The finale opens with Bill reaching Sookie's house and attempting to explain his reasoning for wanting to die to her. Bill explains that he wants Sookie to have the opportunity to have a family, and in particular, to raise children, which she will never be able to do so long as he remains alive and a part of her life. He asks her to use her light to kill him, and in the process "de-fairy" herself. Also, by "de-fairying" herself Sookie would no longer have to deal with vampires constantly being drawn to her. Sookie is horrified that Bill would ask her to kill him, however, she does promise to think on it. I was actually quite surprised that the writers managed to find a way to make Sookie's "supernova" power from last season relevant in some way! Kudos!
Shortly afterwards, Jessica arrives home to Bill's house with Hoyt and confronts Bill again about his decision to meet the True Death. Despite not understanding how he could choose to die, Jessica tells Bill she will find a way to accept it and promises him that she will be fine. Bill questions Hoyt's intentions with Jessica, and asks whether he would ever consider marrying her. Jessica is angry that Bill would bring something so serious up so early in their renewed relationship, however, he explains that he needs to know that Jessica is spoken for before he dies. Realising how much it means to both of them that Bill be apart of her wedding, Jessica agrees to marry Hoyt that very day.
The main Bon Temps cast members (Sookie, Jason, Arlene, Holly and Andy) make their way to the Compton house to attend Jessica and Hoyt's wedding, all questioning why they had decided to get hitched so spontaneously. Sookie helps Jessica get ready, while Jason serves as Hoyt's best man, calming his nerves as he begins to have second thoughts. Bill walks Jessica down the aisle, where Andy presides over the ceremony, declaring Hoyt and Jessica husband and wife, despite the government not recognising vampire-human marriage. After the ceremony Jason and Sookie discuss Jason's obvious feelings for Bridgette, with Sookie confirming that she knows through her telepathy that Brdigette feels the same. Sookie tells Jason that since they had just come from Hoyt's wedding, she doesn't think he will mind if he starts to date Bridgette. Hoyt and Jessica's wedding felt extremely sudden and unexpected, however, it did serve to wrap up some minor unfinished storyline in one foul swoop- Andy, Jessica and Bill managed to put the death of Andy's fairy-daughters behind them, allowing Bill to organise to leave his estate to Andy, who will then grant it to Jessica, bypassing the law prohibiting vampire progeny inheriting property.
Sookie seeks out Reverand Daniels for advice regarding giving up her nature as a fairy in order to grant Bill his last wish. The Reverand explains that he believes that God makes everyone exactly the way he means to, and that nobody is made as a mistake. However, he also explains that God gave people free will with the intention that they should use it. When he asks whether this helped her, Sookie insists that it has and leaves.
Elsewhere, Eric is left seething over Mr. Gus's threat on Pam's life, and the pair concoct a plan to take revenge. Pam feeds Sarah her blood so that she will be able to feel her presence wherever she goes- and then sets her free. The maker-progeny pair then proceed to kill the Yakuza, including Mr. Gus, preventing them from assassinating Sookie for knowing about Sarah's nature as the cure for Hepatitis V.
Pam tracks down Sarah to the carousel where Eric turned Willa last season. Sarah explains that she chose to hide there because she wants Pam to turn her, as she thinks that she would make a "kickass vampire". Pam refuses, and Sarah attempts to sway her by saying she intends to be a lesbian when she becomes a vampire, which Pam only finds amusing. When Sarah mentions Pam needing to replace Tara now that she is gone, Pam snaps and begins to choke her for daring to speak her deceased progeny's name. Pam then proceeds to begin feeding off Sarah in order to vaccinate herself against Hep V. As usual, Pam, Eric and Sarah were the most compelling part of this episode- the chemistry and superior acting of all three actors was as evident in the finale as it was throughout the rest of the season, and this episode could have done with a lot more of each characters participation!
After speaking to Reverand Daniels, Sookie calls Bill and says that she has made the arrangements at the cemetery to grant his wish at sundown. The pair meet there and share a final kiss, before Sookie creates her "supernova light ball" to grant him the true death and "de-fairy" herself. However, Sookie realises she will never be herself without her powers being apart of her and refuses to lose that part of herself. Bill insists that he still wants to die, so Sookie makes a makeshift stake out of a shovel. The pair whisper that they love each other, and together force the stake through Bill's heart, causing him to finally die the True Death.
One year later, Pam and Eric are shown filming an infomercial for their product, "New Blood", which is a synthesised version of Sarah Newlin's blood, which cures Hep V. Three years later, the pair are shown together at the stock exchange, where the company they own together has made millions of dollars. The pair return to Fangtasia, where business is booming as usual. In the basement, Pam keeps Sarah as a slave and allows vampires to drink from her for one minute at a time in order to vaccinate themselves- for one hundred thousand dollars a pop! Sarah continues to hallucinate visions of her ex-husband, Steve, who taunts her about losing her mind. Steve explains that since it's Thanksgiving they should say what they are thankful for- he is thankful that he gets to watch her descend into madness, whil Sarah looks horrified and whispers that she has nothing to be thankful for and begins to cry.
Sookie is shown heavily pregnant, hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for all of the surviving main cast members (besides Pam and Eric). Jason married Bridgette and they have several children, as do Sam and Nicole. Lafayette and James are still in a relationship, Arlene proves how much she has grown by being in a longtime relationship with Keith the vampire, and Holly and Andy are still together. Sookie is shown hugging her husband, who's face is never even shown, and the screen fades to black.
Overall rating: ★★★½
I felt that the series finale, like the rest of the seventh season, had both it's strengths and it's weaknesses. More specifically, this episode gave the viewer one last taste of everything that was great about True Blood- as well as everything that wasn't great about True Blood. Kristin Bauer van Straten, Alexander Skarsgard and Anna Camp each gave fantastic last performances as their long-term characters, with their stroyline easily being the most positive aspect of the episode, and season, overall. Anna Paquin, Deborah Ann Woll and Stephen Moyer also put in stellar performances during the long-march to Bill's inevitable True Death, with the emotion they invoked being the most positive aspect of the drawn out approach the writers took to finally killing off the controversial character. Unfortunately, most of the characters we had come to love over the years did not show up until the very end of the episode, and although their storylines were somewhat wrapped up in preceding episodes, it would have been nice to know a little bit more about where characters we have been invested in over the last seven years ended up. Although True Blood's quality has certainly diminished over the years, this season did manage to invoke several episodes that were reminiscent of "old school" True Blood. It is these episodes I will remember in the years to come, and will miss immeasurably. Thank you to the cast and crew for seven years of fun, suspenseful and emotional television!
