Quick Take: True Blood, “She’s Not There”
True Blood is back and it looks like we are in for a wild ride this season.
Review: True Blood, “She’s Not There”
(S0401) True Blood's fourth season premiere had a lot going on so let's break things down by the major characters:
Sookie – We start with Sookie right where we left off, still in the fairy realm. She discovers that Claudine is her fairy godmother (and Sookie is right in saying that Claudine sucks!), she sees Barry the doorman from Season Two in the realm and she sees her grandfather Earl, who thinks he has been there for a couple of minutes but has really been stuck in the realm for over twenty years. Sookie starts to think that things aren't what they seem after being offered a piece of fruit that every other human is devouring. The leader of the fairies, Mab, tells her that they are harvesting humans. The fairies try to stop Sookie from leaving, but Claudine’s brother Claude helps her escape with her grandfather. When she gets back to the cemetery, her grandfather dies and she mourns him again.
Sookie goes back to her house, which looks completely different, and comes upon a painter who wonders who she is. He threatens to call the cops and she storms inside in her house. The cop that shows up is Jason and he's shocked to see Sookie. He drops on her that she has been gone for over a year and everyone had thought she was dead. Her house had been sold because they gave up hope of finding her. Sookie gives Jason a pocket watch from her grandfather to prove her story about the fairies.
Jason – He is now a police officer and has spent the last year taking care of Hot Shot and looking for Sookie. He is also trying to help Andy with his V addiction. At the end of the episode he took food back to Hot Shot only to be knocked out and locked in a freezer.
Bill – He shows up to see Sookie and tells her that he had been empty without her. He did stick up for Sookie to Andy by telling him that she had been on secret vampire business for him and she couldn’t tell anybody where she had gone. Bill has had a busy year, being involved in the vampire politics and it seems that he is now the king of Louisiana since a woman that comes to see him calls him "your majesty". No word on whether he married Sophie-Anne or if he killed her in their season three finale battle.
Eric – He now cooperates with the National Vampire League and is trying to help with the repairing of the vampire’s reputation. At the end of the episode it is revealed that he was the one to buy Sookie’s house, because he was the only one to believe she was still alive. Now she can’t kick him out like she did last season due to the fact that he is the owner.
Andy – Now a V addict and it seems that he can’t control it.
Jesus/Lafayette – These guys are still together and Jesus is trying to get Lafayette more comfortable with Jesus’ witchy side. Jesus takes him to a coven meeting where they meet a witch named Marnie and she becomes possessed by a man named Eddie (a guy that Lafayette sold V to from season one). Lafayette is spooked, but he goes back to another meeting for Jesus. During the next meeting Marnie brings a bird back to life and it freaks everybody out.
Terry/Arlene – They had their baby and now are married. Arlene is still worried that since the baby is Rene’s that he will turn out evil; especially when she finds that he has torn off the heads of some Barbie dolls.
Tara – She is probably the most changed character. Tara is now a cage fighter in New Orleans and has a girlfriend who believes that Tara’s name is really Toni and she is from Atlanta. It seems that she doesn’t want to return to Bon Temps, even after finding out that Sookie is alive. Lafayette is the only one that keeps contact with her.
Jessica/Hoyt – These two live together now, but the honeymoon stage is over. They get in a fight about how Jessica won’t cook for Hoyt and he doesn’t want her to bite him anymore. It seems that Jessica still wants to give in to her vampire nature after meeting a fangbanger at Fangtasia and has some interest in his pulsing veins.
Pam – She is still up to her old ways and tries to talk Jessica into giving in to her vampire nature.
Nan Flanagan/American Vampire League – Trying to recover the vampire’s reputation and win back the human public. Eric and Bill are helping with this.
Tommy/Sam – Sam did shoot Tommy in the leg and is paying for his physical therapy. Sam is now hanging out with some other shifters and Tommy is living with Maxine Fortenberry since Hoyt moved out.
No doubt I am glad that True Blood is back, but the premiere was just a “meh” for me. I was fine with the beginning and the fairies, until they turned evil. It looked like a bad horror movie and I was glad when the scene was over. I am not sure how I feel about the time jump, but it is nice to see a little bit of progression for some of the characters. I liked that Bill is now king and am anxious to see how he got the title. Also, Stephen Moyer is definitely looking way better than he did last season! It was a bummer to not get to see Jessica and Hoyt happy for just a couple of minutes.
The Tara storyline is interesting and it has probably come out of the idea that Tara has been through so many bad times with men that she switched to women or that the writers of True Blood wanted to give men a little something to watch after all the naked Alexander Skarsgard from last season. The stories I look forward to progressing the most are the witches, Bill’s political ambitions and the fact that Eric now owns Sookie’s house and can go as he pleases. The premiere wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped, but hopefully the storylines that do have potential will progress during the season.
Erin - that's how I felt too! Like something was missing, or maybe there was just too much to absorb, I haven't nailed exactly why I was a little let down, but over all I'm psyched to have the series start again, and will stick with it. The witch thing should be interested. I thought Marnie looked familiar, she was Aunt Petunia from Harry Potter, someone who is definitely against magic. lol