by Sarabeth Pollock:
As Season 6 of True Blood looms on the horizon, let’s take some time to look back at Season 5. I don’t know about you, but so much happened last season that it’s hard to figure out where to start. To make it easier on all of us, I’m going to give you the Cliffs notes version.
Sookie: Can’t catch a break. Dodges Debbie Pelt’s bullet to find her best friend in the line of fire. After Eric glamours Alcide to not find her attractive, she spends most of the season getting to know her fairy family because her sex life is nonexistent. And her ability to shoot beams of energy from her hands is finite after all.
Tara: Takes one for the team and ends up becoming a vampire. Now she must learn how to deal with being a vampire while learning how to respect authority and find her place in her new world, all the while managing her trademark snarkiness and her blossoming love for her Maker, Pam.
Jason: Though he has strong feelings for Jessica, Jason is back to hating vampires after learning that a vamp named Warlow killed his parents. Oh, and he’s seeing visions of his dead parents, who spur him into taking action against his toothy adversaries.
Andy: After a tryst in the forest with a fairy, Andy’s very pregnant fairy returns to him, much to Holly’s consternation, and rewards him with a litter of babies (this was one of the funniest moments of the season, when Maurella orgasms repeatedly, er, gives birth at Merlotte’s while Arlene and Lafayette look on)
Arlene and Terry: One word–Ifrit. Black smoke monster seeking revenge from Terry’s time in Iraq. Still trying to figure that shit out.
Bill: The former King of Louisiana is captured by the Authority/AVL along with Eric, and while he is steadfastly against them in the beginning, he soon falls for their party line and eventually drinks the blood of Lilith, which turns him into a very naked and bloody demi-god.
Eric: Eric is reunited with his sister, Nora, who is a member of the AVL. She also has an agenda. Eric finds himself as the unlikely voice of reason when the AVL is overthrown by the religious factions within it, and after he sees a vision of Godric telling him that Lilith isn’t God. He does get some retribution at the end of the season when he finally kills Russell Edgington once and for all, bringing honor to his Viking family.
Pam: After turning Tara as a favor to Sookie, Pam finds herself raising a baby vamp while Eric is gone from Bon Temps. She has flashbacks of when she first met Eric while she was human, and her early days as a vampire. She also sports a mean yellow sweat suit in the first episode of the season that will go down in True Blood history as the best worst outfit ever.
Lafayette: Now that Jesus is dead, Lafayette seems to be possessed by the brujo demon that Jesus conjured in Season 4. Jesus appears to him in spirit form. He’s still the life of the party.
Sam, Luna and Emma: A group of punks wearing Obama masks has been attacking the Shifter community. With Emma’s dad Marcus out of the picture, Grandma Martha has been clamoring for Emma to join the pack. However, Emma is captured by Russell Edgington and she is turned into a lapdog for Steve Newlin. Poor Sam spends most of the season getting attacked and trying to save Emma.
Jessica: While Papa Bill is away, newly single Jessica is going to play. Her feelings for Jason are strong, and she tries to convince him that she is more than just a vampire. But she also delights in her vampness. She throws an epic party at the King’s Mansion.
Alcide: After killing Marcus, there is a battle over the local wolf pack. The problem is that JD, the challenger to the Alpha role, has been feeding the other pack members V. Alcide rekindles his relationship with his father and, together with Martha and his presumed to be second in command, Rikki, they hatch a plan to gain control of the pack.
This season we saw the American Vampire League/Authority battle its own inner turmoil as one half fights for the evolution of vampires through mainstreaming while the other half fights to save the old ways. Russell Edgington was resurrected, but then it became clear that he was no interested in mainstreaming or preserving the old ways. He was a man with his own agenda. Given that the vampires seem to be out of control, humans are starting to fight back against any and all supernatural entities. The Bon Temps fairy population is getting more involved, and a Big Bad vamp named Warlow is coming. Season 6 is sure to be packed full of drama
Season 5 was panned by fans and critics alike for being too heavy, too political, and not as much fun as it used to be. Gone are the days where fans tuned in each week to see who hooked up with whom. Even Jason, a perennial favorite when it comes to comedic relief, let us down a bit with his return to vamp-hating. Even so, Season 5 left us with a lot of gems (Tara as a vampire, and Andy as a Daddy, anyone??). I have no doubt that Season 6 will have lots of new story lines to explore, but there also seems to be some signs that the show may be heading toward a final season soon. That said, I can’t wait to get my fill. After all, waiting sucks.
Sarabeth Pollock is a contributor for Dark Media. She covers The Walking Dead, True Blood, Doctor Who, Fringe and American Horror Story, as well as the True Blood comics and whatever movies and books happen to catch her fancy. Watch for her coverage of San Diego Comic Con 2013.
She’s an avid writer, reader, and pop culture fan, with interest in everything from Star Trek to True Blood to Doctor Who to Anne Rice to Deborah Harkness. She’s also a nerd who loves the color pink. Follow her on Twitter at @SarabethPollock and check out her blog at http://sarabethpollock.wordpress.com
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