HBO, 8 July 2012
As Terry is off chasing his demons, Sam deals with the aftermath of someone shooting shifters, Jason and Andy wake up to fairy ‘hangovers’ and Tara gets a lesson or two in vampire etiquette, while Bill and Eric co-opt Sookie and Alcide to go Russell hunting.
This episode is pretty indicative of the season so far. It is a patchwork of several different storylines that don’t quite add up to a coherent whole. Though all of them have something to commend them—be it humour, horror or character drama—some pieces work a bit better than others. The obvious highlight is the main vampire storyline, and not only do we get some exciting and funny interplay between the main character line up of Sookie and her set of past and potential supe lovers but, without spoiling too much, you-know-who villain-you-love-to-hate finally gets some screen time.
The problem elsewhere is that in giving all the other characters some look-in, things fragment. In past seasons, the other inhabitants of Bon Temps were all caught up in the same plot—serial killer, maenad, witches or whatever—but here they all seem to be off doing their own thing with a host of vampires, fairies and ifrits. Individually, there’s not a great deal to fault, but any overall sense of cohesion is lost.
Verdict: It’s hotting up, in more ways than one!
Episode 5 ‘Let’s Boot and Rally’: 6
Brigid Cherry
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