‘True Blood’ Fire in the Hole Recap: Death is Dark and Blinding

Another main cast member meets their demise while more of Eric’s back story is revealed including a past showdown with the bad guys from ‘Kill Bill’ apparently…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

There have undoubtedly been more than a few dark clouds hanging ‘True Blood’ for the last few seasons as the show has ebbed and flowed more than a roller coaster, dipping back and forth between solid, compelling episodes and other that linger on the absurd on a good day. The third episode of the final season of ‘True Blood’ titled ‘Fire in the Hole’ fell more to the latter part of that description as the writers and producers of this once fine show still manage to find new ways to trip over themselves even in these final hours.

One of the biggest problems ‘True Blood’ has faced (and this goes back to the beginning when Alan Ball was in charge as well) is the show’s inability to kill off main characters due to popularity or some kind of undying gratitude to the actor or actresses portraying the roles. For the most part, none of the featured cast has faced the true death and until last season when Terry Bellefleur met his end did we think any of these people might not make it to the finale.

So as a clear cut sign that the producers of ‘True Blood’ are playing for keeps now, the bodies are dropping like flies with two more characters biting the dust this week — one of which is a much more major piece of the puzzle but still a disappointing way to see these things play out. More on that in a bit, but let’s get to the recap first…

Sookie Has a Plan

So when Sookie decided to visit Bill last week for some unknown reason while asking if he can still sense her fear, she obviously had a plan cooking up inside her head. Sure enough, Sookie wants to draw out the Hep-V vampires who are in desperate need for food, allow them to capture her and then it will lead Bill right to their doorstep so he can rescue her and save the day. Sookie’s plans always work out so well, right?

Bill goes along with her because he knows fighting Sookie’s instincts just means she’ll end up doing it anyways with far less support needed to pull off a stunt like this. In the midst of their rendezvous to draw out the infected vamps, the two former lovers start to once again commiserate about their shared passion in the past and relationships at an impasse. Bill tells her that despite being filled with entirely new blood after feeding all the vampires last season to save them, he still can’t ever forget all of the awful things he’s done to her over the years.

Sookie admits to her own misery that she loves Alcide but not nearly as much as he loves her. He’s a good guy, hard working, blah, blah, blah but she doesn’t love him the way he does her. It seemed like at any moment she was about to pull out the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ routine on the poor wolfie bastard.

Meanwhile, Bill goes back in time to remember when he posed for the picture with his family that we first saw all the way back in season one when he spoke to the Descendants of the Glorious Dead and a local historian found the image of the Compton family before he was turned into a vampire. There didn’t seem to be some dramatic interest in this particular flashback outside of discovering that the photographer in town’s last name was Fortenberry (same as Hoyt and Maxine).

So yeah, sparks are flying between Bill and Sookie (again) and oh yeah the Hep-V vamps haven’t shown up even when she starts opening a cut on her arm knowing the whiff of her blood is like sunshine and puppy dogs all rolled up into one.

Let’s Go Tripping

A couple of weeks ago when Tara died in the opening episode of ‘True Blood’ season seven, her cousin Lafayette said he wasn’t sad or depressed about her passing and actually felt a sense of relief after the pain and misery she went through after being turned from a human into a vampire. But this week, he’s back in the proverbial dumps as he’s doing as many drugs as possible to forget about everything that’s been happening. His vampire protector James stops by and they start talking about the good old days of tripping off of some really good psychotropic drugs. The bad part is James is now a vampire and can no longer swallow pills (that’s a new one) but Lafayette has an even better idea.

He can take the pills and in 20 minutes time, James can have a drink of his blood and get the same effects. A little while later and the two of them are tripping their balls off, and even later James and Lafayette share a moment where they lock eyes and things are about to get steamy.

James stops short of anything happening and says that he’s committed to Jessica — you know the same way she was to Hoyt — and he can’t go there. James isn’t in a good place with his fiery haired lady Jessica, laying next to her most nights and feeling like she doesn’t even know he’s present, but he’s not ready to give up and move onto a new fling with Lafayette just yet. When did monogamy become a big thing with vampires? Through the first six seasons it was like porn shoot on this show with everyone banging everyone else, but apparently there are now emo vampires and even ones who don’t cheat on their girlfriends with other dudes. Learn something new everyday.

It’s a Disease

Lettie May is still bouncing off the walls after drinking some of Willa’s blood, convinced she can see Tara, Jesus and every other spiritual being you can think of without batting an eye. Reverend Daniels finally gets her calmed down and proceeds to feed Willa while telling her the story of addiction and how he first came to meet Lettie May years earlier.

It was actually one of the more touching moments on the show, and proved that while Reverend Daniels seemed to be a very secondary character for most of his time on the show, there’s something weighty being given to him now before it’s all over. So far he’s living up to the billing especially with his show stealer of a line when talking to Will about death creeping up on your doorstep.

“Death is a dark and blinding motherfucker, whether you see it coming or not.”

Following his prophetic speech to Willa, he goes onto explain more about Lettie May’s deepest desires and her inability to cope with temptation after being an addict for so many years. Whether it’s alcohol, pills, coke, weed, or vampire blood — Lettie May can’t taste one bite and stop. She wants the whole box of cereal and having a vampire around would only serve as temptation so Daniels rescinds her invitation and sends Willa packing.

So There’s a Sylvie

Last week we saw that Eric is in bad shape after nearly being fried into dust while sitting on top of a mountain in Sweden, but his condition has nothing to do with catching some sun. No, Eric got careless in his days after the Swedish mountain incident and while mourning both his maker Godric and his sister Nora, he stopped checking for a clean supply of blood versus a tainted batch and he’s now infected with the Hep-V virus. His fighting spirit has been drained and he’s just waiting for the disease to overtake him and turn him into a pile of blood and goo.

Pam arrives trying to save her maker, but he’s just not in the mood to hear it. That’s when she’s reminded of a girl named Sylvie, who Eric was in love with during the 80’s while they were living in France.

Eric and Sylvie were all in love despite her father’s protest and apparently that of The Authority as well. Right in the middle of their French love affair, Nan Flanagan (yep, her again) shows up out of nowhere and informs the Viking that he’s been flaunting his vampirism way too much and he either needs to tone it down or get in line with The Authority because they have been developing a synthetic blood called Tru Blood, which will allow them to come out to the world. Eric doesn’t like either of those plans and tells The Authority to go fuck themselves and that’s when you know something bad is about to happen.

So out of nowhere The Crazy 88’s (aka the Yakanomo Corporation) shows up threatening Eric to get him in line and as punishment he has to choose to save one of the women in his life — Pam or Sylvie. Well if you’re watching ‘True Blood’ you know who he picked and so the French chick who we just heard about for the first time ever gets stabbed and killed as Eric learns to listen where The Authority is concerned.

This entire storyline was so ludicrous I’m not even sure where to start. When Eric first appeared on the series he was the sheriff of that area, obviously a high-ranking position within the Authority, which means he had to work with them for several years before this happened. Not to mention his entire act when we first met Eric Northman was that he was this alpha male god amongst vampires — every man wanted to be him and every woman wanted to be with him. Now apparently because it dictates some ridiculous back story we’re led to believe happened like 20 years ago he was in love with a human just for the sake of introducing the Yakanomo Corporation who attack at will and take what they want.

So now that Eric’s had another good cry because that’s what he does these days, Pam lets him in on a secret that hopefully wakes him up from this Hep-V infected haze — Sara Newlin — you know the crazy religious nut who tried to fry all the vampires via a concentration camp last season, is still alive and kicking because Jason Stackhouse let her go. Eric is immediately motivated to live for at least a little while longer and says it’s time to go get her.

Meanwhile, Sara has been converted once again, this time to some yoga/kama sutra guru who she’s doing on the side (because she does everybody). Seconds after they have some tantric sex, she’s off for a bottle of wine and guess who shows up? The Crazy 88’s out of nowhere looking for her! The guru doesn’t play along and he gets killed and she’s on the run again for her life.

Not sure what the point of introducing this mob faction from Japan is doing, but it makes no sense whatsoever and it’s almost as if the makers of ‘True Blood’ have no clue how to dictate Eric’s end game. Instead of involving him back home with the group from Bon Temps or putting him back in Sookie’s path because they were probably the most popular pairing on the show, he’s now dying of Hep-V, listening to Type O Negative records, and apparently still not over a girl he met from the 80’s WHO WE ARE JUST HEARING ABOUT NOW!!! Join my as my frustration reaches a boiling point.

Sookie’s Plan Fails (Who Else is Shocked?)

Andy and Jason team up with Violet, Jessica, Adylin and Rocky to track down the militia led by Vince, who broke into the police station and stole all of the guns in town. In doing so they even killed the vampire who was assigned to protect Sam, forced him into flying away as an owl, and they are gallivanting around town with guns and basically threatening to kill anyone who isn’t human. They even shoot Jessica in the shoulder and she’s not healing! More on that in a second.

Back at Sookie’s campground where she’s bleeding and waiting for the infected vamps to show up, out of nowhere Holly walks out of the woods, bitten all over and unaware of where she is right now. When Sookie goes to help her, the infected vamps show up, take down bill and grab Sookie. Thankfully, Jason and Andy show up and blow the vamps to smithereens while Sam and Alcide have also tracked down the group and do some equal beating down of the infected vampires.

Before Alcide can finish his tirade blaming Bill for putting Sookie in harm’s way, shots ring out and our favorite werewolf takes a bullet straight to the dome. Alcide flops over dead, as the group fires back towards the woods and kills a couple of Vince’s vigilantes.

Alcide dies in Sookie’s arms in a very unceremonious exit for a very good character throughout this series and honestly it has to be one of the most disorganized scenes in the history of this show. Basically everyone converged on this site at the exact same moment, the vampires attacked, Alcide and Sam arrive to save the day and then the vigilante militia squad shoots at them from the trees because why the fuck not?

Alcide deserved a better way to go. Should he have died? I have no problem with the character being written off — it’s the final season and I assume the writers of ‘True Blood’ are making up for lost time and turning this into a kill session to off a number of major characters before the final seconds of the show are left and Sookie is still standing. But at the same time, Alcide has always kind of been a love sick sap with a bad ass streak running down his back. Have him die in battle. Have him get bitten by a vampire and bleed out and maybe then Sookie will finally turn her back on the fangers after defending them non-stop for the past six-plus seasons. But instead he just randomly gets shot by Redneck No. 2 on the call sheet and he’s gone.

A disappointing end to an otherwise good character. Of course that seems to be the theme so far on season 7 of ‘True Blood’. They know where they want to go, but they have no clue how to get there. It’s like trying to figure out who shot Nice Guy Eddie in ‘Reservoir Dogs’ except in that film the rest of the movie was so good you can forget about that one minor detail. In ‘True Blood’, those kinds of mistakes are starting to define the series.