The song for tonight’s episode was written by the show’s music supervisor Gary Calamar and James Combs (indie rock songwriter). The awesome Iggy Pop taking the lead vocals. Wow, he’s always been really edgy. Does that mean the episode is too? Are there nine thousand plot lines to dilute what we really want to see? Pull up a chair and let’s review…

We open with the always accommodating Ms. Stackhouse. It seems she’s ready to take Alcide upstairs to introduce him to her naughty bits. You had to know that they weren’t going to get far with Bill and Eric on the front lawn. What I didn’t expect was for Sookie to download the drink menu on Alcide’s shoes. The best part was the way Bill and Eric were leaning on the door jamb smirking with Bill looking way sexy and Eric ready with a snarky comment telling Alcide he knows how to treat a lady.

Lafayette goes home and has a whole conversation with himself about how Sookie could have gotten hurt in the car that he seems to have put the jou jou on. Lafayette looks in the mirror and as far as the mirror is concerned he has undergone a brujo makeover. Sage is lit and burned and Lafayette, in trying to cover all of his religious bases, offers up a plea for help from Mary, Buddha, and a angel statue which all start taunting him. He then proceeds to stomp on them and asks Jesus for help. You see Jesus’s head with stitches in his mouth appearing for Lafayette which understandably scares the ever lovin’ shit out of him, and Lafayette’s mom (is Alfre Woodard EVER going to age?) sees Jesus on her night stand. She seems to understand what Jesus is trying to say. The next few scenes come in rapid succession. Much to my annoyance.

Oh lord we’re back to Terry and Other guy (ok, his name is Patrick) in nutty Other, other guy’s (Eller) hidden basement. Eller asks Terry and Patrick if anything followed them to the secret basement and as they are tied to chairs and Eller has a gun, they wisely say no.

Now we have Jason in He-man footie pajamas. I honestly thought for a second that he might really be wearing them, but the whole scene is a dream. The dream has Jason and Sookie’s parents having breakfast with them and Jason seeing vampire bites in their necks. That stir any memories? Yes, and I will get to that later too. Be patient, all in good time my pretties, all in good time. Oh shit, I lapsed into the wicked witch of the west there didn’t I? Jason and Andy both get phone calls for police business. Oh yeah, they’re both naked.

Sookie is in her kitchen with Bill, Eric and Alcide. The latter is very grumpy … gee I can’t imagine why that might be. They are discussing the KRE situation, which Alcide seems to think vampires are completely at fault for. It basically turns into a pissing contest, which Sookie sees as all of the men barking at each other. Granted it was kinda funny, but I am as not as enthusiastic for this scene as others have been. Sookie accepting that her life may never be the same? Yeah, okay … I just didn’t like the scene, it was too campy for my taste. Sookie almost seemed to be teetering on the verge of a break down rather than a revelation. Her real moment of revelation comes later. Sookie’s onward into the jaws of death speech caught me and for a minute there I though she was going to break into Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade”. Tara’s breaking the door did provide a handy exit for Sookie though.

Speak of the devil. Tara is at Fangtasia looking really pretty even though she’s dressed like a dominatrix. Pam is wearing enough make up to graduate from clown college and wow! … where did all the extra breastage come from? When told by Pam she will be bartending, Tara says, “the more things change the more they stay the same.” That evidently is true since Tara’s disposition is basically the same as when she was working at Merlotte’s. Pam throttles Tara for trying to snack on a patron. Well, smack my ass and call me Skippy if Pam doesn’t get all up on her high horse for Tara trying to feed in public. It’s not like Pam has taken any fucking time at all in trying to teach Tara the do’s and don’ts of feeding etiquette. All Pam did last week was croon in Tara’s ear about how awesome being a vampire is, how Tara doesn’t have to be afraid any more, and when to stop drinking. Jessica walks in and looks at Tara with sympathy.

Sookie is with Alcide’s employee, Doug, trying to ferret out info about KRE’s escape. Now I can say Sookie has had her revelation and not with all the bells and whistles of the previous scene. When Sookie greets Doug, she asks him if it’s ok if she takes a peek inside his head. She’s not apologetic about it, she isn’t ashamed of who she is anymore, she is what she is. Maybe now, Sookie will understand that she never belonged with regular people and that she wasn’t a freak; she just was never really one of them. Maybe now, she will stop holding Bill or even Eric’s nature against them as they are what they are … vampires. Life will never be typical for her because she is not typical and it’s not everyone else’s fault that her life is different, because she herself is different. Okay, okay, I will climb down off the soapbox now.

Back to our story … Doug sees a woman digging KRE out and Sookie tells her hot man posse. Sookie sees a necklace and Bill figures that it’s a female member of the Authority and asks Eric if he told Nora about what they did and Eric says he wouldn’t do that and points out that Nora tried to help them both. Bill doesn’t believe him and Eric acts like he doesn’t give a rat’s ass, but when Bill turns away I got the impression Eric is wondering if maybe Nora did backstab him. My opinion? I think maybe it’s Salome. She and Nora were pretty tight and watching the woman walk toward Doug in the fuzzy recollection, I really don’t think it’s Nora. Okay now, was it me or when they showed KRE in the fuzzy recall … didn’t he look like Voldemort in one of the Harry Potter movies? Anyone? A show of hands? Okay, fine. I’m a nerd.

The camera shows Nora in her cell wearing the pendant Sookie mentioned, but I’m not taking the bait. Lucky Nora, her cell is right next to Nigel the baby eater. He’s going to entertain her with his brilliant prose of “Drew is goo.” He’s quite the wordsmith. Anyway, while Nora is praying Salome and Dieter watch her and then use the UV light. Salome seems disturbed by Nora’s torture. Bill and Eric are mentioned having gone to Sookie’s and then stopping to buy coffee and Nutter Butters. I am so traveling with her next time I have a hangover. Salome instructs Dieter to tell Bill and Eric that they have until dawn to find KRE. Salome leaves the room and we see Chancellor Drew being rubbed out (hehe) of the carpet. Roman is in the room with the vial of Lilith’s blood waxing poetic about how Chancellor Drew lost his way and that religion is basically a dog and pony show made up of useless symbolism. Salome tells Roman that he has to be careful that two of his chancellors went Sanguinista. All I could think was, “thank you, oh great Mistress of the Obvious.” I guess Roman felt the same way, as he just said,”No shit!”. Oh, lookie there, isn’t Salome wearing a pendant strikingly similar to Nora’s?

Oh Lord, we’re back at Eller’s secret basement hidey-hole. Okay, let me explain. No, too long, let me sum up. When the guys were in Iraq and they killed the civilians, a lady survived. Patrick told Terry to “dead check” her. Terry does after some initial resistance. Right before the lady was killed, she put the whammy on all the soldiers and some (brace yourselves) fire demon things came out of the civilians’ bodies as they were being burned. Suffice to say, the scene was ugly. I have to say I found this whole part offensive. If they were going to use these scenes to show that Eller and Terry both were damaged from their war experience and to show what horrors war can bring to a soldier manifested with PTSD or sadly sometimes suicidal, kudos to them. But this was some cheap ploy to introduce another fucking cheesy monster. Sigh …

We find Mike, the coroner guy, at Sam’s friend’s house. Andy and Jason are there kind of doing their jobs. Jason is seeing vampire bites in the shifter’s necks. I told you I would bring this up again and I am. Does it remind you of season three when Jason saw bullet wounds in everyones’ heads because he shot Eggs? Is this going to be the way Jason is going to remember things from now on? I hope not, because it seemed to me to be lazy on the writers’ part. Why did I say that Andy and Jason were kind of doing their jobs? Well, we have two dead people and they are discussing the whole fae incident, and if Andy fucked one how it would impact his love life and whether or not they should let any of this disturb their lives.

Andy questions Sam and he tells them he saw Emory and Suzanne at Merlotte’s earlier. Sam tells them they were all good people and shifters. Much to Andy’s credit he has no reaction either way. Bullets are found and they are a wood and silver combo. Andy figures it’s supes in general the perps are after. Jason goes off on a racist tangent about vampires.

Later Sam will go to Luna’s to tell her about Emory and Suzanne’s murder. They discuss possible suspects. Sam and Luna are both shot by some racist assholes as Sam is trying to leave. Emma gets away by shifting into wolf form.

Tara and Jessica have a sweet scene where Tara wants to trade makers with Jessica. Jessica wants to be bff’s with Tara and they talk about feeding and feeding and sex. Jessica does this whole self empowerment session and it’s well done by both ladies. My Jessica, you have come a long way. Bill was right, he did do well. Later on Tara will snack on Hoyt (who is dressed like he’s going to an ’80′s party) in the ladies room at Fangtasia after Tara sees Hoyt outside. This will cause some trouble between Tara and Jess.

Sookie asks Alcide on their way to find KRE if he wants to discuss her puking on his shoes. No, he does not. OOOH! They’re pulling up to an abandoned asylum complete with thunder!! Bill and Eric are in the back of the box van and Bill is trying to reason with Eric the concept of Nora selling them out. What Bill is saying does sound plausible. Eric doesn’t want to hear it. I understand, Nora is like a sister and Eric obviously loves Nora and doesn’t want to think she would do that to him, never mind Bill. The boys get snippy and fangy. Bill’s phone rings and it’s Molly, the Authority tech, telling them their istakes are now on a timer.

Thankfully, someone has been watching horror movies and has gleaned the valuable lessons they provide. You NEVER split up at an abandoned asylum and besides that, Sookie tells the men she’s not helpless and that she has to pee. Alcide smells wolves inside and Bill explains they follow KRE. By the way, the asylum has all the requisite horror stuff inside, with the exception of the bowling balls with the lighting bolt. I just love that big ole’ Doug is such a huge pussy. Bill keeps a wary eye on Sookie asking her if she’s okay when she falters. This whole part of the episode was … fucking awesome! I was literally on the edge of my seat. Oh look, they found KRE’s snack room complete with rats. Doug in chicken shit panic mode runs and finds KRE’s meat curing room. I guess if he hangs the people long enough they get tender? Most of the people hanging around (hehe) are semi conscious. I laughed out loud at Bill getting the one hanging guy to shut up by doing the Cesar Milan ‘shh’ thing. We are treated to a sweet exchange when Bill asks Sookie if “she’s ready,” and Bill also holds Sookie’s hand later. I heard the beginning strains of the Bill and Sookie music!

We find Roman addressing other Authority members (not the Chancellors) telling them there are traitors in their midst and as vampires they have sinned against humans and have to reconcile themselves to that. This is juxtaposed with Jason at his parents’ graves and you know he’s back to Jason of season two thinking that vampires are responsible for all that is wrong with his life. Bill, Eric, Sookie, and Alcide are also shown looking for KRE as Roman talks about vampires skulking and hiding in shadows and main streaming and feeding. This is when we see Tara feeding on Hoyt. Roman talks about living up to Lilith’s ideal and trying to live as equals with humans.

Here is the moment we have all been waiting for (no, Bill does not do full frontal), it’s that slow Southern drawl of KRE. He tells Bill and Eric that it took them long enough to find him and that they made one hell of a racket in doing so. I have to say, Russell does look better, albeit weak. Eric asks KRE if he remembers him and they’ve come to finish what he and Bill started. Bill watches on with a kind of leery fascination as KRE tells them that as Talbot used to say, “take your best shot.” And with that, Alcide drops to shift, we hear a scream and we are done …

Well folks, I am sorry if I got all political and serious at times. The episode was frenetically paced, so Iggy Pop was a good choice for tonight’s music. Tonight’s episode was better than others IMO and the parts with Sookie and her hot man posse in the asylum made any side stories bearable. As always I am curious to know what you all think. See you next week….

Gif credits:

Sookie and Alcide

Tara and Jessica

Sookie exits

I don’t believe you!

Terry

Bill and Sookie