by Sarabeth Pollock:
True Blood Recap: “Dead Meat”
Original Air Date (HBO): Sunday August 4, 2013
Season 6 Episode 8
This week on True Blood….
Nora’s blood is still all over Eric, who sees Bill standing in the doorway. He demands to know how much Bill knew. If he can see the future, did he know Nora was destined to die? Bill tries to explain that the visions don’t work as helpfully as Eric might think, and he reminds Eric that they have a job to do. Eric becomes enraged that Bill is asking Eric to fight in his holy war when Nora’s blood is still warm. And where exactly is Warlow? That was part of their deal. When Bill reveals that Sookie has Warlow, Eric puts the pieces together. He thinks Bill was too weak and didn’t want to push his beloved Sookie. Bill responds by lifting Eric into the air, but this only makes Eric angrier. Eric refuses to bow down to Bill, and he continues to taunt him until Bill asks Eric if he has a death wish like his weak Maker, Godric. We all know not to mess with Godric. Bill throws Eric to the floor and tells him to leave his house. You don’t have to tell Eric twice.
Rikki and the Pack torment Nicole and her mother, and she tells Alcide to shut up. She has decided to challenge Alcide as the Pack Master, and she has lots of support. When Alcide laughs at her, Rikki tells him that she knows she’s going to get her ass whooped, but she doesn’t think Alcide has it in him to kill her. They fight, and Alcide knocks her on the ground, but he walks away. Something tells me that Jackson was right. The Herveaux family just isn’t cut out for power.
Over in Gen Pop, Jason’s bloody arm is healed by the crazy bitch vampire who thinks she’s running the show (I can’t wait for Pam to meet her…). Tara explains to Willa that they have to play it smart and not let on that they know what’s going on. For now, Jason belongs to her (her being Crazy Bitch Vampire, or CBV). CBV wants to know what Jason did to land in the female wing of Gen Pop. What he did was the Governor’s girlfriend, he says. CBV is impressed and she sees Jason as a useful tool. And as long as she’s locked up, he is going to make himself available for donations. He belongs to her. Jason worries that she might want him for sexual favors, but she was raised as a Catholic, as in a Medieval Times Catholic. That means that he will belong to her after they get out as well.
Sookie returns to Warlow in Faery. He’s hungry, so she offers her arm to him. While he drinks, she tells him about Bill’s daytime visit to the Bellefleur Mansion. She wants Warlow to do her a favor to help her vampire friends, and she promises Warlow that no harm will come to him from Bill. Warlow tells Sookie that he will do it so long as she agrees to be his queen. He has waited six thousand years for her. She needs time to think about it, so she leaves Faery. Eric was watching her as she emerged, and he tries to figure out how to gain entrance to Faery. Warlow realizes he is nearby.
Jessica and James bask in their post-coital bliss. Jessica remarks that she could suffer the True Death and die happy after her experience with James, but James, on the contrary, now feels like he has something worth fighting for. He admits that he likes her. He also wonders how she convinced Jason to allow them this time together. As they start to get busy again, the guards finally find them and escort them back to their quarters. Oddly, they don’t seem too shocked to find James and Jessica in the conference room. Along the way, Pam walks out of her shrink’s office. She and the good doctor are buttoning their clothing. It looks like Pam got her way, because she gets to go to Gen Pop as she requested. Jessica asks if she just had sex with the doctor. “I did,” she admits. But it was productive.
Sam has returned to Bon Temps and is cleaning out Terry’s locker. He becomes incredibly emotional seeing a picture of Arlene and Mikey. He goes outside to find Alcide waiting for him. Alcide is alone, despite the warning that the Pack would come after Sam should he ever return to Bon Temps. Alcide tells Sam that his pack days are over, and that Nicole and her mother are in Sam’s trailer. Sam goes to the trailer door. He turns and thanks Alcide, and then he tells him that there is cold beer in the restaurant. Alcide looks like he needs a drink.
Pam and Jessica enter Female Gen Pop. Scientists have gathered in the observation decks because it’s feeding time. Tru Blood is back! Tara gets in line and gives Pam a signal to let her know that she won’t drink it. Over in Male Gen Pop, Steve Newlin gets his bottle of blood and then is pressured by another inmate to hand over the bottle. Dr. Overlark tells the bully that everyone gets a bottle. Steve, thinking he won that battle, goes to sit with James. He starts talking about how much of an outsider he is, and how he hasn’t felt this unpopular since 8th grade. “Eighth grade was hard on all of us,” James replies, sitting with his unopened bottle. For Steve, 8th grade meant multiple pairs of underwear because of all of the wedgies he got. He goes to take a drink, and something makes James take pity on him. “Don’t drink the blood,” he says quietly. Steve closes the bottle and looks at it as if it was a giant insect.
Sam makes drinks for Nicole and her mom. Mom doesn’t feel safe in Bon Temps and wants to get home. She accepts Sam’s offer to stay the night. Once she turns in, Sam asks Nicole how she’s holding up. She’s fried, but she’s okay. They hug it out and say goodnight.
Sookie is in the shower. She flashes back to the evil entity that threatened her in the bathroom. It doesn’t seem like that creature and her handsome Warlow could be the same person. She goes down to the kitchen to pour herself a drink. There is an old message from Jason on her answering machine from Jason, telling her that he messed up with Jessica and he’s determined to set things right. She takes a shot.
Alcide is taking a shot of rye when Sam comes in. Alcide offers his condolences for Terry’s death. Apparently Nicole told him about it. Sam admits that he’s still surprised when death happens. Alcide tells Sam that he caught Nicole’s scent on him. Sam replies that he needs to “think on it and drink on it,” and he hurries to catch up with Alcide by pouring more drinks. I love how those two can bury the hatchet so easily.
Willa is having a hard time dealing with her hunger. She asks Pam to talk to CBV, and Pam reluctantly agrees (after Tara’s prodding). She knocks on the door but CBV is busy feeding on Jason inside the little morgue door. Jason asks CBV not to rape him, but she assures him that when they “fuck” it will be mutually consensual and she will make him beg for it.
Lafayette presents Arlene with a beautiful breakfast. He is dressed in his finery. Arlene asks Holly to go with her to the mortuary later on, and Holly pledges her support. Andy walks in looking for coffee, and he tells his two-week-old-but-teenage-daughter Adilyn that she can’t have any. When they’re all seated at the table, Lafayette tells Arlene about the insurance policy. It’s worth two million dollars, and Terry took it out four days ago. Arlene can’t believe this, and in her head she blames herself for glamouring Terry, but she also expresses anger at her nieces for poking inside Terry’s head in the first place. Adilyn hears this and runs from the table when Arlene yells at her for listening to other people’s thoughts. Andy, Lafayette and Holly look at each other in confusion.
Sookie arrives at Bill’s house. He wants to know what she has decided, but she needs to know what his plan is for Warlow. Bill wants Warlow to feed his blood to all of the vampires in the facility so that they’re impervious to the sunlight when the roof is opened. Dr. Takahashi is still trying to synthesize his blood, and so Bill needs Warlow to stay alive. I feel like there was an unspoken “for now” in that sentence. She appeals to the Bill that she knew in the beginning, the one that hated being a vampire, because Warlow hates his vampire nature. Bill is unfazed. Sookie tells Bill that Warlow wants to turn her and make her his vampire queen. Again, he is unfazed. This infuriates Sookie, who tells him that he can wait for her answer. She calls him a “motherfucking monster” as she walks away.
Prim and proper Sarah Newlin arrives at Vamp Camp. Morris wants to know where the Governor is but Sarah distracts him. He tells her that some of the vampires aren’t drinking the Tru Blood. She asks if her ex-husband is one of them. Next we see Steve running on a giant hamster wheel, but he’s barely moving. She demands to know why he isn’t drinking the Tru Blood, and once he tells her that they know about the Hep V, she wants to know who told him. After another threat of the UV light, Steve admits that it was his friend James. As Sarah leaves the room, she tells Steve that they don’t even have a UV light rigged in that room.
Holly’s boys arrive to cheer Adilyn up. They have some booze with them. After the shitty day she’s had, she says “fuck it” and leaves with them. That can’t be a good idea.
Steve and James are led into the white room. James asks Steve if he knows why he’s there, and Steve says that he’s so sorry. Beyond the glass wall, Sarah tells Morris that any other non-drinkers can join their little party. Steve approaches the mirror, sobbing. Something bad is going to happen.
Nicole’s mom confirms their flight number while Sam and Nicole hold hands and stare lovingly at each other. Sam tells Nicole that he wants her to stay. He loves her. Nicole’s mom tells her daughter that she’s only twenty-three, and she’s just a child compared to Sam the “silver fox.” That’s when Sookie shows up. She wonders if she came at a bad time. Uh, yeah, Sook. Nicole takes that opportunity to talk to her mom while Sam takes Sookie back to his office. They hug each other when they both see Terry’s belongings in the box. She shows Sam her glowing ball of light and says that she can either use it to kill vampires, or she can use it to rid herself of all of her Faery powers to just be a normal person. She always figured that she and Sam would end up together, and she wants to know how he feels. Of course, her timing couldn’t be worse. Sam is angry that she decided to say this now, when he has always waited in the wings for her to feel the same about him as she did for all of the other dangerous men in her life. But now it’s too late, because Nicole is pregnant. Nicole doesn’t know yet, but Sam can smell it on her. When Sookie tells him that Nicole has a right to know, he angrily says that he didn’t ask for Sookie’s advice. She says goodbye.
Arlene and Terry’s family are at the mortuary making the final preparations to bury Terry. Mrs. Bellefleur wants her grandson to be buried with a twenty-one gun salute, which sends Arlene into a frenzy given that Terry was killed by a gun. When Portia goes on and on about family tradition, Arlene blurts out that they only reason Terry enlisted is that his family wouldn’t pay for college. Andy tells the room that this is making him uncomfortable. Holly takes a very distraught Arlene outside, but not before telling the Bellefleur clan that they are not burying the same man that she knew. Andy can’t decide if it’s more uncomfortable inside or outside. He opts to go outside with Arlene and Holly. Holly says that his family is steamrolling Arlene. Arlene tells them that she won’t take the insurance money and she thinks that he had himself killed. She even thinks that she knows who did it, blaming Justin, the man she met at Merlotte’s. Andy tells Arlene that nothing will change by chasing after Justin, but he’ll do it if she wants him do. She accepts their advice, but she demands to have carnations at the funeral, and she wants Reverend Daniels from “the Black church,” because Terry liked him so much.
Sookie wanders through the cemetery, pausing at her parents’ plots. She tells her parents that all of their happy memories have been replaced by pain and murder. “Death ain’t the end anymore,” she tells them. “Death is just a fucking pit stop.” She’d rather walk the earth as a corpse than spend eternity by their sides.
A limo arrives at the Tru Blood facility. The TB representative demands to see the Governor, and Sarah realizes that she must act. Sarah goes toe to toe, citing the fact that both women are businesswomen and they need to support each other. When the rep has had enough, she pushes past Sarah to the Hep V room. She goes to send a text to the FDA about the contaminated blood, but Sarah attacks her. Sarah is too weak to snap her neck, and the rep gets away. She runs and runs until she finds herself in the Male Gen Pop observation room. Her sky-high heels are her undoing, and she trips on the floor grating. Sarah pounces, bashing her head into the metal. The vampires below start licking the blood from the floor. Sarah grabs one of the stiletto heels and drives it into her head. “Thank you, Jesus,” she exclaims.
Sookie returns home and calls Jason, but he isn’t answering. She tells him to be careful and to go home in one piece. She tells him about Terry’s death. She also wonders where Niall is (finally, someone has noticed that he’s gone). She calls Bill and tells him to pick her up in an hour.
Adilyn and the boys are in the cemetery getting drunk. One of the boys manages to get her shirt off, but that’s when Eric shows up. He needs to borrow Adilyn. He glamours the boys so that they have no memory of seeing him there; he apologizes that he also has to remove the memory of getting her shirt off. Then he chases after his prey.
Sookie gets ready to meet Bill. She’s dressed in a tight black dress (can you believe she had twins last year??) She seems to be preparing herself for what is to come.
CBV hears Tara talking about Jason. Pam intervenes and says that she was just trying to help her friend. Morris sees the commotion and orders the whole group to the chamber. When Jessica walks in and sees James, she apologizes. She looks up at the ceiling. Steve demands to know what she knows. That’s when she tells them that they’re all going to meet the sun in there. Pam. Tara. Jessica. Willa. James. Steve. They’re all there, and the only one missing is Eric.
Adilyn is running down the road. Her father is in his squad car behind her and he sees the bite marks in her neck. She thinks he’s going to be angry with her, but he simply holds her.
Sookie and Bill arrive at the cemetery. She asks for his hands. He wants to know what made her change her mind. She’s had a change of heart. When they arrive in Faery, they find that Warlow has been drained. “Who did this to you?” she asks. Bill stares at the scene before him. “Eric.”
I don’t know about all of you Truebies, but these episodes pack quite a punch. There is so much going on that it leaves my head spinning. But I am buckled up for this ride.
So it looks like Sookie is about to pledge her hand to Warlow. Maybe. She might have a plan. It’s hard to tell. All of our vampire familiars are locked in the Cylinder of Death. Bill and Eric have a ton of power. Alcide has given up his duties as Pack Master. Sam got his girl knocked up. And the mortal half of the cast is mourning Terry’s death. There’s a lot going on.
With only two episodes left to go in the season, what will happen next? As always, please post your comments below. Until next week!
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 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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