5.4 “We’ll Meet Again” thoughts *spoilers and speculation*

Better episode than last week and a lot to love, even though I had to watch it with a glass of hard limeade to deal with the Sooicide scenes.

What I loved

• Tough love Mommy Pam! And the way the writers set up the parallels between Pam’s human unhappiness and her rotting spell incident with Tara’s suicide by tanning bed.  Finally, Pam can relate to her in some small way.
• Alcide was brilliant in blaming Debbie’s death on Marcus and then admitting he killed Marcus himself. I had no idea that Alcide was that smart!
• Eric’s soft little “Would you mind?” to Bill when he wants to be alone with Pam.  Absolutely chilling.  Pam should have known Daddy was seriously pissed by the way he said it.
• Loved, loved, loved all the Pam/Eric scenes.  The discussion when he releases her was just heart-breaking. The emotion as Eric struggles to get the words out is just, gah! And how charming is it to hear the interactive interview where both Kristin and Alex admit that they didn’t really have to act to get the sorrow and loss because they are so close in real life and felt the pain of their possible separation for themselves as well as they characters.  Just very, very nicely done.
• Happy to see the vampire kid get it because I just didn’t find him that interesting.  But how often does someone get to kill a kid in a violent way on screen and have it be acceptable?  I can see why the writers went for it. And Roman covered in blood? Hot!
• Awwww, RIP Suzanne and Emory.  You were both too nice to get picked off by bullets over such a lovely dinner.
• Loved Jessica glamouring Andy.  And in the Best. Top. Ever.
• Happy to know that Claude didn’t run into a big empty field but a fairy bar! Who knew?
• Hadley having run to be with the fairies so long ago to protect Hunter was a huge surprise.  But I don’t entirely buy the fairy official line that vampires will eat anyone with any amount of fairy blood and drain them dry.  I’m sure they believe it, but is it true?
• The subplot about who killed Sookie and Jason’s parents as well as what kind of traits Jason might have if he is fairy is intriguing.  Will they go the route of the books? Is that why the one fairy kept trying to shut Hadley up?

What I had mixed feelings about

• I know this sounds strange but Lafayette’s demon and his desire to kill folk is kind of boring so far.  And I’ll say that right up until he actually succeeds at killing someone I care about, I suppose.
• Wouldn’t you know, as soon as Andy has made some kind of commitment to Holly, up pops Maurella again to steal him away.  I never thought I’d be concerned about who is sleeping with Andy Bellefleur, but Holly deserves better than to be dumped for some fairy bimbo. I suspect that said fairy bimbo has laid some kind of geas on Andy with her light-up finger, although I don’t remember the details now.
• If I wanted to see that much of Iraq, I’d rewatch Generation Kill.  And it has Askars in it!
• Why is Bill lying to Jessica about his current status? Is that fair to her to let her live in ignorance of what serious shit he and Eric are in? Compare that to Eric telling Pam the truth of what is likely to happen.  Instead Bill doesn’t give Jessica the truth about things and I think that could come back to bite them both in the ass.
• Eller’s smoke monster with red eyes looks kind of lame.  But…what if they used the fire monster to kill Russell Edgington for good? I’d be down with that!
• The fairy bar was kind of cheesy.  And I hated the bowler hats on the fairy guys.  Way too carnie for me.
• Poor, broken Eric.  ASkars says in the enhanced clips that Eric reacts less to Sookie’s romp with Alcide because he has shut himself down so completely and is choosing to shut all that off after Sookie hurt him.  It saddens me to see him that cold.

What I hated

• Jessica pushing the Bill/Sookie TwuLuv 4Ever agenda. Gag-worthy to me.
• Sookie pawing Alcide on the same couch she nearly had sex with Eric on.  I suppose since we haven’t seen Alcide topless yet, there is more to come. Lafayette, please interrupt, please?

Lingering questions:

• The firefight was hard to follow, but who was the person firing on the American troops? And was he the one who shot all the Iraqis, not that platoon? Still confused here.
• In a way, it seems like Eric releasing Pam is going to be a great thing for Pam and Tara’s relationship.  After Eric gives Pam the whole “you were born to greatness” speech, Pam has to step up to the plate with Tara or face herself knowing that she is not upholding the family line the way she should.
• While I think the child vamp was guilty as charged, I also think that there is still an even more important traitor in the midst of the Council and I think it is Salome herself.  If you watch the way the scenes are played between Salome and Nora you can feel the tension of them trying not to tip their hands that Salome is as guilty as Nora is.  I’m also thinking that maybe Salome did have Russell Edgington dug up because what he is her maker? There was so much talk about the only four who knew where Russell was buried, but what about Russell himself? Any other progeny he had that had had not released could have been called to his cement tomb.
• Still wondering what Salome wants from Eric and Bill.  She looked more tense than Nora when Roman was waving around that i-Stake app.  Unless…what she wants of Eric and Bill is to somehow bring them to Russell!
• On the second watch-through, I noticed that Lafayette said he was coming over. Maybe he can interrupt Sookie and Alcide.  Or will Eric and Bill actually interrupt? They are on a deadline, after all. Oh, wouldn’t that be awkward.  😀

Revisiting the 5 shocking 5.4 spoilers

Because, hey, I’m just not getting any more writing on He’s Not There done for the rest of the night. It goes without saying.

So, I posted about the 5 “shocking” 5.4 spoilers earlier this week.  Let’s put them together with the Boston Herald shockers from tonight and what predictive tweaks do I need to make?

Here are three of the five spoilers with updated speculation.  (The other two had no new info that I could figure out!)

2. Angel of Death: Everyone (except for some four-legged friends) is hating on Sookie (Anna Paquin). Is it really her fault that death follows her like a duck on a junebug? Maybe some folks have a right to be irritated, but trying to kill her seems a wee bit extreme, no?

Original thoughts:  Okay, who would try to kill Sookie? Tara ? The Pelts? Does Alcide tell on her? UPDATE: I think now we can say that it the “Angel of Death” header is a big clue! Boston Herald’s edition of Clue is predicting “Lafayette in the ??  with a hex…”

3. An Offer She Can’t Refuse: Death might seem preferable after Sookie’s betrayal makes an immortal enemy of one of her former lovers who needs her special gifts — and will do whatever it takes to force her to use them.

Original thoughts: This is the really scary one to me!  Sookie makes an “immortal enemy” of one of her former lovers? Well, she’s only got two.  The only hope I have is that since Bill has been shown saying that they should force her, he’s the one she pisses off. Although TB keeps surprising me, so who can say? UPDATE: Okay, now I’m even more flipped out because of the likelihood that Eric and Bill are going to see Sookie hook up with Alcide. Who is going to view that as a “betrayal”? I’m guessing Eric, which means he could go from Mr. “She doesn’t want to see us again” to being the one who really will make her cooperate, despite Bill paying lip service to the idea.   Because that is so how I would write that for the angst potential! On the other hand, this bodes well for Sooric because you have to make the break up/separation angsty before you can bring the couple back together.  If Bill is the more upset at seeing Sookie with another man, that will be worse news from an E/S shipper POV, IMO.

4. Hunting Party: Forget Sookie for a minute: Sam (Sam Trammell) is the one who will be surrounded by corpses — victims of violent murder — by the end of the episode. Seems things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better for the shape-shifting barkeep.

Original thoughts:  Hmmm.  So, are these the bodies of people who have been sacrificed for Russell? Or is this to do with the possibility of people shooting the two-natured? UPDATE: Okay, I think we can safely go with the latter at this point.  Sam is going to find his shifter circle buddies brutally murdered.  So, so sad because I did like them.  😦

Sooooooooooooo watching tonight’s episode with a hard limeade in hand. But at least I am prepared for some angst!

 

KBVS interview *mild spoilers*

Celebuzz talked to Kristin Bauer Van Straten about Pam’s estrangement from Eric, being a maker, and Pam’s delish Edwardian wardrobe.

My favorite Q&A:

CB: What else did you love about playing Pam before she was a vampire?
KB: Wardrobe, because we always put Pam in corsets and now we go, “Oh yeah, she was alive then. She’s borrowing from that time period, that’s when she grew up.” And the hairstyles we do in modern day, we have a couple of outfits that are almost period pieces. We have an 80s look that’s coming up. The costume designers got a great outfit from eBay – it’s vintage 80s and we thought, “Right she’d probably thoroughly embrace the 80s and live through it.” So, it’s fun to tie in all the pieces in hindsight. We had to film all this stuff not knowing what Pam’s exact story was. And the writers are so brilliant that they find the storyline that fits all that we’ve seen and we know.

And what were Eric and Pam doing in the ’80s, do you suppose? We know Bill was in England, partying it up in the punk bars.  I’m guessing Pam was more of a disco or Dallas kind of girl, so what would Eric have been doing? Were they in Dallas with Godric? Or maybe partying it up at Studio 54?

 

Last-minute 5.4 spoilers

Because, yeah, I can’t actually wait an hour and a half to see this for myself.  The Boston Herald posted spoilers for tonight’s episode which are below the Read More line. I’d give credit to the actual author, but s/he doesn’t seem to have a byline.