True Blood – Episode 9 – Making Up is Less Hard To Do, Apparently

Before we begin, just a bit of housekeeping. This is my final True Blood recap that I’ll be doing on the night of an episode! I’m so sorry to leave you all just one week short of the finale, but I’ll be taking a much-needed vacation from August 23-September 2, which overlaps with the finale. The trip was booked in January, long before I even dreamed I’d be recapping the show, so I absolutely can’t change it.

That said, I have had the best time recapping the show these past nine weeks. And I’m really hoping to give you some content on the True Blood finale. Whether that means someone else in the PSR family will take ownership on a podcast or if we’ll delay it and I’ll do something for the finale when I return, I have no idea. But at some point, there will most definitely be True Blood finale content. I promise.

Okay, on with the show. To briefly recap last week’s episode: Jessica and Hoyt were kinda sorta reunited, Eric cured himself of Hep-V by drinking Sarah Newlin’s blood, and Bill refused to do the same – he wants to die.

Love Slap – Jessica and Sookie are pissed that Bill has accepted his fate of death. They try to talk him down from the ledge, but to no avail. Bill wants the true death. Aww, doesn’t he know that Yahoo saved Community? This is a world worth living in!

Sookie reminds Bill that his choice isn’t one that he has to live with… but that she and Jessica will. But he’s unmoved. “Fuck you, Bill!” Jess yells. Sookie slaps him across the face. “I wanna know why,” she whines. When he responds with a non-satisfactory answer, she slaps him again. This is not a good week for Bill so far. Treating him like shit is not going to make him want to live, Sookie. Oh, there’s a third slap. She’s so abusive, a regular Chris Brown.

She goes to hit him again, but Eric stops her and instructs Bill to leave immediately. Jessica then demands that Bill, as her maker, release her. He initially resists, but then obliges her. Aww, so sad.

Play It Again, Sam – Jess and Sookie go to Sam’s, which doesn’t really fit with their storyline of being mad at Bill, but whatever. This kind of seems shoehorned in as a way to rope Sam’s exit from Bon Temps back into the main storyline. Sookie reads his goodbye letter, played over a flashback of Sam and Nicole (who needs to stop getting into fights with her hairdryer, by the way) packing up their car and leaving for Chicago.

Honestly, Sam has probably been gone for multiple episodes; nobody cared enough to notice then and nobody cares enough to notice now. Throughout the show’s history, they’ve made multiple missteps with his character – such as linking him to Luna, downplaying the really interesting dynamic he and Tara had together, and linking him to Nicole – and so I would be okay with saying goodbye to him here. But I doubt this is the end for him.

The next stop on Sookie & Jessica’s “We Hate Bill” tour is Bellefleur’s. Sookie gives Andy another note from Sam, this one with his resignation as mayor. All it took for Sam to resign as mayor was a pregnant girlfriend? I live in Toronto – our mayor has had three crack scandals, two viral videos where he acts like a racist baboon, and an unsuccessful stint in rehab; and he has a pretty good shot at getting re-elected! You give up too easily, Sam.

Kiss Do The Girl – Hoyt and Bridget are still on the rocks, arguing about whether or not children are in their future. The argument gets even more heated when Bridget brings up his flirtation with Jessica. Things certainly don’t improve when she learns that he went and saw Jess earlier that day. But he swears that he hasn’t met Jessica (which, as far as he knows, is the truth) and Bridget believes him.

Of course, just as they make up, Jessica knocks on the door asking to speak to Hoyt. She starts to tell Bridget and Hoyt the truth, revealing that she and Hoyt used to be a couple, but he doesn’t remember. Bridget doesn’t like this one bit, giving Hoyt an ultimatum: her or Jessica.

Dramatically, this is an unappealing prospect – we know that Hoyt is going to pick Jess, despite having no memories of her for longer than 24 hours. But Jess and Hoyt are cute together, so I’ll let this one slide. Hoyt is sympathetic to Jess’s emotions over Bill’s decision… but he also wants to know the story of their relationship.

After telling Hoyt the whole truth, Jessica apologies for everything she’s done. She explains that her immaturity and young age were the real reasons she wasn’t able to make it work with Hoyt. But when she uses her blood to heal him, they start with the googly eyes. And googly eyes lead to kissing. And kissing leads to nakedness. And nakedness leads to sex. And we’re not talking about the type of sex that she had with Jason. We’re talking about happy sex, real sex, love sex.

Seeing these two together really does take me back to the magic of this show’s first few seasons and not the lack of magic the show had when it focused too much on… magic. As the show got more fantastical, it became less believable. And storylines like this really are the heart of the show.

Lessons in Love – Crestfallen over being dumped, Bridget calls the only other person she knows in Bon Temps: Jason. She reveals that Hoyt knows the truth about Jessica, and he races over to face the metaphoric music.

When Jason arrives (with the siren of his police car turned on, hilariously), Hoyt punches him in the face. He probably deserved that.

When he comes to, Jason’s in the car with Bridget, being driven to the hospital. But what’s a concussion to Jason? He doesn’t need to go to the hospital! So he reroutes them to his place – but not before giving Bridget a clear warning that he won’t have sex with her. She’s a bit insulted by his forwardness, given that she just had her heart broken by Hoyt… but Jason is adamant that it had to be said.

And it did. Jason is sly. Jason is really good at getting girls (and guys if you count Steve Newlin) to fall in love with him. And Jason sometimes can’t stop himself!

Later, when Jason scores Bridget an early flight out to Anchorage by sweet-talking the lady on the phone, she seems to genuinely understand that he has a gift for talking to women. But she insists it’s due to his kind, sweet, caring nature. At her behest, Jason tells Bridget the story of his love triangle with Jessica and Hoyt, right down to Hoyt’s warning that he would never find love.

Getting a glimpse into Jason’s psyche is always sad. He makes so many terrible decisions, but always has his heart in the right place. Understanding that sex has always been his downfall, Bridget tells Jason that it’s time he learn how not to have sex with someone. They seemingly talk for hours, swapping harmless secrets (Bridget cheated on a test?! Jason likes pink?!).

But when Jason reveals to Bridget that he wants kids, he shares his darkest fear: that he could have a daughter who meets a girl like him. Bridget reminds him that he is kind, sweet, and caring – any daughter of his would be fortunate to meet a man like him. I’ll call bullshit on this: I don’t think I’d let my hypothetical daughter get anywhere near Jason Stackhouse. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have Hep-V, but has he been tested for Hep A to Hep U? I’d be shocked if he’s clean.

Best Frenemies Forever – Bill gets a visit from his former bromance buddy, Eric. Eric empathizes with Bill’s plight, having felt a similar detachment to the world when he was diagnosed with Hep-V. But he also tries to convince Bill to take the cure for Sookie’s sake. But Bill is adamant that Sookie is the reason he wants to die.

Bill briefly monologues about Sookie’s attraction to vampires, his fever dreams, and why he has made the choice to kill himself. He recaps the list of crimes he’s committed against Sookie (lies! threats! near rape!), convincing Eric that she really would be better off with him dead. Bill asks Eric to talk to Sookie for him and convince her to come over to see him. He initially shoots him down, but Bill asks Eric to do it as a last favor to him. So he agrees.

Anyway, the Eric/Bill dynamic has always been confusing. They started out as begrudging friends turned rivals for Sookie’s affection. In the awful fifth season, they became Authority members together… but they haven’t had much to do together since Bill turned into Billith. This scene ignores how rocky their history is together – but that seems to be the main theme of this entire season.

Eric catches Sookie leaving Bellefleur’s, where he tries to convince Sookie to speak to Bill. She expresses her feelings about the absurdity of Bill’s choice, but Eric backs up his bro, offering to take Sookie home to see him (by flight, of course).

Bill calls Sookie to see if he can come over (um, why not just talk on the phone or over Skype then?), passing the cemetery along the way.

If Bill were to take the cure, does a life with Sookie have to be eventful and dangerous? Can’t they move away from Bon Temps to Missouri or something, and live out their lives in a quiet existence? Why is this so black and white to Bill? I’m having a tough time understanding the bottom line of Bill’s decision. Sure, he wants to do right by Sookie after screwing her over so many times – but he has to know that she loves him and just lost another boyfriend this same very week! Killing himself now would only further push her past her own breaking point.

Whatever. I’m confident that Bill will inevitably take the cure anyway and live happily ever after with Sookie anyway. I’m not really too concerned either way.

Watch the Throne – When Eric returns back to Fangtasia, Ginger yells at him for not telling her that he isn’t dying. To repay her, he offers to finally have sex with her. She’s elated, selecting his throne as her place of choice. Eric drinks from her, rips off her panties, and then gives her about ten seconds of pure ecstasy. And then she slithers to the floor, seemingly happy enough to die right there.

This scene is complete fan service (as many have been this season); Eric has absolutely no reason to indulge Ginger after so many years. But Tara Buck is so hilarious as Ginger that I’ll forgive this. I’m glad to see her finally get more entertaining material to work with.

Afterwards, Eric goes to find Pam, eventually searching the basement. He sees that Gus, Jr. has Pam tied up, a large wooden stake looming over her head. Of course – nothing good ever happens in Fangtasia’s basement! Has nobody learned? Gus, Jr. questions Eric about how much Sookie knows about Sarah Newlin, inching the stake closer to Pam’s chest each time he denies knowing the truth. Unable to bear the thought of them killing Pam, he sells Sookie out, sending the Yakuza to visit her… just as Bill arrives to talk with her.

I guess it’ll all end where it all began: the Stackhouse home. It only feels right to trash the house one last time, I guess.

Overall – This episode definitely felt like a penultimate episode. Lots of set-up, not a lot of action. It gave a lot of screen time to the supporting characters – Hoyt, Jessica, Jason – and didn’t advance the Sookie/Bill storyline much at all. But I’m okay with that: the finale should put Sookie and Bill center stage. And I think they’ll have enough time to wrap up all of the loose ends anyway.

But what did you think? Were you happy to see Ginger and Eric finally get it on? How about those slaps? Is Bill kind of better off dead than being with abusive Sookie? And how do you think the show will end? Sound off in the comments!

Once again, I’d like to say thank you for reading. This has been so amazing and the community’s support has been tremendous. I promise that in one way or another, we will re-connect about the True Blood finale. Until then, enjoy it – and cross your fingers that the show’s ending allows it to go off nicely into the dark.

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