The above picture shows the cameo appearance of Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, in the season two finale of "True Blood", the HBO show based on said novels. Since I've been watching this show pretty religiously all summer, I just wanted to put in my two cents about the season finale. I found this episode to be a rather lackluster conclusion to what was nevertheless a really great sophomore season. If the episode itself was a bit of a let down, it was probably due largely to the fact that my expectations were so high, and in any case there certainly were plenty of intriguing hints/cliffhangers to invest people (and me) in the wait for season three.
The first half of the episode focused on the conclusion of the Maryann conflict, and culminated in her fi
nal defeat at the hands of Bill, Sam, and Sookie. With Sam’s shapeshifting abilities, Sookie’s mysterious and unreliable supernatural powers, a deeper understanding of what a maenad really is, and a little bit of clever trickery, the three are able to finally defeat her and thereby save the good people of Bon Temps from themselves. I must say, I’m going to miss Maryann. Or rather, I’m going to miss Michelle Forbes, who always played her with wickedly irresistible charm and a brilliant touch of craziness. On the other hand, the time had come for her to die; her character was this season’s big “undefeatable” adversary, so at the end of the season she had to be defeated of course.
The second half of the episode shows the aftermath Maryann’s mayhem and also leads into several storylines for season three. Most of the residents of Bon Temps are in denial about what happened, while Jason and Andy congratulate themselves on being heroes (although t
hey didn’t really do anything but get possessed themselves, but hey, A for effort boys!) The one person who really can’t handle the truth about what he did under the influence of Maryann is Eggs, who completely loses it and approaches Andy with the knife he used on Daphne and others. Jason witnesses the encounter, freaks out, and shoots Eggs in the back of the head before running off. I know, I didn’t see that one coming either. Meanwhile, Sam visits his adoptive parents, the queen warns Eric (quite forcefully) not to let Bill find out too much about the blood cartel, Hoyt seeks Jessica’s forgiveness while a hurt and angry Jessica seeks out victims, and Bill proposes to Sookie before being kidnapped by a mysterious attacker. Yup, this all happens in the second half of the episode.
The first half of the episode focused on the conclusion of the Maryann conflict, and culminated in her fi
nal defeat at the hands of Bill, Sam, and Sookie. With Sam’s shapeshifting abilities, Sookie’s mysterious and unreliable supernatural powers, a deeper understanding of what a maenad really is, and a little bit of clever trickery, the three are able to finally defeat her and thereby save the good people of Bon Temps from themselves. I must say, I’m going to miss Maryann. Or rather, I’m going to miss Michelle Forbes, who always played her with wickedly irresistible charm and a brilliant touch of craziness. On the other hand, the time had come for her to die; her character was this season’s big “undefeatable” adversary, so at the end of the season she had to be defeated of course.The second half of the episode shows the aftermath Maryann’s mayhem and also leads into several storylines for season three. Most of the residents of Bon Temps are in denial about what happened, while Jason and Andy congratulate themselves on being heroes (although t
hey didn’t really do anything but get possessed themselves, but hey, A for effort boys!) The one person who really can’t handle the truth about what he did under the influence of Maryann is Eggs, who completely loses it and approaches Andy with the knife he used on Daphne and others. Jason witnesses the encounter, freaks out, and shoots Eggs in the back of the head before running off. I know, I didn’t see that one coming either. Meanwhile, Sam visits his adoptive parents, the queen warns Eric (quite forcefully) not to let Bill find out too much about the blood cartel, Hoyt seeks Jessica’s forgiveness while a hurt and angry Jessica seeks out victims, and Bill proposes to Sookie before being kidnapped by a mysterious attacker. Yup, this all happens in the second half of the episode.I have to admit that this finale left me slightly underwhelmed. I definitely expected more to come of the Sophie-Anne storyline, especially since they decided to introduce the queen so much earlier in the story than she ever appears in the books. I also had a huge problem with Bill’s big, romantic proposal to Sookie, and with her readiness (after a moment of hesitation) to accept it. I’m really trying not to compare the show to the books too much, but this scene just felt very wrong to me. I have a hard time believing that Sookie would ever really entertain the idea of marriage to Bill, especially since their relationship has such a glaringly obvious expiration date (no matter how much they don’t want to admit it.) Still, I’m interested to see how this will play out next season, because I don’t think it will ever happen. As for Bill’s kidnapper, I have a pretty good idea of who it might be, especially because while the show strays quite far from the events and characterizations of the books each new season generally retains the main conflict of each successive novel.
Overall, I feel that season two was a huge improvement over season one. While I still think that the Bill/Sookie romance is pretty weak, the show has moved away from resting solely on that concept. It’s at its best, I feel, when exploring the politics of the different supernatural communities, and the extended universe of the different characters. And so, all things considered, I’m very excited for next season. I’m hoping, as always, for lots more Eric-Pam-Fangtasia action, and I also read somewhere that there will be Weres next time around, which is super exciting. It’s also a good thing I like Anna Paquin so much because she invariably makes the Bill/Sookie pairing interesting despite all the problems I have with it.
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