SPOILER WARNING!!! Do not read ahead if you have not seen the eighth episode of True Blood's Season 7 "Almost Home".
Picking up where the previous episode left off, Eric, Pam and the Yakuza track Sarah Newlin down to the Fellowship of the Sun camp. Sarah, encouraged by a hallucination of Jason, gives herself up willingly as she is under the impression that the cure running through her veins makes her a modern-day Messiah. Eric is intent on killing Sarah, despite threats of the True Death by the Yakuza, however, Pam manages to stop him by threatening her own life. Instead, Eric takes a sip of Sarah's blood and begins to laugh as the black veins of Hep V begin to disappear from his body. After capturing Sarah and setting up base at Fangtasia, Pam and Eric question Mr. Gus about how long it will take to synthesise Sarah's blood and manufacture a cure. Mr. Gus reveals that the process has already been completed, however, the Yakonomo Corporation plans on reducing the effectiveness of the cure so that infected vampires are forced to continue to buy their new product in order to remain alive.
Meanwhile in Bon Temps, Jason helps Hoyt and his new girlfriend sift through Maxine Fortenberry's possessions, before receiving a text with pictures of Adilyn and Jessica being held captive by Violet. After fighting with Hoyt, his girlfriend Bridgette storms out and joins Jason on his rescue mission. However, Jason is quickly subdued by his former girlfriend, who proceeds to inform the captive group about the myriad of ways she plans to make them suffer in order to make up for Jason's betrayal. Just as Violet seems set to begin, Hoyt appears in her doorway and shoots her through the heart, causing her to violently disintegrate as she meets the True Death. Unlike the psychotic Violet, I am not a religious person, but all I have to say now that she has finally been reduced to a simmering pile of vampire goo is: praise Jesus! I have been waiting for this moment since the very first scene she appeared in last season.
Jason drives Jessica home and the pair share a sweet moment as they discuss the nature of their relationship, deciding that it can only be defined as a "beautiful friendship". Later, Hoyt confides to Jason that he can't stop thinking about Jessica, and after learning that her maker, Bill, is dying from Hep V he heads over to the Compton house in order to offer fresh, untainted, blood for him. The chemistry between Hoyt and Jessica is absolutely palpable in this scene, reminiscent of their relationship back in season two. I'm not sure whether the writers are teasing us with the possibility of a Hoyt-Jessica reunion or not, but I am certainly open to the idea!
Elsewhere, Reverand Daniels is called by the current owners of Tara's childhood home to find Lettie Mae and Lafayette digging through the front yard. James arrives shortly afterwards, and allows Lettie Mae and Lafayette to drink his blood so that they can reunite with the spirit of Tara and learn what it is she wants from them. In an emotional plea, Lette Mae manages to convince the Reverand to join the pair on their spiritual journey. The V somehow shows the trio a vision of the past, where Tara's father beat Lettie Mae for wasting money by throwing Tara a birthday party. Unknown to her parents, young Tara is shown holding a gun at her fathers back, however, she can't bring herself to pull the trigger. The spirit of Tara begs Lettie Mae for forgiveness for not pulling the trigger, however Lettie Mae believes she is the one who needs forgiveness for her failures as a parent. Tara tells Lettie Mae that it's time to move on and live her life, and that she needs to let her go. The pair hug, and the spirit of Tara walks off into the distance and finally disappears for good. I have been highly critical of this storyline since it began earlier in the season, however, I enjoyed this plot lines conclusion. Tara's death and the traumatic life she lived were finally handled with the emotion and respect that the character deserved, and the plot itself did not feel like a hastily put together side-storyline for the first time this season.
Finally, Sookie receives a visit from Eric and is amazed at his sudden recovery from Hep V. Eric promises to return the next night with a cure for Bill, however, in typical Sookie fashion she makes her way over to Fangtasia anyway and reads Mr. Gus's mind, learning that the Yakuza are keeping something in the basement. Sookie manages to break into the basement and finds Sarah Newlin being held captive. After reading Sarah's mind she learns that her blood is the cure and then returns to the Compton house where she tells Bill and Jessica about what she has discovered. The trio then break into the basement, where they find Sarah, as well as Pam and Eric who were in the middle of stealing some of Sarah's blood for Bill. However, Bill decides to throw a spanner in the works by refusing to cure himself! Queue credits! I felt that there was quite abit of foreshadowing throughout the episode that Bill would choose to refuse the cure, so I was not particularly surprised by this turn of events, especially now that the suspense of Eric's illness has been removed,
Overall rating: ★★★★
Two problems that True Blood has suffered with in recent years have been a focus on minor characters and a tendency to produce exposition episodes (such as the previous one) that simply fill the gaps from one episode to the next. However, fortunately, this episode was everything the previous episode wasn't: it had action, it answered questions, several storylines were wrapped up nicely and some new ones began in the lead up to the ultimate climax of the series. Let's just hope that the final two episodes keep up the pace and end the series on a high note!
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