True Blood Season 4, Episode #1-she’s not there

Brought to you by OBS staff member Heidi

This episode starts out with the 8 minutes of fairyland that has been previously released online.

Claudine brings Sookie to the land of the fairies and tells her she is her fairy godmother.  Sookie tells her that if her job was to protect her, she sucks.  Way to go Sookie, you tell her!

Sookie meets Barry the bellboy there and also sees her Granddad Earl, who thinks he’s only been there for a few hours, when in fact he’s been there 20 years!

Everyone is eating light fruit and Sookie realizes that is what is making everyone lose track of time and to see everything as beautiful.  Sookie looks around and sees the beautiful facade fading.  She tries to tell her granddad telepathically that it’s a trap and they need to leave.  The others hear.

What I assume is the Queen of the fairies shows up and says the trap is the world Sookie left behind.  They try to force sookie to eat the light fruit, but she uses her power to zap the Queen and all the beauty of the place fades to the ugliness it truly is.

Sookie and her granddad run as the fairies try to blast them.  One fairy tries to help, taking them to a cliff and tells Sookie to jump that only she can because she didn’t eat the fruit.  But both Sookie and Earl jump.

They show up in the cemetery in the real world.  Sookie shows him her grandma’s grave.  He’s in pain, gives her a pocket watch for Jason.  He then pops into nothingness.

Sookie arrives at her house and sees workers fixing it up.  She goes in, despite one worker’s protest.  He tells her he will have to call the police if she doesn’t get out.  She tells him to go ahead.

The police come in the form of Jason, who tells her she’s been gone for 12 and a half months.  He thought she was dead and sold the house.

Sookie gives Jason the watch.  As he’s setting the time on the watch, Sookie realizes it’s time for the vampires to rise.  She steps outside and Bill arrives.  He tells her he hadn’t felt her presence in over a year.  He assumes she was with Claudine, but he thought she was dead before she came back.

Then Eric arrives and tells her that he never gave up on her.  Bill insists Eric leave, but he won’t until he tells her everyone that claimed to love her had given up on her and thought she was dead except him, then he leaves.

Andy shows up and is angry that Sookie wasn’t kidnapped, ruining his record and wasting his time looking for her.  Bill intercedes saying that she was working for him on vampire business and that he will pay back all the money spent on the search for her once his name is cleared of her murder.

Jason gets Andy to get in the car to leave.

Sookie and Bill tell each other they are glad they are OK and Bill leaves.

Jason asks Andy if he’s using again and he says no that he had a drop earlier, but it’s gone.  Jason searches around in Andy’s car and finds a vial of v and takes it, telling him it’s gone now.

Then we see Lafayette and Jesus…and wow check out Lafayette’s hair!!  I was shocked most by that I think.  Jesus is taking him to meet a powerful witch.  They walk in and there is a circle of witches, meditating.  Holly and another witch come to great them.  They tell them they will introduce them to Marnie later that she is on another plain trying to contact spirits.  Then, Marnie sees Lafayette and motions him to come to her.  He does and she starts saying stuff that Holly has to interpret.  She asks about Eddie (the vampire) and says that Eddie has a rose for Lafayette.  They tell him to take it, the rose is invisible, but he plays along.  Marnie grabs layette’s hand and starts talking about some of the things Eddie and he did.  Lafayette gets upset and storms out.

Arlene walks up to her baby and he has ripped the heads off of all the barbies sitting around him.  It scares her and Terry insists he’s a good boy.  Arlene picks the baby up and tells him that killing people is wrong.

Then we see what Tara’s been up to…she’s a fighter and wins her match.

Hoyt comes home from work and he and Jessica fight over her not cooking for him.  So she goes to make him eggs with shells and everything in the pan and then serves it to him raw, which he starts to eat.  She then starts laughing and takes it from him telling him she doesn’t want him getting sick.

Jason stays the night with Sookie.  He tells her that her return is the happiest he’s ever been and that he doesn’t want it to end.  Sookie tells him that she’s calling the lawyer tomorrow to see if they can return the money and stop the sale of the house.

The vampire league is shooting a commercial at Fangtasia to calm humans’ fears.  They start with Pam, but aren’t happy with her performance and they say they want Eric and he obliges.  Eric is his charismatic self asking the public who they’d rather trust vampires or politicians.

Bill is speaking at an opening ceremony and ribbon cutting for a senior center, as Portia looks on fondly.

Tara is outside having a cigarette when her opponent, Naomi, comes out telling her she let her win.  They start making out and a bummy looking drunk tries to solicit them.  Tara gives him a talking to and takes his money and tells her she’s keeping it for not turning him into the cops.

Sookie makes her return to Merlotte’s.  She apologizes for missing Arlene and Terry’s wedding and can’t wait to see the baby, she hugs Lafayette, and Sam gives her a part-time job.

Jesus comes into the kitchen to talk to Lafayette, who’s still mad at him over the meeting with the witches.  Jesus tells him that he has a gift and that he’s only fighting against himself.  They get interrupted when Andy comes in wanting to speak with Lafayette alone.

Andy tries to buy some v from Lafayette who tells him he’s clean.  Andy starts attacking him, but Jason comes in and intervenes.  Jason tells Lafayette that even if something did just happen that it didn’t and leaves.

Mrs. Fortenberry comes into Merlotte’s with Tommy, who’s in a leg brace.  They appear to be involved.  Sam asks how his physical therapy is and Tommy asks how his anger management is, to which Sam replies he may need to go some more.

Tara and Naomi are having sex and Tara gets a text from Lafayette telling her that Sookie is back.  Tara tells Naomi that it was her dad and that her grandma passed away.  She doesn’t think she’ll go back for the funeral, but will just send flowers instead.

Sookie talks to Portia who has taken over the lawyer’s office and Sookie can hear her thoughts.  Portia wonders if Sookie will go back to Bill.

Jessica is dancing at Fangtasia and a human comes on to her.  All she can think about is the blood pumping through his veins.  She tells him she’s there with her boyfriend and he steps away and watches her and Hoyt from the bar.

Jessica runs to the bathroom to “touch up” and Pam informs her that the bathroom is for humans only.  They talk for a minute and Pam tells her that if she had Hoyt bring her to Fangtasia that he must not be enough for her.  Jessica tells her that she is going home with the man she loves.

Sam is sitting in a meeting discussing his shooting of Tommy and the others chime in with their own experiences and thoughts.  Then, they all strip and turn into horses and go for a run.

Jason shows up in hotshot bringing the residents food, which they try to tear into even though it’s raw.  One of the boys tells him the freezer isn’t cold and as Jason leans in to investigate someone else hits him over the head and tosses him in, locking him inside.

Lafayette and Jesus are back with the witches as they are trying to see Marnie’s dead parrot into the afterlife.  She then changes the chant trying to bring it back alive.  She gets angry that Lafayette isn’t holding hands and insists he does.  When he closes the circle he feels the power.  The parrot flies up and hits the floor behind him, still dead.

One of the witches shows up to see the king and is admitted in only for us to see that the king is Bill.

Sookie gets out of the shower and begins to change only to have Eric show up behind her.  She asks if this is another dream which he assures her that it’s not.  She then asks how he can be there since she rescinded his invitation.  He explains that the house is no longer hers and that he bought it.  He continues by saying he hadn’t given up on her and now she is his.

Overall Thoughts

All I can say about this episode is wow this is truly a season of changes!!  Lafayette’s hair, like I mentioned earlier, Tara being a fighter (not so far-fetched considering her past) and being a lesbian now.  Bill being the vampire king, which is going to be really weird with him being higher ranking than Eric.  Jason being responsible– that one is truly hard to swallow.  Tommy and Maxine together…can you say ewww??

Then there are the not so surprising changes like Andy being addicted to v…I could just see how he was so curious about it at the end of season 3 and how he looked so longingly at the confiscated stash and knew he’d have to try it sooner or later.  And of course Eric doing anything he can to get Sookie for himself.  Buying her house was not so far-fetched considering.

Overall I really thought the episode was good once you got past the fact that nothing was the same.  And every season there is some storyline in there that drives me crazy and I think this year it will be the fairies (lame) and Lafayette joining the witches.

Also, I think it’s really sa-weet that HBO is letting those that have HBO GO the opportunity to watch next week’s episode this week, which I will be sure to take advantage of!

What did you think of the first episode of season 4?  What surprised you the most?  The least?  What storyline are you most interested in and what would you like to see happen?  Join us on the forum and share your thoughts!!