True Blood: At Last

Posted by: Andrew Burns  •  July 8, 2013 @ 8:08pm

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

"At Last", the title for the latest True Blood episode, is a reference to a whole bunch of stuff coming to fruition. Maybe its because of the shorter season this year but True Blood isn't wasting any more time with set ups. The blood is flowing just as quickly as the story lines are and I don't see anyone stopping the bleeding anytime soon.

This past Sunday audiences were treated to smorgasbord of supernatural arcs that each made waves across Renard parish. Sam has to shift into a horse to help Emma and Nicole escape the pack of werewolves chasing them. Andy's four fairy daughters have their biggest grow spurt yet into their late teens. Eric makes Willa, the governor's daughter, into a vampire in an effort to stop the vampire/human war before another battle starts. And Jason's most recent naughty dreams reveal who Sookie's new gentleman caller actually is.

When this episode's final scene between Sookie and Ben comes to an end and the credits start to roll it felt like "At Last" was the second last episode of the season. It already fell like so much has happened, even if very little time has passed. Where to start? Well lets begin with this episode's bloodbath first.

Over the span of this sixth season's 4 episodes Andy's daughters have both literally and figuratively grown into bigger roles for the show. After last week's episode ending with Bill finding out Andy has fairies for kids audiences knew the vampire would arrange a meeting of some sorts. With a little help from a fellow teenager of his own, Jessica, Bill got that meeting without the use of force. Turns out the fairy blood that Andy's daughters "donated" is not able to be synthesised because it loses its unique or magical properties shortly after leaving it's host. Hence, why Bill and Eric were only able to able to walk in the sun for a short period of time before the blood wore off. In a twist I didn't see coming each of Andy's daughters appear to have been slaughtered by Jessica while Bill is threatening the geneticist he has locked up in his basement.

Just as those fairies were quickly becoming the second most dominating supernatural creature in the series (behind vampires obviously) their numbers in Bon Temp go from seven to one to one and a half. In a hilarious yet not shocking reveal Ben is shown to be part fairy and vampire in this episode. The hilarity lies not in seeing Ben pop out his fangs, but in Jason's dream that follows from him drinking Ben's blood. True Blood hasn't done this trick in a season or two but in their version of vampire lore when a human drinks a vampire's blood they form a connection. A connection that sometimes manifests into erotic dreams between the two that swap blood. I couldn't find a humourous quote to pull for this episode but the entire homoerotic shaving scene between Jason and Ben was better than any one-liner this episode delivered.

The humour a side, it was the whole back and forth between Jason, fairy godfather Niall, and Sookie against Ben that made this episode fell like the season was nearly done. Audiences get to know that Ben is both fairy and vampire in this episode, and from what it looks like without their weaknesses, but if he is truly Warlow the remains to be seen. Everything points to Ben being him but till he says it himself I'm not sure (even though I still called it). What I will point out is when Ben is banishing Niall to another dimension Niall was genuinely scared about wherever he was headed. Not sure where Niall was sent to but if vampire's have their own afterlife or purgatory is a place the show visits then I the Fonz is jumping over a mighty big shark.

The other story-lines seem to still have legs to carry on for the rest of the sixth season. It still remain to be seen how long the character Willa will last after being turned into a vampire but her chances are better now that she is supernatural. The Sam, Nicole and werewolves story is still a mystery to me as of right now. What I'm most looking forward to is all the stuff with the LAVTF (Louisiana Vampire Task Force). So far they have captured Steve Newlin, and after this episode Willa, Pam, and Nora have all been shot and taken into custody. Add in the notion Sarah Newlin is shacking up with governor Burrell also and everything is starting to come together. Next Sunday's episode will be this season's halfway point and with an episode title like "F*** the Pain Away" you can expect some skin to follow the bloodbath this week.

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Tags: True Blood, Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgard, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Kristin Bauer van Straten, Nelsan Ellis, Rutger Hauer

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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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