins. Andy says that he doesn’t know if he deserves a woman as kind and as beautiful as her but he loves her with everything he’s got. Holly is shocked at first but is so excited that she says yes before Andy actually asks the question. But she says yes. But, beyond a shadow of a doubt, Jason had the funniest line of that scene, to Adilyn and Wade, “If y’all were #@$%ing, you might wanna stop that now.” Are we sure? I mean, step siblings would be too weird? (I just hope Adilyn finds some happiness before the show is over.)

Sookie is getting a bit emotional with all the happiness going on, so Arlene sneaks her upstairs to have a cry. Sookie says that this was a bit more celebrating of life than she was in the mood for and asks Arlene how she gets past losing the man she loved. Arlene says that you don’t, you just learn to live with it. She says sometimes she takes Terry’s jacket and wraps herself in it. But for now, nothing is going to help her numb the pain but time. And a whole lot of Tequila. Salud!

Just when Arlene and Sookie are getting into a stride of girlfriend party goers, out of nowhere, Vampire Ex Machina Keith (who is in fact one of James’s bandmates, but who cares.) makes eyes at Arlene and starts to approach. With both of them already flying, Sookie deflects Keith saying Arlene is too traumatized to be interested tonight. Keith says he understands, but to tell Arlene, who is right there behind Sookie’s back, that she’s the most beautiful woman he’s seen in 300 years and that she’ll see him in her dreams. Ah, sure, is that what you say to all the multiple widowed women you save with your blood?

Jessica and James aren’t hitting off as you might expect a young vampire couple to do at a party. Jessica is reserved, so James seeks out Lafayette. James says that Jessica gives him just enough love and affection to keep him hooked but not enough to satisfy him, like a credit card bill. Lafayette asks about James’s “friend” he had, when he was turned and correctly infers that the two were lovers, and then they’re kissing. And next we see them, Jessica finds them with Lafayette taking James from behind in their car. *Headdesk*

James tries to apologize but Jessica doesn’t want to hear it. She asks Jason to rescind James’s invitation to the Stackhouse which he does mare than gladly. Geez, too bad James and Jessica aren’t in captivity any more where Jessica’s situational love brought on by the prospect of imminent death was stronger. Lafayette tries to console James but James wants to be alone for a while. Jessica retreats upstairs with Jason and Lafayette in tow. At this moment my thoughts on part of Jessica’s outrage being at James having a homosexual cheat is, that it’s more along the lines of A, still being cheating and B, that she had no idea before now. But it’s still understandable that Lafayette would make it an issue since it’s always been an issue for him.

“#@$% you!” Jessica screams.

“Well #@$% you too,” Lafayette sasses back. Then he opens the door again. He makes a compelling case that he knows more about James than she does, that if she doesn’t really love him that the best thing to do would be to let him go and that had it occurred to anybody that he would want some happiness for himself too?

Lafayette exits. Jessica and Jason get into a discussion about relationships and commitment, Jason says that he was thinking about his grandmother’s ring and the kind of commitment he thought he would have to make to the woman he would have given it to and that if that woman had to be Violet, he wasn’t sure he could do it. Jessica says that Jason’s the sweetest man she’s ever met. Then there’s kissing and then making out then there’s no clothes and then there’s Violet listening right outside the door as Jason and Jess go at it passionately on the chair. *HEADDESK*

Downstairs, Lettie Mae, who drugged the reverend’s dinner, has snuck out to the part at the Stack-house. She arrives in time to say some sincerely kind words to in a toast to Tara, but we know the real reason she’s there. It isn’t long before she comes at Willa with a kitchen knife, causing Sam the Mayor to step in and pacify the vampires at the party while Lafayette escorts her out, moaning about needing Willa’s blood to help her baby Tara find peace.

The dramatic scene jolts Nicole’s conscience and she starts berating the party goers for having fun and hanging out with vampires when they were just terrorized and murdered by an infected pack of them. How can they be partying when people are dying and there’s supernatural mayhem all around town? Sam manages to shoo her home before she completely kills the good vibe the party had.

It was certainly an unexpected treat, for Sookie and for the audience that most of the thoughts about her she overheard were good and supportive, saying how generous and brave she was. By the end of the party, Sookie is alone in her house again, presumably having to clean it all up herself, cuddling in Alcide’s jacket.

While Bon Temps is having a questionable party, Eric and Pam arrive at the residence of Amber Crabtree, estranged Vampire sister of Sarah Newlin and the black sheep of the conservative, god-fearing family. Eric and Pam easily convince her to help them find her and likely kill her. She tells them the Newlin Parents are attending a gala event at the George W. Bush Presidential Library. (Oy Vey.) Pam is certainly excited at the prospect of blending in with all the “assholes” and “republic*nts” but less thrilled when she discovers the advancing stage of Eric’s infection when they’re getting dressed and the two share a tender moment.

At the gala, Pam’s decked in shimmering purple while Eric is sporting a tan gold suit complete with a ludicrous white cowboy hat. He tracks down Sarah’s father and starts to glamour him. In the ladies bathroom, Sarah emerges in jeans and a hoodie to find her dumbstruck mother. She hisses about what the liberal media would say if she was seen here, the monster who created the monsters who are terrorizing half the country. The whole conversation is ludicrously drenched in real world political allusions including Laura Bush. Sarah tries to convince her mother that she’s in real sh*t this time. The Yakuza are after here.

Speak of the Devil, in marches the Yakuza in search of Sarah Newlin, gunning down the comparatively paltry security with automatic weapons. Perhaps the South’s penchant for proud gun toting doesn’t fly in a presidential library. The Yakuza leader, the very same one who stalked Sarah to California and forced Eric to choose between Pam and Sylvie, walks right up to Sarah’s cowering father and asks where she is. “I don’t know” he whimpers. Boom, headshot.

Sarah and her mother make a run for it, but the Yakuza gun her down, forcing Sarah to flee right into Eric’s waiting path. It’s a scene right out of Terminator 2, from Eric’s imposing presence to the long white hallway to the night time setting to the blonde female runner to the inferior antagonists giving chase to the “OH SH*T” face of terrible recognition. It’s even in dramatic slo-mo! Except Eric doesn’t let Sarah turn around. He hoists her in the air by her neck, fangs bared, when the Yakuza shows up with their swords and guns drawn. No one craps Eric’s style and lives. In a single lightning fast rush, Eric dices the Yakuza with their own swords and double skewers their leader, his old enemy. Eric leers with pleasure as he rips the Yakuza’s jaw right off his face, like it was just a menpō.

Finally throughout the episode there is Bill, being a rather dorky wallflower after showing up to the party with nice flowers. For some reason he’s reminded of his human days at the outbreak of the civil war, remembering how he and his family were ostracized for not being as eager to fight a war that he thought was a losing battle. He remembers one of his black accomplices being shot as he led them into hiding and staring at his family graveyard with his wife.

Sookie, tipsy to the point to make the audience nervous about something happening between the two, walks in on Bill’s train of thought. Bill remarks that this type of platonic friendship between men and women was pretty rare in his day and age, but tht Sookie has accomplished more of what he’s set out to do than he’s managed, that this party is a big step towards mainstreaming. The two hug and bid each other good night. Aww.

Back at the Compton house, Bill is exiting a bath when he notices a swollen purple vein in his chest HOLLY SH*T HOW THE #@$% DID THAT HAPPEN?!?!?!

Credits.

Seriously, how the hell did that happen?! Bill hasn’t been with or shared blood of anybody that we know who’s infected. Is the infection more virulent than we thought? I was willing to deal with Eric dying by the end but both Eric and Bill? No.

But I’ll tell you now what I think will happen. Eric is going to showboat finishing off Sarah when she screams that she knows of a cure. Forced to at least consider the possibility that a cure should be found if it exists, Eric will spare her. It’s the easiest way to pump up the angst and the hope of this Hep-V arc and Anna Camp’s screen time over the remaining half (yes half already) of the season and torture us Trubie fans as everybody has somebody to root for making it to the end alive.

Also, I can’t wait to see how Violet handles having some competition for Jason.