True Blood: “Somebody That I Used to Know” (Episode 5.08)

Sometime after this week’s episode of True Blood, the always-funny Kelly Oxford tweeted, “True Blood is the supernatural Days of Our Lives.” I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Luna, still in the hospital, is getting angry about her shooters still running rampant. So angry, in fact, that she accidentally shifts into Sam. Poor Sam. Shifters just love to borrow his body, don’t they? Sam Trammell handles the part well, nailing Janina Gavankar’s (Luna) inflections and movements with scary accuracy. The scenes between the real Sam and the Luna-turned-Sam are great, striking True Blood’s perfect balance for off-the-wall humor and incredible oddity.

Speaking of oddities, our blood-tripping vamps have returned from their binge eating. Lilith is nowhere to be found, but the vamps have taken her brief appearance as a blessing to eat everyone in sight. Plans are in the works to destroy mainstreaming once and for all, much to the delight of everyone except Eric. Still haunted by the image of Godric, he tries to reason with Nora with little success. Even Bill is on board with vampire rule—strange considering his previous insistence that mainstreaming was the only way. Okay Bill, we’re sure you’ve probably got some trick up your sleeve, but you’re giving all your good ideas to the bad guys. Have fun dealing with that bombing plan you came up with.

Sookie is still trying to rid herself of those pesky fairy powers, but Jason talks her out of it with a sweetly supportive big brother speech. Instead of draining her remaining power, Sookie decides to return to the fairies in hopes of discovering her parents’ murderer. Bad move, Sook. Will you ever learn to just leave vampires alone? With the help of the other fairies and a special kind of interactive flashback, Sookie learns the name of the attacker (Warlow). Oddly enough, Sookie was able to watch the scene unfold through the eyes of Warlow himself, which has fairy Claude all kinds of freaked out. Could the vampire be a former Fae? Are we gearing up for a really awkward family reunion? Nothing is certain in True Blood, besides Sookie inevitably getting herself into trouble once again. And she has.

Most Popular

Sookie isn’t the only one back to business as usual. Lafayette has finally returned to his former sassy self, and we couldn’t be happier. At the urging of Arlene and Holly (and $300), Lafayette has agreed to use his medium powers to connect Terry and Patrick with the angry spirit of the woman they murdered. For the first time since the Ifrit made its appearance, things have gotten interesting. The woman will lift her curse under one condition: Terry or Patrick must kill the other. Game on, boys.

“Somebody That I Used to Know” is still juggling a number of storylines, but with better aptitude than previous entries in the season. There are still threads in the episode that could have been handled better—Alcide’s fight with J.D. and Tara’s blast from the unpleasant past—but things are finally starting to flow. The episode has a number of great scenes, including the Luna/Sam dilemmas and Lafayette’s séance, but Hoyt and Jessica win this round. Hoyt’s new hate-friends have delivered Jessica to him on a silver platter (or in this case, silver chains) and armed him with the means to kill her. The scene that unfolds between the former couple is the perfect mix of tension and sadness. It’s been interesting to watch how far the two have fallen out of love—or in Hoyt’s case, how hard he’s tried to fall out of love. He spares Jessica, but don’t think he’s back to being a good guy just yet. Situations in this town tend to get worse before they get better.

You’d think that by now, the people of Bon Temps would have considered their real estate options elsewhere. No one ever seems to be happy. As Andy Bellefleur so delicately puts it, “I hate this fucking town.”

Quote of the Night: “I need a baby. Lilith wants me to eat a baby.”

Fun Fact: Apparently no vampire has ever learned that it’s bad manners to leave your dinner splattered across your face. Can we get you a napkin? Bib, even?