True Blood: Review: Season 5 Ep12

HBO, 26 August 2012

Eric finally gets his revenge and with Russell no longer on the scene, Sookie, Jason, Eric, Nora and Tara mount an attack on the Authority compound. Sam hatches a novel plan to get Luna and Emma out, while Alcide makes a decision about JD and his treatment of the pack. Maurella turns up at Merlotte’s and goes into labour, much to Holly’s chagrin and Andy’s shock.

After a season that narratively has been all at sixes and sevens, and overall had more downs than ups, thankfully the final episode comes out more on the positive side than the negative. It’s nowhere near perfect though and can’t really redeem the season—or the overall direction of the series as a whole.

On the minus side, it’s rather anticlimactic that Russell meets his end so early on (though the character hadn’t really gone anywhere after being revived) and a shame that Steve Newlin just runs away and disappears. Whilst needed for some sort of closure to the Shreveport pack storyline, Alcide’s move could have come an episode or two earlier since it doesn’t really add anything here. And no mention at all of Warlow—though that may be a good thing, it seems unbalanced to have a lead in to the next season both introduced too early and not even referred to in the final episode.

All these niggles aside, the rest of the episode is a thorough hoot and way over the top. Lafayette no doubt speaks for the majority of viewers when he says he cannot believe what he just saw on TV! There’s blood and death and exploding vampires galore, the most bizarre death (and resurrection) scenes you might never have imagined, eerie visions and peculiar impersonations, weird fairy salt eating, and lots of babies! This is True Blood back on form.  Honestly though, the writers and producers still need to get their act together next season to give the show a more cohesive feel.

Verdict: Save the series!

Episode 12 ‘Save Yourself’: 7/10

Brigid Cherry