True Blood: Review: Season 4, Ep 9

HBO, August 21 (US)

Jason has to take command when Andy is unable to deal with a possessed Lafayette who is playing happy families with Mikey in Hoyt’s house. After Jesus discovers where the bodies are buried and they all witness Mavis’s ghost pass over, Hoyt gets Jason to take a box of Jessica’s possessions back to her. The witches plan to use Eric to assassinate Bill during a Festival of Tolerance rally.

Everything that can go wrong for King Bill has gone wrong, but this episode is a comic interlude (presumably before the action hots up again as the season comes to a close—at least hopefully that is what is planned). There are still developments in the season arc as Marnie/Antonia ups her game and Debbie joins forces with Sookie to suss out their plans. It’s good to see Tara stand up for herself, but it’s still a shame that she is ending up something of a victim once again.

Primarily though the episode focuses on laughs. There are moments of humour built around all the ‘body swaps’ going on—and Nelson Ellis and Sam Trammel clearly have some fun with ‘being’ Mavis and Tommy respectively. Trammel wins hands down doing Tommy’s limping swagger, but Ellis gets to exploit the full emotional range. Hoyt and Jason also add to the comedy as Hoyt packs Jessica’s things up into a box labeled ‘Monster’ and asks Jason to return them to Jess. That’s not asking for trouble then! Poor Nan also gets earfuls from both Jessica and Bill. But really, where’s Pam (disintegrating face and all) when you need her?

Equally funny, but a bit more funny-peculiar than funny-haha, is when Sam shifts into a cute fluffy bunny rabbit for Emma to pet. Isn’t that a bit sick? Sam and Luna’s passionate sex scene is also intercut with the werewolves beating the crap out of Tommy. Oh dear, no danger of conflating sex and violence there! And seeing as how Sookie is amped up on several doses of vampire blood, we are also privy to her fantasy sandwich of Bill and Eric. It’s all certainly a hoot and the action doesn’t stop for a moment, but it seems rather like treading water for a bit until the plot clicks back in.

Verdict: Alert—comedy vampires and ghosts on the loose.

Episode 9 ‘Run’: 7/10

Brigid Cherry