The plot points of the latest adventures of True Blood are a ping-pong match between lost and found. Lost: Bill’s hope for survival courtesy of his quick, malicious Hep V; a reason to despise Sarah Newlin; Violet (for now). Found: Sookie’s compassion for Bill; validation for the weird Tara messages Lettie Mae keeps pursuing through her V trips; a potential cure for Hep V from an unlikely source. We’re still hoping for the best for our friends from Bon Temps, but there’s no doubt about it—we’re gonna lose more folks, vamps and humans alike, before this here series is over.
In Texas, Eric and Pam have been taken prisoner by the Yakuza, who want Sarah Newlin dead just as badly as they do. The Yakuza tie them up with silver chains and throw them in front of an east-facing on the cusp of dawn, with only three minutes for them to tell them where Sarah could be hiding before they start burning up. They reach an agreement in the nick of time—Eric gets to kill Sarah, but the Yakuza gets to keep her body. Thankfully, Eric and Pam know where Sarah’s headed, and the devious wench doesn’t disappoint them: she heads straight to her sister’s house, and it’s only a matter of time before they head to Amber’s.
Meanwhile, back home in Louisiana, Bill starts putting his affairs in order as soon as he sees that lethal vein spreading across his chest, and Jessica overhears him calling a lawyer who specializes in post-mortem legalities (i.e. vampire estate law). As soon as she leaves, she calls Jason and tells her to get Sookie right away. After boning Jess at Sookie’s, Jason’s ready to break up with his aggressive, possessive girlfriend, but comes home to a surprisingly docile, negligee-clad Violet instead, sweet as can be and ready to prove to her man how much she loves him, how she doesn’t look at him as her property. Despite Vi’s doting behavior, Jason crawls out of bed with her in order to attend to a devastated Jess, and Vi wrecks the house in a fit of rage after he’s driven away.
In the wake of the drama at Sookie’s party and their newfound tryst, Lafayette and James find their way back to his house with Lettie Mae in tow. She needs V, but not for a fixin’: she’s convinced that her trips bring her closer to Tara, who’s visiting her in her V-induced haze. Lafayette doesn’t believe her for a second, but James convinces him that the higher consciousness achieved by intoxication could lead to enlightenment (like the true hippie he is) and he consents, taking V and tripping out with her. In their mutual vision, the familiar visage of Tara mounted on a cross and sporting a giant yellow boa constrictor emerges, but it’s still unclear as to what the hell she’s trying to tell them as she’s speaking in tongues. She doesn’t need to speak, though, as later on in their trip, Lafayette and Lettie Mae follow Tara to the house she and Lettie Mae shared, and she starts digging up holes in the yard. It seems like they’re finally about to get somewhere with this V-induced epiphany, and that’s when the Reverend shows up and shakes Lettie Mae and Lafayette out of their stupor. Lettie Mae’s furious with her husband, and Lafayette defends his aunt and her reasons for pursuing Tara’s clues. The Rev gives Lettie Mae an ultimatum—it’s V or their marriage—and she chooses the V because it brings her closer to Tara.
After she hears the news about Bill, Sookie has a rude awakening: she remember the fateful night when Alcide was killed and Hep V-infected blood spattered all over her and (potentially) into her eyes and mouth. Bill, after the brawl, fed on her for strength. When Jason brings her to get tested, they find out the worst—that Sookie not only is Hep V positive, but that she’s the one who infected Bill.
This later explains why Bill’s Hep V is spreading way, waaay faster than other cases we’ve seen so far on True Blood: while waiting to see his lawyer about his will, the V spreads, inking his skin and traveling to the tips of his fingers with every passing minute. If fae blood has intense, delicious healing properties for vampires, Hep V-infected fae blood must be a crueler killer. By the time he sits with his lawyer, Madeline Kapnek, he’s woozy and exhausted, a state the heartless wench takes into consideration when she basically tells him he needs to write her a blank check in order to leave his estate in Jessica’s name. See, Bill’s kind of screwed: when he died, technically, vampire rights weren’t exactly recognized, and the state doesn’t acknowledge progenies as kin. He’ll have to adopt Jessica in order to make things legal, and Kapnek tells him that there’s no way in hell he’ll live to see his court date in order to make the desired arrangements given the advancing nature of his illness. She tells him she’ll bump him to the front of the line for a cool $10 million, and Bill shoves a letter opener in her throat in a fit of rage before rushing out of her office, the V ever spreading.
Dejected, Sookie and Jason return to Bill’s and have a good cry with Jess. Jason heads home to find that Vi’s ravaged the place and broken up with him with a simple note. This isn’t the last we’ll see of Violet, and it seems like we’ve got a new villain to sustain us for the next few episodes as she’s in hot pursuit of another faerie friend. Adilyn and Wade ran away from home once they were caught doing it by an enraged Andy, and Vi found them making out in a tree house at Fort Bellefleur. She’s offered the lovebirds a hiding place for them to stay while they’re on the run, though it’s clear to everyone but the heart-eyed teenagers that Vi’s angry, hungry and on the prowl.
As for sly Sarah? She makes it to Ambers and drops a huge bombshell that saves her life, in addition to countless others: she reveals that there was a Hep V antidote at the weird prison/laboratory where the virus was born, that she drank it down when the place was razed, and that she’s basically the walking antidote. When Eric, Pam and the Yakuza break the door down, they find Amber, cured, with no hint that Sarah’s stuck around.
If Vi’s our bad guy from here on out, it’ll be one sad, slow death march for True Blood’s plotlines, especially if Sarah winds up saving every Hep V-infected vampire out there and our two favorite bloodsuckers in the process. Still, things continue to look up for Sookie and her nearest and dearest, even if they can’t see the bayou through the sweeping Spanish moss.