I have mixed feelings about this episode, the beginning and the end were great but it felt like there was far too much talking in the middle, and mostly about things that we as the viewer had already figured out. We get it Bill, AntoMarnia is dangerous, and yes she killed a ton of vampires and can do it again. Not sure if all the reiteration was meant as a recap for viewers that missed a few episodes, or if the writers just assume we’ve been stoned this whole season and need a refresher. The other dialogue offenders were Sookie and Eric, and before you scroll down to the comments and start yelling at me hear me out for a minute. The only bit of dialogue that I didn’t have an issue with was the topic of what’s going to happen when Eric gets his memory back, will Sookie still love him, etc. This is going to be critical towards the end of the season, and the book readers already know that things do not go as expected. The rest of their various conversations were attempts to solidify the fragile concept that Sookie could go from hating to loving Eric in the span of about five days. I’m willing to believe it’s possible, and yes Amnesia Eric is adorable and totally lovable, but the dialogue between the two of them has gotten so sticky sweet and corny that I’m pretty sure after last night’s episode I have diabetes. I never thought I’d say it, but I want badass Eric back! Or at least an Amnesia Eric that does something other than just have sex with Sookie, which by the way was amazing. I said last week that the ending sex scene between the two of them was a little lame, my apologies, apparently they were just getting started. Sorry, got a little sidetracked there, naked Viking vampires tend to do that to me. Despite those two main dialogue related gripes, this was a pivotal episode with some significant plot advances for all of our main characters.
We begin with the escape of AntoMarnia, who has gained control of Luis and uses him to escape Bill dungeon lair. This wasn’t quite the dramatic escape I was expecting, she pretty much just sneaked out the back, but I was holding my breath anyway. And apparently there is only one stretch of road in Bon Temps, because a post-Pam-attack Tara meets up with AntoMarnia. Tara hasn’t learned her lesson yet about trusting strange women with supernatural powers and finds a kindred spirit in AntoMarnia, who would also like to kill all the vampires that she can. I’ve applauded actress Fiona Shaw before when she was just playing crazy Marnie, but now her performance as AntoMarnia has been nothing short of astounding. This role could easily have come across as corny or cringe-inducing, but Fiona delivers, especially with her rousing speech to the witch circle. I got goose bumps.
At this point I’m not sure why we had to have Jesus and Lafayette journey to Mexico. They didn’t learn any special magic powers. Thanks to Grandpa’s rattlesnake adventure from the last episode Lafayette learned he was a medium, but apparently that was something that Jesus could have told him anyway. And by the end of the episode Lafayette is back in Bon Temps. This mini-arc was kind of a disappointment, I was hoping for a lot more from Grandpa. Luckily though the Nanny is turning out to be far more interesting as a character, and the scene with her and Lafayette in the kitchen was creepy in all the right ways. A comment that AntoMarnia said made me think seriously that there may be an actual Renee ghost/spirit running about; she said something along the lines of that any human can become a spirit and thus truly immortal, while vampires do not have spirits. So in theory there could be a spirit Renee running around, setting fire to houses, and writing creepy messages on walls. The Nanny appears to be taking care of Mikey, we haven’t actually seen her cause any kind of trouble yet, so let’s assume she’s the good guy in the situation. Since Mikey can see her, we have to assume that he’s a medium too, along with Lafayette. For an apparently rare condition, there seem to be three mediums in the Bon Temps area. At some point all of these different threads need to tie together, so I’m expecting the Nanny and Lafayette to join forces against Marnie. Now how and why this would happen is beyond me, maybe the Nanny just really hates witches, or maybe she’s Lafayette’s great great grandmother.
I’m only going to briefly touch on the whole Debbie-Alcide debacle. I really hope the new werewolf clan plot is going somewhere, and isn’t just a way to show their relationship issues. Yes, it is important that we see Debbie beginning to become jealous of Sookie again, but let’s give them something to do that is actually substantial. We get it, Debbie is feeling territorial, more pointless gratuitous sex isn’t necessary to solidify this. That scene in particular felt like it was there to fill time.
Another time-filler that was amazing nonetheless was Pam and her skin peel. We get see the amazing Dr. Ludwig again, and some pretty cool looking special effects. Despite the vigorous shot regimen Pam will still be rotting away, although with better looking skin. Poor Pam’s been through a lot this season!
Now to the highlight of the episode, Resurrection. This is the name for what AntoMarnia and minions do when they send vampires to their sunny deaths. The best solution is to either leave the state or chain yourself with silver during the day. As I mentioned above, the Bill explaining this to Jessica scene felt very repetitive and unnecessary, although the montage of putting the chains on was downright painful to watch, and Bills pity towards Jessica leads to her ability to escape. Eric and Sookie had a nice silver chain moment too, which was far less sappy than the rest of their moments in this episode, and she’s smart enough to put the damn chain around his neck. And of course I have to mention Pam’s pink coffin, with the silver chain mail sheet. While we wait everyone has nice and sad conversations, which again felt unnecessary for the most part, my boyfriend even gave up around here and grabbed his iPad. When the ‘resurrection’ finally occurs, we pretty much just see a strong wind. However, now the vampires have turned into zombies, but instead of screaming for brains they want the sun. Favorite scene of the episode, and my picture for the week, is Ginger on top of Pam’s coffin screaming. Ahh Ginger, my favorite underused character. She should have her own show! Jessica manages to escape and dramatically runs out into the sun, where Jason and a pissed off security guard are waiting. And that’s our cliffhanger for the episode, along with the gunshot that may or may not have hit Jason. Now I’m not a gambler, but it’s a fairly sure bet that both Jason and Jessica are going to be just fine. So not exactly a cliffhanger, but it certainly was dramatic!
Up for next week, I checked the IMDb cast list and it looks like Crystal makes a reappearance. Sorry guys, the terror that is the Hot Shot story is not over yet. And in the previews it looks like we have a showdown between the vampires and the witches, which can’t end well for anyone involved. I’ll see everyone next Monday!
Random Thoughts:
- Goodbye Katie, don’t think I’m going to miss you. Bill might though.
- I have to say Tara and Naomi gave Pam a pretty good fight, although Pam was rotting so that probably affected her vampire abilities.
- Ah cell phones, the vampire’s greatest nemesis. And TMZ apparently.
- Love the werewolf screaming by the Shreveport pack, I find that oddly hilarious.
- Apparently there’s like one patch of woods that everyone hangs out in, it certainly didn’t take Alcide that long to find Sookie, uh incapacitated.
- Another exciting fight this week was between Bill and AntoMarnia slave Luis, I was definitely holding my breath through this.
- I’m sad to see Naomi go, Tara was a better character when she was Toni and they were together. Hopefully she’ll be back after all this witchy business is over with.
- Anytime Jason is shirtless working out is a good time, but why on earth was he doing push-ups with boxing gloves on? Is this a thing?
- Also, we had a definite conclusion that Jason did not turn into a were-panther that night, which is a major deviation from the books.
- I’m fairly sure that Eric and Sookie didn’t stop fucking from the woods to her house.
- Don’t have too much to say about Sam/Tommy in this episode, except that I doubt this is the last we’ll see of Tommy, if not that body then another. I could see him killing Maxine and then taking her place and getting that oil money that we heard about earlier in the season.
- Love how Bill kept looking at the chair that was on the floor as Eric was saying how happy their ‘reunion’ was.
- The Holly/Andy scene felt pointless, yes we know he’s still addicted to V. Is this going anywhere by the end of the season? Unless he tries to kidnap a vampire for some V I can’t see how this is going to tie in anywhere, and even then it would be a rehash of the first season.
- AntoMarnia certainly like to make an entrance.
- I love that Maxine’s neighbor was a vampire, hooray for non-sexy vampires! They don’t quite get the screen time the others do, not that this particular vamp will be getting anymore screen time.
- Bill released Jessica, maybe that was why she didn’t have to follow his command to free him?
- Where the hell is all this wind coming from? And in basements of all places.
Favorite Quotes:
- “You like your piece of yellow tail? I’ll start with her then.”
- “Are you sure she ain’t a zombie?” “Oh crap now they’re zombies!” “I am not a zombie!” “That’s exactly what a zombie would say.”
- “What? I was fucking my wife.”
- “Well you coulda just fucking said so.”
- “You fucking cunt! I’m going to shove my fist up your ass and use you as a handwoman!”
- “I can get you a bulk discount on the shots.”
- “And Tara ain’t so crazy about Marnie’s new way of talking about herself.”
- “Tio Luca could have warned me. I felt like a giant-ass puppet for your uncle.”
- “Well I can ask my boyfriend, he’s got great spiritual energy when he’s not stoned.”
- “If we hadn’t just laid off all our security people, I’d have you thrown out.”
- “Vampires are not immortal. They are only harder to kill.”
