TV Review: True Blood 5.6, "Hopeless"
It reminds me of the fundamental conflict underlying the X-Men comics I read back in the 90s which of course was another story about outsiders struggling to coexist in the world.
rating: 3.5
Hopeless was anything but as it was another episode of True Blood which moved in the right direction toward better defined conflicts and clearer progressions. I was pleasantly surprised to see several developments within the Authority/Sanguinistas story, though it still exhibited many of the usual characteristics thats kept it from being better such as Romans drawn out speeches which tell when they should show. Unfortunately Lafayette didnt receive much in the way of answers from his mothers casual conversation with Jesus lip-sewn severed head, but at least he knows what we all couldve guessed -- that Jesus is in trouble with his dark arts practicing grandfather. I guess thats where his body went. I was relieved to see that Luna wasnt dead and that Emma was safe with her grandmother, though of course we still dont know whether she can be trusted. Usually eating your sons corpse is a bit of a red flag but this is True Blood after all, and I dont want to discriminate against other cultures, especially when theyre theoretically capable of ripping out my throat. Pretty much every plot seems to be moving along well enough and even showing signs of eventually tying together well, with the one obvious exception being that of Terrys curse plot, but having sat through four previous seasons of True Blood already, two good and two not so much, I have to worry whether the show can convincingly pull it all together without feeling rushed or weak. I was afraid the reveal of Russell at the close of last episode would be about all we got for a while of the former vampire king of Mississippi/current champion of newscaster spine removal, but thankfully we saw plenty of action from him and some interesting exchanges within the Authority. Bill, Eric (who was especially awesome this episode), Sookie, and Alcide overpowered the weakened Russell and his two wolf companions fairly easily (which reminds me that werewolves are just shifters that can only turn into wolves and are therefore kind of lame by comparison) though it didnt matter much as the Authority SWAT was apparently waiting outside the whole time to clean up the mess. Of course by clean up the mess I mean apprehend Russell, have Bill and Eric glamor Sookie and Alcide because Bill was somehow able to sell the idea that they were not necessary to slaughter, and slaughter the rest, including poor ol Doug. All the man wanted was to forget and move on yet the Authority clearly prioritizes covering its own collective ass above upholding its supposed belief in treating humans as equals. While Bill only pretended to glamor Sookie as an excuse to tell her some sweet things about getting the hell away from all this weird crap, Eric took the opportunity to actually glamor Alcide into not only forgetting everything with Russell but also into thinking Sookie is disgusting (which if he was actually from Bon Temps he would already understand that she is) and should always protect her with his life but never touch her romantically. Unfortunately Sookie discovers this pretty quickly and lifts the glamor which sends Alcide into a plot wherein he challenges the pack master of the wolf pack whose leadership he inherited when he killed their former master, Marcus. Alcide does this to steer the wolves away from Russells influence because as he said its like Mississippi all over again, and Im all like, We know it is Alcide, we know it is. Im hoping this story thread, like the one with Luna and Emma, and the one with Jason (basically the plots affected by this new wave of anti-supe violence), coalesce into the greater conflict season five seems to be building toward between the Authority and the Sanguinistas. I really like how almost every story line now appears to be operating under a single dichotomy -- either youre an agent of peace and social integration or youre fighting for the supremacy of one group over another. It reminds me of the fundamental conflict underlying the X-Men comics I read back in the 90s which of course was another story about outsiders (various super-powered groups of people) struggling to coexist in the world. The Authority storyline obviously fits in with this thinking, as does the faerie civil war storyline (though its only been ever so slightly touched upon), and the plots of and Jason Sam, the other most awesome character of the episode. Whereas this dichotomy works really well for Sam -- hes a character that excels when he has a mission to complete (like tracking down his and his friends shooters and impaling them with arrows) -- it disappoints me when it comes to Jason. Jason seems to be putting his whole sex addiction thing on the backburner to focus on the fact that vampires have been getting away with murder for a really long time. I get why hed be getting all revved up about his in light of what his cousin, Hadley, told him about his parents, but cmon -- no shit Jason, where the hellve you been the last four and a half seasons? This feels like Fellowship of the Sun territory (by the way, wheres Steve Newlan been lately?) which has already been covered and so Im left wondering if the show is just being lazy and uninspired or if this will eventually blossom into a well balanced and complete evolution for the character. Maybe if True Blood didnt unveil and pace its plots like how a young kid with ADHD plays with his toys this wouldnt be an issue. Although the anti-supe violence hasnt really affected the Pam and Tara plot (though that may change as a vampire looks to have been killed outside Fangtasia), seeing Tara, a character that was previously staunchly against vampires, transform into someone who embraces that existence definitely contributes in a refreshing way. Despite enjoying seeing this story develop, I hated seeing Tara best Jessica in a fight. First of all, Tara shouldve known better than to drink from Jess ex, and secondly Jessica is older than Tara and has been trained to fight so she should have easily dominated over Tara whos like a week old. I guess this is to demonstrate Taras righteous fury or something, but I dont know. I should just be thankful Jessica wasnt killed by those anti-supes. Im glad they recognized Hoyt and took him in their van because this means well learn more about this group and maybe a bit more about Hoyts extremely abrupt change from someone who cant stand the thought of vampires (after being dumped by one) to trolling vamp-bars to be drank by them. Its not that the transition doesnt make sense, it totally does (Hoyts still in love with Jessica -- enough said), its that we havent seen enough of Hoyt this season to fully appreciate his transition from anger to bargaining. Again True Blood, Id rather see you spend time on this if youre going to make us watch it than Terry running from an Ifrit. When Terry finally broke down and told Arlene about his time in Iraq it was a big moment for both him and his wife. Unfortunately this big moment sounded just too ridiculous to be taken seriously from the audiences perspective, but for someone who lives in a world in which vampires and werewolves and ghosts and faeries are all very real, like Arlene, this shouldnt be too hard to swallow, yet all Arlene could say in response to her husbands confession was that he should go back on his meds cause shes got mouths to feed. I hated this response and I want to see Arlene and Terry back together now. Another big problem I have with Terrys whole time in Iraq manifested as a curse thing is the fact that it seems as though what he and Patrick did over there -- needlessly killing unarmed civilians -- was wrong because of the consequences (a giant albeit incredibly slow smoke and fire monster) as opposed to because killing is in and of itself wrong. I might be inclined to overlook this if Terry hadnt repeatedly drawn direct connections to how wrong his actions were and being chased by a monster. Also, it seems there was a direct parallel drawn by Russell at the end of the episode when he yelled at Roman how he and the Sanguinistas are each hypocrites because they both attempt to use religion to further their own respective agendas as opposed to being honest and admitting their beliefs as self-sufficient Kantian convictions, or as Russell put it, he loves killing humans because its fun -- it makes my dick hard! Ah, True Blood, this moment is why I love you. As tired as I am of hearing Roman drone on and on, it was nice to see him and Russell debate a bit just before Russell took advantage of his defective iStake (which I still cant decide whether I think is clever or shameless) to turn Roman into goo. Although we didnt see the money shot in its entirety so who knows. By the way, are we all in agreement that Salome was definitely the one who freed Russell and sabotaged his iStake? Probably. Though Id like to see more of the Sanguinistas if indeed their conflict is to come to a head this season, if season five is in actuality more about internal politics instead of just external conflicts, then I suppose Russell and Romans brief exchange was enough for the time being. The other highlight of the Authority storyline in Hopeless was seeing the contrast between Bill and Eric. Bill has always been a survivor so in this world that means being a bit of a slimy weasel and feigning religious conviction when it suits you. While I can respect that survival instinct, it is much more admirable and enjoyable to see Eric smile at the leader of the Authority, the group responsible for the torture and potential murders of both himself and his sister, Nora, and tell him he doesnt entirely share his beliefs in vampire-human equality, instead preferring to exercise a pacifism which Ive been admiring as a kind of existential-cowboy amorality. Hopeless was definitely a solid episode of True Blood but as it appears to be the only episode of Alan Balls final season which he wrote, I was expecting more, especially considering how indicative the previous episode was of his signature style. Hopefully season five operates similarly to the series previous seasons in that its second half reaps the benefits of the build up the first half has established and that those faeries light-bombed Sookie into being a mute.