True Blood – “Everything Is Broken” – review

Sorry I’m a day late with this, but I needed some extra time to think over everything that happened.  Because damn, that was an episode where a lot happened.  Including several characters reaching their breaking points—should have been titled “Everyone Is Broken,” eh?

The really sorry part is that I’m still not sure what to think of everything, and neither did the friend I dissect the show with, so I can’t even steal her ideas!  So I’m just going to blow through what are standing out to me as the main points of what-the-fuckery, and we’ll call it good till next week when there will hopefully be some resolution and/or clarification on some of these points.

First, the way Eric and the American Vampire League handled themselves surprised me.  I did not expect Eric to come completely clean about his intentions to Russell and what parts he had played, including killing Talbot which he freely admitted, and why.  I did not expect the AVL and The Authority to be such utterly spineless politicos about everything.  On the one hand, because I like Eric, I like that he’s off the hook and free to pursue his revenge with the sanction of the vampires who make the laws behind him.  On the other hand…huh?  It seemed a forced politicization of the situation.  It’s either a grand conspiracy or an inconsistency that implies the league of vampires that make the laws are not in fact the strongest vampires which then raises the question of why any vampire at all fears or obeys the laws they make, given that their society is clearly hierarchical and based on power in one form or another.

Second, is it really even remotely possible that Bill hadn’t taken a day trip to Sookie’s inner fairy glade before now?  I mean, I can buy that maybe before he hadn’t had enough of her blood at once…but why the hell did it take two days to kick in?  Wouldn’t he have had that vision the first day he drank her almost dry, i.e., while she was in the hospital bed having that same vision?  Or was it something that he could only access by drinking her blood after she had been there?  It didn’t make much sense, honestly.

Sookie’s little nephew—poor little tyke—made me wonder if Barry is also a fairy (or whatever they are)?  Is he somehow related to them, maybe someone’s by-blow or a lost branch of the family that got the hell out of Bon Temps a century ago and never looked back?  And if it took Bill so long and a visit to Sookie’s Dancing Meadow of Delight to figure out what she is, how did the Queen or Eric recognize it just from her cousin’s descriptions?

Final question, is it inconsistent for Jason to unhesitatingly shoot Franklin but not do more than yell at Crystal’s abusive family despite their breaking into his house, cussing at him, threatening her, and trying to force her to go with them?  Is it an instinctive thing for him to protect Tara, or does he just hate vampires that much despite what he tries to pretend to his sister? 

Also, how…anti-climactic was Franklin’s end?  That was a waste.  If they were going to save him and bring him back, then they should have really brought him back into the story.  Instead he came back for like 5 minutes and then got shot.  Wha?  It was much more satisfying to have Tara kill him, vs. disempowering her to have Jason do it.  I don’t normally take that kind of sexist stance on things, but it seemed very pointless and very much “we need to have a man kill Franklin to protect Tara not Tara kill to protect herself.”  I know girl could use someone standing in her corner, but why take away the one thing she had fought into submission for herself to put someone there, you know?

I guess Sam finally hit his breaking point with the were-meth-heads, after his waitresses getting killed off or just never coming in to work (cough * Sookie * cough) and his birth parents being so worthless and his brother being such a little shit and Maryanne almost sacrificing him and…I guess having some other shifters disrespecting his territory was just too much.  That was probably the most viscerally shocking moment of the show, Sam beating that guy almost to death.  Or maybe to death, just because he was alive in the car doesn’t mean he made it to the hospital….

The end, with Russell killing the news anchor and then giving his little speech about what vampires really are—while something I appreciated as someone who does occasionally pull back from a vampire fantasy to think about the fact that vampires are serial killers and monsters and that’s kind of disturbing—seemed…unrealistic.  As fast as vampires are, the AVL couldn’t get someone in there to challenge him while he was still droning on?  Really?  It seemed like he wasn’t stopped or interrupted just so the big finale is even bigger and more dramatic, and that just seems like a plot device.

So there it is.  My pile of problems with this episode.  What did you think?  Did I forget the most important moment?  Did you have other issues?  Can you answer any of mine?  You tell me….