by Sarabeth Pollock:
True Blood Recap: “Save Yourself”
Original Air Date (HBO): Sunday August 26, 2012
Season 5 Episode 12
Okay, please excuse me while I pick my jaw up from the floor (I feel like one of Michonne’s Pets from The Walking Dead, complete with a jawless face). Holy cow, Fang Nation…we knew big things would happen tonight, but did we see all of that coming??
As the shields come down, Russell is able to see the entrance to the fairy club and he slowly marches toward them. The fairies hit him with fairy lasers, which only serve to create a ticking sensation for Mr. Edgington, who tells them that they’re really just whetting his appetite. Sookie’s fairy lasers fizzle out. Looks like Little Miss Fairy used up too much of her powers on her late-night rant a few nights beforehand. Just as Russell reaches the club, Eric appears out of nowhere and grabs him, pressing a stake into his chest. Steve Newlin flees the scene. Russell starts to glow like the fairies, but then he comes back to reality. “Oh, fuck,” he moans, and then he explodes. Eric has the presence of mind to turn at the right moment so as to avoid the splatter. When he turns back, his eyes are full of joy. “Well, that felt even better than I thought it would,” he mutters. Wow, Russell Edgington is dead in the first two minutes of the finale….
Sookie leaves the safety of the club to check on Jason, who is still unconscious. Nora intercepts her, and Eric catches her before Nora can harm Sookie. Nora can’t get past the fairy scent and she wants to know what Sookie is. “She’s a waitress,” Eric deadpans, and he tells his sister that Sookie is not to be harmed. He explains that Sookie has saved his life more than once and her fairy blood led them to the field, which in turn allowed him to obtain vengeance. “Thank you for that, by the way,” he says to Sookie. His expression is tender as he regards Sookie. Hmm. He’s not as cold as we were led to believe at the beginning of the season. He forces Nora to swear on Godric that she won’t harm Sookie, and once she agrees, Sookie turns her attention to Jason. She smacks him a couple of times, and then he wakes up. Jason’s vision is blurry at first, and he mistakes Sookie for his mother, Michelle.
In New Orleans, Bill listens to Lilith’s voice calling to him. The guards bring his breakfast to his chamber, and Bill is angry to see that it is Sam. Can’t the guards tell the different between a human and a shifter? (yeah, can’t they?) He doesn’t seem to want to hurt Sam, but unfortunately Sam has seen too much, so he can’t be allowed to leave. Sam begs Bill to let him go, explaining that he and Luna are there to rescue Emma. Bill doesn’t relent, so Sam shifts into a fly and escapes through the ventilation shaft in the ceiling.
Eric and Nora go to Fangtasia. Nora is still wondering why she has never smelled fairies before. He says it was because she spent so much time trying to rise up through the Authority’s ranks; he teases that it must kill her knowing that Godric loved him more. She says it kills her that Eric thinks that was the truth. Tara tells Eric that the Authority got Pam. Eric doesn’t hesitate. He is going back to save her. Pam is his progeny, he explains, and so is Tara, so be nice to her. Nora argues that it’s senseless to risk so much for Pam, who was a worthless prostitute. She’s family, Eric points out. Tara drags an American Vampire league coffin into the room while Eric pulls stack after stack of cash out of a hiding place. She wants to know if the coffin/pods are light-tight. They look like Tupperware, she tells him. Eric assures her that they are virtually indestructible.
At Sookie’s house, Jason sees his parents’ ghosts sitting beside his sister. They tell him it’s a wonder that a fanger hasn’t killed his baby sister yet. Lord knows, they’re tried. Sookie can’t see the ghosts, so she asks if he needs to go to the emergency room. At that moment, an unholy triumvirate of Eric, Nora and Tara burst through the door. Sookie stares at Tara—it has been a while since they’ve seen each other. Jason seems to have forgotten that his good friend is a vampire now. Sookie sternly reminds Eric that he hasn’t transferred the title of the house back to her. Her father, Corbett, has trouble reconciling the fact that vampires own his mother’s house. Eric tells her that he will do it the next evening, if they’re still alive by then. He’s there to enlist Sookie’s help in returning to New Orleans to save Bill, Jessica and Pam. Tara reminds Sookie that she owes Pam. Jason doesn’t want Sookie to go with them, but she won’t listen. He exchanges colorful vampire/human insults with Eric before Sookie stops them from behaving like children. She knows that vampires were behind the Tru Blood factory bombings. Eric explains that Bill was behind the bombings, and they need to get to him before he loses himself completely. If there is anyone who can bring him back to his senses, it’s Sookie. Corbett points out that Jason would be able to kill lots of vampires if he went with them, so he volunteers. Eric thinks he’s being foolish, to which Jason replies, “If I want to be a fool then I will be a fool. That is my God-given right as an American.” Well said, Jason Stackhouse.
Bill has a big speech, rally the troop moment back in New Orleans. He chastises the guards for allowing a security breach, and he tells them that they must scour every inch of the underground lair for bugs. If they kill a bug and it doesn’t shift into a human, keep going. Too much information has been leaked to the humans, and they can’t afford for more information to leak now. He sends them off on their task, and then he turns his attention on Salome, who has been watching her man with pride. She wants to know where Kibwe is, and Bill, in an eerily calm voice, proceeds to tell her that he found Kibwe in the chalice room. Kibwe had also been “called” by Lilith, so Bill snapped his head off. Bill solicitously tells Salome that Lilith told him that she had chosen Salome, and his job was to protect her. Salome’s eyes widen. She’s playing right into whatever Bill’s game is. By the way, what is your game, Mr. Compton?
Luna is trapped in the holding cell with the other human blood bags. Puppy Emma is in a kennel in the adjoining cell. Sam buzzes in and gives her a rundown of the lair. He tells Luna that she has to leave, that Emma will be safe for now because she is Steve’s cherished pet.
Pam and Jessica are locked in a separate holding facility. Jessica tells Pam that Bill and Eric have become religious fanatics, on par with her uncle who started his own religion and told everyone that Santa didn’t exist because he didn’t want Jesus to have competition. Pam can’t believe that Eric would be a part of such madness. She and Eric have seen plenty of this kind of religious lunacy over the years…but it’s normally at the hands of humans. Maybe vampires are just as fucked up and stupid as humans, she muses. “Crazy feeds crazy,” Jessica points out.
In Mississippi, Alcide and his dad have a cookout. Jackson is barbequing the stag they took down together. When Alcide warns his dad not to overcook it, Jackson laughs and says that now that Alcide has killed a baby vamp, now he’s an expert on everything. Jackson reflects on how difficult it is as a parent to protect children from the shithole that is the world we live in, but it’s even harder to protect your kids when you demonstrate how crappy the world is through your own example. This moving soliloquy is old news for Alcide, who has heard it all before. The father-son soul-searching is interrupted when Martha tears into the camp. Rikki is in the back seat, screaming. JD and the pack force-fed her V, and Martha thinks that she may have overdosed.
Sam buzzes through headquarters with his multi-faceted bug vision. He spies Bill in bed with Salome.
Jason secures the coffins in the back of a pick-up truck. He isn’t exactly gentle with them, which draws a reprimand from Sookie. They may be vampires, but they’re friends. Jason doesn’t need vampires as friends. He wants to kill vampires. He and Sookie go inside the Stake house to stock up on vampire-killing supplies. Jason’s astral-projected parents follow them, praising him as he loads up his bag. It’s obvious that Jason wants to please his parents at all costs. There’s a war coming, he tells Sookie, and it’s “us against them.” They’re fair game. The time for tolerance is up.
Rikki is sweating blood. She’s in excruciating pain because they gave her liquid silver to force the V from her system. Jackson explains that the fastest route for the V is through her pores. Alcide realizes that the silver would have made his quest to become pack master a fair fight. Rikki pauses in her agony to ask Alcide why he left without telling her. He didn’t even call her. His absence (though abjured anyway) meant that she was alone when JD called the pack together and forced everyone to drink V. That was the worst thing that happened to her, but she said some of the younger girls weren’t so lucky. Martha changes her mind about JD having been a great man at one point. Jackson has an ace up his sleeve. If they want a fair fight, they need to stoop to JD’s level. It just so happens that Jackson has the best V available. Given that he’s not a friend of the pack, he needs to have some protection available to stay alive. So he’s been saving it for a rainy day…and it looks like the storm clouds are gathering….
Fly Sam buzzes into Steve’s room. He flits from item to item before settling upon Steve’s ID card. He returns to the cell and tells Luna that he has an idea.
Now, given that the majority of our cast is in New Orleans, you had to wonder what the heck was going on back at Merlotte’s. While the boss is away, looks like Lafayette is going to play…bartender. He serves up some Cajun margaritas (I just know the recipe will be in the soon-to-be released True Blood cookbook) that Holly finds amazing. She convinces Arlene to take one—she’s earned it—and Arlene agrees that they taste like candy. Lafayette has taken over the restaurant’s music as well, and he slowly dances away, doing a body roll reminiscent of the one that Rutina Wesley did at Comic Con in July. While they’re distracted, Andy enters with Maurella. She looks even more pregnant than before. Andy needs to talk to Holly, but before he leaves Maurella he brings her a box of salt, which she drains like it’s a Cajun margarita. Jane Bodehouse is at the bar (trust her to be at Merlotte’s as the world is falling apart…if she stays drunk enough, she’ll never notice what’s going on around her), and she asks Andy if they have ever had sex. This is bad timing for Andy, who is trying to talk to Holly to clear the air. Andy explains that he cares for Holly more than anyone he has ever known. Holly wants to know how many times he has seen Maurella, and as he starts to explain, Maurella screams. Her light broke. She’s going into labor.
Bill wakes the sleeping Salome up, calling her his “beautiful prophet.” They have sex. If only we knew what was going through Bill’s head.
Sookie tries to convince Jason that Bill isn’t evil. She knows him, and she knows he isn’t capable of being evil. Corbett tells Jason that his sister is “blinded by the truth.” Can we really know someone?” Jason wonders. Sookie believes that going through a life-altering experience can really help you to know someone on a deeper level. This isn’t convincing Jason, who goes through Sookie’s ill-fated relationships, as well as his own, before positing the theory that maybe people like them don’t deserve better. Eric interrupts before they get any further. They need to pull over.
Holly acts as a midwife as Maurella’s labor hits her hard. The odd thing is that her labor sounds more like an orgasm than hard labor. “Who knew watching an alien give birth could be so comforting?” Arlene muses. Lafayette sips his drink beside her. The weird stuff is always the best to watch, he points out. He’s one to know. Through it all, Maurella is quite calm—this is her 73rd pregnancy, after all. She hits a very high, very long note, and out pops a healthy baby girl, sans umbilical cord. Holly hands the baby to Andy, who beams like a proud papa even though the circumstances aren’t exactly normal. Holly turns back to Maurella, her eyes wide. Hold it—they’re not done.
Puppy Emma has been cooped up too long. Steve slips a collar on her and cradles her close. He tells Chelsea at the reception desk that he’s taking Emma for a walk. Chelsea jubilantly tells him that she passed her stats exam…and then she realizes that Steve isn’t speaking with a Southern accent. Steve haltingly explains that he likes to changes things up, sometimes, and sometimes it’s good to try new things to increase your fan base. O-kay. Something isn’t right here. He seems nervous that he has to use blood in order to access the elevator. Before we can think too much about it, Rosalyn bursts into the room and corners Steve at the elevator. He’d better be ready, she threatens. He has lots to clean up after the news leaked about the frat house massacre.
There’s another baby on the way at Merlotte’s. Arlene and Jane watch the births as if they’re at the Bon Temps High School football game. It’s like a spectator sport. There’s something interesting about Maurella’s moaning, though. Arlene sagely tells Jane that giving birth isn’t like that for normal red-blooded humans. After the fourth baby is delivered—another girl—Maurella sits up, smooths her dress back over her once again perfect form, and then she tells Andy that it’s his job to raise the girls, with the hope that at least half will make it to adulthood. Holly casts a stern look at Andy as he tries to grasp his new situation. “You’re a dick,” she tells him.
In the woods, JD and the pack are lynching a vampire. He cuts the vamp’s wrist and tells the group that the drinks are on him. Alcide appears, commanding them to stop. “I abjured you!” JD shouts. “Abjure this!” Alcide counters, launching himself at JD. Alcide is radiating power and anger. Martha prevents the other wolves from interfering. Jackson sees that Alcide has almost killed JD and tells him that he’s won…but Alcide isn’t done. He snaps JD’s neck. The pack bows to Alcide’s authority, and Alcide delivers an Oscar-worthy speech that what they’re doing in the woods stops tonight, and from now on it is wolves first. We respect ourselves. “Tonight we choose pack,” he proclaims, echoing his father’s words so many years ago.
Eric and Nora pull up to the security gate. Sookie, Tara and Jason are in the back, bound and gagged. The guard asks what they’re doing, and he says the blond smells amazing. Eric says the blond is his, the other human is food and the vampire is a mainstreamer. Bill is watching on the closed circuit monitor. He orders the guard to send them all through. Oh Bill. What are you up to?
Rosalyn vents to Steve about how things are going to hell within the Authority. Bill and Salome are constantly squirreled away in the bedroom. At least Roman kept things in order. Steve is prepped to go on the air to offer a statement on the recent vampire attacks. He panics when Rosalyn says he’s live on the air in five seconds. As the teleprompter rolls on, Steve becomes more and more impaired. Suddenly he vomits a stream of dark fluid (blood?) and then he shifts into Luna. Rosalyn watches in horror as Luna tells the camera that the vampires are holding humans captive as food. Rosalyn knocks the camera away and is about to attack Luna when Fly Sam flies into Rosalyn’s mouth…and when he shifts back into his human form he blows her up. Naked and goo-covered Sam jumps out of her body with a triumphant yell. It was awesome, and so unexpected. Great work, Sam! But just as he turns to look at Luna, Luna’s eyes roll up into her head and she passes out.
Bill watches Salome enter the chamber on his laptop, which has a feed of all of the cameras in the underground lair. He has a calculating expression as he watches her.
Salome offers her thanks to Lilith, promising that she will do Lilith’s bidding. Vampires will take their place as the rightful rulers of the earth.
Eric, Sookie and the gang ride the elevator down to the reception room. He tells Tara to cut power to the closed circuit monitors. The alert goes to Level 2.
Salome removes the vial and asks for Lilith’s guidance. She hears the alerts and stops before she drinks.
Commando Jason bursts from the elevator and takes Chelsea out with a single shot, and then he takes out several guards in rapid succession. Looks like his Fellowship and Sheriff training has come in handy. Once the guards are dead, Tara leads Sookie deeper inside. She pauses to warn Sookie that all of the blood has made the floor slippery.
Eric and Nora clear a room full of guards in a matter of seconds. “See what you’ve been missing?” Eric asks. They head to the Control Room.
Sookie and Tara head to the holding area. They find Jessica and Pam locked up. Pam demands to know what they’re doing, to which Tara replies that they’re getting her ass out of jail, bitch. They have to wait for Eric and Nora to disarm the locks, which, as Tara points out, beats Pam’s plan.
Eric and Nora have a lively conversation about how to trigger the doors. It’s hysterically obvious that neither is familiar with technology as they mull over the iPad’s many apps.
Jason takes out more guards. He’s really enjoying himself.
The locks disarm, and Sookie frees Jessica. Tara burns her hand while setting Pam free, then the two lock lips in a heated kiss. “Oh, okay,” Sookie says slowly. Behind her, Jessica grins. “I knew it!”
Bill enters Salome’s chambers and notes the ritualistic setting. Salome says the occasion calls for it. She acknowledges that she knows that Bill wanted this opportunity, but Lilith chose her because she’s stronger. This will be a story that Bill shares for many years to come. Bill worries that they don’t know what drinking the blood will do, and losing Salome would be a huge loss for the movement. It’s not a movement, Salome informs him, it’s the fucking rapture. Right. She says that Bill still has doubts in spite of all that he has seen, and that’s why she is stronger. “Apparently,” Bill replies. She drinks. Bill closes his eyes, then he gazes at her. Again I say, hmm.
Sookie warns Jason that they’re coming out. Jessica rushes out and tells Jason that she’s been an idiot and that she loves him. Jason pulls away. He could never love a vampire, he says. She is devastated. Eric and Nora return. Eric tells the group to reload, as there is bound to be guards waiting for them up on the street. He exchanges a brief hello with Pam as they get on the elevator. He and Sookie aren’t joining them. They have to save Bill.
Salome is on the floor, retching. Bill is seated nearby, and he explains with the soft tone of a psychopath that he knew she’s so eager for her rapture that she wouldn’t smell the silver he put in the vial. This whole thing was a competition, and Salome was too blinded by her desires to be a better judge of character. She is shocked that Bill would defile the Mother’s blood, but he grins at his inside joke. Of course he didn’t defile it. He straddles her and holds a stake over her heart. “Lilith chose wisely,” Salome whispers. He plunges the stake into her.
Eric and Sookie show up in time to stop Bill from going too far with Lilith’s blood. Bill asks Eric if Lilith called to him as well. Eric tells Bill that Lilith killed Godric and is nothing more than a false god who leaves nothing but destruction in her wake. Bill allowed them entry as an insurance policy in case he couldn’t kill Salome. Sookie tries to reason with Bill, but he’s too caught up to hear her. His mind seems to be made up. Perhaps Sookie is an abomination, just like the Vampire Bible states. He reminds Sookie that the night they met he had told her that vampires tend to hurt the ones they love the most. He tells her that maybe he’d been planning this from the start, manipulating events to come to this point. For years he has lived as a vampire apologizing for his nature. Lilith’s blood will free him from that purgatory. He quotes passages from the Vampire Bible that make his argument seem just. He drinks the blood and immediately starts to convulse. Eric sweeps Sookie behind him protectively. Blood seeps from Bill’s eyes. Slowly, he starts to melt into a puddle of blood.
Sookie rushes into Eric’s embrace, crying. Initially, Eric is just as shocked as she is. But then he notices movement on the floor. Suddenly, Bill rises from the puddle, naked and covered in blood just like Lilith was. He stares at them for a moment, and then his fangs pop out.
Eric shoves Sookie out of the room. “RUN!” he cries, and he takes off behind her.
And with that, Season 5 fades to black.
Before we wrap up this fantastic season, we must pause to wish our very own Eric Northman, Alexander Skarsgard, a very happy 36th birthday (August 25). What a crazy episode. So much is at stake leading into next season. Is Jason really having visions of his parents, or is something else going on? What ever happened to the Brujo inside of Lafayette (and was he responsible for the Cajun margaritas)? Where was Terry? Why did Maurella leave the four girls with Andy, and what will happen with his relationship with Holly? Where did the real Steve Newlin go? Where are Luna, Sam and Emma? What will become of the Mississippi wolf pack now that Alcide is in charge? Will we see more of Jackson Herveaux? And what the hell is going to happen with Eric, Sookie, and Bill?
So many questions, Fang Nation, and we have nine whole months to ponder the answers. I’m very eager to hear your thoughts, as always. See you in June 2013!
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DarkMedia contributor Sarabeth Pollock is an avid writer, reader, and pop culture fan. Follow her on Twitter at @SarabethPollock and check out her blog at http://sarabethpollock.wordpress.com.
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