True Blood Ep 5.2 "Authority Always Wins"

Once again, this is a review of the episode so there will be SPOILERS!  Also, I'm posting this a bit late, since the next episode airs in 1 1/2 hours.

I said it in Episode 1, Sookie do not let Tara in your house!  She can't be trusted.  What's the first thing she does, but goes about destroying the house that Eric just paid to have redone.  She's got to throw one of her patented Tara Temper Tantrums.  The last time she was in the house she built a nest out of Gran's bed for an ostrich egg.  So, I just wanted to get that "I told you so" out of the way.

The Authority.  Pretty much exactly what I thought it would be, an underground corporation of sorts.  I loved that they got off the elevator into the generic corporate America lobby with muzak.  I feel for whoever was being asked to report to the ex-sanguination chambers.  That can't be good for a vampire.  We also got to see the old portrait of Roman, which to me looked like 16th century Italian.  Maybe that's because I have been watching The Borgias the last few weeks.  How long has he been a dominant figure in vampire politics?  Bill, Eric, and Nora are put into cells next to a "fucktarded" vampire who eats newborns, and are quickly introduced to the Authority's tactics, which would be torture.  They are flooded with UV lights and burned.  As they clamored to put their arms up in protection I wondered why they didn't grab the blanket off the bed, or hell, just get under the bed.  Neither would've worked for Eric since he's gigantic, and they probably would've been burned regardless, I just wondered...  Then they are separated and put into different interrogation rooms hooked up via IV to liquid silver.  Fun, fun, fun!  I have to say that the Authority's attempts to tell each of them that the other one sold them out was total folly from the beginning.  Eric and Bill, though sort of enemies in the past, would never resort to selling the other one out, at least not unless it involved Sookie.  We don't see what Nora goes through, but Eric and Bill both stick to their guns saying they know nothing.  I'm not quite sure how I feel about the reason they have been brought in and tortured.  The Authority believes they are sympathetic to the Sanguinista movement, which believes that humans should be farmed as food for vampires and nothing more.  We find out that apparently humans were not created in God's image, vampires were, and their Jesus is actually a woman named Lilith.  They produce a bible and ask if Bill believes in the literal translation of the text which actually supports the Sanguinista movement.  Bill and Eric both say no, so then they are pumped full of silver.  So, the Authority is against farming humans and wants to co-exist with humans, but follow Lilith who is in the vampire bible that believes humans are just food, and when Bill and Eric protest this belief (which is what the Authority kind of wants), they get tortured? Maybe I missed some important line which helped this all make sense.  After interrogation we got to see the rest of the Authority, who all got a drink of Roman's blood, so I'm guessing he's from Lilith's line.  But none for Nora, Eric, or Bill.  The Authority seems to be a little diverse.  I love that Peter Mensah (Oenemeus from Spartacus) is on there and I hope we see more of him.  There is a little kid as well.  Who the hell turned a snippy little kid and why?  As Roman made a campy speech that was great, he makes us wonder whether he will stake Bill or Eric, and he stake's neither.  At the 11th hour they reveal that Russell Edgington is alive and free and probably moments away from reeking havoc.  Bill's plan is for Eric and Bill to capture him.

Poor Pam goes back to Fangtasia and even though she's in a Walmart sweatsuit and covered in dirt, her first priority is to put on some lipstick before calling and pleading with Eric's voicemail.  Will she find out that the Authority has Eric?  We finally get to see flashback's of the beginnings of she and Eric.  I'm not sure how I feel about them making her a prostitute or Madame from San Francisco, but I'll go with it.  She doesn't seem to be unaware of vampires.  She finds one of her favorite girls drained, and with the amount of bite marks on the girl Pam had to know.  Then she gets accosted in an alley, and who comes to her rescue but Eric in an adorable top hat and coat with tails.  He makes a bloody mess of the man and Pam hardly seems to flinch, giving creedance to my belief that she knows about vampires.  Eric even says she seems un-disturbed by what he's just done, and her answer is that she has seen a lot of dead bodies.  She asks who Eric is and he smiles that Eric smile and disappears.

Continuing with the citizens of Shreveport, the werewolf pack continues eating their old packmaster.  That's just really gross, why are we making werewolves cannibalistic?   The wolves seem to be on 2 different wavelengths.  "Redneck guy" is totally against Alcide as packmaster, while "hot chick" and Marcus's mother seem to want to follow him.  "Redneck guy" continues to try and pick a fight with Alcide (does he have a death wish?) who wants no part of being packmaster or the pack.  Can we keep having Alcide growl because it's really funny?  Luna takes Sam home and appears to be cleaning him up and not doing a good job, when who shows up but Mama in Law.  She wants to be part of Emma's life (understandably) and is adamant that Emma is a wolf and not a shifter.  She thinks she will need a pack one day (turns out sooner rather than later).  Luna is totally against it and starts to show her crazy side.  Thanks Sam for calling her "psycho" because that was the perfect adjective for how she was acting.  Sam agrees that Emma may need a pack and Luna basically tells him that no matter where their relationship goes, he will not have any say in Emma's life, and if he doesn't like it he can get out, then she kicks him out.  I can see why her and Marcus were together at one time.  We are definitely going to see a new side to her.  Later, noise comes from Emma's room.  I don't know what her normal playing sounds like, but it must be pretty loud since Luna has no idea what she's about to walk in on.  A cute puppy wolf in a nightgown, she hasn't even hit puberty yet!

Back in Bon Temps we discover that Terry has sleep-walking tendencies (no surprise there) that he doesn't remember.  Me thinks he is the one starting the fires!  This sparks Arlene to go visit the Sergeant and try to find out more about what Terry's tour was like.  Terry finds her there and she tells them both that whatever's going on needs to be fixed.  After confiding in Jason that he's had sex, Andy and Jason find Debbie's car, and Jason remembers Sookie telling him that Debbie was crazy.  Of course Jason may never put 2 and 2 together, but he looked great in that utility belt.  Andy finds a vial of V and gives it to Jason.  Yay Andy!  Jason later visits Hoyt, who has moved back in with his mother.  Hoyt tells him to leave and Maxine puts on a great show of telling Jason he's horrible while squeezing in a thank you for splitting up Hoyt and Jessica and that he can expect a pie.  Steve Newlin visits Jessica, to buy Jason.  I love that guy, he is hilarious.  He and Jessica fight where he resorts to hair-pulling, and when Jessica says her daddy is the king, Steve says "not anymore".  He seems to know a lot...  Just adding my theory that he is somehow connected to Russell Edgington being freed.  Jessica finally gets tired of her college keg buddies and kicks them out (can that story line be over now?).  And Lafayette and Sookie work on capturing Tara so they can put her in the hidey-hole for the day, while Sookie visits the Stake House to get some vampire babysitting gear.  She get's back to hear Lafayette down in the hidey-hole contemplating staking Tara.  She stops him and tells him that Jessica had a hard time transitioning as well and that Tara will be okay.  Tara wakes up, tells them she will never forgive them and runs away.

Did I leave anything out?  I've read that in episode 8 there will be a sex scene that is more gratuitous than any other shown on True Blood.  While I know most of you are betting on Alcide and Sookie, it ain't gonna happen this season.  Even though he abjured Debbie he is not going to be happy with what happened.  He won't hate Sookie, but he will blame himself.  My first instinct was that it would be Tara and Pam, but now I'm starting to think it may be a flashback of Eric and Pam.  So both of my theories involve Pam.  I also can't wait to see who Jessica meets who smells so good, I'm guessing his name is Claude...  We shall see!

SPOILER ALERT!  (If you have not watched this episode, then do not read post)

I'm so excited that True Blood is back!  I'm still reeling from last night's episode and need to watch it again, but wanted to post my thoughts.  If you read this and have not watched the episode, do not leave a comment about being spoiled.  You have been warned twice now.

So, we started right where we left off.  Tara's head was half blown off, Debbie Pelt is "definitely dead" (you bookworms will get that), and Bill and Eric have narrowly missed the True Death, instead ending Nan Flannigan and her miscreants.  As I'm sure some of you were, I was very excited that Tara got shot.  Nothing against Rutina Wesley (I think she's great), but Tara whips out a few good lines every season and then slumps back into her "whoa is me, I hate my life, all vampires are evil because I hooked up with one suicidal one".  Of course Bill and Eric feel Sookie's fear, but as Eric put it "F--- Sookie, she just dumped both of us".  I feel Eric on this one, I am also biased as he can do no wrong in my eyes.  Remember that Eric is 1,000 years old and pretty much detached himself from human emotion in order to survive.  He let's his guard down (not totally his choice since he was under a witch's spell) and gives his heart to Sookie.  Five minutes later she tells Bill and Eric that she can't be with either of them.  Bill has already had a year to get over Sookie, and let's face it, Bill is a little more sensitive than Eric is, plus they had their own immortal butts to save!  "The Authority" is now after them, and Russell Edgington is back (though they don't know about that yet).  We'll get back to Russell in a minute.

I'm still trying to figure out what kind of trunk Bill and Eric were put into.  It was most likely built for vampires.  Not smart vampires.  They escape to realize their "captor" is Eric's vampire sister, which leads to a biblical reunion that poor Bill has to endure.  Only on TB can someone have sex with their sister and it be okay, but she's not his biological sister, she's his vampire sister meaning they share the same maker.  You can only sleep with your "kin" if you live in HotShot and turn into a panther at least once a month.  Apparently their reunion was heard because the "one true Vampire Authority" caught up with them.

Since Bill is "out of town" and all of the Louisiana sheriff's are dead except for Eric, Jessica is left in charge of the kingdom.  Is it just me or is Louisiana totally up for a vampire coup now?  I think I would have called Pam in, but that's me...  Jessica's doing a great job taking care of things, Rock Band with college kids is totally what the area needs right now.  She's left poor Jason totally in love with her being called "girlfriend fucker" by his one time friends (is that all they could come up with?).  Jason has another suitor to contend with as well.  The newly created vampire Steve Newlin  shows up at his door, glamours him into letting him in, and professes his undying love for Jason Stackhouse.  That was worth the 3 years we waited!  Jessica swoops in telling Mr. Newlin that Jason "is hers" leaving poor Jason totally confused, which is not hard to do.

Since neither Bill nor Eric came to Sookie's rescue it was a good thing Pam stopped by looking for her maker.  Sookie begs her to turn Tara.  Pam warns her it may not take, or she may not be normal, but Sookie trades a favor for her best friend's life.  Tara was pretty much dead as half her head was blown off so I'm having a hard time believing she could really turn.  As all good makers do, Pam goes to ground with Tara in a Walmart sweatsuit.  Why should Pam get dirty?  Meanwhile Sookie and Lafayette clean up what's left of Debbie (where did they put her?) just in time as Alcide strolls up to the door to give the bad news about Russell.  I'm hoping she remembered to pick up Debbie's stray tooth from wherever she kicked it to.

Sookie rushed off to fairy land so fast at the end of season 3 she never knew Russell was buried in a parking garage.  I'm a little sketchy on that.  Personally, I wouldn't have put him in B level, I would have put him in the foundation.  However, he still would have been dug out.  They just made it easier for his helper.  Now he's consuming poor humans that his minion's are dragging from who knows where.  Sookie almost tells Alcide what she has done to Debbie when Lafayette comes to the rescue and picks a fight with the werewolf.  The pair head off to Lafayette's house to take care of Jesus's body, but it has magically disappeared.

Let's not forget about the Shreveport werewolves and the death of Marcus.  His pack comes looking for him and Sam doesn't sell Alcide out.  He's ready to take whatever punishment they give him.  He agrees to lead them to Marcus's body so they can have their pack ritual, which is apparently eating your former pack master.  Ewww.  Alcide is now the pack leader, sort of.  I guess we'll see what comes of that.  Luna lets him know what has happened to Sam, and as Alcide is a good guy too he's not going to let Sam take the blame for him.  I'm loving pack master Alcide so far.  Hopefully he will be a little less whinier than he is in the books.

And what's up with Terry's friend?  What did they do in Iraq that is making someone burn them all?  I guess we will see.  Oh yeah, Andy had sex!

After their day of body disposal Sookie and Lafayette return to Sookie's house and wait for Tara and Pam to rise.  Pam emerges leaving Sookie and Lafayette in utter despair because they think Tara did not turn.  Then, in true vampire style, Tara jumps out of the ground and onto Sookie so fast your head spins.  Apparently the change took place, but there is no human emotion or memory left in Tara.  She was about to make Sookie her first kill.  I admit I was a little upset that Tara was still alive, but if it adds to the story in a good way then it's okay with me.  I trust Alan Ball.  That was it, they cut to black and whatever catchy song tied into the episode.

Did I leave anything out?  As I was writing this, I kept remembering new things to add!

As for the preview of the season...
Obviously Debbie Pelt's disappearance is not going to go unnoticed.  Hoyt is wearing manscara which makes me think he starts frequenting Fangtasia to find a vampire girlfriend replacement. It looks like the Authority is all good with torture as they try and brainwash Eric and Bill.  Alcide must become pack master because he says "no one will hurt my pack".  I'm so ready for next week!