True Blood Season 6 Finale “Radioactive” Recap: The Retcon Heard Round the World

True Blood closed out season 6 with one of the best endings in the show’s history while revamping (pun intended) our interest for the show…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Follow on Twitter @DamonMartin

It’s hard to deny my disdain for True Blood over the last two seasons as witnessed by the majority of my recaps for the show recently.

What was once a viable science fiction romp on HBO that blended bloodlust and sex in a perfect rhythm that was best set to a Nine Inch Nails album circa The Downward Spiral soon turned into a cheap imitation, getting off on low rent thrills, second class storylines and weak acting—so basically every band that has tried to rip off Nine Inch Nails’ sound.

There were moments of levity this season, probably none better than the moment when a weeping Eric Northman had to say goodbye to his baby sister Nora as she succumbed to the deadly Hep-V virus injected into her by the evil Governor Burrell as retribution for Eric turning his daughter Willa into a bloodsucker. Outside of that episode and brief flashes of excellence in others, True Blood season 6 quickly evaporated into a steam, the last remnants of a once great show.

It changed dramatically with what could only be described as the best True Blood episode of the past two seasons on Sunday night as the show came to a close for the year. The single hour-long episode could really be split into two parts so we’ll start with part one before moving onto the major event that pushes us forward into the next season of True Blood.

Warlow Saga Comes to an End

I’ve argued all season that the introduction of the character Warlow was so uneven it was like trying to eat an ice cream cone during an earthquake—things are bound to get messy. The character was first introduced last season as the eternal vampire who has been stalking Sookie and her family across decades, and was supposedly responsible for her parents deaths.

This season, however, Warlow was introduced as the first ever vampire/fairy hybrid who also just so happened to be the direct progeny of the original vampire Lillith. He could walk in the sun, but fed on blood just like all other vampires. He was pledged to earn Sookie’s love, and in return he was able to gain her trust and her promise that she would be his forever.

As we pick up in the episode, Sookie returns to find Warlow preparing for their wedding ceremony so they can begin to spend eternity together where he will turn her into his vampire bride. Sookie asks instead that Warlow agree to slow things down, and become part of her life, meet her family and date her exclusively.

Warlow’s dark side comes out in a hurry when he hears those words from Sookie, so he slaps her to the ground and proceeds to kidnap her and force their wedding to happen immediately.

Meanwhile back at Castle Compton, all of the vampires who escaped the prison are dancing and enjoying life in the sun. Jason has a new girlfriend in Violet, who he now decides is the perfect mate, but she’s not giving up the goods yet. Pam is in a funk and decides to go look for Eric, who disappeared after the raid on the compound and Bill is a sad panda after losing his God-like powers when he let all of the vampires feed on his blood.

It doesn’t take long for the entire group to realize that Sookie’s gone and she’s been betrothed to Warlow, and will soon join the ranks of the vampire kind. So Jason along with Violet, Andy, Bill and his daughter (who they need to get into the secret fairy world where Warlow is hiding Sookie) head off to save his sister from eternal vampire damnation.

The group is able to extract Sookie, but they are still no match for Warlow’s power, and he does his best to kick everyone’s ass as he stalks back to the Stackhouse home to find his bride. Just when it seems Warlow will take Sookie once and for all, Grandpa Niall reappears from his fairy vortex and grabs the centuries old vamp and holds him until Jason can drive a stake right through his heart.

As Warlow fades to a puddle of melted Jello, all of the vampires who tasted his blood or were saved by a part of his blood lose their “light” and are no longer able to walk in the sun. This is where Eric makes his lone appearance because he just so happens to be sitting on a mountain in Sweden (naked for the ladies who want to see the replay), reading a book, when Warlow’s mystical blood disappears, and he bursts into flames. That’s the last we’ve seen of Eric (at least for now).

This is where part two picks up and True Blood rediscovers how great it once was in about 20 minutes of television.

Operation Retcon

There is a popular concept in film, TV, books and comic books called retroactive continuity or retcon for short. The process is essentially going back and re-imagining or fixing previously known facts to make them fit in a different context. For instance, in The Dark Knight Rises, the back story of Bane is retconned from his original comic book roots to fit into a particular plot line director Christopher Nolan had in might to close out his trilogy of Batman films.

Retcon can also refer to a show essentially fire bombing a bad idea that’s seeped out onto the context of a story, and they need to burn away the bad memories of everything that just happened.

True Blood almost used the art of retconning a storyline to perfection with their flash forward to close out the year in style.

Following Eric turning into a crispy critter in Sweden, the screen went black and the next thing seen is a sign saying “Six Months Later”. The flash forward or back is often used in television to help the entire retcon process, and True Blood capitalized on it Sunday to help erase two full seasons of bad storytelling and hopefully get back on track next year for season 7.

Here are a few highlights of the new Bon Temps we experience in the “Six Months Later” story:

— Bill Compton is back (and it’s actually Bill) and he’s written a book called “And God Bled” telling his story about becoming a vampire deity, and his return to normalcy after saving his people

— Bill is essentially the new vampire spokesman, appearing on TV shows to help explain to the world that for as afraid as humans are of vampires, the vampire world is just as afraid of them.

— Sam Merlotte is the new mayor of Bon Temps

— Sookie has a new live in boyfriend, and his name is Alcide

— A major part of the vampire community has been stricken with the Hep-V virus

— While humans can’t contract the virus, they can carry a strain that can infect vampires.

— Merlotte’s Bar and Grill is now known as Bellefleur’s and is being run and operated by Arlene Bellefleur

— Pam and Eric are nowhere to be found

— Jason is still with Violet and he’s going downtown quite often (please read between the lines on that one) but the pair still hasn’t had sex

Mayor Merlotte is urging the people of Bon Temp to get tested to see if they are a carrier of the Hep-V virus. If they are not, his request is simple—submit yourself to feed a clean vampire, and allow them to protect you from the infected bunch that’s now roaming the world looking for blood.

A great number of the towns people want nothing to do with this concept, but the ones that do all meet at Bellefleur’s in a community meeting of sorts to be introduced to the vampires in town (as coordinated by Bill ) and hopefully all find a match.

Tara’s mother makes an impassioned plea to allow her to feed her daughter, and Tara takes her up on the offer. Meanwhile, Jessica shows up at Andy’s and apologizes every way she can about the death of his other three daughters, but whether he wants it or not, she’s going to vow to protect them from the infected vampire clans on the roam for food.

Finally, Sookie and Alcide are headed home when they meet up with Bill. He asks for some alone time with Sookie, and Alicde rebuffs him with extreme prejudice. Bill opts to tell them both that Sookie is in great danger with the infected vampires looking for food, and he offers to keep her safe under his protection. Alcide wants nothing to do with it, but before they can throw down, both smell something off in the distance.

From the shadows of darkness walks a group of hungry vampires all surging with the Hep-V virus, and they are smelling the blood bags all walking around at Bellefleur’s enjoying a barbeque. The group starts out small with just three or four vampires, but as they get closer the numbers increase and as the screen fades to black we can see a horde of vampires akin to the group of zombies that overran Herschel’s farm in season two of The Walking Dead.

In my opinion, True Blood stopped understanding how to be a great show the moment executive producer Alan Ball stepped away as the showrunner, and left it to be helmed by far less competent producers and writers.

Luckily it seems the current powers that be behind True Blood saw just how bad things were getting and decided to throw some major white paint on the canvas, and look for a fresh start. The brush strokes that ended season 6 made me legitimately excited to see how things pick up next season.

It’s been teased that season 7 will be the final year for True Blood and it may very well end there, but now I’m back in the mindset that when it all comes to a close, I might just be sad to see it go. I definitely could not have said that when this season started, and I’m happy to change my mind.

So what did you think of the season 6 finale of True Blood? Did you enjoy the retcon of the entire story to flash forward six months? Leave your comments below and let us know!