SPOILER WARNING!!! Do not read ahead if you have not seen the first episode of True Blood's Season 7 "Jesus Gonna Be Here".
While I enjoyed this episode and felt that the centralisation of the action in Bon Temps, reminiscent of True Blood's higher quality earlier seasons, was an excellent idea going into the shows finale season, I found this episode underwhelming and jarring for one major reason; the offscreen death of a central character that occurred before the opening credits rolled.
The story picks up right where Season 6 left off; a mob of Hep-V infected vampires are descending upon Bellefleur's (formerly Merlotte's) where the residents of Bon Temps happen to be gathered for a vampire-human meet and greet. Violence ensues, resulting in one major death: newly turned vampire and Sookie's long-time best friend Tara Thornton. Tara is last shown fighting an infected vampire and protecting her mother, however, when the mob flees the bloodbath, Lettie Mae is shown covered in vampire goo, sobbing that Tara is dead. Queue credits.
I struggled to remain focused on the episode after this. Tara was a central character that had been in the show since the very first episode and certainly deserved an ON SCREEN death scene at the very least. Although the character had been "whiny" and "annoying" at times, her transformation into a vampire in the premiere of season 5 helped to revitalise her and her storyline. In particular, Tara's relationship with her maker, Pam, had brought life back to the character. Interestingly, Pam showed no sign of having felt her progeny's death which could be seen as a hint that Tara somehow alluded the True Death (a thought that served to distract me for the entire episode).
Following on from this storyline, Lettie Mae drank Willa's blood to heal an injury she sustained during the attack, and begins to blather on about seeing visions of Tara. We can only pray that this is not the way the writers plan to keep Tara popping up every episode.
Another fallout from the attack on Bellefleur's was the abduction of three regular characters by the Hep-V infected vampires. Arlene, Holly and Sam's pregnant girlfriend Nicole were all spirited off to Pam and Eric's abandoned bar Fangtasia to be used as a source of blood for the ravenous vampires. However, somehow no one seemed to think of this as a possible nesting place for the infected vamps. Although I hope Arlene and Holly make it out alive, I would gladly trade Nicole for Tara, which would in turn cut a superfluous and uninteresting storyline carried over from last season.
Sheriff Andy spearheads the search for the missing trio, reluctantly leaving his half-fairy daughter, Adilyn, under the protection of Jessica, who vows to protect her in reparation for feeding on and killing her sisters last season. A stray vampire does indeed appear at the Bellefleur house, drawn by the scent of Adilyn's fairy blood. Jessica holds him off long enough for the sun to come up, causing him to meet the true death. In order to save Jessica, Adilyn defies her fathers wishes by inviting her in and hiding her in the light-tight attic. I found the chemistry and the unlikely budding friendship between Jessica and Adilyn to be one of the most interesting aspects of this episode and look forward to more of this as the season progresses.
Prompted by Sam and Bill's "for every human, a vampire" policy, Jessica's boyfriend James (now played by Nathan Parsons) takes on the task of protecting Lafayette, who appears only mildly shaken by the death of his closest family member, Tara. Again, the chemistry between Lafayette and James was a particularly interesting part of this episode, and hints that Jessica may be on the market for a new boyfriend by seasons end.
The central character of the series, Sookie Stackhouse, has very little to do during this episode. She briefly mourns the death of her best friend, Tara, and implores the townspeople to let her help find Arlene and co. after reading the judgemental thoughts of her fellow Bon Temps residents, who rightly blame her for the series of events that have befallen the town ever since she fell into the arms of Bill Compton back in season one.
In other news, Jason finally manages to have sex with his domineering vampire girlfriend Violet, who appears as unlikeable as she was last season. This relationship will definitely turn south before the end of the series, paving the way for Jason to reunite with Jessica.
And outside of Bon Temps, Pam continues to search for her missing maker Eric, once again delivering some excellent one-liners; this time whilst playing the vampire version of Russian Roulette. Although Eric doesn't appear in this episode, Pam receives information pointing her in the right direction and takes off in search once again.
Overall rating: ★★★½
Overall, I felt this episode was well executed; the action was primarily based in Bon Temps and the only time the action ventured elsewhere was during Pam's search for Eric (which promises to be an exciting storyline). However, on the other hand the series still suffers from some superfluous storylines (I'm looking at you Sam and Nicole/Jason and Violet). On the upside, Nicole's capture by the infected vampires could indicate that the end is near for this particular storyline and Violet and Jason's relationship is clearly headed down the drain. Unfortunately, the death of Tara was extremely badly executed and serves to jar the audience for the remainder of the episode; whilst Lettie Mae's V-induced visions do not promise to be an interesting or satisfying end to Tara's storyline.
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