“I have never been called devout. But watching Lilith shoot out of a blood pool while I sucked down a bride to the dulcet strains of “˜You Light Up My Life,’ well, praise Lilith! Praise Jesus! Praise Moses’ c***! I am born again!”
There are four more episodes to go this season. A couple of years ago, I probably would have been more upset about that. After last year, TB is on my side-eye list. This season has been much better but they have only four more weeks to convince us (ok, me) that I’ll be recapping this next year.
The Authority, Bill, Eric
Post blood orgy, the Authority returns to their lair to get some snacks and talk about all their way cool drug revelations. Eric is being a totally bummer about everything. First, he tries to talk sense into Bill and then he doesn’t even laugh at Reverend Newlin giving Russell a lapdance. Bill tries to be convinced by Eric’s warnings about getting too high and believing everything you hallucinate, which lasts until Salome offers him his two weaknesses – blood and snatch.
Eric tries to talk to Nora. That goes poorly. When Nora shouts out “Fuck Godric!”, I yelled, “Rip her head off, Eric!” Both Eric and I were very put out by Nora’s rudeness regarding our favorite vampire martyr. He lets his sister live because it was in the script.
The Authority discusses way to get all the mainstreamers killed. Bill suggests attacking the True Blood factories. Once their synthetic blood source is gone, mainstreamers will have no choice but to go back to feeding on humans. The Chancellors applaud. Eric looks horrified. But he’s always known Bill’s a dickweed, so why is he surprised?
A brief rant about Bill: Despite the fact that the show seems committed to shoving Bill-N-Sookie-True-Love-4-Vr down our throats, Bill has repeatedly shown himself to be a spineless opportunist. Let’s look at the evidence: he cons Sookie into drinking his blood before she knows what a bond is, he repeatedly lies and manipulates her, he’s a possessive jerk even when they’re not dating, he bangs basically every woman who falls across his path, he is forced to sire Jessica and ignores her because she’s inconvenient for him, and then releases her at three months old without training her how to survive in the world, he tries to bury Eric in the cement with Russell and hires assassins to kill Pam, connives with the Authority to assassinate the Queen so he can take over, and switches allegiances to the Authority as soon as Salome gives him a bullshit reason to justify it even though she might as well be hold up a sign that says “I AM MANIPULATING YOU RIGHT NOW.”
Sookie
Jason interrupts her suicidal effort to rid herself of her fae abilities. They might come in handy, he convinces her, in finding out who killed their parents. Or defending her from Russell, but I’m pretty sure she didn’t tell Jason he’s back. Their fairy guardians (Claude and his Claud* sisters) offer to perform a ritual at the site of their parents’ death. Sookie is able to tap into both her mother’s and the killer’s viewpoints, as well as discover that Claudine showed up too late to save their parents. She gets a name, which Claude pretends not to recognize, and the fairy claims it should be impossible for Sookie to tap into a vamp’s memories.
Cause the killer isn’t a vampire?! Twist! (Maybe)
Tara, Pam
Tara is back behind the bar in her matching mommy-daughter-fake-Geisha/hooker outfit. One of her old high school “chums” shows up, says a bunch of racist shit, and tries to get Tara in trouble with her boss. Pam looks angry, but as she says later, Tara doesn’t know her well enough to know that her happy and angry faces are the same. Pam chains the high school bum in the basement, glamours her into becoming Tara’s blood donor, and basically tells Tara what a proud mommy she is.
Lafayette, Terri, Arlene, Holly, Patrick
Jesus appears to Lafayette on his way back from Mexico. It’s a quietly devastating scene and reminds us of how much in love they really were. They hold hands as Lala drives them home.
Where Arlene and Holly wait to hire Lala to conduct a fake séance to convince Terri and Patrick that the curse is lifted and, hey, stop being so crazy already. Lala is a true medium, so of course the murdered Iraqi woman actually shows up, tells the group that she will only lift the curse if Terri or Patrick kills the other woman. Patrick lights the hell out of Chez Bellefleur.
The Obama Gang
Predictably, the gang has kidnapped Jessica and stashed her in their clubhouse out in the boondocks so that Hoyt could kill her to make his fee-fees better. The ensuing scene with Jessica and Hoyt is a devastating one, where she confesses she prayed for her love for him to come back and it just didn’t. He’s no monster; he lets her go, of course, and runs out to get help, but refuses to accept her thanks. They’re done. 
Later Luna-As-Sam, Sam, and Andy show up to raid the house and are surprised to find Jessica there, who is equally surprised to find out that Hoyt hasn’t made it back to town yet. Luna mentions smelling a big woman in the house that sounds an awful lot like Mrs. Fortenberry. Lest we forget, she did try to kill Jessica once, so her getting mixed up in an anti-vamp group is completely reasonable.
And the rest
- Luna unwillingly shifts into Sam (she’s a skinwalker, remember?) and seems to be suffering from some sort of shifter complications to her healing.
- Alcide does his Second. Then he loses his packmaster challenge.
17 replies on “New Show Recap: True Blood, Episode 5.08, “Somebody That I Used to Know””
This season has really been lacking for me. I could honestly do with more Sam and less Terry. I can’t stand the plot line about the smoke monster thing and I just fast forward through those parts. The only reason I keep watching the Authority plot line is to see of Eric is going to kick all their asses.
And what the hell has happened to Bill? In the books his character has more depth, but in the series he continues to be wishy-washy and has no principles. I’m disappointed in his plot line.
Sookie’s self-destructive bull shit is really starting to irritate me. I’m equally disappointed with her plot line.
This was the first episode all season that seemed to move the plot along at a decent pace. I still live for Russell but the Salome and the rest of the Authority need to go sit in a corner somewhere and be quiet.
The entire Pam / Tara plotline is gross and uncomfortable to me. I really could not get into the mommy and me goth geisha outfits. I know lots of people (rightfully) want to question the writers but I have some questions for the costume department.
Yeah, there are moments when I feel uncomfortable with the Pam-Tara stuff, but the outfits are obviously for the tourists. It’s been a while, but Pam favors the Laura Ashley look on her down time.
The real test will be when we see Tara in her street clothes. I’m half expecting twinsets.
I liked Pam and Eric’s matching leisure suits, so maybe they can do that!
On Wallo (or whatever the name was from Sookie’s flasback), can faeries be turned?
I don’t know that the books or the show have ever answered that. I would guess that most vampires can’t draw back from feeding on a fairy long enough to do the blood exchange.
I am not amused by Russel and the authority any more. This could change by Eric ripping everyone a new one and crowning himself Authority of Authority.
I don’t listen any more to what LaLa says, I just enjoy watching Nelsan Ellis act.
I still don’t care about the Terry plot line. Nor the Obama gang.
Twice the Sam was nice though.
Oh and yes, something with faeries and yet another try to not make Bill the bad guy but some random mud pool faced demon. Of course.
I should have said more about Sam! I think it’s clear that they keep doing double-Sam because the actor is just so good.
But, yeah, I agree with everything you said.
Lafayette + ghost Jesus scene was nice, but… No explanation whatsoever given to the silent pregnant lady’s sudden murderous ragefit? Nothing on the whereabouts or the fate of Jesus’s body, besides the severed head seen on Grandpa’s microwave? The attempts to amp up Lafayette’s sass later on reeked of desperation.
I like looking at cute nerdy Claude, too, but that about concludes the list of things I still like in this series.
Seriously. I was super curious about silent pregnant lady from the first time she appeared on the show.
I’m pretty sure Lafayette was supposed to appear desperately sassy though. He’s a survivor, y’know?
That is a fair point, yes.
He is really cute. I like Sookie this season, and I always love Pam and Eric, but the lack of coherency in the plotting is really dragging the show down.
Sookie’s more likeable than she’s been in ages, yes, but the plot she’s given, with the really cheap cartoony mystery monstervamp… ugh.
I felt like we were missing a scene there. I wondered if Jesus had possessed the pregnant woman and killed his uncle … but we will apparently never know!
There was obviously a story there! Why did she wait until then? What was over the line for her? I hope it comes back up later.
I’m guessing she didn’t want any of that brujo shit for her baby, and that was just the last straw?