True Blood Recap: “Somebody That I Used to Know”

by Sarabeth Pollock:

True Blood Recap: “Somebody That I Used to Know”
Original Air Date (HBO): Sunday July 29, 2012
Season 5 Episode 8

Hello Fang Nation!  Have your heads stopped spinning yet?  Before we begin, I want to note that tonight’s episode was directed by our very own Vampire Bill Compton, Stephen Moyer.  At the True Blood panel at the San Diego Comic Con, the cast sang Moyer’s praises as an accomplished director.  Alexander Skarsgard was particularly impressed that he starred in the episode, directed it, and had time for all of the editing while learning the script for the next episode.  In my estimation, he did a fantastic job.

Tonight’s episode started in the hospital.  Andy has arrested the orderly who would have killed Luna.  “Enjoy prison, asshole,” Sam says as he is escorted away.  But the orderly tells Sam that there is a hunger building out there and the hunting isn’t going to stop.  Deputy Kevin is posted outside Luna’s door, but there’s something wrong with her.  She seems more agitated than usual, but she finally relents and allows Sam to help her into bed while he heads to the station, assuring her that he’s “on this.”  Luna gets up and starts pacing her room, asserting that she isn’t helpless.  She gasps in pain…and shifts into Sam!  “Fuck me,” she gasps before passing out.

In New Orleans, the vampires come in from a long night of partying.  They have Mardi Gras beads and blood smeared all over their faces.  Eric is the last to come out of the elevator, and while he still has blood on his face, it’s clear that he has realized that something isn’t right with the situation.    Steve Newlin is riding the Russell Edgington pony, and Bill and Salome are making puppy eyes.  Eric grabs Bill and asks “what the hell just happened.”  Bill says they were in the presence of Lilith, to which Eric replies that they were “as high as fucking kites.”  The look in Eric’s eyes is revealing—he knows that he may have lost his ally, Bill, who seems to be caught up in all of this.

In the meantime, Sookie is firing off laser beams into the night sky around her house.  When Jason moves to stop her, she shoots him with a fairy beam (he’s all right—she shot him in the head…).  She is dumping her fairy light, and Jason wants to know why she’d give up her powers.  She tells him he can’t understand what it’s like to hear voices and be chased by vampires and be in a bank and hear that the guy in line wants to suck her toes.  She can’t bear having her parents’ deaths on her hands.  Sookie wants to be normal.    He points out that if Sookie was normal, she never would have met Bill.  Her love was real, he says, and that’s more than most people will ever get.  She got to hear Gran’s voice one more time, which is something he wishes he could do.  She has their parents inside of her, so now they need to focus on finding out how they died.  He makes her promise not to spray her powers all over the yard because those powers might help them find the murderer.  And just as we fall in love with sweet, sensitive, big brother Jason, he asks if the thing at the bank really happened.  Sookie nods gravely.  It did, she confirms, and it was Mike Spencer.

Luna/Sam is in a full panic, realizing that Deputy Kevin already saw Sam leave.  She rushes out of the room, past a very confused Kevin, with the hospital gown flapping open to reveal Sam’s derriere.  I love her creepy voice—it’s Sam’s voice with Luna’s femininity laced through it.  She steals some clothes and takes off.

Jessica is dancing next to the pole at Fangtasia.  She’s dressed in her Goth finery and she attracts a man who claims that his blood is like a milkshake, one that doesn’t need a straw.  He sets the bait, and Jessica bites.  They leave together.

Nora and Salome, sitting together on the couch, ponder the miracle that they have witnessed.  Rosalyn admits she had never believed the stories until that moment (she’s laying in Kibwe’s lap getting a foot rub from Nigel).  Russell paces excitedly, proclaiming that “God has the most beautiful tits I have ever seen.”  He continues to say that he has never been devout, but after watching Lilith rise from that pool of blood while he drank the blood from the bride while “You Light Up My Life” played in the background…well, he’s a believer now.  “Praise Lilith, praise Jesus, praise Moses’s cock!” he cries exultantly.  Nigel excitedly tells the group that for the first time in a decade, he ate a child (remember, he was the one locked in the Authority prison cell for killing children; his face is scarred from all of the UV light treatments he received).  Nora calls it all a sign, and it serves as confirmation that Roman was supposed to die.  Salome calls for Steve to procure more humans; they will need food while they plan the next move (Nigel says that Lilith wants him to eat a baby, so one is ordered).  Eric bows out, claiming that he had enough fun for the evening.  Bill doesn’t follow him.  Nora watches them leave with a thoughtful and calculated expression.

Alcide and Rikki finally give us the sex scene we’ve been lacking this season.  It’s quite the scene, and I’ll just say that if I leave it up to your imagination, whatever you come up with is probably right….  In a humorous break, Alcide asks if she wants to be his girlfriend.  “Maybe,” Rikki replies.

Bill is summoned into Salome’s room.  She has a woman chained to her bed and she commands Bill to feed on her.  She cites Lilith’s will as the reason he will feed.  The woman says she has children, and Bill refuses, stating that he will not be bullied and that he cannot feed on her because he fathered children.  Salome challenges him—if he loved his human children, why didn’t he make them vampires?  Bill flashes back to Baton Rouge in 1910.  His daughter Sarah is on her deathbed.  She can’t understand why Bill hasn’t aged, and he explains that he has learned the secret of immortality.  She begs for the gift, but he refuses her.  She can feel her body rotting (consumption?) and she begs.  Bill returns to the present and Salome continues to push him.  Bill settles down by the woman and feeds while Salome offers thanks to Lilith.

The hate group takes Hoyt to a cabin out in the woods.  They lead him inside where he finds that they captured Jessica.  They have her bound with silver chains and they offer a gun to Hoyt so that he can kill her and heal the wounds she gave him.  Hoyt is locked in with her, and he won’t be released until he kills her.

Jason and Sookie go to the fairy club to get help from Claude.  They want to know how to use her secret powers to hopefully find out who killed their parents.  Claude cares about Sookie and Jason, citing a family bond, and he promises to help them.  He asks to meet them at the bridge where their parents died at noon the following day.

Lafayette is on his way home in Jesus’s car.  When he stops abruptly, a first aid kit falls into his lap along with Jesus’s ID.  There is a vial of V inside, which Lafayette uses to heal his bloody lips.  As they heal, Jesus appears in the passenger seat.  Lafayette asks if he’s real, and he smiles and offers his hand to Lafayette.  When Lafayette pulls away from the side of the road, he’s the only one visible in the car.  Was Jesus there?  We don’t really know.

At the station, Andy and Sam interrogate the orderly.  He isn’t offering up any information, despite Andy’s threat to make a date for the Big Dance with his taser and the guy’s balls.  Sam wants to use his own methods of persuasion, so Andy leaves to make coffee while Sam shifts into a cobra.  The guy sings.  Outside, Andy is about to go back in when Sam walks in.  Only it’s not Sam, it’s Luna.  They go back into the interrogation room and Sam is stunned to see himself walk in behind Andy.  Luna can’t change back, she tells him.  Andy rolls his eyes and says that he hates
this town.  Before they’d entered, their prisoner informed him that the group had captured Jessica and he knew where they were holding her.  Luna/Sam’s presence certainly complicates matters, but they have to find Jessica.

Sookie and Jason meet Claude and his sisters (all of whom have names tied to “Claude) at the bridge.  Claude explains that they have the ability to inhabit Michelle Stackhouse’s memories.  (It’s all very mystical/technical and ties into the fact that Albert Einstein was a Halfling like Sookie)  They join hands to boost the fairy signal, and Sookie journeys back to the night her parents died.  She can even smell her mom’s perfume.  Sookie sees the shadowy man on the bridge and watches as he kills Corbett Stackhouse.  After Michelle is killed, Sookie bonds with the vampire’s memories and experiences it when he smells her fairy blood. “Smells so good,” they both say.  Claudine bursts in and blasts him, telling him to leave them alone.  Sookie is sent flying backwards out of the circle.

Jessica begs Hoyt to take the chains off.  Hoyt is clearly conflicted.  The other guys pointed out that she’s already dead, but he had feelings for her.  He tells her that she broke her heart when he cheated on him.  He loved her.  Jessica is crushed.  She tried to love him again.  She prayed for it.  But, ultimately, the feeling never returned.  In the living room, Reggie hears the gun go off and he rushes in.  Hoyt is standing in the middle of the room.  Jessica appears from behind the door and kills Reggie.  It’s daytime, though, and she can’t leave.  Hoyt promises to find help, but it’s clear that he doesn’t have any feelings for her anymore.

When Lafayette arrives at his house, he’s accosted by Arlene and Holly, who need his help.  Lafayette insists that he’s about to go smoke a blunt in the bathtub, but they persist.  They explain Terry’s predicament and ask him to perform a phony ritual so that he’ll think the curse has been lifted.  Even if he’s off his meds, it will help him to see that he’s not in any real danger.  Lafayette decides on the fly that he isn’t going to help anyone for free anymore, so he demands $300.

Sam, Sam and Andy break into the cabin in the woods.  Jessica is understandably confused by the two Sams, but she is more concerned that they didn’t see Hoyt.  Where did he go?

Claude explains to Sookie and Jason that Sookie joined memories with the vampire who killed their parents, and that isn’t allowed.  The Elders won’t be pleased, he says.  They must proceed with caution.  As Jason and Claude discuss the situation, Sookie recalls that Claudine called the mystery vampire by name.  She called him “Warlow” (or something like that…I’m sure we’ll learn more soon…).

Back at Fangtasia, Tara is working the bar when her old schoolmate Tracy comes in.  She is shocked to see that Tara is a vampire.  Now Tara is a “member of 2 minorities,” she exclaims.  This Tracy chick is clearly the stereotypical mean girl.  She taunts Tara and flaunts her lavish lifestyle.  Tara gives her the wrong drink on purpose, which leads to another Tracy barb.  When Tara threatens her, Pam steps in and apologizes on Tara’s behalf.  Tracy laughs it off, saying that Tara was never able to connect with people.  Tara leans forward and informs Tracy that she was “connected enough with her boyfriend to fuck him.”  Pam’s eyebrow raises, but she keeps Tara at bay.

In Shreveport, the battle over the next pack master is about to begin.  JD is described as the father of nine wolves, and he was also Marcus’s godfather.  Alcide has shown legendary strength and his father was the pack master in Jackson, Mississippi.  However, instead of fighting to the death, JD announces that they will hunt.  The quarry is a college student on the cross country team, so he’ll have a fair shot at getting away with his two-minute head start.  Alcide refuses to kill a human, which is an automatic forfeit.  But JD plans to hunt the guy anyway, sending him running out of the barn.  Alcide tries to stop him, but JD grabs Alcide’s neck and throws him to the ground.  This can only end badly.

Eric finds Nora praying in the chamber that holds the vial of Lilith’s blood.  He tells her that this isn’t her, that everything around her is clouding her mind.  Lilith doesn’t exist, he says, and Salome was the one who created this path that they’re following.  He says that Godric was in the bar, and he didn’t approve of what was going on.  Eric swore to protect Nora and he has loved her for 600 years.  He can’t allow her to continue.  Nora shocks the hell out of him by pointing out that Godric was weak toward the end of his life and that he blasphemed.  “Fuck Godric,” she says.  Eric attacks her, and Nora calmly says that Lilith will show the way.

Sam cradles Luna/Sam in his arms at Luna’s house.  He/She’s stretched out across his lap, telling Sam in  his/her disturbingly feminine voice that he/she’s going to die.  Sam insists that Luna won’t die.  He kisses his/her forehead, causing her to shift back into her true form.  She immediately rolls over and pukes.  This has been quite the season for vomit.

At Fangtasia, Pam calls Tara over to talk about her attitude.  But she doesn’t take her to the office; rather she leads Tara downstairs to the subterranean chamber.  There, Tracy is chained and gagged.   Pam informs Tara that Tracy is now hers.  She is proud of the way Tara handled herself after the callous things that Tracy said to her.  Tara is completely taken aback.  Pam smirks.  Tara hasn’t known her long enough to know that her mad and happy faces are the same.  Pam glamours Tracy into worshipping Tara.  Pam leaves, and Tracy offers her blood to Tara, who doesn’t hesitate to take her up on the offer.

Back in the forest, JD catches up with the college student, but before he can harm him, Alcide tackles him.  They fight.  “I am done with you,” JD proclaims, about to bash Alcide’s head with a rock.  Martha and Rikki stop him.  She tells JD that he used to be better than this.  He blows her off and leaves to celebrate his victory.  He tells them to find a new pack.

Arlene and Holly have set Lafayette up at a round table to prepare for the séance.  Terry and Patrick arrive (when did they get back from South Dakota?) and ask where the fire was.  Looks like Arlene tricked them to make sure that they’d show up.  Patrick realizes what is happening and wants to leave, but they eventually agree to stay provided that they blow out the candles.  Everything seems pretend until Lafayette sees the Iraqi woman’s spirit. The candles ignite and Holly says that it smells like ozone, which signifies the presence of spirits.  The Iraqi woman enters his body, and when she leaves Lafayette announces that she will lift the curse provided that Terry kills Patrick.  One of them has to die so that the other may live.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Hoyt walks along a road when he notices a truck approaching.  The truck has an American flag on the grill.  He’s miserably lost, Hoyt explains to the shadowy driver.  The driver answers by pointing a gun at his head.

Sookie is busy drying her hair when she has a vision.  An image of Warlow the vampire appears before her.  “I’m coming for you,” he says.  “You are mine.”  This doesn’t look good at all.

In New Orleans, the group meets to discuss how to break down the mainstreaming sects that will prevent the Sanguinista movement from growing.  Russell flirts openly with Steve, talking about Hong Kong; Steve says that he’s never been to there but he always liked Kung Pao chicken.  Rosalyn and Kibwe throw out various ideas for taking care of the foreign mainstreamers.  Bill suggests that they use Tru Blood to break the American mainstreamers.  If they bomb the five Tru Blood factories, which will force the mainstreamers to feed on humans.  Salome and Nora love this idea.  Meanwhile, Eric is doing the math.  He can’t figure out which side Bill is on.  “What are you doing?” he asks.  Bill casts a sidelong glance at Eric.  “Evolving.”

OK, so the Sanguinista movement is rising fast and it looks like Bill is on board the crazy train.  Poor Eric seems to be on his own.  Perhaps he will join forces with Sookie.  Will Alcide fight for control of the Shreveport pack or will he form his own pack?  Have you noticed that Sookie hasn’t given much thought to baby vampire Tara?  Didn’t Luna seem a little neurotic?  Wasn’t Pam kick ass tonight?  I don’t even have words to describe how excited I am about the next episode.  The rest of the season is going to be amazing.  Fang Nation, I have no more words.  Please leave me a comment or contact me on Twitter to let me know what you think!

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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.