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| Three's a crowd. What's four then? Photo credit: HBO.com |
By SDMattchew
This was probably
my favorite True Blood episode of this season. That said, “Let’s Boot and Rally”
still managed to let me down a little.
So far, Season 5 has
been like a bag of microwave popcorn that the True Blood writers nuked for a few
seconds too long. I want it to be good. I really do.
And in the writers’ defense, it’s all still pretty tasty. But I keep
running into things that leave a bad taste in my mouth.
Chiefly: Too many plotlines. Too many characters. Too much going on.
How much went on
this week in Bon Temps (and in South Dakota)?
Find out after the jump!
I wouldn’t call
these two a couple, but I’d at least call them a singular plotline this week as
they continued their make out session at Sookie’s place. This ended with two
unfortunate incidents occurring: Sookie barfing on Alcide’s shoes and Bill and
Eric showing up right as this happened.
Fortunately,
peach schnapps doesn’t leave you pass out drunk, just throw up drunk. So Sookie was still able to help Bill and
Eric continue their search for Russell Edgington by “un-glamouring” one of
Alcide’s employees, the only apparent witness to Russell’s excavation. In the
process of reading his thoughts, Sookie sees that a vampire from the Authority was
behind it.
Who? We couldn’t tell.
The hunt for
Russell takes the foursome (actually fivesome if you include Alcide’s employee)
to the Babcock psychiatric hospital, where rats are feeding on the bodies of
discarded humans.
Victims? Whose victims? Hmmm. I
wonder.
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| I can't even look myself in the mirror - Lafayette Photo credit: article.wn.com |
Lafayette
Here’s a great
character that the writers seem to have no idea what to do with lately. Lafayette is trapped in a plotline about
being scared of his own shadow. Every time he looks in the mirror, he sees his
possessed self in the form of a turquoise warthog. He also sees his dead
boyfriend’s (Jesus’) severed head with its lips sewn shut.
That’s really about
it, folks.
Jason and Andy
I’ll be the first
to admit that Jason and Andy finding themselves in fairieland last week didn’t
exactly rope me in, but these two waking up naked this week with no idea how
they wound up that way was somewhat amusing.
I would say Jason
had the more interesting story of this law enforcement duo as he continued to question what
he’d learned while in fairieland last week. Namely, a tip that his parents
might not have died in a flood, but instead at the hands of vampires.
Will vengeance be
Jason’s at some point?
Hoyt
Hoyt showing up
at Fangtasia had to be the funniest moment of the episode, though I can’t
decide if this was intentional or not. All I can say is –
if you want to show the world you’ve got an “I don’t give a sh!t” attitude, don’t
dress up like the lead singer of Loverboy.
Or... maybe do
exactly that. I don’t know.
Terry Bellefleur
As this story has
continued to unfold, it's just gotten weirder and weirder. Last week was somewhat interesting finding
out what happened to Terry and his platoon in Iraq. It was pretty ugly... albeit watchable.
This week, Terry
and Patrick find out from one of their platoon members that an Iraqi woman
cursed them with a fire demon called an ifrit.
It’s hunting them all down.
How many miles
from Bon Temps, Louisiana are we? It feels like a lot.
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| Sam: soon to be single...? Photo credit: courant.com |
Sam and Luna
Last week some
shifter pals of Sam’s took bullets to the head.
Sad. This week, Sam visits Luna
and gets attacked by the gang who did that bit of dirty work.
Sam gets shot,
but survives to witness his beloved Luna take some bullets. The attack leaves her lying on the ground
with her eyes closed.
Wow. Could Luna really be dead?
...cough...Tara...cough....
Probably not.
Tara
Sadly, Tara doesn’t
look like she’s going anywhere, to the grave or otherwise. In fact, this week
she secured a position as Fangtasia bartender at the behest of Pam. Fortunately,
Pam was there to stop Tara from feeding on a customer in public. However, she didn’t do much about Tara’s piss
poor attitude, which I would say - aside from her surviving a bullet wound to
the head – has continued to be Tara's biggest problem this season.
Tara did manage
to make a connection with Jessica, but then totally blew it when she decided to
suck on Loverboy-look-alike Hoyt when he showed up at the club.
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| Nora: Vampire who rustled up Russell? Photo credit: tvfanatic.com |
Roman/The
Authority
This week Roman gave
us a high and mighty speech about how important mainstreaming is, how there are
traitors in their midst, and – will vampires hide in the shadows or live as
equals among humans?
As he delivered this
speech, they cut in a few scenes - a couple of them being a fight between Tara and Jessica (over Hoyt, who Tara
decided to suck on), and Jason getting teary eyed at his parents’ graves.
The scenes seemed
a bit random – and somewhat mismatched against Roman’s speech. How about some flashbacks
with Roman himself? How about showing how ruthless they’d been in establishing the Authority? Now that I'd like to see!
Russell Edgington
In the spoiler of
all spoilers, I'm happy to report that Russell Edgington is indeed alive and well. Or, at least he’s alive.
At the end of the
episode, Sookie, Bill, Eric, and Alcide find him lying in a bed at the Babcock hospital. Good thing he was there too because Bill and
Eric found out some nasty news about those stake bombs strapped to their
chests. They’re scheduled to go off at precisely
dawn if they haven’t dealt with Russell.
So they proceed
to attempt exactly that with Eric walking up to Russell with a stake. He tells Russell that they’ve come to finish
what they started.
“Give it your
best shot,” Russell dares him.
And what happens
just as Russell says the word “shot”? What
happens right at the precise moment that he utters the word? Alcide goes down in the background. As though he’d been shot.
Wow. Could Alcide really be dead?
...cough... Tara...
cough... Luna... cough..
Probably not.
OVERALL: Good pacing and a lot of action in this
episode. You're definitely not going to be checking your watch. But – too much going on. Too many characters. Did they really need Alcide, Sookie, Bill,
Eric, and Doug all working their way through Babcock hospital looking for
Russell?
Shave this down
and cut some slack. Start with Tara.
