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By Root 518 0

of his feelings and images. Eventually, she does, and it’s such a powerful experience that he feels her in his head, another trait of her telepathy we haven’t seen before. Showing us the other deaths as if Sookie is seeing them is effective, but it’s ultimately a procedural device, a convenience that gets us caught up on what he’s done and to whom. Mere minutes later, Rene lies dead with his head severed from his body. It’s a satisfying death, sure, but it all comes to a very sudden conclusion. There’s a quote by Alfred Hitchcock, “There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.” The anguish/joy of possessing information that the protagonist doesn’t have is how the story unfolds from that point on, watching a character inadvertently dig herself into a deeper grave. We don’t get that pleasure, because it’s over almost as soon as it begins.

Similarly, Sookie and Sam are beaten and choked into unconsciousness, so their sudden (in Sookie’s case, downright frisky) revival seems unlikely. And while it’s been established that Bill wouldn’t die immediately upon being in the sunshine, his eyes bake over. He appears to be a goner. When he emerges on Sookie’s doorstep, completely healed, there’s no explained passage of time. Did she just bury him and walk away? How long was he buried? A day? A week? It’s important, because we’ve already seen them reunite twice, one with dirty, raunchy results, the next met with a cold shoulder. In the last episode, Bill was gone for relatively no time and Sookie almost hooked up with Sam. In this episode, she all but tells Sam that she loves him. These would be small details if major plot points didn’t hinge on Sookie’s choice of mate. Time, and how it passes, is the very foundation of how Sookie and Bill relate to one another. She’s impetuous and wants to set everything to her clock; he has all the time in the world and follows ancient lore. Even John Cusack came armed with a ghetto blaster. Bill arrives with his tail between his legs and kisses her boo-boos less like a lover than a father. It felt as if at that point it had become a foregone conclusion to the writers that Bill and Sookie would end up together. But I’d argue that the viewer wouldn’t have minded a little more anticipation.

Nitpicking out of the way — when do we do it if not during the finale? — in the second act, things start to get clearer as the scene is set for what we can expect from season 2. In the Sookie Stackhouse novels Lafayette is killed off, so when we see that leg dangling from the back seat of Andy’s car, toe nails all painted up, it appears at first glance that Alan Ball has chosen a similar fate. We have, however, seen that leg before . . .

In the here and now, Bill’s rebirth is akin to a sustainable agricultural process known as slash-and-char, in which bio matter is cut down and charred, its ashes mingling with the soil to mysteriously regenerate itself. What would Amy make of that? Whether it’s Bill’s miraculous healing, or Jason’s miraculous saving, the rest of the finale is about the choices we make, or are forced to, when we’re handed the opportunity to rise from the ashes. Will we stay rooted? Or will we pick up and settle elsewhere?

As Arlene said, just because we think we know someone, doesn’t mean they are who they say there are. Jason is recruited into the Fellowship of the Sun, believing, like many young soldiers, that questionable actions will be justified if done in the name of a greater good. This was perhaps foreshadowed by Eddie’s sentiment that we’re all conditioned. And if this isn’t an accident waiting to happen, what is? While Jason joins a congregation of sheep, Tara believes she’s finally taking a leadership role in her life, yet her every move is monitored by Maryann, a powerful shifter, and her mute house servant. Both Jason and Tara are so distracted by the bright, shiny comfort of happy faces and an abundance of love and community that they fail to see what we do — that they’re, once again, under the influence, this time of people far more persuasive than Amy and Miss Jeanette