True Blood Recap: “In the Evening”

by Sarabeth Pollock:

True Blood Recap: “In the Evening”
Original Air Date (HBO): Sunday July 28, 2013
Season 6 Episode 7

Can we call her Willa Northman now?  Willa is fast becoming one of my favorite characters.  She’s a badass.  This week starts out back at Vamp Camp.  Eric, Nora and Willa watch as the Tru Blood bottlers prepare to send one batch of tainted blood out to the distributors and one batch to their own “Gen Pop.”  “Gen Pop” refers to all of their vampire captives, obviously.  He sends Willa back inside to find Pam while he gets Nora to safety.  When he promises to return to Willa, she forcefully tells him to get going.  She’s a badass.  Eric leaves through the door with Nora and gets her near the exit.

Inside the camp, a guard stumbles upon the body of the doctor and the disoriented guard and signals a breach.  The place goes into lockdown, and guards storm through the hallway.  Jason asks what’s going on, and when he hears that Eric Northman escaped, he pretends to be upset, but this just plays into his plan.  He is ordered to the Gen Pop area.

Eric sneaks Nora under the Tru Blood truck that is about to depart.  As the loading bay door opens, a guard tells the driver he needs to do a security check.  Ugh.  Once the guard’s mirror gets close to Eric, Eric pulls him under the truck and kills him, then he tells the driver that they’re all clear.  They all three ride out under the bus, and once they’re clear of the compound, Eric drops the body off.

Meanwhile, Willa navigates the corridors in her doctor’s coat, and inside her pocket she has the doctor’s hand so that she can gain access to any door requiring fingerprints.  She finds Pam in her cell doing yoga.  When Willa comments that she thought Pam would’ve been locked up, Pam tells her that she “has a fan in the Psych Department.”  Willa tells her that Eric sent her to tell Pam that the Tru Blood has been laced with Hep V.  Pam begrudgingly listens to Willa, and she seems impressed when Willa shows off her severed hand-key.  Pam orders her not to tell anyone about the Hep V, except Tara and Jessica.  Willa can’t understand why she wouldn’t want to alert the other vampires.  Pam explains that they can’t tell the others because that would tip them off.  Willa accepts this and leaves Pam in her cell.  Willa sneaks back into the Gen Pop cell without being noticed.

Eric takes Nora to Bill’s house.  Bill comes down the stairs and sees Eric cradling his sister.  Eric’s mouth twitches as he begs Bill to save Nora.  He doesn’t know if Bill is a god, but he saw Sookie stake him and he survived, and so his blood should be able to cure his sister.  Eric carries Nora to a bedroom.  Nora complains that she’s burning up, which shouldn’t be possible.  She doesn’t want to take Lilith’s blood and she tells the two men that she doesn’t want it.  She’d rather die.  Eric tells Bill to do it, while Bill manages to look incredibly sad because he can’t ignore Nora’s dying wish not to take the blood. Eric tells Bill to leave him alone with Nora.

Sarah is doing her daily devotional when she arrives at the governor’s mansion.  She realizes the guards are gone, and she goes in to find the Governor’s decapitated head on the base of the statue.  She grabs his head and tells him that he was a decent man.  She kisses him.  (Okay, gross!)  Sarah vows that his death was not in vain, and she tells him that this was all part of God’s plan.  “God is good,” she spits out.  Later she greets the Senator at the Governor’s mansion.  He seems surprised that the vampires made it so far, but Sarah tells him that they are making progress even in the light of Burrell’s death.  She tells the Senator that she needs his help to make sure that no one knows that Truman Burrell has been killed.  She doesn’t want to know how he does it, but she suggests using acid. A report will go out saying that his compound was attacked but he escaped and is governing from an unknown location.  They only need to buy a few days until the tainted True Blood hits the shelves and then God’s work will be done.  The Senator is shocked by Sarah’s devious side, but she reminds him that she’s unstoppable now that God’s plan is so clear.

Sookie and Warlow wake up from their sex-induced sleepy time.  Warlow suggests that they take the time to write their wedding vows.  Sookie reminds him that just because they had sex doesn’t mean that they’re getting married.  He is under the impression that their relationship is something more than a fling.  Sookie becomes distracted by the sound of someone crying nearby.  It’s Arlene wandering through the cemetery lamenting the loss of her beloved Terry.  Sookie asks how to leave the Faery world, and Warlow says she just needs to use her light; now that she’s had his blood, she has the power.  Back in the real world, Sookie finds Arlene on the ground over Terry’s grave.  She tells Sookie that she doesn’t know what happened—Terry’s demons were haunting him so she had Holly’s vampire friend glamour him, and everything seemed to be great and then he got shot.  She doesn’t know if she can tell her kids.  Sookie tells Arlene that Arlene is one of the strongest women she knows, and she knows she will pull through this.

Sam calls Lafayette to check in.  Lafayette hesitates, and then he manages to tell Sam that Terry is dead.  Sam has been banned from Bon Temps, but you can see the wheels turning in his head.  He returns to the hotel room and tells Nicole to have her mom pick her up.  After he explains what happened, he says he needs to go back, even though it’s not safe for him. “My friend died.  Not being there is not an option.”

Sookie and Arlene return to the house.  Holly greets them and says the kids know that something is wrong.  When she sees Lafayette, she attacks him and calls him a “voodoo queer” because he was the one who had the key to Terry’s box.  Andy calms her down, telling her that he knows that she is about to do something incredibly difficult, and he offers to go with her.  Sookie wants to know about the box, and Holly points out that it would be best if they knew what was in the box before Arlene saw it.  Lafayette tells Sookie that they’re going to run an errand, and that maybe next time she’ll be the one to be attacked.

Back at Vamp Camp, the guards summon Jessica and take her to the control room.  Inside, she finds Jason waiting for her.  He tells her that he came to help her.  They sit, and he promises that he will get her out and he won’t let her own.  He says that his head may not be so clear, but in his heart he has never had more clarity.  Jessica, having heard about Bill’s vision, knows what the future holds, has resigned herself to her fate.  Jason admits that he saw the copulation experiment and he knows that what they’re doing to the vampires isn’t right.  Jessica tells him that nothing can be done, but she does ask him to bring the vampire who she’d almost been coupled with so that she can thank him.  Jason agrees.

Nicole goes into the bathroom while Sam is showering.  She undresses and joins him in the shower.  We get a nice shot of Sam’s ass as they get it on.

At the bank, Sookie and Lafayette find that the safe deposit box contains one item: a life insurance policy issues three days before Terry’s death.  It’s a hefty sum of money.  They both surmise that he knew his death was imminent and that he was planning on it and wanted to be sure that Arlene and his kids would be cared for.  Sookie wonders when it is ever acceptable for someone to leave their family behind.  “I don’t know, Sook,” Lafayette replies.

Alcide and Jackson return to Jackson’s trailer.  Alcide isn’t sticking around.  Jackson knows he’s messed up time and time again, but he tells Alcide that he doesn’t need to go back.  He tells his son that he can buy the plot of land next to his trailer.  He knows his ways are different, but Alcide doesn’t have to follow the pack.

Nicole’s mom arrives to pick her up.  She seems suspicious of Sam but agrees to let her daughter say goodbye to the man who has taken care of her.  Nicole promises not to give up any secrets, but she gives Sam her new phone number in case he needs it.  “Be careful,” she says as she leaves.

Jason escorts Jessica’s friend into the room that she’s in.  He seems confused.  Jessica asks Jason to give them some privacy.  She tells him that it would have been so much easier if he’d gone along with it, but James tells her that he doesn’t believe that vampires need to forfeit their souls just because of what they are.  He shows her that they broke one of his fangs for what he did.  She tells him that they’re going to die in there, and she tells him about the Hep V.  He wishes she had some good news for him.  James would have loved to have looked up his father.  All Jessica wishes is that James would make love with her so that she could see what it’s about, and because he displayed so much humanity toward her, that is what she wants to die with.  He fulfils her request.

Bill is about to leave the mansion to find Warlow when Eric stops him.  Eric wants to know how it is that Bill can walk in the sun.  Bill explains that he has had Warlow’s blood and that has the power to do many things.  He tells Eric about the visions he had of future events, and how he saw the vampires in the white room.  Eric’s eyes widen at the description of the room, which is the same one he had been in before.  Eric vows to help Bill stop the vision from becoming a reality if Bill uses his blood to help Nora.  Upstairs, Nora drinks Bill’s blood but it doesn’t have any effect.  Eric thinks that Warlow’s blood might work, but Nora seems resigned to her death.  Bill leaves while Eric tends to his sister.

Sookie and Lafayette return to the Bellefleur mansion with the insurance policy.  Andy rushes to intercept them before they can see that Arlene has been drinking.  A lot.  She’s trying to make the pain go away.  Her kids seem to be dealing with the news better than she is.  Holly’s boys arrive to meet Adilyn, and Sookie realizes that Andy’s daughter is part faery.  That’s when Bill walks through the door.  It’s broad daylight and none of the humans know that he can do that.  He walks past everyone and goes straight to Arlene to offer his condolences.  He was proud to call Terry his kin.  Arlene thinks this is all a result of drinking too much, until Bill touches her arm and she realizes that it’s all real.  “Fuck me,” she whispers.  Bill goes to Andy and offers condolences for his loss as well.  He lost his first born and he knows the pain that it brings. Andy reminds him that he lost three children at the same time, and Bill again apologizes for the loss and extends his hands.  I’m not sure it was an apology, but it was some kind of truce.  Maybe.  I don’t think Andy actually agreed to a truce with the man who is responsible for his girls’ deaths.  Finally, Bill asks to speak with Sookie.  Sookie motions for them to go outside, and Lafayette rushes off to the kitchen to get out of their way.

Bill tells Sookie that she needs to bring Warlow to him or there will be deaths.  When she doesn’t want to get involved, he tells her that Tara, Jessica, Pam and Eric are at risk.  Sookie didn’t know about the vampire death camps.  Eric escaped, but they’re friends don’t have much time.  He tells her to bring Warlow to him at once.

Pam is brought back into the doctor’s office for some more therapy.  He seems surprised that she doesn’t want to feed from her donor.  Pam teases him about being a student of Freud and studying “appetites.”  She tells him that she’s not hungry, she’s horny.  This makes him very…aroused.  She reminds him that she was a whore in her human life, and she has surrounded herself by sex in all areas of her life.  She stops, thinking he’s heard enough deviance in his office, but he tells her that he is very interested in her brand of deviance.  As she straddles him, she promises to let him inside her head if he gets her into Gen Pop.  “That can be arranged,” he mutters as she throws him onto the couch.

Sarah approaches Jason as he stands watch outside the door.  She tells him that the Governor is dead, and so all of his leverage is gone.  They guards cut his arm and throw him into Female Gen Pop One.  Tara is quick to fend for him, but the older vamp who thinks she runs the show declares that he belongs to her.

Alcide returns to the compound.  He tells the Pack that Sam and Nicole are dead, and that Emma has been handed over to Martha.  Rikki sees right through him and tells Tiffany to bring “the ladies” out.  It’s Nicole and her mother.  The pack surrounds Alcide, calling him a liar.

Eric pleads with Godric to give Nora another chance.  Nora recalls their time in London in 1665 when a long-haired Eric tells the King that the plague has made food scarce.  He wants Eric to go to see a young woman who has been keeping company in the heart of the plague centers.  He wants her for his bed and he commands Eric to go get her.  The monk tells Eric that Lady Gainsborough has already contracted the plague. Eric tries to convince her to return to more comfortable quarters, but she wants to die on her own.  She looks at Eric and sees “destiny.”  Eric says the king confused “stubbornness” with “courage” and he decides to take her to Godric.  Nora reminds Eric how strong he is and she thanks him for saving her.  As Nora dies, Eric grabs her and cradles her body to his as she slowly deteriorates into a bloody mass.  She’s gone, and Eric stops crying.  He sees Bill standing there watching the scene before him.

I have a feeling that Eric is about to go nuts.

Well.  Three episodes left and we have already lost the Governor, Terry, and Nora.  Who is next?

Remember, Truebies, that our beloved True Blood has been renewed for a seventh season, and so the writers need to keep our friends around so they can continue to play next season….right?

With three episodes left, anything can happen.  And with this show, it probably will happen.  So tell me, what did you think of tonight’s episode?  What will happen to Jason, and who is that vampire who is running the show in Gen Pop One?  What will Sookie do?  What is Eric going to do to help save the rest of his family?  It’s anyone’s guess.

Until next week, Truebies!

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