Only one more episode left for this season of True Blood. I know there are usually 12 episodes in a season, but you can blame Anna Paquin who got pregnant at the time of filming. So the season ends this Sunday, which means you have a few days to catch up if you’re behind. What? You’re more than a season behind?! Well you’re in luck! I’m going to do a quick recap of the major events so that you’re ready for the season finale this Sunday on HBO.
Season 5:
Oh shit. Tara has been shot in the head. Oh, Debbie (Alcide’s girlfriend) is dead too, but there might be hope for Tara. Sookie and Lafayette get the help of Pam to turn Tara into a vampire in exchange for Sookie promising to help fix things up between Pam and Eric. Tara has never had a good relationship with vampires, so for most of the season she had to deal with learning to accept becoming something she hates, but in it she found the freedom and power she had always wanted but never had while she was human. Under the tutelage of Pam, Tara stops trying to kill herself and starts living, and loving. More specifically she develops feelings and a very sexy relationship with Pam, who surprisingly reciprocates the feelings. The only person who has opposite feelings toward Tara is her mother, but Tara officially cuts her out of her life/after-life. Meanwhile, for Pam’s honor, Tara kills the new appointed Sheriff and self-proclaimed owner of Fangtasia. Pam ends up taking the blame and gets arrested and taken to the Vampire Authority.
What happened to Eric? Remember Nan Flanagan? Yeah, that caught up to him and Bill. The American Vampire League arrested both of them for her murder, but while being transported away they are saved by a female vampire who turns out to be Eric’s sister, Nora. They are still taken to get questioned by the Vampire Authority (VA), where instead of being put to death, they strike a bargain for their lives with the head of the Vampire Authority, Roman. If they are able to bring in the recently returned Russel Edgington, then they can have their lives. This season is full of religious groups. Here is the break down. The VA represent the vampires that want to coexist peacefully with humans. The Sanguinistas are a sect that believe vampires should be superior to humans and that humans are just food. Both religious groups base their idea on their interpretation of the scripture from the mother of all vampires, Lilith. Nora is a devout follower of the book of Lilith, and so is Salome, a member of the VA with a hidden agenda. Yes, it is the same Salome that was in the Bible. Eric and Bill can’t find Russel alone and must enlist some help from Sookie.
Up to now, Sookie and Lafayette have done everything they can for Tara, leaving her in the capable hands of Pam while Tara gets over her hatred of being turned/betrayed by the people she loved. Sookie does the right thing and tells Alcide what happened to Debbie, and as always, Alcide understands. He decides to stay and protect her now that it is revealed that Russel is on the loose and still looking for faerie blood. Then the moment we’ve all been waiting several seasons for is about to happen. Alcide and Sookie are about to finally have sex! But then Sookie ends up throwing up on Alcide’s feet while simultaneously getting interrupted by Bill and Eric. Awkward. Anyway, Sookie agrees to help them and Alcide agrees to join so he can protect Sookie. Together they capture him and he is brought to the VA headquarters, only to realize that it was all part of Salome’s plan to overthrow the VA and usurp the power for the Sanguinistas. Russel kills Roman and then goes in search of the faerie hideout. They then all try some of Lilith’s blood that is kept is a sacred vial and good on a human eating spree. They also have visions of Lilith telling them to eat all humans, except Eric also has a vision from his maker Godric, who tells him that he knows what he is doing is wrong, but his sister Nora doesn’t. It is his duty to save her. Eric manages to convince Nora that what is happening isn’t right, but they lose Bill to the religion as he becomes a fanatic when Lilith appears to him and tells him to drink the entire vial and become the new leader. Unfortunately Lilith appeared to Salome and told her the same thing. With his proginy and some of his friends locked up, Eric must enlist outside help to storm the VA headquarters and put a stop to the Sanguinistas plans.
Sookie, along with Alcide, was glamored to forget she helped find Russel and to forget that he ever returned. She runs into Jason, who has had trouble with Jessica and her promiscuous ways. Jason also has discovered that vampires killed their parents. To confirm this, Sookie and Jason go visit the faerie haven in the woods to find out that their parents were killed because a vampire caught Sookie’s irresistible scent. Jason was already having vampire troubles with Jessica and then newly appointed AVL representative Steve Noolan came out and admitted his love of him. This news put him over the edge. Speaking of edge, Russel Edgington shows up outside of the cloaked faerie hideout and drains an old faerie, but while he is preoccupied with how amazing the blood feels, Eric comes behind him and gives him the true death. We all know there’s no coming back from that. Sookie and Jason agree to join Eric, Nora and Tara on their assault on VA headquarters to save their friends.
Hoyt is having vampire troubles of his own. His relationship with Jessica is slowly disintegrating as Jessica is finding the relationship stale. She is feeding off of strangers, and even sleeps with Jason at one point. When Jason confesses to Hoyt of what happened between him and Jessica, Hoyt completely cuts both of them out of his life. He goes through several phases. First he turns goth and goes to Fangtasia to get fed on by vampires, one of them being Tara. He then swears off vampires and instead joins a group of radicals who hunt down and shoot “supes”, or people with inhuman abilities. He is fine until he has to kill a “supe” he knows. Morally confused, he goes to the source of it all, his love for Jessica. He’s looking for a way to have a normal life, so he asks Jessica and Jason to let him be glamoured to forget all about the relationship he had with Jessica and the friendship he shared with Jason so he could move on from that place and go to Alaska. They all reluctantly agree and then shortly after Hoyt leaves to Alaska, barely recognizing Jason as he passes by.
Meanwhile other people are having problems of their own that don’t involve vampires. Terry finds out that he was cursed by a fire/smoke demon called an Ifrit for his role in the slaughter of innocent Iraqis while he was at war. An old war buddy, Patrick, visits him and lets him know that other people in the same platoon have been killed in fire related incidents. Patrick is the one who started killing the innocent civilians and the rest of the platoon had to follow his lead. Terry fears for the safety of his family when the Ifrit tries to burn down his home and has to find a way to end the curse. He must right the injustice done by his friend Patrick, so he is forced to kill him. The debt is repaid, the gypsy frees him from the curse seeing how he has repented, and the Ifrit drags away Patrick’s body.
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After the whole debacle with Debbie and pack leader Marcus, you would think that Alcide would stay away from packs, but after saving Sam from a near death beating, he decides to challenge the new pack leader, who is feeding the wolves vampire blood to keep them strong and subservient. He also reconnects with his father, who is a lone wolf himself. In the end, he wins the support and respect of the pack and becomes the new pack leader.
Andy has woman troubles this season. His relationship with Holly blossoms, until he has a fling with a faerie. As his relationship with Holly gets more serious, he keeps his fling a secret as long as he can. Eventually, a pregnant faerie shows up claiming to bear his children and goes into labor at Merlot’s. She pops out four girls, get up, tells Andy that they are his responsibility now and runs off.
Sam is being targeted by humans who want to rid the world of “supes”. He was part of a shifter club until 2 of the members were killed and his sort-of girlfriend Luna was wounded in front of her daughter Emma. With Luna recovering in the hospital and Sam getting abducted by a group of “supe” hating humans, Emma escapes from the humans and her grandmother who wants her because she might be a wolf, only to be caught by Russel and Steve, who makes her their new pet. Sam is set free by Hoyt and goes with Luna to rescue Emma from Steve. The only option is for Luna to use her skin-walker ability to transform into Steve, walk into the AVL building and take Emma. Of course it doesn’t go as planned, when Steve-Luna is taken to give a speech on live television and is unable to hold her form. She transforms on live television and is then forced to run out of the building with Sam and Emma. While trying to escape, Luna is shot and dies, leaving Emma in the care of Sam.
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We last left Eric and his newly formed army ready to storm the VA headquarters. It’s a bloodbath, but they manage to free Jessica and Pam. Tara and Pam then start making out before they continue fighting. Bill and Salome have a power struggle over who gets Lilith’s vial of blood, with Bill becoming triumphant. Sookie and Eric come into the room to save Eric, but he drinks the entire vial of blood. He then explodes into a pool of blood, seemingly getting the true death. Then suddenly, out of the puddle comes Bill as the incarnation of Lilith AKA Billith. And that’s how the season ends.
Here’s a video that sums up season 5 pretty well. Oh, and it’s done with hot dogs.
Season 6:
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Sookie and Eric run off after Billith comes forth. Then a new villain also emerges in the form of new Governor Burrell. Burrell promises to get the vampire problems under control, first of which is shutting down all vampire owned businesses. Eric has changed. Realizing fast that Bill has transformed into a different person/being, he gets the old gang back together to kill him. Sookie stakes him in the heart but to everyone’s surprise he doesn’t die/can’t die. Eric then goes after Burrell, who is the more pressing enemy of the vampires, but not before he releases Pam (for her own safety) from their bond as maker and progeny. Pam is pissed, but doesn’t have long to stay that way until she is taken to a vampire concentration camp.
Eric tries to stop the Governor by glamouring him, but new human technology (like glamour resistant contact lenses) makes that a little hard. Finally he resigns to getting Burrell where it hurts and go after his child, much like Burrell did to his. Eric catches the Governor’s daughter, Willa, off guard and without her contacts on and abducts her. She is more than a willing accomplice and wants to become a vampire, so Eric turns her to show the Governor that being a vampire doesn’t make you evil. Her partner/girlfriend Sarah tries to convince him otherwise and has Willa locked up with the rest of the vampires.
Sookie is dealing with the fact that she has a limited amount of fairy power, and then once it’s gone, she can be normal. That is when their faerie grandfather shows up and reveals to her the true nature of her powers and that Warlow has escaped the dimension their grandfather put him in and is after Sookie. Sookie finds a wounded stranger on the side of the road one day who just turns out to be a faerie like here. She takes him home and bandages him, only to find out that he was in fact Warlow, and that Warlow is part faerie and part vampire. He has the ability to walk in the day light, which other vampires would kill for.
Bill is testing the limits of his powers, which so far he has discovered he can’t die and he can physically and mentally control other vampires. Unfortunately he is given visions by Lilith and her oracles, which shows all of his friends in a room being burnt to death by the sun. He is then obsessed with trying to find a way for all of them to walk in the sun, so he takes a scientist who works for the TruBlood company and gives him samples of faerie blood to synthesize a serum for vampires. He didn’t get the blood from Sookie, but instead had Jessica trick Andy’s faerie daughters (who are all growing up at an alarming rate) to coming with her to a party. Not being able to control herself around all that faerie blood, Jessica kills 3 of the 4 sisters and leaves the last one for dead, until Andy finds her and saves her life. Bill’s faerie supply is gone but the scientist is able to synthesize a very experimental serum, which gives Bill the ability to walk in the sun and decapitate the Governor in broad daylight in hopes of stopping his reign of terror, but he was only part of the plan.
Eric discovers early on why the Governor, who was so anti-vampire, would reopen the TruBlood factories. The Governor created a virus called Hep-V that breaks down a vampires body until they turn into liquid. There is no cure and death is certain. Eric was forced to watch Nora die in front of him. The same fate awaits everyone in the concentration camp and the world if they drink the TruBlood that is mixed with the virus. The facility is guarded laxly during the day when they don’t expect a vampire attack, so Eric needs faerie blood to attack the building, and Warlow will do just fine.
Sam is now watching over Emma, when he gets offered help by the Vampire Unity Society who know what he is. Unforetunately, power hungry pack leader Alcide has to keep face by getting Emma back, who they consider part of their pack. Everyone from the VUS except Nicole died, so she joined Sam on the run and they developed feelings for each other. Sam also decides that the best thing for Emma is for her to go with her grandmother, who will provide a more stable life for her. He also decides to let Nicole go home with her mother for her own safety. Alcide catches up to him and tells him to stay away from Bon Temps or face death. Alcide returns to his pack and lies about taking care of Sam and Nicole, but he is found out when they show captured Nicole and her mom. Alcide, like his father, decides that being part of a pack is not for him so he leaves the back and takes Nicole to Bon Temps where Sam had to go back to.
Terry, living with the guilt of killing his friend and comrade, as well as still shouldering the guilt of his war crimes, is extremely depressed. When an old military friend comes to visit, Terry asks him to kill him, but to not let him know it was coming. Ironically, Arlene senses his depression and gets Holly to get a vampire friend of hers to glamour him into forgetting the whole military trauma and recent guilt. Everything is looking up for Terry and his family until his is shot by his friend like he had planned earlier. It is later discovered that Terry had bought a $2 million life insurance plan days before he was killed.
In the concentration camp, the humans are experimenting on the vampires. Anywhere from forcing them to have sex with each other to therapy sessions, up to mortal combat. Pam makes friend with a vampire obsessed therapist who gives her a human to feed off of is she talks about her past, which last season we found out she was the head mistress of a brothel. Bill also gets the same idea to get Warlow’s blood, except he threatens Sookie’s life and the lives of her friends if she doesn’t give him up. Warlow agrees to help Sookie help Bill under the condition that she becomes his completely. Sookie is ready to go through with it until they find Warlow already drained. Bill goes to the same facility to prevent the death of all of his friends and family, only to discover that Eric has set all of the vampires free, except for the ones he actually cares for. Eric makes it too late to save them since Sarah Newlin opens the roof to have the vampires meet the sun. Luckily, Bill arrives in time to give his blood to the vampires so that the sun doesn’t affect them, at a great personal cost to himself. Eric finally kills Steve Newlin in front of Sarah, where his dying words are declaring how much he loves Jason.
Bill’s mission is complete, he is left to die until Jessica returns and brings him back to life with her blood. They then leave the building and destroy all the shipment of the contaminated TruBlood. Eric flies away to an unknown place. Does he have unfinished business? What will Bill do now that he has served his purpose? Will Sookie actually give herself over to Warlow? What will Sarah do now that Jason barely let her escape with her life? Will Alcide and Sookie ever finally get it on?! That’s what we find out this Sunday, August 18th.
If you really are that behind, it shouldn’t be a problem for a real True Blood fan to catch up before the finale. I recommend watching it on bluray to catch up. My favorite place to watch it is online on the HBO GO website. High resolution episodes and a subscription usually comes free when you already have the channel through a cable television provider. Every True Blood fan needs to have the HBO channel to see it air live, especially the finale. I mean, how else are you going to throw a vampire themed party? If you don’t have the channel, you should check out Connect Your Home. They can hook up you with cable, internet, the works! They also make sure you get the best price available from the many different service providers. There, now you have no excuse to not be completely caught up by the time the finale episode airs this Sunday, August 18th.
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