True Blood 7.10 Series Finale: Weddings, Exploding Exes, and Faceless Futures

In the realm of TV, there are superb series finales which leave you with the existentialistic question of “what do I do with my life now?” and then there are the “welp, I guess that’s over” endings. After seven years, a dynamic first few seasons, and years’ worth of available literary source material, True Blood unfortunately falls into the latter category. I don’t know what I was expecting for final episode 7.10 "Thank you". Many main characters were already dead, dying, or had hit the road. What I will say is that I thought Sookie's fairy powers, which made a mysterious cameo in the first episode, would ultimately have a greater impact in the show's conclusion.

What Happened: 

Bill is rapidly dying from Hep-V and is so ill that he feels warm to the touch and Sookie can hear his thoughts wishing her a life full of love and babies. He alludes to the fact that this journey to death is making him feel human again. He implores Sookie to give him a true death at the hands of her powerful energy orb, the last speck of her fae essence. They eerily walk to the graveyard where Bill has a burial plot. They hug, smooch, and stare at each other, wasting crucial minutes of the finale. As tears stream down her face, Sookie tells Bill that she realizes that she can't lose that fae part of herself and dissolves her energy orb. That's when things get messy. Bill still asks Sookie to kill him (because that kind of guilt won't weigh on her, right?) Sookie breaks a shovel and painstakingly (no pun intended) stabs Bill through the heart giving way to an explosion of yucky guts and innards all over Sookie, who chooses to stay in the grave and weep in the mess.

What Should Have Happened: 

Bill is rapidly dying from Hep-V and is so ill that he feels warm to the touch and Sookie can hear his thoughts wishing her a life full of love and babies. He alludes to the fact that this journey to death is making him feel human again. He implores Sookie to give him a true death at the hands of her powerful energy ball, the last speck of her fae essence. They eerily walk to the graveyard where Bill has a burial plot. They hug, smooch, and stare at each other and then Sookie creates her energy orb and holds it between them. Something magical begins to happen and the light continues to grow and engulfs them both.

Bill: "Sookie, what's happening?!"
Sookie: "I don't know! I've never done this before"

An explosion of light and sound fills the screen. After all the fast forward scenes of New Blood we see a pregnant Sookie holding a large barbeque for family and friends as a now human Bill turns around at the head of the table and embraces Sookie. Sookie makes mention of their unborn daughter Claudine kicking inside of her implying that Sookie was able to maintain her fairy essence while also turning Bill human.

In Reality:

However, that was not the conclusion we were left with. While there is a barbecue with family and friends, a pregnant Sookie embraces a seemingly human, black haired man whose face we never get to see. A face which for all intents and purposes should have been Alcide's. Considering he could have given her love, marriage, babies, and not to mention numerous, sexy lap dances, there was no reason for writers to kill him off episodes prior. The season had been a rushed jumble of plots and storylines they tried to hastily tie up, and while the finale slowed things down with only three main plots, it didn't do much in the way of redeeming what had already been lost, creatively.

On a positive note, Bill informed Andy that Compton Manor would be his after Bill's death and asked him to rent it out, for one dollar, to Jessica and Hoyt. Jessica and Hoyt then got married at Compton Manor in a beautiful, quaint ceremony officiated by Andy Bellefleur. If you had been following Jessica's blog and vlog (two of the high points of the True Blood universe) then you'll love the adorable photos she posted of the wedding party. They can be found at: http://www.babyvamp-jessica.com/babyvamp-jessica/2014/8/5/jessica-wedding-draft

All in all, I've been disappointed with the creative direction of True Blood for quite some time now. However, I stuck by because I was four years in and was reading every book in the Sookie Stackhouse series. Over time, many characters were losing their depth, but I still had my favorites, like Lafayette, Pam, Jessica and Jason, which made it worthwhile to watch. For that reason, I wouldn't mind spin-offs of a few of those characters, but I think for now we'll just go with, Thank you and farewell, True Blood.


What did you think of the True Blood series finale? What is what you expected? What would you have liked to see happen?

"If I Stay" Review

The heart of If I Stay was the connection and power of music to shape someone’s life, intricately weave lives together, and define love stories.

While Chloë Grace Moretz (Mia) gave a believable performance as a young woman embarking on first love and overcoming the fear of following her own passion, I was left wanting to see more emotion, especially due to the gravity of the plot. For someone who is repeatedly witnessing the tragic loss of every member of her immediate family, while no longer having a tangible connection to the living world, I wanted to see a bit more raw emotion from Moretz. Most times I could feel it rising up in scenes, only to be doused with a quick transition to a flashback or another scene; a good portion of the movie consists of Mia running around the hospital in a frantic daze as scenes jump from one to the other.

The male lead, Adam, played by Jamie Blackley portrayed the dreamy, mysterious musician but was a bit bland, while his emotional tantrums often felt selfish and juvenile. While there was some chemistry between the two, young characters, I was left wanting to delve more into the parent’s relationship. Interestingly enough, the characters that gave the movie true depth weren’t the ones with the most screen time, yet they lit up the screen every time they graced it.

And while different people and age groups have differing opinions on the topic, I was a bit concerned with the amount of teen sex and teen drinking used in the film. Since I have not yet read the novel the movie is based on, I’m not sure if these were parts of the text. 

The conclusion came on an anticlimactic note as a Polergeist-like choice of either going into "the light" or staying on earth was highlighted by a build-up of crescendoing music and a mash up of Mia's memories and experiences flashing across the screen preceding her simply opening her eyes and Adam whispering her name. The screen goes to black and most viewers in attendance at my theater were confused about what to do next until the credits started rolling and a residual "okay?" was mumbled. All in all, while I loved the music and beautiful landscape of the film, on a scale of 5, I'd have to give it a 2.5.