True Blood Recap: “Life Matters”

by Sarabeth Pollock:

True Blood Recap: “Life Matters”
Original Air Date (HBO): Sunday August 11, 2013
Season 6 Episode 9

Truebies, the time has come! We have arrived at the penultimate episode of the season.  Yes, I get to use one of my favorite words.  With one more episode left after tonight, anything can happen.  And it looks like a lot can happen.  I’ve got my #SaveTheVamps shirt on.  Let’s go.

Sookie cradles Warlow’s unconscious body, telling Bill that Eric took their deal and “fucked it in the ass.”  Sookie gnaws on her wrist and snaps at Bill when he “drops fang” on her.  She feeds Warlow until he returns to consciousness.  It’s fun to watch Sookie and Bill bitch at each other.  I’m sure Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin had fun with this scene given how little screen time they had together last season.  Bill isn’t concerned with Warlow’s well-being at all.  Sookie suggests that he go and drink Eric’s blood and leave them alone.  When he grabs Warlow by the neck, Warlow tells Sookie to use her light to blast Bill out of Faery.  She does, and Warlow continues feeding from her.

Meanwhile, it’s daytime and a very pissed off Eric returns to Vamp Camp.  He’s covered in Adilyn’s blood.  He pops his fangs and makes his move.

Arlene arrives at Terry’s funeral.  She thanks the reverend and his wife for being there on such short notice.  They wouldn’t miss it for anything.

Warlow notices that Sookie seems to be in a hurry.  She reminds him of the funeral, but something is different with him.  He doesn’t seem pleased that she is in a hurry to rush off.  He reminds her that she was ready to pledge herself to him the night before.  Sookie tells him that she made him a promise, and she keeps her promises.  Warlow heals her arm before she leaves, and when she asks if he’s sure he’s okay, he says he is.  He also smiles at her while sitting under the statue of an angel…but somehow he doesn’t seem as angelic and he’d like us to believe.

Guests arrive at the funeral and take turns greeting Arlene.  We see Holly and her boys, and Adilyn and Andy, and Sam and Nicole.  Sookie materializes nearby and makes her way to the receiving line.  Old Mrs. Bellefleur asks if she’s the “weirdo.”  Arlene apologizes to Sookie for the old woman’s bad behavior, but Sookie shakes it off.  With her friends around her, Arlene takes her seat.  Sookie sits next to Maxine Fortenberry.  As she sits, she asks how Hoyt is doing.  Maxine says her son is doing well, and that he has a girlfriend who is “ugly as sin,” but at least she isn’t a vampire.  That’s when a dashing Alcide shows up, resplendent in black.  He asks if he can sit beside Sookie, but she’s saving the seat for Jason (who isn’t there yet…and won’t be there…but Sookie doesn’t know that yet).  She thanks Alcide for coming.  Maxine and her friend comment that he “smells like a man.”  Oh, if they only knew.

Meanwhile, at Vamp Camp, Eric has left a trail of body parts.  The Viking has done a bit of damage to the guards, it seems.  Their dismembered pieces are strewn everywhere, and Bill follows them inside.  Eric has stolen a page from his new daughter’s playbook, using an arm to open the access doors.  He finds Dr. Overlark and rips his manhood off of his body.  As blood pools at Overlark’s feet, Eric tells him that he will return to make sure he has bled out.  He goes to Male Gen Pop and frees the prisoners.  One vampire stays behind, telling Eric that his Maker is in the drawer.  Eric opens the drawer and finds a vampire who has been infected with Hep V.  He returns him to the drawer and tells the young vampire that his Maker will die a horrible death, and he can either watch or leave.  The sympathy in his expression is unmistakable.

The Reverend talks about how important family was to Terry, and how impressed he was that Terry really meant it.  Everything flowed from Terry’s family.  Family was everything to him.

Bill finds Overlark, who begs Bill to kill him.  He confirms that Eric did this to him, and he tells Bill where he went.  Bill asks Overlark if he had any interaction with Jessica, and whether or not he hurt her, and when Overlark confirms that he did, Bill takes pleasure in smashing his face in.

Andy gets up to deliver remarks at the funeral.  He said he and Terry grew up as brothers, and that their grandmother taught them the importance of civic duty.  For Andy, it meant staying in Bon Temps. For Terry, it was “something bigger.”  Andy recalls how Terry told him that he could never understand what war really was.  He recalls the time Terry went to Fort Bellefleur to hide from his demons.  And he needed to know what type of beer Terry liked because Andy is pissing off the guys at the store by buying two of everything.  “Raging Bitch IPA” is what Terry likes, because it’s the only American import the European soldiers could drink.  Terry emerges from the bushes, covered in mud.  He doesn’t think that he can return to a normal life in Bon Temps, and the idea of being with a woman who has children is abhorrent to him, but Andy tells him he can adjust.  He can get a job.

Bill searches the halls for Eric.  He finds that the vampires are getting revenge on the humans by subjecting them to the same tests that they’d performed on the vampires.  Eric reaches Female Gen Pop and releases everyone.  Jason is laying on a bench, covered in bite marks.  Eric approaches him and reminds him that the last time they saw each other, he was spouting some hateful things.  Jason, in a weak voice, tells Eric that their friends have been taken.  Eric realizes that Jason can help him navigate the building, so he offers to heal him, telling him that he’s in for a treat.  He also tells Jason to think of nice things when he dreams of Eric.  Soon thereafter, Jason is guiding Eric through the halls, which are filled with dead soldiers.  Sarah Newlin emerges from a pile of bodies.  She flees.

Sookie looks around, wondering when Jason will show up. Sam is at the podium recalling how he wasn’t sure about hiring Terry, but he ended up being the best employee ever.  He talks about when Andy brought Sam to Fort Bellefleur.  Sam introduces himself to the forest because Terry is hiding.  Sam was able to find some Raging Bitch IPA, and they all go fishing.  Terry asks what working will be like, and he admits that he hates work and hates people.  When he catches a catfish, and he sees its gaping mouth, he tells Andy to throw it back. “Every life matters. Throw it back.”  Terry likes Sam, though.  It’s a good match.

Eric finds vampires tormenting Pam’s shrink.  He orders them to leave the room, and he informs the doctor that he forgot to ask him something in their sessions.  He forgot to ask how he’s going to die.  The shrink laughs and tells Eric that it doesn’t matter.  Eric bites and asks why.  “I fucked your progeny,” he says.  Jason snickers.  “You did not just go there,” he says, pointing at the pissed off Eric.  “That’s going to cost you, Doc.”  Eric pulls off his protective contact lenses and asks if it’s true.  The doc says that she made a deal, sex for being transferred to Gen Pop.  Eric picks him up, telling him that they’re going together to find Pam so that she can kill him.

Lafayette is dressed in a fine black suit with purple accents.  His long lashes scream “Lala.”  He didn’t know if he’d make it to speak or not.  But he has spent too much time with Terry not to be there.  He recalls that he met Terry on his first day at work.  He didn’t know what it would be like to work with a battle-hardened soldier, but when he looked into Terry’s eyes, he saw something.  (Nervously, Lafayette says hello to the Marines overseeing the funeral.  Grandma Bellefleur asks if he’s a boy or a girl.)  Terry asked him to help him be good at this job.  Lafayette believed he saw into Terry’s soul that day, and he promises Terry that “Mama” won’t let him fuck things up.  He shows him all of his tricks to run the fryer, and from that day on they were bonded.

During the search, Eric hears screams.  He has Jason look after the doctor while he opens another door.  It’s Ginger, dressed in a robe.  “Well, if it isn’t my knight in shining armor,” she purrs.

Portia offers a story about her cousin, and the Reverend asks if anyone has anything to say before Arlene speaks.  Sookie hears Arlene’s panicked thoughts, and she goes to the podium to buy Arlene some time.  She talks about what her experience was the night she met Terry (the same night Lafayette talked about).  During a flashback we see that Terry had eyes for Arlene since the first moment he laid eyes on her.  Sookie heard him thinking about how much Terry liked her, and she wanted Arlene to be able to know how deep their love was.  Arlene hugs Sookie, thanking her for what she said.  Alcide offers Sookie a shoulder to cry on since Jason still hasn’t shown up.

Bill finds a soldier to help him find the white room.  Sarah Newlin climbs the stairs of one of the silos, saying a prayer as she ascends.  She gets to the top and cranks open the skylight.  In the room below, the vampires are feasting on Bill’s blood.  That is, all but Steve, who, like the runt of a litter, can’t find a place to get in to feed.  That’s when Eric and Jason arrive in the observation room.  When Eric sees Steve, he rushes into the room and grabs him by the neck.  Every time someone he loved has died, Steve has been there, Eric says.  Bill tells Eric to allow him some of his blood, but Steve’s days are numbered.  As Sarah peers over the ledge, thinking that she’ll find vampire carnage, she sees Steve looking up at her.  “I loved you, Jason Stackhouse!” he screams as he burns.  Jason screams.  Ginger screams.  Sarah flees.  Eric goes to Pam and lovingly brushes some hair from her face.  “I saved the therapist for you,” he says.  “You take such good care of me,” she replies, and she rushes in to see the good doctor, fangs bared.

Arlene is speaking.  She tells how she and Terry used to take turns freaking out, and that the night Mikey was born, they both freaked out.  Terry was her rock.  The scene shifts to the night Mikey was born, and Arlene is worried that Mikey doesn’t like her milk, or her nipples, or maybe he heard her thoughts “in utero” and doesn’t like her.  Terry tells her it’s a matter of not sleeping.  He talks her through some relaxation exercises, and suddenly Mikey starts to drink.  Terry tells her how much he loves their family.

A room full of drunk vampires praise the gift of Bill’s blood.  Crazy Bitch Vampire, the one who’d kept Jason as a pet, cradles Bill in her arms.  They are all walking in the sunlight while Eric watches them.  Pam dances with her dead therapist, but then she stops and asks if they’ve killed everyone who needed to be killed.  Jason realizes that they haven’t killed Sarah.  He runs after Sarah (leaving a screaming Ginger behind) and catches up to her before she reaches her car. Once he’s alone, Bill sees Lilith’s naked minions.  They hold their fingers to their lips to shush him.

The Reverend thanks the crowd for coming.  They are about the hand it over to the Marines when Big John gets up.  (Grandma Bellefleur remarks that there are a lot more Black people at the funeral than she thought there would be, and Big John isn’t on the program.  Portia tells her to shut up) He wants to sing a song for Terry, a song his grandmother used to sing called “Life Matters.”

Sarah tells Jason that she was only doing God’s work.  “How dare you speak for God?” he demands.  Big John sings as Sarah begs for her life.  If she can speak for God, then why can’t he talk to Jesus?  He says that Jesus said she deserves to die for what she did to Jessica, and he says that Jesus said that she was an “average lay.”  Sarah tells him to think of his soul.  As he holds the gun to her head, he struggles with the decision to kill her.  He sends her away, telling her not to make him regret his decision.

Arlene thanks Big John for his song, telling him “it was the shit.”

The vamps roam free under the light of day.  Eric breaks a stack of boxes containing the tainted Tru Blood while everyone watches. Vampires everywhere destroy the cases of Tru Blood.  Inside the chamber, the minions tell Bill that his time on earth has come to an end.  They summon him, but he isn’t going anywhere.  Outside, Jessica realizes that they left Bill behind, so she and James return to find him.  Elsewhere, Eric returns to the room where he’d watched Overlark infect Nora with Hep V.  He destroys the room as if he was exorcising his own demons.  Jessica and James find Bill in the room, and it looks like he’s talking to himself.  He says to stay away from him, and Jessica thinks he’s talking to her.  He tells Jessica that they’re coming for him.  James surmises that they can use their own blood to help save him, but when he offers his neck to Bill, Bill remains motionless.

The Marines prepare to offer tribute to their fallen comrade.  Four Marines fold the flag after a twenty-one gun salute.  Taps is played, and the crowd falls to pieces.  It’s an incredibly tender moment, and it gave me chills to watch.  The folded flag is offered to Arlene.  Sookie listens in to Arlene’s thoughts.  Arlene thinks that Terry might have been okay with the gun tribute.  “Good,” Sookie says out loud.

Jessica emerges from the silo, and Bill follows after her.  They all thank him for saving them, and Jessica triumphantly suggests that they take this party back to the mansion.  Ginger offers to let them feed from her.  CBV finds Jason and tells him that he will only drink from her.  They all walk away, but Pam stops when she senses Eric behind her.  They face each other.  “Don’t you dare leave me,” she says.  He looks at her, and then he disappears.  She gasps.

Wow.  I’m speechless.

That episode packed quite a punch.  Between the triumph of the vampires and the sorrow of the people at Terry’s funeral, this episode was a roller coaster ride of emotion.

You can only wonder what is going to happen next week.  Eric is full to the brim of Warlow’s powerful blood and unlike Bill, he didn’t have to share.  Pam could tell that her Maker was leaving…the question is where is he going.  What will happen to Sarah?  And where was Warlow during this whole thing?

We have one more episode, Truebies.  Anything can happen.  And it’s not over yet.

See you 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