Love is to die for on this week’s episode of True Blood, but is it worth staying alive for?
That is the question being asked this episode, entitled “Love is to Die,” as our heroine Sookie (Anna Paquin) and friends deal with the impending loss of **Spoiler** Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer).
Usually, the Bill and Sookie storyline can have as much excitement as watching paint dry, but something was different about this episode, something extremely mature and extremely watchable.
The theme of saying goodbye seemed to haunt everyone, especially Sookie, as we not only may have to say goodbye to Bill, but we had to say goodbye to the residential good guy **Spoiler** Sam.
Although his storylines haven’t been good since…well ever, it was still hard to say goodbye to the most human guy on the show, even if he was an animal in his downtime.
However, with this came maturity in the show, one that hasn’t been present since Season Two. All of the characters’ stories are coming together, and coming full circle showing the growth that has been clawing its way to the surface since the beginning.
While this episode may focus on saying goodbye, some characters got their chance to say hello once again.
We finally welcomed back the power couple of the earlier seasons **Spoiler** Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) and Hoyt (Jim Parrack), and as Jason (Ryan Kwanten) puts it, “they were meant for each other.” It was only a matter of time before this couple got back together, but it is refreshing to see it finally happening and allowing the show to become reminiscent of its glory days.
Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) and Sookie got a mini reunion of their own, in the non-physical sense, allowing some speculation to begin about exactly what the future may hold for them, rather it be good or bad.
The show may be a Sookie and Bill show, but a critic can dream of a world, and a show, where the writers listen to the fans about what couples they like and how many fans exactly like that couple.
It would be a far more interesting show to say the least.
But the developments happening on the show will have to do for now, and it is most certainly doing.
The show is becoming more exciting, more sentimental, more entertaining, and more like earlier seasons. Not exactly there yet, but the True Death isn’t looking so bad for these vampires.
While the episode did have many high points, such as the reunion amongst characters, the development and growth of others, and the excellent writing by showrunner Brian Buckner, others fell on dead ears. For example, as the cheesy acting that has become a constant for some characters and time consuming scenes that were just unnecessary.
These negatives, however, were only minor glitches in an otherwise impressive episode.
The impressive qualities mainly came from the excellent writing, due to Mr. Buckner. He made for an impressive start to the beginning of the end for True Blood. Writing character growth that makes sense for the characters at hand, especially for the character of Jason Stackhouse.
While Jason has always taken on the part of comedic relief for the show, a real growth has set place in him, one that may be turning him into a real adult. At the end of the day, that was always going to be the end game result for his character and I’m proud to see the writers of the show recognize that as well.
He also put in amazing, long-awaited reunions for other characters, like Hoyt and Jessica. The show never felt the same, or as innocent, without these two.
However, Buckner did have his faults — including that god-awful scene with Ginger (Tara Buck) and Eric. It’s hard to write a scene with Eric in it that makes viewers want to change the channel and cringe in disgust, but Buckner managed to do that. The scene, which will not even be spoken of in this review, was a complete waste of time and came out of left field of for the character of Eric.
Show some respect man, you are the favorite of the show you can do way better.
The other big negative for the episode was the semi-cheesy acting from Miss Paquin and the usual suspects aka James (Nathan Parsons) and newcomer to the show Bridgette (Ashley Hinshaw).
The bad acting from Paquin, which is still extremely infuriating, and Parsons has become part of the norm for the show lately, but the performance by Hinshaw is disappointing, simply because she was very good in the film Chronicle.
Hopefully everyone’s performances will pull together for the last episode.
As the days pass on by this week before the True Death of the show, it is bittersweet to finally be saying goodbye to a legend of a show and an end of an era.
True Blood will always be known for its shockers, and hopefully with the progress it has made so far, it will be known for its great redemption as well.
True Blood may have lost its way for the past few years, but it is finally starting to see the light, and the burn never felt so good.
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Laura Dengrove is the one of youngest members of the Pop-Break staff and is a critic for television/movies of all types on Pop-Break. Just having closed out her senior year, she will be studying to obtain her bachelors degree at Rutgers University for Journalism/Public Relations. She was the editor for the Arts and Entertainment section of her school newspaper, runs her own blog (Pop Culture Darling), and interns for Design New Jersey. She also has an in-depth knowledge about all things True Blood and an avid Eric and Sookie shipper.
