True Blood Season 4 Episode 5 “I Hate You, I Love You” – review

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The episode this week starts out with Jolee strangling Tommy with a chain. I love that Tommy turns around and kills him. I’m not even a little bit sad that he killed his mom in the process. They were both awful people. You’d think, maybe, now that Tommy is finally rid of them, he might be able to live his life without being a carbon copy of those worthless hicks, but I know he will never do that. It’d make too much sense. It’s smart that he went to get Sam’s help, though. In a way, it shows how young and vulnerable he really is, when he’s not trying to bamboozle people out of their money. Maybe there is hope for him yet? I mean, how clever was turning into a gator to trick Andy? I have to give him props, he DOES have a brain in his head sometimes. And am I the only one who loved Sam throwing the marshmallows to the gators? I thought that was pretty clever on Sam’s part, too. It makes me want to go try it out and see if it works.

When they throw the bodies in the water, though, did anyone else wonder how they happened upon a dock in the middle of the woods? I mean, wouldn’t you assume that if there’s a wooden dock, someone probably lives close by? Maybe it’s different in Louisiana? Here in Florida, if there’s a dock, 99% of the time, a house is attached to it. It’s pretty convenient they found a dock with NO ONE around so they could dispose of the bodies.

Once Lafayette and the others realize Marnie is being a “conduit,” they leave her behind in the woods by herself. Good for them! She has gotten them into enough trouble. I was just starting to think, “Finally, they are gonna high-tail it out of there like reasonable people.” Nope, there is nothing reasonable about where they are going, unfortunately. It’s nice how Lafayette asks the question that was running through my mind the entire time they are getting ready to leave: Why in the heck would they go anywhere near his grandfather, and Jesus doesn’t seem worried at all. I remember all too well the trippy vision they had of Jesus’s grandfather. So what if you felt a power when he made you kill a goat? As an adult you must understand that making a child kill a goat and then lick its blood off of a knife is a form of child abuse? I like how suddenly they changed the story so Jesus is like “Oh, well, maybe he ISN’T evil.” Last season, when the scenes of them tripping out to V showed us his grandfather, I was thinking that he would probably come to get them at some point and it would be really creepy and they’d have to figure out a way to defeat him. Boy, was I wrong. Add it to my list, I guess.

Terry and Arlene are gonna do an exorcism on the baby? Why does that not surprise me? If I were them, I would call another religious person. I don’t think that song is gonna work any evil sprits out of the house. Once they think it worked, they get right down to business. Really, guys? The baby is right there in the crib sleeping? I know how difficult it is to get a child to sleep. Would you be so loud? Besides, you have to know that it’s foolish to think that joke of an “exorcism” worked, right?

Let’s talk about Eric’s dream, with Godric telling him to bite Sookie. I’m sorry, but Eric’s visions of Godric aren’t making any sense. First, they were all like “Redeem yourself, be good, blah blah blah,” now they are encouraging him to be evil? I understand he’s lost his memory, but, first off, why doesn’t he remember Godric if he can remember his ancient language? Godric is so far back in his past you’d think Eric would remember that, since he knows he’s a vampire and all. Second of all, why has the Godric in his mind suddenly changed? I think we should stick to one version of him. It shouldn’t be that in one vision he’s good and in one vision he’s bad. Eric should have ONE idea of Godric in his mind, and that is who his visions/dreams should manifest into. Losing your memory shouldn’t change that. Also, why was he sleeping in the middle of the night? That doesn’t make sense. It’s hardly like he needs to nap.

Jessica and Hoyt find Jason, whom she nurses back to health with her blood.  When Hoyt tries to thank her with kisses, she pulls away from him. Is Jessica’s guilty conscience giving her relationship problems? Big surprise there. It’s a good thing that she was there to save Jason, though. I had to laugh a little bit at the dream he had after drinking her blood. It’s pretty funny to imagine having a dream like that about your best friend and his significant other. The only thing I think is kind of silly, even though it was a dream, is that Jason shouldn’t want anything to do with sex for a little while. He was raped by like, 20 women. That should be enough to turn you off for a little while. I guess it’s a reaction from the vamp blood, so we’ll let him slide.

Portia tries to convince Bill to continue sleeping with her, even though they are related. Portia is disgusting. Really? Just because you can argue for incest, doesn’t mean you should. There are billions of people on this Earth. Pick one of the 10+ that aren’t related to you to have a relationship with. I’m relieved Bill sees how disgusting this is. It wouldn’t surprise me if the writers made him consider what she was saying, but it would extremely out of character. When has that stopped them before? I mean, Eric is crying on Sookie’s sheets in the next scene…soooo….

Can I tell you how gross this is? Please stop crying lest you stain my sheets with blood, Mr. Northman. Seriously. I promised myself I would stop saying this, but in the books, when Eric loses his memory, I don’t remember him being a big crybaby. Yuck. I get that the entire point of him losing his memory is so that we can see the softer side of him, but Eric is NOT a crybaby. Why do the writers think that in order for Eric to be different, he has to keep sobbing over stuff or act like he’s incapable of caring for himself? Sookie should be falling in love with Eric because he’s softer and more life-like and fun, not because he bleeds all over himself in her bed.

Sookie decides to do a little recon mission to meet this Marnie, and she does a really good job of being an airhead, though I imagine it’s not that hard for her. Marnie agrees to do a reading for her. I’m gonna admit, I got a little teary-eyed when Gran was contacting her. How sad would that be, to hear your murdered grandmother’s voice? Even from the grave, Gran is giving Sookie some sound advice; advice she only half takes. Yes, she runs, but she still ends up making out with Eric, so she doesn’t seem to value her Gran coming back from the dead to warn her all that much, does she? Before they kiss, Sookie holds her arms out like she’s some strange ballet dancer, and they look really awkward when they embrace. It was reminiscent of Voldemort hugging Malfoy. I’m just saying…it wasn’t sexy at all. When they kiss, the music gets really crazy and upbeat, less like the normal True Blood soundtrack and more like cheesy romance music. Way to ruin the kiss everyone has been waiting for, guys.

And, I know I’ve said this before, too, but why does Sookie always stand behind Eric while he’s crazy and yell “Eric, stop!” instead of grabbing him and making him stop? He’s already promised he won’t hurt her. He hasn’t made that promise to Tara (or your fairy godmother) so why don’t you try to stop him? Especially after he killed Claudine! This version of Sookie is really helpless. It drives me insane.

While we are talking about hotties, Alcide is pretty bad ass, isn’t he? He tells the head of the Shreveport pack that he wants to be a free agent and sends the guy walking. Have I ever mentioned that I think he looks like a hotter Harry Connick Jr? Twelve-year-old me is angry that I would dare say that, as she considers it blasphemy, but 26-year-old me sure does like looking at that wolf.

Once Marnie is captured by Bill, he and Pam find out that Marnie doesn’t know how to reverse the spell. To make sure she isn’t lying, Bill decides to glamour her. I found this ridiculous! Why wouldn’t he send a DIFFERENT vampire in to glamour the witch? Any vampire can do it, so why would he risk himself by going into that cell? He’s already seen what happened to Pam when she confronted Marnie. That’s really poor decision-making. I’m surprised that they make Pam slip up like that! Poor Pam, I can’t believe she said that! I’m definitely upset that the episode ended that way. Mostly because it ended right where things finally got interesting for me!

Check out the teaser for next week’s episode of True Blood, “I Hate You, I Love You” .

5 Comments

1. 

   DarthRachel

   July 25, 2011 at 11:27 am

   Haaa.. I laughed SO HARD when they did that exorcism. Hiiilarrriouusssss. “Oh… well this works on ghosts too.”

   I thought that about the dock too. If there’s a dock.. people use that lake. And if you want gators to EAT the bodies why did you wrap them in tarps? Just put them in there naked! They did not think that through. Sheriff Andy Bellefleur is gonna come for them!

   Reply
   • 

     Pretty Thisby

     July 25, 2011 at 2:39 pm

     Lol, I didn’t even think about the tarps, but that’s a really good point. Why make it more difficult for the gators to get to the meat?

     Reply
2. 

   Mica

   July 25, 2011 at 2:21 pm

   I agree with many of these points except for the “eric’s dream” part.

   godric was evil, we just didn’t see it in season 2 because he changed after all of those years which is what surprised eric. in season 2, he was more angelic, however in this season, “we’re gonna see a different side of him.” And about his “ancient language,” he wouldn’t forget it, it’s like us speaking English. if we had amnesia, we’d still know how to speak English. Same goes for Eric especially since it’s his native language. Also, i don’t think he woke up in the middle of the night. He could have woken up as he was meant to coincidentally at the same time as waking up from his nightmare. One last thing, i think the Godric in this dream could have been his “vampiric nature” and at the same time a small memory.

   Reply
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     Pretty Thisby

     July 25, 2011 at 3:13 pm

     Absolutely! No doubt that he wouldn’t forget his own language, of course. I didn’t mean to imply that he should have forgotten it, though I’m not always as articulate as I would like! What I wanted to say, but said rather poorly so it didn’t make much sense in retrospect, was that the bulk of what he DOES seem to remember dates back to the time of Godric, so I would have liked him to remember Godric as well. But now that I think about it, if he could remember Godric, he’d remember all his evil lessons, and that wouldn’t work out well for the “lost memory so I’m good” Eric. So, I guess I really wouldn’t want him to remember Godric. It was dumb of me to think he should!

     It’s true that you can justify his dream as a dream that represents his vampiric nature in the form of a ‘memory’ from his past. That I would totally buy. That is actually the only explanation that would make sense here. The problem that I really have is that the writers are using Godric in a conlicting manner whenever it’s convenient for them (which, granted, is their right!). So, when they want Eric to feel guilty for being a vampire, they make his delusions of Godric good and when they want him to feel guilty for NOT being a vampire, they make them bad. I feel like the delusional subconscious should pick a platform and stick to it. Can it be justified? Sure. But I find it annoying when they use it as a means to make Eric a blubbering child. Eric is first and foremost a very powerful viking vampire, and no amount of amnesia is going to change that base personality. I guess when it comes down to it, I would feel less annoyed if they didn’t use this delusion to make Eric act completely out of character, even with amnesia. If that makes sense?

     As for his waking up, I guess you could say he wasn’t sleeping in the middle of the night. The only reason I took it as he had been sleeping at night was because when he went to find Sookie she was sleeping in her bed and it was dark. Of course, there had been a scene cut there, so it is possible that he had been sitting in his room upset until nightfall, until he finally decided to consult Sookie on the matter only to find her sleeping. That’s really just me being nitpicky

     Reply
3. 

   Lauren Wiegand

   July 26, 2011 at 12:06 am

   Hi um this really helped me I give a big thank to whoevers idea this was thank you so much
   Bye
   Lauren Wiegand

   Reply