True Blood: Let's Get Out of Here

Posted by: Andrew Burns  •  August 23, 2011 @ 10:26pm

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

After last week's grave yard brawl things couldn't get any messier.... or could they? "Let's Get Out of Here" sets straight most of last week's craziness only to turn everything upside by the end of the episode. Only this time on live TV. Question is: will this week's dramatic turn of events change the landscape of the show from here on out?

"Let's Get out of Here" picks up after the mayhem and fog in the cemetery had settled from last week's closing minutes. Bill heals Sookie just in time, only to kick start some more unnecessary erotic fantasies on her part. A feed up Alcide distances himself from Sookie, and her vampire problems, and consults with Marcus about moving up in the pack. Debbie on the other hand secretly befriends Sookie and puts herself in the middle of the feud. Tommy tries to right his wrongs by doppelganging (I don't think that's even a real word) Sam once again so Marcus and some of his pack lay into him for being with Luna. Jason, Andy, and Jesus all play hostage negotiators as the newly inhabited Lafayette (aka Memphis) has a standoff at Hoyt's place with Mikey. Lastly Antonia's followers lose their faith in her, but that doesn't stop her from mounting another attack, only this time on national TV.

True Blood has always taken a different approach with their idea of vampires living openly among the public, in terms of scope. Since the show's gaggle of 'unique' characters never really takes this interesting concept outside of their small town niche the audience is left to only imagine how the rest of the world copes with the living-dead. Frankly, that's what gives the series its charm, not having their plots seen on a global scale. The show doesn't have to waste time by keeping vampires secret to the general public, while on the other hand are also not confined to big locales that might draw unneeded attention to them. The smaller vision of reality allows for expanding the already large cast as each season branches out to neighbouring towns without seeming unnecessary or to keep things interesting.

However, with the ending of "Let's Get Out of Here" becoming a nationally televised live massacre the question, again, becomes: does this change the landscape of the show from here on out? With the multiple killings of those poor saps that just happened to be in the crowd from the 'Tolerance' rally being broadcast live on TV and the web it's going to be pretty impossible to ignore how this will affect the True Blood universe outside of Bon Temps. It would be a new interesting concept to explore, but if that happens there is no going back to the show's small town ways.

When it comes to the giving the show's lead, Paquin, proper screen time Alan Ball (series creator) and the rest of the True Blood writing staff need to cancel their subscription to Penthouse because these whimsy sex scenes with Sookie and her love interests are starting to get real old. We get it, Sookie loves both of these two vampires now, you don't have to devote almost 10 minutes per episode to some zany dream sequence. The dream sequence here in this episode was the first time all three of the characters were in one together and if it went any further they would have been rein acting last year's Rolling Stone cover shoot.

On a good note I'm glad they wrapped up this haunted mother spirit story-line involving Lafayette, the creepy doll, and Arlene &Terry's Mikey in this episode. Maybe I'm used to seeing this kind of restless spirit stuff after following the Winchester brothers in Supernatural the last six years, but True Blood paced the ending of this story arc quickly, effectively, and with some similar humour. When Jesus comes in to reason with Memphis (the spirit inhabiting Lafayette) it was kind of funny that they played it up that the turning point for her was she didn't know she was in a man's body. Not that fact that Mikey wasn't noticeably her baby or that she was decades in the future, but having it being the fact 'she' was a 'he' to make Memphis grasp the crazy concept of her in the afterlife was pretty humorous. The episode had a bunch of other things like the stuff between Sookie & Debbie, Alcide & Marcus, and Tommy becoming Sam again; which were all still interesting. But the balance and resolution for this Memphis story kind of trumps those newly forming conflicts for at least this episode. Sam and Dean would have been proud of Jesus not needing to the salt and burn the remains to put her to rest. (Inside joke for all you fans of the Kripke series out there)

As all the characters have their jaws dropped while witnessing the miracle of Memphis and her child finally becoming at peace Nelsan Ellis' Lafayette manages to deliver a hilarious rebuttal 'your welcome' after she thanks him for everything in this week's True Blood quote:

"You got it bitch"

In a dramatic and emotional setting Lafayette keeps his cool and just flat out delivers a simple, yet hysterical, line without cheapening the mood of the scene.

Tags: True Blood, Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgard, Sam Trammell, Rutina Wesley, Nelsan Ellis, Ryan Kwaten, Alan Ball, Supernatural

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Andrew Burns loves film and comics, and can be found writing about when those worlds converge. You can follow him on Twitter at @myAndrewBurns.

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