Rating: ★★★★★

Well, some of my predictions for the big finale were realised … And some weren’t.  There’s no trace of Queen Mab and her Faerie Commandoes.  So that makes the first ten minutes of this season’s first episode even more random than they already seemed!    But my prediction about fatal consequences … Well, that wasn’t so far off the mark.  There’s a lot of fatality in this final episode!

But, before we proceed, it’s worth bearing in mind that death in Bon Temps is far less a permanent separation than out here in the world.   Thanks to Antonia and Marnie’s pact, the line between life and death seems less fixed than usual – especially since it’s Halloween which, as Holly helpfully explains “ … is the day when the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest.”

Things begin calmly enough and, at first, just as with the first episode – it’s like the show has rebooted again.  Although there is some mopping-up to do, life is carrying on in Bon Temps as though the dramas of the previous weeks (or previous day in diegetic time) hadn’t happened.  Except Sookie starts seeing dead people.  Specifically Gran!

But Marnie channelled her, remember, and disturbed her ghost.  This makes Sook all broody about growing old and having grand-babies of her own.  Oh dear, you know that’s leading somewhere!

Meanwhile – Jason mans-up and finally tells Hoyt about him and Jess – which means that Hoyt can finally beat seven bells out of him.  That’s been a long time coming!  Of course, there’s no closure over the whole were-panther rape story … That seems to have been conveniently forgotten about.

Over at LaFayette’s place, Jesus realises that his bf has been possessed … How?  It’s in his kiss!  Marnie’s plan – even in death – is to take Jesus’ power which, she believes, will make her unstoppable.  Her and LaFayette arguing with each other – inside Lafayette … Is just creepy.

She gets her way and LaFayette takes on Jesus’ monster face – meanwhile at Merlotte’s everyone is wearing masks because of Halloween.

“Zombies are the new Vampires” chirps the made-up-as-the-undead Arlene (foreshadowing what’s coming later in the episode).  Indeed, the drama is leavened throughout by puns (not provided by Andy, this time) Jesus tells us that vampires suck, while Alcide – of all people – advises Sookie that people don’t change.

During his protracted dialogue scene with Sookie, mind, he does ask her a key question – one that drills into her and sets her mind in a new, more grown-up direction:  “What if your heart keeps telling you to do the same stupid shit over and over again … What if our hearts can’t be trusted?”

And so, about half-way through, we get the first sign of Bill and Eric … LaFayette/Marnie has them chained up on a funeral pyre.  Sorry?  How does one a possessed short-order cook overcome the two oldest vamps in town?  Shame.  Would liked to have seen that on screen.

In response: The Witches call on their ancestors to watch over them … and – like an army of zombies – they rise from the graveyard.  Including, of course, Gran.

There is a quite delightful conclusion to the Antonia/Maria story when the re-resurrected Antonia makes Marnie realise that there is no Heaven for vampires and, therefore, by killing them, she is really freeing them.  Better to let them live on without Heaven.  Which is a wonderful rationalisation … Rather than defeating her with yet more violence – they use rationality – particularly appropriate for such an irrational villain as Marnie.

Pam gets great dialogue as she rages against Sookie.  The writers clearly love writing Pam!  Hopefully we’ll get far more of that wonderfully evocative rage next year!

Sookie gets a different kind of threesome with her two vamps.  Then finally grows a spine and makes the decision she’s been ignoring all season.

So we get all of the stories wrapped up – Sheriff Andy comes to terms with his addiction.  Sookie comes to terms with her own untrustworthy heart.  Jason and Jess  come to terms with their attraction.

It’s all rosy!  And so the ghosts of series 4 return to their rest (thought not before one warns Arlene about the ghosts in Terry’s past) and so we’re immediately into laying down the teasers for next season – and some old adversaries return.

Get ready for a vampire civil war next season if Nan’s prediction comes true.

And there are more shocks in the show’s last two minutes than in the rest of the season put together

Overall, I thought this was the best-written and most satisfying episode we’ve had this year.  As a whole, the season seemed to lack focus, for me … It rambled.  The questions asked in the first episode were not satisfyingly answered in the last, and that means that the structure of the series seems off-kilter.  To me, each season has to stand by itself as a complete, self-contained entity, yet all the unresolved threads – the were-panthers, Marcus’ werewolves, Granpa Earl, the Vamp-Kill people, 80s Bill and whole damn Faerie nonsense – none of these stories were explored fully, none of them were resolved.   Sam is, lest we forget, third-billed on the show (a position which, I suspect, will be taken over by Skarsgård next year) and yet his story has had no relevance to the main story.  I was waiting for Tommy’s shape-shifting to come in useful for Sookie’s fight back against Marnie – but it didn’t happen.

And what about Sookie?  She spends NINE episodes doing precisely nothing.  Yes, I understand that the show is about her emotional development, but couldn’t they have had her doing something useful and even interesting whilst being in love with New Eric?  Surely her developing maturity is B story stuff – the sub text, not the actual text … That sort of stuff should be going on in and around the A story not instead of it!

For a show like True Blood, a season needs to be like a novel, with each chapter leading you progressively towards a satisfactory conclusion.  Fair enough, leave a few loose ends if you want, but do it with subtlety.  Like Dexter does it, in other words!

Introducing new characters in chapter one, then not having them come back at all is just bad structure!  Chekhov would not approve!  Having your main character be re-active rather than pro-active for better than three-quarters of your story, is bad plotting!

So, I’m happy to give this episode five stars, but the season as a whole … three!

This season has been full of excellent moments, brilliant ideas and delightful (often funny) dialogue and all of that is important … But it is really just the cosmetics which need to be applied to a solid foundation.  And the foundations of season 4 feel rather shaky, as though something buried in them has been dug out, leaving a hole.

I wouldn’t watch this video until after you’ve seen the show, it contains serious spoilers:

Written By: Raelle Tucker

Directed By: Scott Winant

 

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