True Blood ‘Soul of Fire’ Recap: F*ckin’ Sookie
Previously on True Blood:
Sookie unamnesiacs Eric with her fairy powers and decides she loves Bill more for absolutely all the wrong reasons. Antonia wants out of Marnie’s genocide, but Marnie goads her into staying and then holds all her humans hostage including Sookie, Jesus & Lafayette after a failed rescue mission leaving only Jason on the outside. Bill makes the dangerous split from Nan and the AVL breaking the ban on vamp on human violence. He & the V-Team (Pam, Jessica & Eric) go to burn down the witch’s house, regardless of who may also be inside. This is what we’ve been up against all season, the right to exist and the right to defend yourself against your attackers. For the rest read my more detailed recap of “Burning Down the House”. Here goes…
“Soul of Fire”
We return unfreezing the V-Team as they prepare to blow the crazy witch to bits. Jessica is bitching about silvering herself all day, and being pissed off all the time, “this is what PMS used to feel like”, Pam’s ready for revenge and wants to get to it as to not miss her mani-pedi at four.
Inside Moon Goddess Marnie laughs off the Vamps with automatic weapons grossly miming and being entirely disgusting and cocky. During the season Marnie went from gross, pathetic and useless, to sort of bad ass as Antonia back to absolutely horrid once more now that she’s Marnie again with more power. I’m rooting for the V-Team.
Marnie’s hippie lacky who is pretty much as gross as she is laughs almost manically quoting The Eagles proclaiming you can check out any time, but you can never leave. I think this inspires Marnie a little to act a little bit too literally.
When an extra named Casey begins to freak out, Marnie promises they can leave whenever they want, shows them the door and tosses a knife on the floor for escapees to defend themselves with. Eyes roll all over the room. Extra-Wiccan screams, calls Marnie a bitch and lunges towards her. With a happy self-important flick of the wrist Marnie magically plunges the knife into her heart. I don’t imagine Antonia is very happy in their union right about now.
“Oh Shit, Antonia just puked a bitch out”
As predicted pre-credits Antonia ain’t going to abide by Marnie’s crazy murdering any longer. She’s gone beyond defense, protection from Vampires and is spilling the blood of their own people. This isn’t friendly fire either, it’s power hungry murder.
Antonia emerges from Marnie, only Lafayette can see her spirit in the room, and he describes what’s happening. Antonia is fighting to escape but Marnie’s hold is too strong. Jesus recognizes Marnie’s chant as a binding spell, “It means Marnie’s gone batshit”, sweetie that ship has sailed. Marnie won, “we’re fucked”.
“You can’t blow that place up, Sookie’s in there”
“Sookie’s in there? I told her to stay away”
V-Team. Jason runs onto the scene to intercept the big guns. Sookie’s in there. “Fuckin’ Sookie”s all around. It’s pretty funny, like a mini-version of this video. Jason stand up for his sister, don’t fuckin’ Sookie her for all she’s done for you. She brought Eric in and cared for him when he was lost and alone, she let Bill drink for her “like [his] own private soda fountain”, she saved them both on numerous occasions.
Let’s be honest, fuckin’ Sookie always does run directly into trouble. It’s so like Bill to actually think that she would stay away from somewhere just because she told her to, if anything that’s more likely to push her towards the trouble. She’s the kid who puts jam on the cat. At least Eric knows what’s up, rolling his eyes at Bill’s astonishment “You actually expected her to listen”. This just adds to argument that Eric totally wins over Bill, except for in fuckin’ Sookie’s crazy fairy brain. It’s the blood!
“Fuckin Sookie, always in the goddamn way”
Bill calls off the plan and Eric agrees. Pam has no time for this sentimental bullshit and this is why we love her.
“Holy shit gentlemen, are you telling me we’re putting our entire species at risk for a gash in a sundress?”
“We have to find another way”
Jason is going through one of his competent phases now. Despite his anger towards the Vamps he wants his sister and friends to survive. He clues the camps in about the protection spell surrounding Moon Goddess. They’re going to need to a new plan.
While the grownups go off to plan for battle Jason catches Jessica’s hard eyes. “Why are you staring daggers at me?” I think he actually knows the answer to this one, he’s dense but he kinda gets things sometimes and this seems to be his day. He tells her he still feels guilty, obviously she does too. She denies even thinking about him at all even though it’s written all over both their faces and the tension between them is visible.
Marnie sends out the advance forces. Out of nowhere her spellbound vampire sheriffs pounce on the V-team.
Wolftown. Sam’s waving around a gun out of grief looking for Marcus. Like most things on True Blood, this will end badly. Alcide is there to keep things in control because he is a big sexy hunk of superhero. Just when Alcide is lecturing wolf lackey #1 on the dangers of following a sociopathic pack leader who makes people accessories to murder, Luna bursts in with more rage than Sam, it appears Marcus has pulled a disappearing act with his daughter in tow. Luna starts attacking the same guy Sam was waving a gun at and Sam is hilariously hypocritically the one to pull her off him and tell her to calm the fuck down.
Alcide, my love, is the voice of reason once again. This isn’t about wolves vs. shifters, it’s about right and wrong. Most conflicts this season have been far from this cut and dry, but this one is. It’s murder and kidnapping, so tell the man where Marcus went so they can set this straight.
Meanwhile Marcus is attempting to talk Debbie into running away with him. Emma pops up just so we know she’s alive then is shooed off to colour when she asks to speak to her mommy. Marcus tells Debbie he can get her off the V, Alcide may give her love, but Marcus will give her babies. Of course that’s what every woman, especially an addict needs, not to be loved, but children to make her complete and happy. Gross.
Back at Moon Goddess Jesus who is absolutely fantastic in every way including thinking on his feet claims the he feels a pulse in Marnie’s latest victim. At this Marnie promptly declares herself innocent of all murder charges like it’s supposed to be reassuring, or absolve her of all wrong doing. More eyes roll everywhere, especially between Tara and Holly.
Marnie, pretending to be reasonable, allows Jesus, who is a nurse to save the woman. He quickly enlists Lafayette to help him carry the woman to the washroom where they can privately discuss a plan to force Antonia out of Marnie’s body using the empty vessel of Casey to supercharge the magic.
Jesus uses his awesome skills to deceive Marnie as he gathers all the ingredients he needs for his wacky magic. He tells Marnie that this is what he needs for cauterizing and disinfecting as Marnie follows him around seemingly the attack on Casey actually did have an effect on her, she promises that she feels really bad, claiming it was in self defense. Holly tries to explain to Marnie that it was murder. That she’s a friend and she doesn’t believe she is really evil. This is what she says but it’s hard to tell whether it’s what she’s thinking too.
Marnie tells us everything we already know. She’s sick of being a doormat, she feels powerful because she is feared and has no intention of letting go of this. She’s also gone head first off the deep end. Spinning tales in her head to justify her actions, she screams that she had to kill Casey, that Casey was attacking her. It’s terrifying the way people who feel like outsiders, who have been picked on can turn this into rage, into feeling that they have the right to revenge, to claim power, how it can turn so violent.
True Blood is campy, bloody, horror fun, and in all of that the real life parallels and metaphors are so powerful when you come at them from the right angle. The major theme this season is the right to exist, the right to self defense and the rules of war. Tommy killed his parents in self-defense, he was in imminent danger, the vampires have been harassed by humans and denied the right to defend themselves regardless of the actions taken upon them. Even Marnie!Antonia’s actions towards Eric causing his amnesia at the beginning of the season is self defense because he was threatening to kill them. A murderous hissy fit is not self defense. It’s hardly surprising Marnie is claiming it so; she has no sense of boundary and a strong sense of mostly unjustified righteousness. She is an extremist, in the past we’ve had the Newlins and the Fellowship of the Sun. She crosses all the lines because she believes in all her own bullshit.
Out in the woods somewhere Andy is still trying to find his way home from Fort Bellefleur. He also finds that he’s talking to himself which is pretty normal I suppose compared to the other crazy shit going on at the moment. He pulls himself together, “Don’t go all lost in nature retarded” he tells himself.
At that moment a flash of light dances around the clearing. It’s Tinkerbell! Or something, finally the fairies have returned, I was worried they had fallen by the wayside like the werepanthers. Andy announces himself as a police officer and strangely enough that doesn’t work on this little Tink, and she fairy lights him to the ground.
Emma is a smart little shifter/werewolf, finds the phone and calls Mommy. Alcide recognizes his own number on the call display and it looks like we’re in for a second showdown at Alcide & Debbie’s nice little suburban home.
Outside Moon Goddess the V-Team has killed one of the spellbound Sheriffs and has the second pinned down. Bill is trying to intimidate her, rubbing innards in her face. Eric explains how the hypnotism works and Bill smartly declares she must die. But not before Pam grabs the vintage Cartier choker off her neck. Bill hesitates and wonders if she may be saved. Then tosses her around, smacks her to the ground and calls out Antonia for cowardice, hiding behind the magic.
Marnie heads out telling Sookie and Holly that it’s time for negotiation and quite frankly I think we’re all not so sure she really knows what that means. She brings Sookie along knowing she’s the object of interest for vamps everywhere. The two head outside to erm… negotiate.
When Antonia orders the sheriff to attack Bill right off the bat it’s not so much a sign of good faith. In self-defense (yes, that), Bill throws his attacker into the force field where she writhes around stuck in mid-air for a while before she explodes. Marnie explains the shield is created from harnessed power of the sun, obviously impenetrable to Vampires and pretty much a miracle that even Jesus made it through.
Antonia doesn’t get negotiation, she gets antagonism. Instead of ending the conflict she exacerbates it. Instead of negotiating a settlement she simply offers exchanging the free release of Sookie for the death of both Eric and Bill. Doesn’t seem like a fair trade, or a helpful one at that. But Bill and Eric are under another unbelievably stupid spell and agree. “What?” all around for Pam and Jessica.
Both Eric and Bill know that heightened emotional states triggers Sookie’s crazy fairy strength. I’d like to think that this is part of their plan as Bill decides that he will shoot Eric and Pam will shoot him. They do it slowly, putting on a show as tears gather in the eyes of Sookie, Jessica and Pam as Marnie stands self-satisfied, entertained even by their pain.
“The True Death for Bo Peep, I don’t fucking think so”
Pam, always my hero of fashion and awesome, picks up the biggest gun in the arsenal and takes aim directly at our fairy princess shooting straight into the force field causing a massive explosion that blows back into the street and shakes Moon Goddess’s foundations.
“You’re not my brother, my brother’s dead”
At Alcide’s Sam convinces Luna to take Emma outside while the boys go upstairs and do their manly thing.We so rarely see Alcide loose his cool but turns out walking in on Debbie half-dressed with Marcus in the bedroom they share is enough to get him mad. Sam is quick to follow delivering the lamest line of the night calling Marcus “Fuck Face”, maybe Pam could give him a few lessons. To be fair the speech he gives that follows it up is kind of fantastic. The men rev their testosterone Sam and Marcus going back and forth by Alcide towers over them, absolutely seething just in the background. Debbie tries to object and Alcide so out of character, growls, and pushes her away.
Moon Goddess. Antonia runs back inside telling Sookie the Vamps don’t care about her, although I’m pretty sure their actions reflected otherwise. She’s using her brainwashing bullshit on the people she has left inside. Saying there is no negotiating with the vampires, using the explosion and fear as leverage for her cause. Holly and Sookie don’t seem to be buying it, you really never know with Tara. She says negotiating will make her weak and she is not weak. So the negotiations were all bullshit from the start, but that’s not really news.
It’s embarrassing even for Marnie how lame her only lackey is as he goes in for a high five. Marnie attempting to reciprocate his high five with as much poise as possible, it’s just really awkward.
In the backroom Lafayette are cooking up some crazy Bruja juju with Casey’s corpse. Jesus explains how deep and dark this magic will go, dark parts of himself may manifest that will be beyond his control. It’s kind of clunky but so genuine and sweet and scared that it feels real. The honestly and caring between Jesus and Lafayette has been so wonderful and I’m glad that was in there so we don’t lose it. They are pretty much the only functional relationship ever on True Blood and I adore them for it.
Jesus is conjuring blood magic inside the V-Team is recovering from the blast outside. Bill and Eric get severe tongue lashings from Jessica and Pam respectively regarding their dumbass suicide pact. Jessica discovers Jason lying nearby, severely burnt and blind. She runs to him and feeds him her blood.
Andy wakes up flat on his back in the woods with Tink crawling on top of him. His nasty V habit had him smelling like vampire but now she knows differently she’s behaving very, very friendly. She’s tells him that he’s handsome, and muscular as she feels him up. Her name is Mirella, I suppose a good enough name for a fairy. She makes Andy promise she can trust him before they make love. Of course she can, he’s the law, of course he will protect this beautiful, strange woman who has appeared on top of him shortly after attacking him, at this moment I’m sure he would swear to anything. Her finger is aglow and she passes on her light to him and they take a tumble in the woods.
Alcide’s. Marcus and Sam continue to duke it out, flex their manly testosterone, yawn. Just as I’m getting totally bored and wishing Alcide has more to do here than hold Debbie back and growl occasionally. Sam decides to let Marcus off the hook and walks away. Too bad Marcus isn’t cool with that and grabs a gun. In the melee shots are fired and Marcus ends up dead. It’s an important lesson to be learned, and a trend in this episode, if you pick up a weapon there’s a good chance it’ll be used, and probably on you.
Then Alcide deals with that crazy Debbie Pelt. Alcide is basically one of the most fantastic men on this show. He’s so hurt, betrayed and pissed the fuck off that he can hardly stand to look at her. This is what separates him for the pack (intended), he speaks his mind, he is angry, he is furious but he doesn’t need to prove his strength and his manliness through violence. He uses his words and walks right out that fucking door.
Moon Goddess. Because Marnie is completely gross and morbid she looks into the pool of blood and conjures in it like the Wicked Witch of the West, “show me the present” she demands, and like a crystal ball, Casey’s blood reveals the Vamps regrouping outside. She then demands to see the future. It seems that every baddie who looks forward doesn’t ever like what they are shown. In a pool of blood Marnie is given a vision of herself lying dead with a bullet to the head.
Marnie claims the Vamps are planning a murder, she demands a circle, and they must act now or sign their own death warrants. No one makes a move; they know better, more violence and destruction is not the answer. Everyone knows this except lame lackey #1. Unfortunately this isn’t the strongest group of people, that’s pretty much what got them there in the first place. A completely lame “come on” actually worked.
Luckily the strong-willed are in the bathroom performing some crazy blood magic shit. The magic is strong but their love and trust is stronger. Jesus leads, and Lafayette winces as he follows instruction, he sees the pain Jesus is caused but he sees his strength, and the absolute necessity.
Sookie is reluctant to join the circle; Marnie is just so slimy and disgusting it hurts to watch her work. “I wish for everyone to leave here alive, I don’t guarantee it”. At this point it’s almost certain this threat is the hurt that will rein down from Marnie for dissent, not the danger from the vampires the outward force they mean to be fighting against.
Outside Jason looks up adoringly at Jessica, so sweetly he feels her blood tingling through him. Jessica, Bill, Eric, and Pam, their fangs pop out and they are being compelled, it looks so incredibly corny, like they are all doing their best impressions of zombie walks straight out of Shaun of the Dead, but we get the point. They are being pulled towards Moon Goddess, into the force field made of sun.
Jason, always the hero, fights to protect those around him, using all his strength to save them from the fire. Not just Jessica who he adores, but Bill too, whoever he can grab a hold of. His thoughts are screaming and Sookie can hear him, she knows what’s happening now. Jason has his moments where he is smarter than he knows. He channels his thoughts to Sookie to stop this. In that second she can feel the urgency and her power flows through her exploding the circle in a blast of her fairy light. They all fall down.
Poor Pam, the woman lives for her maker. Everything she does is for him. She apologizes the moment she can, swearing that Sookie is safe and she never even meant to hurt her. Eric can’t forgive her, not in this moment at least and tells her to get away. All Pam did was try to save them all, and she gets nothing in return but scorn.
Marnie flips out because Sookie betrayed her, everyone betrayed her because it’s always all about Marnie. She throws everyone to the walls and builds a circle of fire around Sookie. Jesus is chanting and Lala is freaking out asking him to fast-forward this shit seeing as Sookie is dancing in the flames.
Sookie’s screams reach the outdoors, Bill and Eric can feel her fear now, they know she is trapped, Jason knows too. She cries in the circle becoming engulfed in flames. Even though we know Sookie’s going to survive this scene was absolutely frantic and frightening. Sookie’s screams were so real and the reactions of everyone around her so spot on. Marnie stands there, hands on her hips, so proud of her disgusting power watching the fire.
Jesus’s power begins to really work, Antonia is emerging and I’m assuming most of the budget was spent on the force field and the fire because the cheesy demon mask Jesus is wearing isn’t doing anyone any favours, but I’ll let it slide because he is fantastic. Antonia emerges as Jesus spits fire. With that Marnie’s power dissipates, cheesy angelic music accompanies Antonia’s passing and the breaking of the spells.
As soon as the spells are broken the vamps dash right in guns cocked. Sookie interjects; it was all Marnie, only Marnie. Bill believers her and aims his gun, only at Marnie. This is self-defense, the defense of his entire species from a woman who tried to wipe them out.
Lackey number one runs to Marnie’s defense and he barely gets the words out before Eric holds his heart in his hands. This next part is awesome and disgusting and I love it. Eric takes the heart in his hand and sucks it dry from an aorta like a juice box right in front of Marnie’s face, and walks away.
“No one lives forever, not even you”
With that Bill growls and bears his fangs. He shoots Antonia with his automatic weapon in the body, then one in the head. She lived her own prophecy, she built this war, created these enemies and engineered her own assassination. She falls to the ground in Moon Goddess in the pool of Casey’s blood, and now her own.
Alcide and Sam head outside, Luna and Emma have been waiting in the car and rush out to see him. Emma asks where her daddy is and meaningful glances are exchanged all around.
Andy returns home and Arlene greets him, apparently he’s taken longer than expected to walk the few miles home. Terry’s out looking for him now. Poor Andy recounts his affair with the fairy to Arlene. From her perspective he sounds absolutely nuts describing a beautiful woman appearing out of a ball of light, then disappearing the same way after they made love.
I was worried here, Arlene isn’t the most compassionate woman and Andy is quite fragile. But she sits with him, and is kind. She doesn’t believe him but she tells him there are so many wonderful things in his life that are real. He has a family who loves him. Holly thinks he’s cute, and he is the Sherriff of Bon Temps.
At Moon Goddess the Vampires take care of the mess of Marnie, getting glamouring done where needed. Jesus stands in the centre, obviously quite affected by the magic he had to perform and the death of a woman who was once his friend. Luckily he has Lafayette by his side. Eric and Bill speak together, it’s nice to see those boys getting along. Sookie is left alone, Eric manages to catch her eye, he adores her.
Jason sits alone recovering, and I wonder why Sookie is never running to his aid. Instead Jessica goes to check on him, he’s doing much better after drinking his blood. Jason often has gems of wisdom and no one has said it better than him “We’re in a world of fucked up Jess”. He’s scared of losing his best friend, but he goes for it anyway, even without her blood she is all he thinks about. It’s a total mess but I suppose it’s love.
Jesus and Lafayette are home at last, together in bed after a long night passed. Jesus is morning the loss of Marnie, and Lala is there to comfort him. There was nothing else Jesus could have done. It was Marnie’s own fault she decided to wage war, and murder her friends. Lala’s got his head on right but it doesn’t make the loss any less real. He reminds Jesus that he was a hero going in and saving all those people. Jesus nods and falls to sleep.
Just as Lala is getting ready to catch some Zzzzzs, the show remembers that we still have an entire hour left and the spirit of Marnie jumps right down his throat.
Next Week! “And When I Die” What the fuck else is left!?! Fairies, Witches, Vampires, Oh My!
My predictions for next week: Pam is going to loose her shit completely and do something wild, Sookie is going to have some love-triangle crap that will hopefully be awesome, Jessica & Jason are going to break Hoyt’s heart, all while Jesus must deal with exercising another female spirit from his boyfriend. The fairies must figure their way into this story again, but given their absence over most of the season it’s hard to see where they’ll go. I hate waiting this entire week to find out what’s going to happen next!
What did you think of tonight’s episode? Any predictions for the season finale? Let me know in the comments!
