True Blood Season Six Premiere

Alexis Bradley ’17/ Emertainment Montly Writer
True Blood kicked off its sixth season as scandalous and gory as usual with its episode “Who Are You, Really?” The fifth season left us with a huge cliffhanger, something that has become a sort of tradition now with the show. Bill (Stephen Moyer), after having tasted a small portion of Lilith’s blood, was driven to finish and consume the whole vial. As a result his body crumpled apart into a pool of guts and blood, only for him to suddenly rise again from the gore covered, like Lillith, in blood. Eric (Alexander Skarsgàrd) and Sookie  (Anna Paquin) stare on horrified, and end up running from Bill, whom they believe has turned into a complete monster.
The episode cuts back to Nora (Lucy Griffiths), Eric’s sister, who along with Jason (Ryan Kwanten) is trying to help get Pam (Kristen Bauer van Strauten) and Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) out of the compound.  They are bickering the whole way through, due to Jason’s renewed hatred of vampires after the discovery that they killed his parents.
We see Sam (Sam Trammell), who along with Luna (Janina Gavankar), had started a rescue mission to save Emma from being a “pet” to Steve Newlin. But during this process Luna gets severely injured. The scene ends with Luna making Sam promise to look after Emma. “She belongs with you,” she says, thus passing away and leaving Sam a new daddy.
The compound catches on fire and Eric and Sookie are suddenly shown pulling up in  a car in front of the group. But just before they’re about to leave, Bill appears outside the burning building, and is slowly walking toward them. “Is it Bill?” Jessica asks, and Sookie shakes her head as they retreat. “Not anymore,” she replies. And they drive off as Bill flies into the sky.
Burrell (Arliss Howard), Louisiana’s governor, gives a speech to a disgruntled Louisiana. The state contains the largest population of vampires and in light of recent events, he issues a shutting down of all vampire-run businesses. Burrell also sets up a statewide curfew for vampires.
The escapees stop somewhere and Eric reveals to Pam that Nora is his sister. This creates an even bigger rift in their relationship, which has become more distant in the past season. She is angry and hurt that Eric never told her about Nora, and Tara goes to comfort her maker. This leads into a sweet scene where we see two usually strong-willed and stubborn characters share a tender moment.
Meanwhile Nora and Eric are trying to figure out what Bill has turned into. But even with her dedicated studies in Lilith’s Bible, Nora doesn’t have any answers.
Jessica infers that Sookie still loves Bill, and they both admit that it’s just in their blood to do so. However even with this they’re both still afraid of him, and Sookie believes it’s time to let him go.
Nora convinces Eric to tell her what he knows about Warlow, and he tells her about how he killed his parents. This enrages Jason, and he points a gun at her stating that he is “sick and tired of vampires brain-raping him against his will.”   Sookie gets in between them (making Jason even more angry at Sookie for taking the vampire’s side) and Jason runs away furiously.
The episode cuts to the werewolf pack where they’re feeding off the old pack leader, JD’s, body. Alcide (Joe Manganiello), still reaping the effects of V, takes a bite of his arm officially establishing himself as the new pack leader. An attractive female werewolf, Danielle, offers her “service” to Alcide any time.
Like Sam, Andy (Chris Bauer) has recently become a new father to three new half fae baby girls. Arlene (Carrie Preston) argues with Andy over raising the kids and he admits to her that he’s afraid. Arlene reassures him, though, that any decent new parent would be. It cuts to a cute scene with Andy changing one of the baby’s diapers as Arlene and Terry (Todd Lowe) throw in some tips.
Sam takes Luna into Merlotte’s and runs into Lafayette with a shotgun in his hand, saying that he’s been protecting the bar. He makes Lafayette promise that he hadn’t seen him or Emma there, and Lafayette takes Emma into the kitchen to make her some dinner.
Jason is hitchhiking and a car stops in front of him. The passenger door mysteriously opens and an old man offers to give him a ride. The guy says he knows Bon Temps which gets Jason talking about his family.
Jessica gets painfully summoned to Bill, and Sookie offers to go with her. They end up at his house where Bill is waiting for them out on the porch, only this time he is no longer covered in blood. He claims he just wants to talk, but Nora and Eric suddenly attack him. With Bill pinning Eric to a wall, Sookie panics and stakes him from behind. He merely pulls it out, tucking his teeth in while saying “now can we talk.” Bill says that he is still Bill Compton but he is also “clearly something more.” But Sookie believes that Bill died and wants him to leave Bon Temps. However, Jessica stands by Bill and demands that Sookie, Eric, and Nora leave their house.
We are then taken to a meeting being held in the middle of the night by Governor Burell and a businesswoman named Suzuki. He offers a secret partnership, saying that his goal is to keep vampires from feeding and return them to being good tax paying citizens. In return he offers free use of a government control bottling plant so she can make true blood.
We return to a scene with the werewolves where Rikki, Alcide’s girlfriend, catches him with Danielle in the woods. But instead of getting angry she makes out with Danielle, and then forces her down onto her knees so she can “serve” Alcide. She stares at him stating that she’s his “Number one Bitch.”
Back at Fangtasia, Tara and Pam get into an argument. Tara states that Pam is too hung up on Eric treating her like crap to give their relationship a chance to grow. But Pam tells Tara that she will never be able to replace Eric. Suddenly, the police knock down the door, saying they’re here to shut down Fangtasia, and Tara ends up getting shot, trying to protect Pam. Don’t worry though, she doesn’t get killed.
Eric walks Sookie home and thanks her for staking “Bililth for him.” She tells him that this isn’t the way she saw her life turning out and she’s not who she used to be. But Eric states that she will always be “the girl in the white” to him. He writes a document in his own blood returning  the ownership of her home to her. Sookie says that she wants to be that “girl in the white dress” again and resends her invitation to Eric. Nora is waiting outside on the porch for him and she tells him that she thinks he’s in love with Sookie. But he says that he doesn’t want to talk about it, insisting that they need to find Bill’s weakness so they can protect her.
Andy also has his own problems when he wakes up to discover that his kids are no longer babies but toddlers, who are apparently aging rapidly. Arlene and Terry come to see what all the commotion is about and Arlene screams at the discovery.
Jessica is cleaned up and nestled in her bed. Bill brings her a glass of True Blood. She nearly spills it after taking a sip, resulting in Bill keeping it from hitting the ground with solely his mind. Now, even more freaked out, Jessica asks him what happened back at the compound. But Bill doesn’t really know himself and instead tells her a story about Sherman during the Civil War. He claims that his minds went crazy with all the power he had gotten, and asks Jessica to help him avoid that fate. She agrees too and they hug, ending the scene with Bill tucking her in and turning the lights off behind him.
We then go back to Jason who seems to be finishing his life story. But when Jason starts talking about Warlow, the driver says “you can’t keep Warlow away from Sookie.” Jason realizes he never mentioned Sookie’s name and it is revealed that the driver is Warlow. Jason shoots at him, but the man only ends up disappearing, leaving the car heading for a ditch.
The episode ends with Bill sitting in his living room reading the Bible. He is overcome with painful flashbacks and he hears his name being called in the next room. Three images of Lilith appear. Bill asks who they all are, but the apparitions merely come toward him, entering his body.
There are a lot of things going on in this one episode, which is a given due to the multiple plots that usually run during a True Blood season. But as a kickoff episode to a new season, it’s pretty solid. The whole Warlow thing was pretty obvious and it is slightly frustrating to see Jason lose all his character development and go back to being stupid and impulsive. But at the same time it’s still understandable after finding out how he lost his parents, and I think the apparition he saw of them last season might be driving him to act this way. Even with the business of the episode there were still a lot of sweet moments. It will be interesting to see how this season will balance out all these plots.