Picking right up where last week’s major cliffhanger left off, Eric and Russell are outside of Fangtasia in broad daylight. Eric bound Russell and himself, believing that killing himself was the only way for him to kill Russell. As their skin is turning to ash Eric has a vision of his maker, Godric, who faced the ultimate death this same way. He urges Eric to forgive Russell since the final death is about peace, not hate. Despite Eric’s respect for Godric this is something he can’t get himself to do.
When Sookie wakes up and realizes what Eric is doing she goes outside to save him. Eric is alive, but too weak to even retract his fangs; Sookie’s blood is the only one that will do. Once he is healed enough, Eric surprisingly demands that Sookie save Russell; Godric’s words finally meaning something to him. Everyone else, even Sookie, seems to be against sparing him. Russell vows to kill Sookie and everyone she ever cared about. He does try to bargain with her for his life. Instead, Sookie takes the last shred of the man he loved and pours him down the drain.
Meanwhile, Jason tries to help Crystal warn the people of Hot Shot that the DEA has caught on to their drug peddling habits. Jason has to risk the one thing that has finally given him direction to help Crystal and all of the innocent people in Hot Shot. Sam tries to set things right after his rage fit, which works out better with some people than others. We see there is still something dark lingering in him. Tara really can’t take the news of Sam’s supernatural identity. She has lost any understanding of anyone who has any supernatural in them. I was so thrilled with them showing Tara’s strong, bad ass side this season. I understand that she has gone through so much, but I’m really starting to get sick of her in constant pain and torment. This strong, dominant character has turned in to a weak and sorrowful one. I am really hoping we will be given a better version of Tara next season.
There’s a bit of a cliffhanger, Bill and Queen Sophie-Anne are at each other’s throats in a vicious combat at the end of the episode. We don’t know if Russell will really stay buried. If he doesn’t he will be out for the blood of nearly all of the show’s main characters. We end on Sookie, following her fellow fae in to their world, a place she has only visited in her dreams and coma state. She feels more alone than ever so there is always the possibility that she will decide this is where she really belongs. Still, there aren’t any huge life or death cliffhangers, at least not nearly as drastic as we have gotten with past season cliffhangers. There’s plenty to keep us anticipating next season without completely leaving us on edge.
Leading up to the ending, the tables really turned beautifully in this episode. Eric keeps questioning what he really wants to do with Russell. Should he follow his maker’s advice and let go of the hate that he has let build up for a thousand years or should he finally take his chance to get even? Eric and Bill seem to finally be on the same page for once, even though they have both driven Sookie away. At least, we are given some more great chemistry with Sookie and Alcide. Eric is still the ideal, but Alcide triumphs over Bill any day. Like all of the most intriguing vampires, Eric embraces what he is, something he won’t let anyone compromise.
As much as I wanted to punch Bill in the face at certain points of this episode, those are still the moments where I had to applaud what they were doing with his character. At least, they’re trying to make his character a complex one. Even if they enrage me, with the darker and more vengeful steps he takes the more worthy and less of a brooding vampire he becomes. One of the best parts of this episode is that the truth at long last finally comes out about Bill. At least in Sookie’s eyes he really can no longer be looked upon as the overly perfect vampire lover. He has betrayed Sookie, everything she thought she knew about him she now knows to be a lie. Unfortunately, this just turns her away from Eric as well, but that will all change next season…Oh I can hardly wait!
