REVIEW - True Blood - S06E09 - ‘Life Matters’

In this week’s True Blood we farewell Terry and watch the violence unfold as Eric and Bill rescue the vampires trapped in vamp camp.

To start with Sookie evicts Bill from the fairy plane, who decides to chase after Eric. Eric is a man on a mission, leaving a bloody trail behind him as he releases all of the vampires. Meanwhile, Sookie tells Ben/Warlow she is still prepared to be his and become a vampire, but leaves him so she can attend Terry’s funeral.

Terry’s funeral saw the return of many familiar faces, and was more touching than I thought it would be, with Andy, Sam, Lafayette, Sookie and Arlene all recounting some of their favorite Terry moments. This episode managed to find the balance between the two story-lines this week, with flashbacks revolving around Terry interspersed with scenes of violence in vamp camp.

I think the most effective demonstration of this was towards the end of the episode when ‘Big John’ was singing at Terry’s funeral, and this was intercut with Jason and Sarah Newlin having a showdown. Sarah had just tried to make all of our favourite vampires meet the sun, but she was too late, with Bill already allowing them to drink from him making them immune to the sun. Realising she is in danger she tries to flee, but Jason (who Eric healed and had been using as a guide around vamp camp) catches up with her. They wrestle around, and Jason questions her right to speak on God’s behalf. Just as he is about to kill her though, he decides against it and lets her live (why?!). I know they were just trying to show that Jason is above killing fellow humans, unlike Sarah (we all remember what she did to poor Ms Suzuki last week), but you just know she is going to be back causing more trouble before long.

Speaking of trouble, while the vampires are celebrating their freedom by destroying all of the contaminated Tru Blood at vamp camp, we are shown that trucks of it have already been making deliveries. Uh-oh.

With the vampires safe from meeting the sun, Eric gone, contaminated Tru Blood in some American states, and Sarah Newlin still on the run, next week’s season six finale should definitely be worth watching. Oh, and we mustn’t forget the issue of Sookie’s apparent imminent vampirism...

Review by Heather Bale.