THIS WEEK ON True Blood: Soul of Fire
‘Soul of Fire’ wasn’t a bad episode of True Blood by any means. In fact it was the most entertained I was in a good while in this season. It had everything I want in a True Blood episode. Almost no Sookie (let’s not get greedy), brooding bro-dude vampire posturing over barely hidden homosexual tension, Jessica, and rocket launchers. Chyeah boy! It had it all. If this episode didn’t entertain me, chances are I was never going to be.
Marnie’s dumb ass continues her descent into haggard Hell Fire this week, offing one of her hippie cronies with a little knife-meet-organs action. Marnie gives some half-baked speech to Sookie Time about how she is tired of getting pushed around, and how she’s been a laughing stock her whole life. Snore. Yeah! Okay! I feel for you. Genocide is clearly the answer unto this problem. Kill them all! Byah! Sookie nods her head and empathizes. I’m not certain but there was probably a “Ya’ll!” in there for good measure.
Marnie’s transformation into a psychotic witch lady coincides with the general motif of the season, which is the fragility of innocence and the ability for such innocence to shatter into a million little bits of Killer Witch Lady under the smallest of circumstances. Slippery slopes. A push in one direction. A taste of power. Et cetera. Blah.
This episode finally gave us the answer to the question hanging over our heads: what do vampires learn at Vampire Camp after they’ve been born out of seduction, sucking, death, and resurrection. They learn how to use heavy artillery. Clearly. How else do explain Bill Compton running around like a motherfucker on a Call of Duty map, spraying bullets everywhere. How else do we explain Jessica getting ready to rip off a rocket launcher? Soul of Fire fleshed out mythos that I never would have thought answered.
Northman’s another character that can ride the thin line between Douche and Innocent like Marnie. As shown throughout the season when he was drooling on himself and making proclamations of love to Sookie, there’s a kindness that underlies the Viking Warrior Guy façade that he’s put forth throughout the show. Snap! Pow! It’s gone. One episode he’s wearing sleeveless hoodies and canoodling in Sookie’s arms and the next he’s sucking blood out of a heart valve like a Big Gulp. It turns on a dime. When you’re not looking. Certainly Northman was a douche for thousands of years, and he is no doubt a sexy douche again. His Face turn wasn’t recent nor did it last, but it still points out how someone with such a blubbering stupidity and innocence like Marnie and Tardo-Eric can become so warped with hatred so quickly.
I never thought that any scene with Andy Bellefleur would turn me on. First time for everything, right? However seeing Andy lay some pipe with a Faerie Queen Lady was quite the bulge-fest over here for this crumb-covered sloberton. It’s a nice departure from seeing him struggling with his addiction to V. Though let’s be honest, it is obvious the writers like Andy but they’re not really sure what to do with him. Get him addicted to V! Have him fuck a faerie! I miss the Jason and Andy days when they’d come together to forge a combination of amusing dumb-assery previously thought impossible.
The episode ends with Lafayette becoming subsumed by ghost of Haggard Ass Marnie. He is taken in by her spirit and the next episode will undoubtedly involve a hair-pulling amount of dramatic irony, the reveal, and then a final can of Whup Ass Extraordinaire getting opened up across the fields of Bon Temps. Lafayette is yet another character who falls prey to the suspceptibility of giving into evil through power. In this case a spirit literally inhabits his body in a moment of weakness, riffing off of his new empowerment as a medium. Can’t a motherfucker just get some sleep?
It’s coming belatedly to my attention that not only is Sookie a vapid vessel used as a power-struggle between Eric and Bill, but when she is giving rare fleeting moments of agency she’s a bitch on swole. She is playing the Confederate and the Viking against one another for all they’re worth. Sookie, just choose one so the other can go on their merry way and find someone better than you.
The painful stand-off in the middle of the episode where Eric and Bill both agreed to kill themselves for Sookie failed on several levels. First it failed as a moment of tension. No one in their right mind thought that either of them was going to die, because this show doesn’t have any gall. They wouldn’t off either of their main male figures in a Love Triangle, thereby eliminating the only thing most people watch the show for. So what was the pain of the scene? Another repetitious point of posturing for the two characters? It didn’t advance the narrative.
Fail.
Secondly, it once again underpinned the fact that Sookie really isn’t worth anything. Why are these people vying for her exactly? I don’t understand it. Because they love her? But why do they love her? She’s two-dimensional. A caricature. A piece of paper. Even annoying Pam whose charm burned away Four Hundred Forced “Fucks” ago can see this, and wised up and launched a rocket at Sookie’s dumb ass.
Adroitly. Courtesy of Vampire Camp.
So next episode will bring together this Power Corrupts motif. Marnie, Northman, and Lafayette have also succumbed to power at some point in their lives, their innocence stripped away by potentials warped. It’s an Orwellian staple, but it’s neat enough that they’re reaching for it.
Season finale next week folks.
See you then.