True Blood: "Gone, Gone, Gone" Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

Vampire attacks are way up, human retaliation's on the rise and Sookie...kills a newly-vampiric Coroner Spencer with a pair of chopsticks. Yes, "Gone, Gone, Gone" was a bit of a mess mess mess, but it was also probably the most ridiculously quotable episode of the season so far. And by quotable, I mean True Blood quotable; the sassy, filthy silly kind that sound like they should be followed by a z-snap. From Tara doing an homage to Butterfly McQueen ("I don't know nothin' about birthin' no baby vampires!") to Hoyt's mama calling Jessica a "cheeto-headed tramp" to Pam using the phrase "d***head dipped in afterbirth," this episode was primarily played for s***s and giggles.

Bill was on FaceTime, Russell and Steve danced to "Teenage Dream," and some glyph expert had an ex-wife who named her toes. Yes, it was a happening. Unfortunately, this episode was also all over the map; as demonstrated by Eric and Nora seeing visions of both Lilith and Godric and Russell maniacally revealing that he doesn't give a crap about Lilith and the council. Yes, I understand that Lilith killing Godric represented her blood presence overtaking his, but it was still loopy. And while Russell may have seemed completely anti-religion back when he killed Roman, he'd since fallen in with the flock. And if he was merely faking it the whole time well, that wasn't clearly established. It really just seemed like he had a tantrum. One where his accent changed. His accent did change, right? To something Eastern Euro? I'm not the only one who heard it, right?

On the upside, Russell directly addressed the fact that he'd been wrongfully sidelined when he's clearly stronger than any of the other vampires. Also, he's circled back to his unfinished fairy blood business from Season 3. Which, when you combine with his wolf pack, might mean that we could get some payoff/closure regarding stuff from two years back. True Blood has the strangest ways of leaving things off in an episode, doesn't it? Russell running off and all the other vampires looking confused. Sam and Luna in mid-Emma heist. It always feels weird. Like when we left Sam and that one "Obama" in mid-hospital fight a few episodes back.

And I like that Sam and Luna going after Emma, as well as Luna being so mad that she wants to tell the world about shifters and wolves, but didn't it seem weird to have their panicky, planning-to-get-close-to-Steve scene after the scene where Sam stopped the dude at the diner from shooting Jess? Was he just there working a shift while Emma was off and kidnapped? Did he just tell Luna to hang tight by the computer while he went to run a night shift? Despite having a business to run, wouldn't Emma being taken by a vampire be priority number one? Sam basically sacrificed his life for Luna and Emma in the season premiere.

The star of this clumsy episode, however, was Jess. Man, Deborah Ann Woll is so good and I find myself wanting to follow her story, and follow her as the protagonist, more than any other character on the show. And as much as I'm over Hoyt and his moping, the scene (which still felt a bit odd in the midst of all the kookiness of the episode) where Hoyt tearfully asked Jessica to "Eternal Sunshine" him with her glamour powers was pretty good. I mean, there's nothing that will make you feel more like crap than someone legitimately wanting to forget you forever. That scene, plus Jason pulling over Hoyt to say goodbye (in a way), definitely felt like a goodbye to Hoyt. Which is fine. Hoyt's entire persona was based on his story with Jess. It's time for him to go. And it was a good end. Now I hope that, you know, he doesn't come back. Until at least next season at least. Let it the finality of the scenes be somewhat final.

I still don't really buy Bill as a villain. Even after he app-staked Molly. But watching him bible-thump in front of Jess (who's no stranger to bible-thumping) did help paint him up as creep. I think Jess now being among the crazy, brainwashed AVLers gets us a few steps closer to this case getting closed. And because of her past relationship with Bill, we'll be able to accept him more as a changed vampire. Again though, I'd much rather see Jess figure all this out and save that day than Sookie, who's still trying to figure out her fairy mystery. At this point, I'm more invested in Jess's relationship with bad Bill than Sookie's. And I guess we can count Eric among the glassy-eyed now too. With his vision of Godric no decimated, I can't figure out how he could be faking any of this. Which is strange when you think of this being the second season now, in a row, that Eric's been under some sort of mind-control.

Pam and Tara still amuse me, especially since they already managed to put an end to Sheriff Douchenozzle. It was fun to see the difference in their ideologies; with Pam wanting to go on the run and Tara wanting to stay and fight. Right now, these two, plus Jess, are the only sort of "front line" the show's got against the religious nuts, and I'd be more than fine if it stayed that way.

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and IGN. WARNING: No Nudity!

Source : ign[dot]com

True Blood: "In the Beginning" Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

"TMI, Coroner Spencer."

Okay, Deputy Kevin. You got me with that line. Pretty derned funny.

I may have no idea where this season is headed, in any of its stories, but "In the Beginning" earned a lot of points tonight with some really bold, silly moves. In particular, Bill, Eric, Russell and the Vampire Authority tripping balls on Lilith Blood, rampaging down Bourbon Street and then massacring an entire karaoke bar. Sure, the special effects for the arrival of the perky-nippled Lilith left something to be desired, but I enjoyed watching Bill and Eric gorge on the blood of the innocent. I'm sad to see Russell not quite turn out to be the nefarious leader that I hoped he'd be, but he was still totally fun to watch.

Yes, Russell, who must have been faking his whole "f*** Lilith" spiel, is actually a Lilith convert. Which also means that he's sadly now "one of the herd." Lumped in with the surviving Chancellors, turncoats Salome and Nora, the burned face prisoner and Steve Newlin ("I'm like a tree in the wind"). No, it didn't make much sense that the opening scene showed the Authority troopers capturing Russell again since we were just going to see him free as a bird in the next scene, but everything wound up taking a turn for the pleasantly bats***. And it was cool to see Godric pop up right at the end and essentially un-brainwash, Eric; showing him that Lilith wasn't even a real, corporeal figure.

But if there's one thing I'll retain from this season, it's Eric gleefully carrying Bill on his back as they gallivanted around the French Quarter.

Oh, and Russell cutting in and singing "You Light Up My Life."

And Godric wasn't the only old face to return. Bud Dearborne! That's right, William Sanderson popped up, complete with a mistress and an experimental male enhancement ointment. Also, in a mostly unnecessary scene between Arlene and Holly, once again talking about the men-folk in their lives, we got to see Jesus on Arlene's wedding video. Oh, and a happy Hoyt and Jessica. Yes, I said mostly unnecessary because the scene gave us one important thing. It had Holly telling Arlene that Terry's curse didn't sound crazy. Because they're on True Blood! Or, as she put it, "after all the kinds of things we've been through." And so we all got thrown a small bone there, despite the fact that we still had to catch up with Terry and Patrick in a field again. Arguing about the same stuff. And staring into the absurd face of the Ifrit, which gave off a ridiculous video game boss laugh.

The whole "Sam tracking down the shooters" story was fine, although it was strange to end it with him tackling one of the guys and then just cutting away with still minutes left in the episode. Also, both Hoyt and Jason really ramped up their vampire-hate in this one, with Hoyt joining up with the shooters ("Hate groups is about more than hate") and Jason getting into a really heated argument with Jessica that ended with her biting him and him shooting her in the freakin' head. Again, it was a big move that gave Jason something to do other than the all the wallowing he's been doing since the second episode of the season, but it also felt very forced. That the two of them could fly off the handle so quickly and do things that could have killed the other one was a bit much.

Will vampire-hate be the thing to bring Jason and Hoyt back together? It's interesting now that both Jason and Hoyt, and Bill and Eric, are now kind of on the dark side of things; headed down a path of becoming this season's antagonists. It would be funny if, after all the crap I've talked about the stupid-ass Ifrit, it turns out to be the thing that saves everyone at the end, incinerating all the evil-doers in a cloud of smoke and ash.

The scene with Lettie Mae and Tara was typical, but I did like the fact that it lead to Tara hugging Pam a her new surrogate mother ("In a hundred years from now, you won't even remember her"). Also, while I was never really invested in any of the Lafayette/Brujo stuff, things got particularly gory and nasty when Lafayette confronted Don Bartolo. Any ceremony that has the words "My wife will drink the blood I draw from your brain" is bad news. I'm not sure why Bartolo's wife turned on him and killed him, but the whole scene was sufficiently creepy.

I'm not sure what Nora and Salome were hoping to achieve by drinking the blood of Lilith, or if their drunken, murderous actions will actually have national consequences, but I'd like to see this story get a big larger. Back when they had Russell kill the news anchor on live TV, they quickly back-peddled and had Russell go into a depressive seclusion. So things never reached a boiling point, on a national scale, like they should have. Maybe this time things will expand out past the Mason-Dixon line.

Sookie still remains one of the most boring parts of this season, and even though her scene with Sam was fine, I just don't care about her or her need to feel normal right now. Even her shot at hooking up with Alcide is over and he's now moved on to the hot wolf chick in his pack, Rikki. I guess when you start off a TV series, or a movie, with a girl being defined by the supernatural beast she falls instantly in love with, it's hard to want to follow her on her own.

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com