The best thing about last night's campy and humor-filled lead up to Alan Ball's "True Blood" finale was the Queen Vampire, (Evan Rachel Wood) busting out a favorite game from my childhood I can never get anyone to play with me, Yahtzee. Maybe now my High schooler will think it's a cool way to spend a night with his mom. I'm not putting real money on it, though.
She gonna do bad things to you... Evan Rachel Wood -So much to discuss. But before we dissect mama's boy Hoyt, put-upon traumatized Lafayette, the perpetually dim-witted Ginger, Tara's mama, Jason and Andy or the lusty Queen of the Vamps, a moment of high praise once again for some talented women behind-the-scenes working with Mr. Ball. © Sylvain Gaboury / PR Photos
So much to discuss. But before we dissect mama's boy Hoyt, put-upon traumatized Lafayette, the perpetually dim-witted Ginger, Tara's mama, Jason and Andy or the lusty Queen of the Vamps, a moment of high praise once again for some talented women behind-the-scenes working with Mr. Ball.
The Hair and makeup department, head up by Dept. Heads Brigitte Myre (makeup) and Suzanne Kontonickas (Hair), consistently have turned out amazing looks on Queen Vamp Evan Rachel Wood, and Mariana Klaveno's Lorena, in various period looks. Maryann and Eric too. Stunning makeup and hairstyles that make the experience of this sanguine series all the more rich.
Costume designer Audrey Fisher dresses the entire cast just right, loved the fashion show that the Queen got to flaunt, and kudos on creating Lafayette's distinctive look, as well as Maryann's human garb. The others who create Ball's Bon Temps world are the three important women who head up his art department: Art director Cat Smith, Set decorator Rusty Lipscomb and Production designer Suzuki Ingerslev. They gave us the knock-out pad for Evan Rachel Wood's character, and have deconstructed Gran's/Sookie's house to show the evilness that inhabits it. Merlottes too, is a great set. Excellent work for all these crafts.
Okay. Last night's campy episode was almost ALMOST ruined by the Jason Stackhouse's "how dumb can you be" schtick, and his boneheaded declarations. We get it. There's a reason the Christian cult sucked him in, he believes in Santa Claus still. And Andy. There aren't a whole pile of MENSA members running around the Bayou here.
Poor Lafayette, there should be a special Emmy awarded to Nelsan Ellis for his stick-to-itivness for weathering some serious traumatic events. The poor guy is chained for weeks in a basement and terrorized by Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) continuously. He nearly dies from a septic leg wound. He lives in the margins of the law, unable to make enough dough as a cook. And after being held down like a dog by Tara's rifle-bearing nincompoop of a mother, the poor guy is now a supplicant of Maryann!
The show opens with Bill interrupting the Queen enjoying a female human, who lives to walk away. Evan Rachel Wood plays her with the right amount of decadent humor and odd cheer, as she educates Bill on what he is dealing with back in Bon Temps.
After a pool boy is offered for a peckish Bill, a cool wardrobe change and a random game of Yahtzee, the Queen reveals that the only way they can get rid of Maryann is to pull a fast one, convince the Maenad that her God Dionysus has risen.
Meanwhile, Hoyt (Jim Parrack) tosses Jessica (Deborah Ann Wolf) out on her fang, saving his vile mama from a draining, only to have her reveal all sorts of dirty family laundry to him. Poor Hoyt.
The Sam mystery is cleared up as Queen Vamp says only the Supernatural humans make the best sacrificial offerings to the Maenad's God.
Back at the Bon Temps ranch, Tara (Rutina Wesley) manages to mind meld her mama Lettie Mae (Adina Porter) into releasing her, and she takes off for Eggs.
Lafayette and Sookie (Anna Paquin) each are under the spell of Eric's blood, they swap sex stories.
Tara's mother once again is an epic FAIL as she turns the rifle on Sookie and Lafayette, to aid Tara, who goes right back to Maryann and gets the black eyes again, as she and Eggs (Mehcad Brooks) mess up Sookie's house some more.
Lafayette and Sookie get away and race to her house, where disturbing imagery of residents in the sink, on the floor, amidst rotting meat everywhere (this is Bayou Louisiana, where are the armies of critters and large insects that would be all over this place?) as Sookie tries to get to Tara. She has some cast-iron pan foreplay with the fat coroner of the town, and is then surprised by a possessed Lafayette who corners her upstairs, with Tara and Eggs.
So we now have Eric and Bill keyed in on Sookie, who is in real trouble, and the finale will most likely see a show down for her between the two, along with the defeat of Maryann.
The lamest line of the night? Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) had so many. Ball has him talking without thinking: "Hey, do you think Sam's ever turned into a dog and then had sex with a lady dog?"
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