“My death shall be my own.”–Nora
I don’t usually feel a sense of simpatico with any character in True Blood (and that’s totally fine), but this was a penetrating line of dialogue for me. It encompasses my general ethos about life and death. I am a notoriously private person. I’m not someone who blogs about my feelings. I do not make a spectacle out of my hardships or injuries. All of these things belong to me. When one speaks about them publicly–even if it serves as catharsis–you lose a part of yourself.
That is terrifying to me.
It’s refreshing to see this mentality represented on television. And it’s refreshing to see how glaringly misguided such a belief can be. “In the Evening” details a series of deaths and the emotional fallout from them. It shows us that there are some things that we plainly can’t keep to ourselves, that our lives will always have an impact on those who love us.
We first see Arlene crying in a cemetery from Sookie’s perspective. The sound of Arlene blubbering bleeds into the sonic ether of Fairyland. Sookie runs out to comfort her grieving friend. She escorts her back to her house.
This is what Terry’s death has left behind. Arlene just began to experience an unfettered love with her husband, leaving her doubly unhinged from this ordeal. Terry has also left behind a life insurance plan to ensure that his family is well endowed financially. He evidently took out the plan three days before his death. (Would this hold up in court? It seems mighty suspect. He technically made an agreement with Justin to murder him, which I’m sure would invalidate the insurance.)
Terry saw his death as the best thing for his family; was he right? He certainly couldn’t continue living in his condition, but he didn’t foresee of the therapeutic wonder of glamouring.
Bill makes an appearance at Arlene’s house in dramatic fashion. He apologizes for both Arlene’s loss and the loss of Andy Bellefleur’s brood. “As fathers, there is no duty more sacred than to protect [your children],” he says wistfully.
He has a tête-à -tête with Sookie out on the porch regarding Warlow. He tells Sookie that Warlow is their salvation. Sookie is standoffish at first but is quickly won over after Bill invokes the well-being of her friends. Sookie is increasingly mercurial these days! A few episodes prior to this she rebuked Bill and said she wanted nothing to do with him. Now she is convinced in a scant minute!
This is yet another indicator of the poor job True Blood has done integrating Warlow with the rest of the characters. It hasn’t been measured at all. Sookie just suddenly became fixated with him. After they have a beatific love session, she does say that she hasn’t committed to the contract yet, but I’m beyond exasperated with this thread. What does that make? Twenty steps forward and two steps back?
Also, Sookie hearing Arlene in Fairyland has to be one of the most tortured segues ever rendered. Was there really no better way to do this?
“You don’t have that stockholder’s syndrome, do you?”–Jason Stackhouse
At least Jason doesn’t let us down. But apparently that amorphous “leverage” that he had over Sarah Newlin has expired. She exposes him as a traitor.
I lamented the loss of Burrell last week, and I stand by what I thought was a clumsy execution, but Sarah Newlin is a solid stand-in for Burrell’s vision. I will say that her Weekend at Bernie’s esque plan to pretend that Burrell isn’t dead is misbegotten, but whatever. When god’s message is this clear, she is (purportedly) a truly an unstoppable woman.
Before he was exposed, Jason did successfully set up a meeting between Jessica and the conscientious objector from Copulation Studies. She mourns not only the loss of three of the Bellefleur kids, but also her own humanity. And so she seeks it in this guy. This may seem like forced pairing, but they are on the brink of death here; a little anomie isn’t unexpected.
But let’s end where we began, shall we? Eric’s attempts to save Nora are in vain; the hepatitis v has already done its damage. I like the way they employ the flashback here. The way it dovetails with the current circumstances is clever. And yeah, we get to see Eric as a Londoner. Good stuff.
“In the Evening” was mostly a transitional episode for True Blood. A lot of the scenes involving Warlow are starting to implode on themselves due to the haphazard plotting, and there was too much Alcide and Sam. But I thought Nora’s death was very poignant.
And you know I was rocking out to Led Zeppelin at the credits!
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