"True Blood" Recap: Finally!

After a crazy first episode of "True Blood" this season, we've had a couple of slow episodes.

This week, it started out that way ... but it didn't end up that way! This week, we finally got some payoff to all of the buildup that's been going on.

First and foremost, Sookie and Alcide made out! You have no idea how happy that made me. I was watching with my friend, Kat, who was in town for a visit, and we actually started to high-five each other.

Poor Sookie deserved some lovin' this week. People in Bon Temps are super pissed that Sookie got poor Tara turned into a vampire, and Lafayette is extra-uber-super pissed that Sookie told Alcide that she killed Debbie. This is a very, very bad thing, since Lafayette still has a nasty brujo demon inside him. The demon broke Sookie's car, so she crashed on her way home from Merlotte's. Thankfully, she bailed at the last moment and walked home to the comfort of her well-stocked liquor cabinet.

After hearing Sookie's confession in last week's episode, Alcide goes to visit Debbie Pelt's parents and tells them that Debbie is dead. However, he tells them that Marcus, the conveniently dead former packmaster, killed her, and that's why he killed Marcus. He cries that he really did love Debbie and he's sorry she's dead, then goes on his merry way ... over to Sookie's house! He tells a tipsy Sookie that he covered for her and the Pelts are satisfied, and soon they're making out! *squeal* Let's hope things go further next week ... even though I got to see a lot of Joe "Big Dick Richie" Manganiello in "Magic Mike" over the weekend, I could always use another eyeful! Also, Alcide really needs to get some ... he's so uptight! Some of Sookie's precious fairy vagina (thank you for that one, Pam!) could be just what he needs. And I'm pretty sure Sookie wouldn't complain about some sexy werewolf lovin' neither ...

Eric and Bill, by the way, get an eyeful of Alcide and Sookie - they're back in town to try to figure out who spilled the beans on Russell and get Sookie's fairy powers to help them find him - leading to an epically wonderful exchange:

Eric: Awkward time for a drop in, Bill.

Bill: Jessica mentioned Sookie had been having a rough go of it.

Eric: She seems to be recovering nicely.

Eric and Bill, I love you guys. More of their wacky misadventures, please!

Anyway ... the Debbie Pelt storyline seems to be concluding. In the same fit of honesty that made her tell Alcide about the dearly departed Debbie, Sookie also tried to turn herself into Jason who, of course, refused to arrest his little sister. Lucky for Sookie, Jessica was around the corner and heard the whole thing. She decided to take the initiative to glamour Sheriff Andy into forgetting about the whole Debbie thing.

Speaking of Sheriff Andy, his fairy tryst is paying off! The town judge, whose son Andy saved from a speeding ticket, invites Andy and Jason to his favorite spot in town, which isn't really in town - it's a strip club in the fairy realm! The judge and Andy go off to have a good time, and Jason sees his cousin Hadley, who assumes Jason is a refugee. Fairies are escaping the human world because, she says, vampires are going to eat them all eventually ... like they did to his parents. Cue Jason's Patented Dumbface (Oh, Ryan Kwanten, you are SO good at looking adorably stupid!). Hadley has to leave and go serve drinks, Jason and Andy have a fight with the fairy bouncers and soon they're back out on their asses in the middle of a field, about to get zapped by fairies. To be continued!

Speaking of vampires and family drama, we got heaps of both this week with Eric, Pam and Tara. Pam saved Tara from becoming a crispy critter in the tanning bed, much to Tara's chagrin, but Tara reluctantly follows Mama Pam back to Fangtasia, where Eric (Tara's vampire grandaddy!) confronted Pam over Russell Edgington's escape. While Bill and Tara had a heart-to-heart - mostly revealing Tara's annoyance at taking a bullet for Sookie and becoming a vampire - Pam told Eric she would die a thousand deaths rather than betray him.

The next night, Eric releases Pam from having to follow his commands as her maker, in order to keep her safe from the Authority and make sure his legacy lives on through Pam and Tara, and Pam gets Tara to drink from a human, despite Tara's reluctance to see them as food. Pam tells her that humans can't hurt her anymore, which is what Tara needs to hear. I think this will be empowering for her. However, I can't help but wonder if Tara, who has been kicked around by humans all her life, just might go a little Sanguinista on everyone's asses and endanger Grandpappy Eric and Mama Pam even more. I mean, Pam tells her: "This is who you are now. Top of the chain. No human can hurt you any longer. They’re yours to savor." Eeek. I'm pretty sure Roman has staked vampires for less than that.

We at least now know Roman will stake a Sanguinista if he needs to - as if we had any doubt! Roman tries to get information out of Nora about who is really leading the Sanguinista movement - he doesn't think she's a leader - and finally threatens the lives of Bill and Eric in order to get the info out of her. It turns out, it was the creepy kid vampire, Alexander Drew, who had sent out a video of himself draining a human to Sanguinista sympathizers. He tries to tell Roman that he was trying to infiltrate them, but before he's done talking, he's already a little pile of stringy blood 'n' guts. The other Chancellors, and the viewers, got the message - do not fuck with Roman.

There were a couple of other little subplots rolling along in there, too, that don't have the big payoffs yet. Sam's old shifter friends, minus Luna, invite him to run with them, but when he gets there, they're dead - shot through the head. Doesn't seem like vampires, fairies or werewolves would just shoot somebody, does it? Could we have some anti-shifter sentiment in town (that's a big plot in the books), or is someone supernatural trying to cover their tracks? And Terry and his war buddy, Patrick, go on the road to South Dakota to find their old war buddy Eller. Terry has a flashback to the Fourth of July when there was big shootout in Iraq and a whole family was killed. When Terry & Patrick get to Eller's bunker, he pulls a gun on them. Where are they going with this one?

The first half or 2/3 of this episode of "True Blood" was still a little slow, but the excitement at the end really made up for it. I'm thrilled to see where this season is going ... finally!