This season is one of the better seasons of the show! However, not everyone seems to think so, a lot are saying it is a big letdown of what was setup and that it was just filler. Now I get what they mean there were three potentially epic stories setup:
(1) Billith – after Bill goes crazy and drinks the blood of Lilith he rises up as a blood covered monster
(2) Warlow - the mystery of whom this dark and scary figure is, who killed Sookie’s parents and whom Sookie is contractually promised to
(3) Humans vs. Vampires war now that humans have developed new weapons.
Epic setups right there! So what do we get out these setups?
(1) Bill is not evil, just a prick with new powers. And his big mission is find the right fairy blood for vampires to drink and be saved from vampires meeting the sun (as he saw in a vision) and no real payoff after the mission is complete, he just becomes old Bill after.
(2) A handsome man who is a fairy/vampire hybrid, who obsessively waited thousands of years to find the right fairy to turn into his fairy/vampire bride –Sookie
(3) A vampire prison camp, therapy sessions and other bizarre experiments and contaminated TruBlood, no epic war.
But let’s make this clear, this was never meant to be an epic-action-horror show, this show is and always been a social commentary. It uses the vampires and other supernaturals as allegories of what goes on in today’s society. The narration of the show is in serialized soap-opera style and any soap fan should know that what goes in a story doesn’t really matter – what matters is the characters! This season was dedicated to give us character moments as opposed throwaway action. Now let’s explain why these three stories work.
1) Yes the Season 5 finale left us on it’s most intense cliffhanger by having Bill rise up as Billith. The premiere gives us an intense 5 minutes of the red monster before he flies off and we see him as Bill again. Admittedly the mission to find the right fairy blood is not the most interesting but where it leads to us is; Bill killing the Governor in broad daylight was awesome. It led to Jessica’s arc with the guilt of losing control and draining Andy’s fairy daughters. It was enjoyable getting to learn of Bill’s new abilities and grow an ego, so when he loses them in the finale it shows a great contrast and his struggle of being his old self again. He loses his powers by having numerous vampire drink from him, to being almost completely drained. There was a brief moment after where we thought he’d be killed by Lilith after completing the mission but it seems as though she just turned back to old Bill. So yes not the evil monster we were expecting, but a great character moment and redemption arc for Bill as he sees what a nasty person he has become and the remorse of the acts he committed the past season and the danger he let Sookie into with Warlow (see 2).
2) Again Warlow is not the scary monster setup in Season 5, in which he was played by an un-credited actor dressed in a long black coat and large hat so we couldn’t see his face. And when we see him escape the portal still wearing the large hat he looked a bit like Rob Zombie. So when he is revealed in person he turns to be the handsome fairy Ben whom Sookie just met. Turns out he killed Sookie’s parents because they (mainly the father) attempted to kill her that night to keep her from Warlow. Also turns out he can’t control his vampire thirst at night, as though his fairy side fights his vampire side. He hates being a vampire, he was a fairy whom Lilith turned against his will and he uncontrollably slaughtered his own fairy neighborhood including his own family. So he wanted a fairy/vampire bride because he feels that’s the only companion he can ever have. So his long period of waiting for Sookie has made him more desperate and obsessed. This puts Sookie in a difficult position and practically puts her at rock bottom, she just discovered her loving parents tried to kill her. She has found difficulty trying to fit in with the community most of her life because of her gift and now she has another love interest in Warlow, with similar abilities, whom she now sees as her rescuer. He wants her for eternity even to the point of blackmailing to do so, as his blood is just the fairy blood Bill needs to save the vampires. When Sookie realises she has a place in society and tries to bargain with Warlow into dating her first, he hits her and ties her up before biting her. Warlow is a complex character, he just desperately wants Sookie to fill what he has lost and now that he’s close to get what he wanted for so long he was not willing to have it taken away from him. Warlow is an excellent contrast to Bill, Bill himself had been obsessed with Sookie which resulted in an abusive relationship however despite the big heartbreak Bill let Sookie go while Warlow was not willing to. He was going to physically force her, an interesting look at how Bill and Sookie's relationship could’ve been like and also to show that Bill is really not the evil character he is often made out to be. Warlow is still a sympathetic character and in many ways the idea of Sookie being his fairy/vampire bride would’ve been good but his desperation and approach turned Sookie away and exposed his evil side. It’s also interesting that Warlow did not kill anyone on his hunt for Sookie since he already just drank from her he can control himself, he chooses not to kill anyone just keep them out of his way and that shows he’s still the complex character and not the 1-dimensional monster. I’d like to say Rob Kazinsky was excellent in the role, going back rewatching his performance with all the ways he looks and talks to Sookie is uncomfortable as you watch with a different perspective. You can see wants her but whether or not it’s for the right reason and whether he is sincere or just manipulating her, you see all those sides in his performance therefore you are uncertain if he can be trusted, yet you are rooting for the character to do the right thing which is supported by such great chemistry he shares with Anna Paquin. So thank you Rob, you have been missed since you left EastEnders and you’ll be missed in True Blood too.
3) The Vamp Camp was an excellent idea. It was fun seeing the vampires in a prison/mental institution-like facility and watching different experiments taken so the humans can figure out their psychologies and physical abilities. This did give us some great action moments such as the vampire hunts with the new weapons, Eric and Pam staking the guards, Governor’s beheading, the castration! But it’s the character moments that hit the marks: Pam’s therapy sessions; James being a gentleman to Jessica; Sarah becoming crazier and crazier, there was much plea from fans to have her killed and Jason almost does but he spares her showing how much of a good guy he is; Nora’s slow death from the Hep-V virus leaving the biggest impact on Eric.
So yes this season was not as much dedicated to the action but more on characters that does not make it just filler, the big character moments may not bare anything on plot make it does not it a waste. Terry Bellefleur was killed off and his death was focused on a lot, even having his funeral take up almost a whole episode. There were complaints that it was a waste because Terry was not one the main characters, he was a side character. However he was there from the beginning, he was likeable and he was part of the Bon Temps community. By having a human character die a human death for that matter it brings the majority of the Bon Temps characters together. The funeral episode gives us flashbacks from some main characters perspectives while giving a funeral speech, gives them some great character moments. So towards the end of the season the show has been grounded to a more personal story. And as usual the whole main cast give excellent performances to these characters and they all let their moments shine.
