True Blood Recap: Beyond Here Lies Nothin

Was it me or did the season finale of True Blood feel a little top heavy? While the first half of the episode focused on the Maryann drama, the second half was some aftermath and of course, the setup for next season. All the same, while the suspense of the first half of the episode was great, I spent the second half on the edge of my seat waiting for something to happen… anything. And stuff did… eventually.

The episode picked up right where things left off two weeks ago with Sookie turning from the big egg on the bed and finding a black-eyed Lafayette standing behind her. He ordered her to put a white dress on and go downstairs. Now we all know Sookie doesn’t appreciate people messing with her stuff so she was already feeling naturally sour over the state of her house and her friends. To add insult to injury, when she got downstairs she found Maryann dressed in her grandmother’s wedding dress, which was probably the only thing left in the house that hadn’t been desecrated by Maryann and/or her minions. Maryann announced that Sookie was to be her maid of honor and then tried to get her to use her crazy electricity power on her. Sookie had no idea how she did it before and therefore couldn’t repeat the magic. While Sookie’s magic didn’t work on Maryann (this time), Maryann confirmed that her own brand of shaky-zombie magic didn’t work on Sookie and wanted to know what Sookie was. Sookie responded to the inquiry by say, “I’m a waitress. What the fuck are you?”

Meanwhile, Andy and Jason’s attempt to attack the crazies resulted in them quickly being turned into them, joining the blackeyed party. So their attempt was fruitless as most of us probably knew it would be. Bill left Sophie’s and went to find Sam at Merlotte’s. He told him he needed to bring him to Maryann so they could save Sookie. We were left in the dark about the rest of their conversation and didn’t see them again until they showed up for the “wedding.” After the ostrich egg was covered in blood, passed around and licked by the wedding party, it was placed along with the other offerings in the giant meat sculpture outside. Lafayette put a big bull head up on top of it and then Bill traded Sam for Sookie.

Sookie was very upset that Sam was going to be “offered up” and at that point I was wondering why Bill didn’t whisk her off to safety, instead of standing back with the crazies to watch the sacrifice. While he held on to Sookie, Eggs showed up with a swordy-daggar thing and stabbed Sam in the chest. The tied-up and dying Sam mentally told Sookie to destroy the meat sculpture while Eggs brought the knife to Maryann who anointed herself with it. She was too distracted with her own moaning to notice that Sookie ran right passed her and crushed the ostrich egg, then knocked over the disgusting sculpture, destroying it.

Maryann was pissed about this and after doing the nails-down-the-chalkboard thing to the minds of her crazies, chased after Sookie. Bill was nowhere to be seen as Sookie ran off into the woods and was nearly attacked by Maryann, who turned her hands into big claws. Maryann paused in her attack when she saw the big white bull approaching her. Her husband had arrived! She approached it and stood there happily before him. The bull promptly gored her, digging its big horns into her chest. Maryann wasn’t expecting that but she accepted it, happy to please her mate. I guess she didn’t have high hopes for the honeymoon, anyway. Then the bull turned into Sam and we saw that his horn was actually his arm. He pulled it out of her chest, clutching her black heart. Maryann had just enough time to recognize that she’d been defeated before she fell to the ground, dead.

Sookie gave Sam a hug, ignoring the fact that he was naked or that his arm was stained to the elbow with black gook. Bill arrived and explained that he and Sam agreed on the plan, which was for Sam to let himself be sacrificed in exchange for drinking Bill’s blood afterward. Seems like a fair trade, though a risky one for Sam.

Maryann’s death brought everyone in Bon Temps back to sanity. It seemed that it would be a mixture of amnesia and a little bit of denial that brought things back to normal as everyone headed home and back to their lives. Arlene got her kids back from Sam, the woman who severed her finger for the offering found the misplaced digit among the fallen meat sculpture and went to the emergency room to have it reattached and everyone pondered over their blackouts. Talk of a gas leak, alien invasions and the water supply being spiked with LCD circulated among the patrons at Merlotte’s, which was open for business the day after the almost-wedding.

Not everyone was able to move on as easily as others. While some people were content with the made-up stories that explained what they’d been up to during the lost time, Eggs, having awoken from the trance with blood on his hands, wanted to know what Maryann had him doing. Sookie helps him access the memories of him stabbing people and cutting their hearts out. Meanwhile, despite getting his badge back, Andy was pissed that his and Jason’s efforts were going unsung among the town. Given that people thought he was crazy, it’s understandable that he’d want his “I told you so” moment. Jason tried to pep him up, explaining that they’re still heroes even though people don’t know it. He basically assumed that somehow he and Andy showing up at the house was the thing that saved them from Maryann.

Eggs was devastated over finding out he murdered people and refused to hear Sookie when she tried to get him to understand that it wasn’t his fault. He went and got the sword-knife thing, which had Sam’s dried blood on it. He brought it to Andy, who was unarmed and short one arm (which was in a cast). Andy took it as an attack at first and ended up on the ground reaching aimlessly for the gun he didn’t have on him.

When Eggs was telling him that he murdered people and wanted to be locked up, all while waving a knife in Andy’s face, Andy did essentially what Sookie did and told him it wasn’t his fault. Then a bullet ripped through Egg’s head and he fell down, dead. Andy turned back and saw Jason holding the gun, looking terrified. We all learned that Stackhouse had good aim after he hit the Luke McDonald in the same spot a few episodes back… except that time it was just a paintball. This time around, it was the real deal. Thinking fast, Andy took the gun from Jason and told him to get out of there. When people came out of Merlotte’s to see what happened, Andy took the “blame” and I’m guessing/hoping the whole thing will be looked at as self defense, given the knife in Eggs’ hands. The last we saw of Eggs, Tara was crying over his body.

Hoyt had a conversation with his mother about what happened when she was possessed. He defended Jessica for biting her, saying she was provoked and then mentioned some of the things his mother said to him, including the information about his father having killed himself. His mother admitted that that was the truth and now that he’s 30, he’s old enough to know about it. Hoyt realized as he looked at his mother that she’d lied to him to keep him from leaving her. After he told her he wished Jessica had finished her off, he left.

It seemed like things between Hoyt and Jessica would be good despite the little sex-issue they have. We even saw her dressed in a pretty dress and announcing to Bill that she was off to see Hoyt. That turned out to be a lie. While Hoyt showed up at Bill’s house with roses for Jessica, she was off at a truck-stop feeding off a horny trucker.

Sam took off for “a few days” (which I’m afraid will be longer) to go find his adoptive parents. His mom was genuinely apologetic for her and her husband having gotten scared by his transformation and abandoning him. He asked her where his real parents were but she said they swore never to tell him and that they were not good people. Sam went to his father, who’s bedridden and from the looks of him, dying. He handed Sam a note that said he was sorry and also had the names and last known address of his parents. So it appears Sam’s next step will be tracking down his parents and meeting with them. It should be interesting to see if they’re shape-shifters too and what exactly it is that makes them bad people.

We learned an interesting bit of information about Eric tonight. While he was stuck at Sophie’s playing Yahtzee, she brought up the fact that Bill knows she has him selling V to humans. The guards overheard what Bill said outside when he threatened Eric that he’d tell Sophie he was making Lafayette sell V. Well, I guess that threat is useless as not only does Sophie already know, but she’s the one making Eric do it. He even mentioned that she was supplying the V. Is it her blood she has humans feeding off or someone else’s? They didn’t say nor do we know what her motives are for having him do it but we do know that Sophie is not happy that Bill knows, nor did she seem pleased that he’s in love with Sookie. She warned Eric not to feed off of Sookie, and seemed concerned that Eric might develop feelings for her if he did. (I’m thinking it might be too late in that department.) Eric told her Bill doesn’t know that she’s the one making him sell V to humans and went on to say that he’d “take care of Bill.”

The episode ended with a date between Bill and Sookie at a French restaurant. Bill booked the whole place so he could have privacy. They danced and after they sat down at the table, he proposed to her. She became upset at this, saying that while she always dreamed that when she was proposed to, she’d say yes, she couldn’t bring herself to do it now. She talked about how she didn’t know what she was. With the thing that happened with Maryann and the fact that Maryann’s spell didn’t work on her, she’s starting to realize that she’s really not normal… as though she hadn’t figured that out when she started reading people’s minds. So while she didn’t say no, she couldn’t say yes either. She got up to freshen up in the bathroom and when she was in there, tried on the ring. She smiled as she looked at her reflection and realized she did want to marry him.

While Sookie was in the bathroom realizing her answer was “yes,” someone was sneaking up on Bill while he waited nervously at the table for Sookie to return. All we saw was a silver chain being pulled around his neck. When Sookie came back, announcing that she wanted to marry him, Bill’s chair was overturned and no one was there. And that’s where the season ended.

Was Bill’s attacker/kidnapper Eric or some new big-bad that’s arrived in Bon Temps? We’ll have to wait for the next season, whenever that arrives to find that out. I’m also interested to know why Sophie’s got Eric peddling V, what’s going on with Jessica in her acting-out phase and who Sam’s family is.