True Blood Recap: "Dead Meat"

Alexis Bradley ’17/ Emertainment Monthly Staff 
True Blood is back and Sookie (Anna Paquin) must make a decision to keep her mortality or save her friends.
The episode opens with Eric (Alexander Skarsgard), still drenched in the last remnants of Nora. With her death still fresh, Eric isn’t exactly ready to give a hand. This only increases as Bill (Stephen Moyer) tells him that Sookie is in charge of bring them Warlow (Robert Kazinsky).
“You’re no f**king God,” Erik snares at him.
“I never said I was,” Bill responds. He forces him to leave after Erik makes him remember how Sookie tried to kill him. So I guess no big assembly to fight against the big bad government.
Caught with his pants down, Alcide (Joe Manganiello) tries to reassure his now disgruntled pack that Nicole and her mother won’t spill the beans on them. However Rikki isn’t ready to hold hands and start singing. How does that old song go again? It’s “A thin line between love and hate,” or more like lust in this situation. She challenges Alcide, knowing that Alcide is “just not a killer.” They fight, and although Alcide does win, he doesn’t take the final blow.
Violet is the vampire from last episode that staked her claim on Jason. Oh, and she’s a good Catholic girl. She asks Jason how he ended up in Gen Pop.
“I did the Governor’s girlfriend,” Jason confesses.  He inquires if she really means to keep him to herself. Her response is an intense one. “I believe in god and the sanction of our union. If say you are mine, then you are mine forever.” Well hey, she isn’t a floosy.
Back in fairyland, Sookie returns to a hungry Warlow. He feeds on her and Sookie tells Warlow about Bill’s plan. However, like Eric, he isn’t exactly ready to lend a hand. He hates vampires, and the vampire part of his existence.  But more importantly he hates Bill. No freebies.
“If I do this I want you to be mine forever,” Warlow tells Sookie. She asks for some time to consider this.
Sookie asks Bill exactly what will happen. His so called plan is to basically pimp Warlow to all the other vampires so that they’ll be invincible to the sun. She tells him about Warlow wanting to turn her and his ultimatum. However, Bill doesn’t care. Angry at the lack of consideration Bill has for her feelings, Sookie leaves, informing Bill she’ll let him know her decision.
In the afterglow of their love making James tells Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) he finally has something worth living for. He asks about Jason but she dances and pushes the question away.  The guards bust into the room soon after, returning both of them to their respective cells. Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten) joins Jessica on her way back to gen pop after her “succession” with the therapist, buttoning a few undone buttons on her uniform.
“Did you just have sex with him?” Jessica asks
“I did,” Pam responds nonchalantly.
Sam (Sam Trammell) packs up things at his office at Merlotte’s, looking over Terry’s (Todd Lowe) cubby. Outside he runs into Alcide who tells him that he’s returning Nicole and her mother to him. Sam offers him a cold beer and they sit at the bar, sharing a few drinks. Both can smell a child growing inside of Nicole. Sam doesn’t really know what to do next. But hey the sex scene that they had wasn’t completely pointless. Now that makes me happy.
Now with Nicole’s mother getting things together to leave, Sam confesses to Nicole that he loves her. However, her mother isn’t too keen on her daughter staying with this “sliver fox”. As they begin to argue Sookie appears, asking Sam to talk. They go to the office and she immediately hugs him. Sam confesses to her about Nicole and she shows him her special vampire-killing light and how it might eradicate all the fae inside of her; thus making her not “different.”
The Tru Blood is handed out. Reverend Newlin (Michael McMillian), not exactly popular around the male gen pop group, sits next to James. “I haven’t felt this unpopular since the 8th grade,” Steve Newlin tells him. He starts to drink the Tru Blood but James advises him not to.
Dealing with a hangover, Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) makes Arlene (Carrie Preston) a nice greasy breakfast. Arlene asks Holly (Lauren Bowles) to go to the funeral home with her. Lafayette informs Arlene about the life insurance policy. The weight of this sinking, Arlene is distressed and thinks that Andy’s daughters might have made things worse for Terry.  Of course Adilyn is in her mind as this happens and they both leave the table upset.  Both of Holly’s sons come by a little later, asking Adilyn if she wants to go out with them and blow off some steam. Yeah, indulge in the teenage years of rebellion.
Meanwhile back at the camps, Sara Newlin (Anna Camp) gets news that some of the vampires aren’t drinking the Tru Blood.  Newlin is one of them, and with little effort she’s able to make him confess where he got such intel.  As a result both James and the Rev. are placed in a circular viewing area.
At the funeral home Arlene makes arrangements with Terry’s grandmother. His grandmother wants a full military funeral with 21 guns. The presence of the guns, the very weapon that killed Terry, unnerves her and she tells the family Terry only enlisted because they wouldn’t pay for college.
“”Y’all are burying a lie,” Arlene tells them, storming out. Andy and Holly go to console her, convincing the waitress to accept the money Terry left for her.
Sookie visits her family’s graves. This helps push her decision, claiming that she’d rather “walk the Earth as a corpse” than spend time thinking about them. Trying to kill one’s own child does tend to build a gap between the daughter and parent relationship.
Ms. Suzuki arrives at the vampire facility demanding to see Burrell over and issue of the Tru Blood. She pushes her way through Sara and sees that something is being added to the Tru Blood. Sara attacks her and actually ends up killing her with one of her shoes on top of the male gen pop. Cause of death? Stiletto.
Sookie leaves Jason a voicemail. She tells him about Terry’s death, and asks if he’s seen grandpa Niall. There’s so much more she wants to talk with him about. Instead she picks up the phone to call Bill.
“Pick me up in an hour,” Sookie says.
While Adilyn and Wade fool around in the cemetery, however Eric shows up. He needs Adilyn’s blood. Eric glamours the brothers away and feeds on her.
Violet is forced to drink the Tru Blood. As the vampire advances the line she overhears Pam, Jessica and Willa talking about Jason. This leads into an argument and the guard notices that none of them are drinking the Tru Blood. They are all placed in the room with Newlin and James. Jessica tells James this is where they will all meet the sun.
Andy finds Adilyn running down the street, scared but still alive.
“Daddy’s got ya,” Andy tells her as she collapses, crying in his arms.
Sookie brings Bill to the faerie portal only to find an unconscious Warlow who has been fed on. Bill soon jumps to his first suspect: Erik.
Another slow episode, but things are definitely turning. Sam gets to be a daddy after all, and the Bon Temp Vampires in the camp are fulfilling Bill’s prophecy. Also, Sookie has a made a big decision, but I doubt that she’s actually going to be turned. The scene with Arlene and Lafayette was really sweet, it gave me warm fuzzies and it’s nice to see a strong relationship between two friends. With only a couple of episodes left in this season I can’t wait to see where True Blood is going to go. Check it out on Sundays, HBO 9 pm.