Perhaps the rein of death is over on HBO's aging vampire drama. An entire battle went down at Fangtasia and while Arlene almost died, True Blood let everyone we care about survive the suicide mission. We've been promised a dangerous season, with Tara's death smacking us in the face in the first few minutes of the premiere and Alcide getting a bullet to the head last week. What's the meaning of sending an entire set of beloved characters into an impossible battle and letting every last one of them live, including Arlene, who was basically talking to Terry in heaven for a good few minutes there?
In the final minutes of Sunday's episode, Sookie, Eric, Pam, Bill, and just about everyone you can think of takes on a mission to rescue Nicole, Arlene, and that other lady in the dungeon from the V-vamps at Fangtasia. They are outnumbered and one of their strongest vampires is infected with a debilitating disease. To boot, the gun nuts from Bon Temps have followed the rescue squad to Fangtasia to take down every undead person they can find. In essence, it's a clusterfuck that promises to see at least one of our guys splattered on the pavement (at the very least, one of James' vamp bandmates — who are totally expendable characters).
To make matters worse, the V-vamps feed on Arlene until she's almost dead — they stop only when Eric and Sookie come in as a ruse. Arlene is basically dead, and somehow, she survives through Eric's lengthy ruse, the fight in the parking lot, and basically having absolutely no blood. Sookie runs to her side, but Arlene needs the blood of a healthy vampire. Bill has to rush away because Jessica is about to die, so he's out. And as Sookie sends Eric away to find Arlene someone to feed her some V, Arlene basically crosses into the white light, where she's about to join Terry. Just in time, James' bandmate comes in and drips blood into Arlene's gaping mouth and brings her back to life.
And when we head outside, there are blood piles everywhere, and none of them belong to vampires we love (even if Pam panics for a second and makes us think Eric bit the dust... er, guts). And something about it is just a little fishy. And uncomfortable.
Of course, we can either take solace in this rash of safety or get very, very worried. Perhaps True Blood is done killing off people we care about (seriously, the Alcide one still hurts) and they're going to go easy on us for the rest of the series. However, that doesn't seem very True Blood-esque and Eric is walking around with Hep-V is his veins. Someone is going to die before the series' day is through. And this moment of solace might actually be the only one we get, moving forward.
I've got my money on an all-out blood bath before the series bows. And while Eric is the most likely candidate for getting the true death before True Blood takes its final bow, I've actually got a whole heap of money on Bill. The man seems to have a death wish after all the terrible things he's done in the past few seasons. And if it's not Bill, we need to be worried for everyone who's ever had a storyline. Those V-vamps were only the tip of the ice berg and something tells me, we'll be seeing some sickly, veiny assholes coming for the main cast and their besties at least once more before True Blood hangs up its fangs.
Image: HBO
