EPISODE SEVEN — RELEASE ME

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER   ALAN BALL   |   DIRECTED BY   MICHAEL RUSCIO   |   WRITTEN BY   RAELLE TUCKER

Picking up right were Episode Six left off, Maryann and her naked revelers are about to sacrifice Sam at the woodlands altar.  Andy stumbles upon the scene, chasing the pig he saw (Daphne in her shift guise).  Tara, possessed like the others, encourages Sam to enjoy the bloodletting while Maryann revs up in a supernatural shudder.  Andy fires a shot, momentarily breaking the spell as Sam overpowers Karl and Daphne to make his escape.  Maryann's revelers scream in fear and alarm while she runs off into the woods, bull mask atop her head and tri-clawed paws for hands, in pursuit.  Sam spies an owl in a moonlit tree as he runs for his life, shifting into a owl's form and flying off into the night, leaving Maryann very angry behind him to end the intro.

Andy attempts to control the possessed revelers, questioning Terry why he's out with this hedonistic mob.  Of course Terry, with Arlene, is another under Maryann's spell and the possessed cook breaks Andy's arm.  Meanwhile, back in Texas, Sookie and Hugo remain caged in the Fellowship compound basement while she shouts out to locate Godric, also a captive of Newlin and his church soldiers.  Hugo attempts to blame Stan as the traitor in the Dallas nest, but Sookie doesn't buy the theory.

At the Hotel Carmilla, Lorena continues to hold Bill captive in her own way, still running interference for Eric's plan.   As Lorena attempts to win back Bill's affections, a flashback to the couple in 1935 Los Angeles illustrates how Bill quickly grew tired of feeding on innumerable victims with his vampire maker.  Unlike Bill, Lorena continues to hold humans in contempt and delights in toying with and torturing her conquests.  Yet it is Bill's contempt for her which ends their dysfunctional, cruel relationship, accusing Lorena of losing her humanity and stealing his own.  Back in the present day, his contempt for Lorena still burns strong, and while she attempts to laugh off his love for Sookie, clearly deep down it is an emotional dagger in the remaining semblance of her heart.

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Eric and Isabel stake out the Fellowship compound in the night, though she warns him not to underestimate their human foe or their growing popular cause.  Eric probes her devotion to Hugo out of curiosity, and she claims it's humans' passion and urgency for life, due to mortality, that allows them to feel much more than vampires ever can.  Ergo she regards Hugo's own mortality as little more than an interesting science project for her observation, feeling no such passion for his short lifespan shared with her.  Isabel turns the tables on Eric, wondering how Bill feels about Eric's interest in Sookie.  Eric insists his only interest is in freeing Godric, though both vampires cannot understand how weak humans could ever overpower a 2,000 year-old vampire let alone hold him captive for weeks. 

Sarah Newlin weeps in the church, not through guilt of her sexual encounter with Jason but overjoyed at the revelation that he is the man God intends her to love and support, not Steve.  Jason, via his own dimwitted panic, talks her out of rushing to tell Steve of their love, postponing their fulfillment of their vow of honesty until after the next night's church lock down (when Jason isn't at such close quarters with Steve Newlin and his anti-vampire arsenal of lethal weapons!

Back at the Hotel Carmilla, Hoyt and Jessica snuggle and neck in bed.  He reluctantly admits to her that he's a virgin, and to his relief she admits the same. They continue pouring out their secrets and fears to each other, and Jessica sweetly volunteers to be Hoyt's first — that is, after she's slept through the oncoming day to regenerate.  They snuggle up close again as love between this odd but enjoyable couple blooms greater.

No love is lost between Eric and Stan, who wonders if Sookie and Eric haven't already joined the Fellowship's cause against them.  Isabel refutes this angrily, reminding Stan that Hugo is utterly loyal to her.  Eric snarls at their constant in-fighting, accusing Stan of starting a war with the humans to satisfy his own lust for power, and perhaps any clues that he murdered Godric to take his place.  Isabel breaks up the duel of wills, yet Eric warns them both he will uncover every secret behind Godric's disappearance and will show no mercy to any guilty party accountable for proven treason.  As tears of blood fall on his cheeks, Eric vows nothing can replace what he has lost if Godric is truly gone.

Back in Bon Temps, Tara and Eggs awaken on the couch with no recollection of how they got there from the dim haze of the previous night.  Eggs blames it on Maryann's strong weed, but Tara won't accept such convenience, worrying they should stop getting high and sober up, afraid she's following in her mother's addictive legacy.   Sam returns to Merlotte's, utterly deserted, and retrieves a hidden gun for self-protection after his near sacrifice.

Steve and Gabe brag to Sookie how ready they are for Bill and vampires to come save her.  Hugo, frantic with claustrophobia, admits their true identities to Steve, who bristles upon learning that Sookie is Jason's sister.  Desperate, Sookie attempts to think-speak to Barry back at the Carmilla to contact Bill for help.  Meanwhile Lorena continues holding Bill hostage into the day as they both weaken and bleed.  Bill begs Lorena to let him call Eric to save Sookie, but she admits with twisted delight that it was Eric who sent Lorena to distract Bill so he could have Sookie. 

Steve and Gabe take Jason captive before he can escape the compound and his own sins with Sarah, proving of little help to Sookie either when she needs him most.  Maryann returns to the house, carrying a bloody rabbit she hunted in the woods, insisting that Tara and Eggs enjoy their happiness together instead of worrying about their blank memories or the mess of the orgy.  Gabe holds Jason at knife-point while Steve berates him for siding with the vampires, adding to Jason's dim confusion thinking that Steve wants revenge for Sarah's infidelity.  In this battle, it's a struggle to pick who is the more dangerously clueless about their own situation, Jason or Steve.

Sam confronts Daphne at the dock on the lake, drawing his gun on her while she attempts to sweet talk him into giving himself up to Maryann's sacrificial demands.  Sam is outraged at her betrayal, but Daphne coldly admits that she loves and fears nothing else but Maryann, who once attacked her but gave her a new life.  Sam remains Maryann's target because she cannot control him like she does humans — Daphne insists Sam must surrender himself willingly to Maryann, since resisting her supernatural powers is futile for a mere shapeshifter like himself. 

Back in the church basement, Hugo panics in his captivity and when Sookie attempts to calm him, she reads his thoughts: Hugo is the traitor, enlisted by the Newlin to betray Isabel and the vampires in order capture Godric and sacrifice him in their holy war.  False devotion abounds as Daphne reveals Maryann's true nature to Sam: she is called many names in lore, but the Greeks classified Maryann as a maenad, known as a handmaiden to the god Dionysus, aka the Horned God.  Maryann is an immortal servant of Satan, invulnerable to any human threat, and she is paving the way for her God's return to earth with a sacrifice . . . Sam first and foremost.  Daphne urges Sam to surrender himself, which he ponders if it would save Bon Temps, but Daphne admits Maryann will never stop in her service of chaos and destruction.

Hugo admits his cynical devotion to Isabel, who refuse to turn him as her immortal lover, so instead he betrayed her and the vampires to the Fellowship instead.  Sookie turns the game on him quickly, insisting that the Fellowship is using Hugo just as thoughtlessly as Isabel has in their affair.  While followers arrive at the church for the lock-in, Jason fights off Gabe utilizing his soldier training and fleeing to save Sookie.

At Merlotte's, Arlene is frantic about blacking out the previous night, convinced she forced herself sexually on Terry against his will.  Tara is alarmed that she's not the only one who is losing time and memory.  Meanwhile Lafayette confronts Eggs at the bar, convinced he represents nothing but trouble for them all just when Lafayette is attempting to steer clear of further disasters.   Any storms into the diner, shouting for Terry and accusing all the patrons of being devil worshippers in the field last night, vowing to stop them all if it's the last thing he does. 

Hoyt strews rose petals and lights candles in the hotel room, setting a romantic mood for Jessica as she awakes from her daytime rest.   She adores his attention and affection, but finally just asks him to undress lest he postpone their lovemaking with a minute more of nervous decorating.

Jason runs through he night along distant trails until a jeep catches up with him: Sarah jumps out of the driver seat, calling his name.  Before Jason can explain how Steve and Gabe went ballistic on him, she pulls out a gun and, in a rather dreamlike motion, a shot blasts in the night and Jason falls grimacing in pain.

Daphne waits on the lake dock in the night as Maryann approaches.  Mirroring how Sam and she met on the dock nights ago, Daphne wistfully welcomes Maryann who kisses her gently.  Maryann thanks Daphne for her service rather coldly as Eggs steps out of the shadows, eyes black and void under the maenad's spell.  He stabs the sacrificial knife into Daphne's ribcage, a look of sad betrayal welling up in her eyes as blood pours from her mouth.  Earlier Daphne attempted to convince Sam, being a part of divine acts is worth a thousand deaths: do the tearful blend of emotions on her face as she withers refute this claim or support it?  Has Daphne died many times before to serve Maryann, or is this a final betrayal of corrupt absolute power which neither knows or honors loyalty to any creature but the God Who is Coming?

In the Fellowship basement, Gabe returns bloodied by Jason to take out his frustrations on Hugo the disloyal betrayer.  Sookie attempts to intervene in the fight, but Gabe only turns his wrath on her.  He pins her against the wall, threatening to show Sookie how a real man can please her better than any vampire.  Sookie screams and Bill reacts with shock in the hotel suite.  Frantic to save his love, Bill heaves a chair at Lorena who lets it shatter against the door.  In a flash Bill darts to escape but she is there blocking the door before he can turn the handle, pointing a fractured wooden chair leg at his heart.

Flashing back to 1935, Lorena refuses to let Bill leave her out of her insane jealousy and dependence on his companionship.  Bill vows he will never love Lorena because she cannot give him the choice to leave her.  She heaves him across the room, shattering a wooden table.  He picks up a broken table leg, threatening to stake himself in the heart if she won't let him go.  Lorena relents, blood tears streaming down her face, freeing him as his maker.  Bill's relief at this apparently powerful concession is overwhelming.  Returning to the present, Bill reminds Lorena she relinquished her emotional, intimate bond to him as her maker.  A stand off ensues, the fractured stake poised over Bill's heart until a knock at the hotel door.   It's Barry, telling Bill that Sookie is captive at the Fellowship compound where Godric is imprisoned.  Bill reacts startled, but no less so than does Eric across the hall in his room, overhearing Barry's message.  In a blur, Eric dashes from his room to save Godric and Sookie, while Lorena hauls Barry into her room as he thinks his final reply to Sookie that he's done helping her and the vampires.  He may well be right if Lorena exacts her revenge on him.

While Sookie attempts to fight off Gabe's attempted rape, he suddenly flies off her — it's Godric, holding Gabe at bay with superhuman strength while he calmly looks over Sookie for any injuries.  Eric was right all along: there is no way this masterful, ancient vampire was ever captured or contained by such weak humans as Gabe and his paramilitary pretenders.  If Godric is by no means a prisoner of the Fellowship, what is he doing there?

SUMMARY:  Episode Seven truly turns up the heat on all the conflicted interests and trouble relationships simmering from last week.  Betrayals abound and understandably an urgent sense of paranoia is taking hold from Dallas to Bon Temps.  Alan Ball and his creative team do a fantastic job of pulling the rugs out from under all character's feet, both human and vampire alike.  One can't help but assume that Maryann's growing powers and presence is destabilizing everything and everyone, creating the chaos upon which she thrives.  Daphne's murder-sacrifice only underscores how no one can possibly be safe from Maryann's devotion to her Horned God.  Death and destruction will be the order of the final days if he reigns, and only the most strong willed and selfless have a hope of undermining Maryann's devilish groundwork being laid in Bon Temps.  While the tension mounts, wisely Sookie's detective mission yielded surprising results which will only help prevent a mutually destructive war between humans and vampires — an apocalyptic bloodbath which Maryann would no doubt welcome with glee.  Amid all these betrayals and double dealings, Godric is cleverly revealed not to be the vampire "victim" he was painted to be either.  Clearly he too has a plan under way which no one, not even Eric who is closely devoted to his maker, recognizes.  If Godric is not a prisoner, why is he participating in the Fellowship's holy war and lust for sacrifice?   Will he attempt to sacrifice himself for the larger good, in some way defeating the satanic plans of Maryann, to restore balance to a world gone dangerously out of control?  TRUEBLOOD continues to surprise and delight in Season Two, and previews of Episode Eight imply the fang-baring fun is only beginning!

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