True Blood: “In The Beginning”

Now that’s the kind of batshit insanity True Blood delivers so well. While “In The Beginning” was far from an objectively perfect episode of television—honestly, it might not even have been an objectively good episode of television—it was a perfect encapsulation of how exquisitely entertaining the show can be when its warped sense of humor and specifically strange worldview come together in all the right ways.

Last week’s sudden departure of Roman is turning out to be one of the best things that has happened all season, as the Authority storyline finally got out of its endless cycle of boardroom speeches and out into the actual world. With Roman gone and the unsurprising reveal of Salome as Russell’s accomplice, the Authority is revealed for what it really was all along: a sniveling, power-following group of individuals who care more about their own mortality than any sort of mainstreaming philosophy. Salome promises the return of Lilith if they all drink her ancient blood and think about her really hard or something, and Russell threatens death to all of those who don’t agree, so even skeptics like Bill and Eric drink. But instead of the Lilith blood passing through their system like regular vampire blood would, it hops them up like hillbillies on their first hit of V.

This leads to one of the more entertaining sequences of the last few seasons, as the vamps cavort around Bourbon Street and then crash a quiet family karaoke night by eating everyone in the club. In the end, Lilith appears (or does she?) and Eric has a vision of Godric, who warns him not to fall under this spell like Nora has. The religious allegories and actual mechanics of this storyline are an absolute mess, but the execution tonight was so fun that it’s surprisingly easy to hand wave these doubts away. One thing is for sure: If Russell had shown up a few episodes earlier, the Authority storyline might not have seemed like such a drag.

Also very entertaining tonight was Sookie, who is quietly making a case for becoming a useful character again. The first few episodes of the season when she helped Tara turn made it seem like she would continue on her path to being one of the most maddening characters on television, but since then, her blasé “fuck, my life is annoying” attitude has been fairly amusing. Tonight, she learned her fairy magic is potentially finite and makes the decision to try to deplete it as much as possible. Rationally, this is likely a horrible decision, because she’s used her magic hands to get herself out of more than a few hairy situations, but on a character level, it feels just right. Sookie was also at the center of two great character scenes, one with Jason and one with Sam. Although her romantic entanglements have almost always been lacking, her more platonic relations with the opposite sex are usually spot-on, and these continued that trend. Anna Paquin has the ability to be a very sympathetic actress, so it was nice for her to get a chance to flex these muscles again.