(S4. E12) My Live Reaction / Review for True Blood Season 4 Episode 12 ''And When I Die''. Episode 11 was good and I gave it a rating of 8.6/10. Let's see if this one is better or worse. Oh boy, Lafayette attacked Jesus. It's so sad Tommy is dead, my guess is that the actor had other things to do so they had to remove him from the show. It seems like Alcide wants to be with Sookie. Jesus is dead? That sucks! Finally Marnie is gone. I hate Jason for sleeping with Jessica. I feel bad for Lafayette, he feels responsible for Jesus' death. Sookie doesn't want to be with Bill or Eric? I didn't see that coming. Newlin is now a vampire? Damn, I didn't see that coming. Wow Bill and Eric killed Flanagan? Well done boys. What was that ending? Is Tara dead? Overall a great episode, my rating is 9/10.
8 Reviews
Electric, bizarre...Just simply wonderfully entertaining
fumeister11 September 2011
The characters are unpredictable as is the plot. Wonderfully original and puts all other 'vampire' shows to shame. Thanks to an electric cast and super writing and directing. Sookie's character is enthralling and her naive manner is made believable by the wonderful actress that plays her. Vampire Bill though sometimes appears wooden holds his own with his cast mates. Eye candy Eric is believable as the sensitive but evil sheriff and thrills in every episode. Egerton was suitably evil and made Vampire Bill and Eric appear to be angels, great character contrasts. Jason, though not playing with a 'full deck', is awesome and believable in every sense. He's the perfect foil for almost the entire ensemble. Sam Merlotte is probably the most normal character in the whole series and he's a shape shifter. LOL, What wonderful characters. Then there's Gran, Alcide, Hoyt, Hoyt's mother Janelle and the others which are all superb in this ensemble cast. The characters that come and go each season are very interesting, they provide a common villain to the ensemble and never fail to please.
Vampire bits were fine, but...
Bottlebrush1 June 2012
Warning: Spoilers
I enjoyed the vampire elements of this season, but not much else. Eric is as brilliant as ever and I still like Sookie, and Bill, Pam and Jessica are fine.
Overall, though, there were too many subplots that went nowhere and contributed nothing to the main story line, and indeed detracted from it.
The werewolves are incredibly irritating and pointless (perhaps especially so for me because I find the actor who plays Alcid annoying), as are the were-panthers, the psycho baby, Tara (hopefully we have got shot of her?), the policeman and his drug problem, Lafayette and his partner, and so on. The final episode was particularly annoying. Why on Earth does Sookie have a change of heart about Bill, when he has shown himself to be useless for her? Her relationship with Eric is far more interesting – and really I feel they ultimately belong together. I haven't read the books, but gather that in the books Eric forgets the relationship they had when he goes back to being 'bad', then starts remembering after a while. That sounds to me like a much more interesting story development than what has been imposed here.
Particularly when there are so few episodes in a season, the focus should be on a main, coherent plot-line. The story should not veer of constantly into various subplots. The past three seasons achieved this, although season 3 was already showing signs of fragmentation.
I do hope season 5 will improve and get back to the superb quality of the first two seasons. I'll give this one a higher vote that it merits, for Eric, Sookie and overall atmosphere, but not much else.
Overall, though, there were too many subplots that went nowhere and contributed nothing to the main story line, and indeed detracted from it.
The werewolves are incredibly irritating and pointless (perhaps especially so for me because I find the actor who plays Alcid annoying), as are the were-panthers, the psycho baby, Tara (hopefully we have got shot of her?), the policeman and his drug problem, Lafayette and his partner, and so on. The final episode was particularly annoying. Why on Earth does Sookie have a change of heart about Bill, when he has shown himself to be useless for her? Her relationship with Eric is far more interesting – and really I feel they ultimately belong together. I haven't read the books, but gather that in the books Eric forgets the relationship they had when he goes back to being 'bad', then starts remembering after a while. That sounds to me like a much more interesting story development than what has been imposed here.
Particularly when there are so few episodes in a season, the focus should be on a main, coherent plot-line. The story should not veer of constantly into various subplots. The past three seasons achieved this, although season 3 was already showing signs of fragmentation.
I do hope season 5 will improve and get back to the superb quality of the first two seasons. I'll give this one a higher vote that it merits, for Eric, Sookie and overall atmosphere, but not much else.
Shark Jumped
slooo112 September 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I'm sick to death of this.
If this is the best they can do, I'm out of here.
Sad, stupid plotting. I'm so sorry this show has run out of ideas.
Killing off the psycho(s) is fine.
Destroying the Big Bad is fine, though the way it was done was lame beyond belief. (Though seeing Gram again was cool, though it only reminds me how lame a lot of the remaining actors are in comparison.)
We don't need Gram to remind us that this is now nothing more than a sad melodrama. Once it was fun.
Sad.
If this is the best they can do, I'm out of here.
Sad, stupid plotting. I'm so sorry this show has run out of ideas.
Killing off the psycho(s) is fine.
Destroying the Big Bad is fine, though the way it was done was lame beyond belief. (Though seeing Gram again was cool, though it only reminds me how lame a lot of the remaining actors are in comparison.)
We don't need Gram to remind us that this is now nothing more than a sad melodrama. Once it was fun.
Sad.
Season 4: Absurd and messy season that doesn't deliver the heat and tone of the previous much better seasons (SPOILERS)
bob the moo4 March 2012
Warning: Spoilers
For the past three seasons of this show I have enjoyed the sheer ridiculousness of it all and been quite impressed by how the show manages to balance such absurd supernatural content with racy relationships that you would laugh at if they were in a Jackie Collins book. While the third season was not as great as the first two, I still enjoyed it and it was from this state that the fourth season hit me as a real disappointment. The plot this time involves – well, to be honest it involves almost everything and everybody. We have evil babies, V addiction, shifters, werewolves, vampires, fairies, witches and ghosts – and these are just groups, not individual characters or plots. When I start talking about characters and listing all the things going on, I'll hit my word limit without an opinion expressed, suffice to say, there is loads of "events" here.
Of course this was sort of the case in previous seasons but in those the many events tended to be well constructed around a central plot. With this fourth season it feels more like the central plot (the necromancy) was put into a box and all the other plots and events were just thrown in on top of it without a thought of how they went together just so long as they were all in the same box. The result is that the show feels messy and that too many side plots sort of feel like they don't go anywhere and just seem to exist for the sake of giving the characters something to do. Jason's multiple rapes, the troubled ghost seeking out the baby, the whole fairy otherworld etc – the majority of them just sit independent from other things and it feels odd within the context of the season.
Within the main plot there are also examples of clutter and mess and it just doesn't satisfy in the telling as it has previously. I still quite liked it, but too often it felt like threads were distracting from one another and that the heart of the telling was gone as too much with too many was pulling too many ways. I'm sure the next season will explain to me why Andy had sex with a fairy (it just happens, then stops) but in the final few episodes there is loads of rearranging the chairs as characters are killed off, cleared out the way, repositioned or reintroduced; indeed the final episode is such a blur of deaths and exists that it really sucks the heart out of Tara's shooting. To me (liking her as I do) I should have felt more but in the end I was more shocked by the suddenness of it but not hit emotionally since by that time i was nearly numbed to the rate of character changes.
Generally the busyness and mess of the season also hits the previous strength it had of being able to feel the heat and lust from the screen. I simply didn't get that this time, too much was going on and the atmosphere of the place was lost on the me. The cast still do reasonably good jobs but their characters are weaker because the tone is off, making me buy them less and giving me less "gory passion" context in which to view their performances. As a result some of them do feel almost too hammy now, but again I would say that I think this was more to do with the shift in me rather in them. Paquin continues to be simple and effective while Moyer in this season is not quite as good as he has lost the emotional meat he had in other seasons. By contrast Starsgard has more to do and he is pretty good throughout. Kwanten is mostly semi-naked and he has little to do in his constantly shifting plot lines. Likewise Trammell, Bauer and others feel a little out of it – with even Ellis oddly subdued and feeling like he is just clocking in some episodes. Generally the additions are solid but the cast are weaker because the show is weaker this season.
Overall I quite enjoyed this season of True Blood but it is hard to overlook the feeling of disappointment and that the fourth season never really got the magic right in the way the previous seasons had. The heat, the passion and the outrageousness seem to have turned into absurd busyness and there is almost too much going on in unconnected and fragmented ways. I'll be back for a fifth season – but I'll be doing so with significantly lower expectations after this rather messy and unsatisfying season.
Of course this was sort of the case in previous seasons but in those the many events tended to be well constructed around a central plot. With this fourth season it feels more like the central plot (the necromancy) was put into a box and all the other plots and events were just thrown in on top of it without a thought of how they went together just so long as they were all in the same box. The result is that the show feels messy and that too many side plots sort of feel like they don't go anywhere and just seem to exist for the sake of giving the characters something to do. Jason's multiple rapes, the troubled ghost seeking out the baby, the whole fairy otherworld etc – the majority of them just sit independent from other things and it feels odd within the context of the season.
Within the main plot there are also examples of clutter and mess and it just doesn't satisfy in the telling as it has previously. I still quite liked it, but too often it felt like threads were distracting from one another and that the heart of the telling was gone as too much with too many was pulling too many ways. I'm sure the next season will explain to me why Andy had sex with a fairy (it just happens, then stops) but in the final few episodes there is loads of rearranging the chairs as characters are killed off, cleared out the way, repositioned or reintroduced; indeed the final episode is such a blur of deaths and exists that it really sucks the heart out of Tara's shooting. To me (liking her as I do) I should have felt more but in the end I was more shocked by the suddenness of it but not hit emotionally since by that time i was nearly numbed to the rate of character changes.
Generally the busyness and mess of the season also hits the previous strength it had of being able to feel the heat and lust from the screen. I simply didn't get that this time, too much was going on and the atmosphere of the place was lost on the me. The cast still do reasonably good jobs but their characters are weaker because the tone is off, making me buy them less and giving me less "gory passion" context in which to view their performances. As a result some of them do feel almost too hammy now, but again I would say that I think this was more to do with the shift in me rather in them. Paquin continues to be simple and effective while Moyer in this season is not quite as good as he has lost the emotional meat he had in other seasons. By contrast Starsgard has more to do and he is pretty good throughout. Kwanten is mostly semi-naked and he has little to do in his constantly shifting plot lines. Likewise Trammell, Bauer and others feel a little out of it – with even Ellis oddly subdued and feeling like he is just clocking in some episodes. Generally the additions are solid but the cast are weaker because the show is weaker this season.
Overall I quite enjoyed this season of True Blood but it is hard to overlook the feeling of disappointment and that the fourth season never really got the magic right in the way the previous seasons had. The heat, the passion and the outrageousness seem to have turned into absurd busyness and there is almost too much going on in unconnected and fragmented ways. I'll be back for a fifth season – but I'll be doing so with significantly lower expectations after this rather messy and unsatisfying season.
Bill should move on
mexton1212 May 2012
I think Sookie's character is a lot stronger than what the season finale portrayed and Bill need to move on. We are on the 5th Season and Bill still found a way to make problems for Eric and Sookie because his relationship failed. I will check in on season 5 from time to time because I am so tired of the Bill and Sookie storyline and can't find myself to be a faithful fan. The writer did not allow Sookie and Eric try to work on their relationship like she has with any other relationship in Bon Temps. I watched season 4 just to see Sookie and Eric because in the midst of the storm, they found a way hold things together. Why fight to save a man you don't love? It was nice to see Sookie stand up for Eric and him for her. Where was Bill out of the picture until he fed her more of his blood.
Finale was a limp tying up of knots
jseph1234-262-6174889 July 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I have to say this entire Season 4 was the most poorly written with storylines with boring and predictable loops and the "Vampires ALWAYS win" shtick that gets old by episode 1. This finale added nothing to the narrative and was just a very lame end and I can't personally take any more "True Blood" its predictable and unimaginative.
Why. Just why.
loridonaldsonrocks8 May 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Why anything happens the way it does in this show is an absolute mystery to me. This whole episode was a nonstop dumpster fire. For a season finale it went in way too many directions and ended up being very non-cohesive. I'm also annoyed by the revolving door of characters. I can't believe they killed off Lafayette's Jesus when he had so much potential as a character. And this show is no stranger to death impermanence because Lafayette can speak to dead people so it's like Jesus isn't really even gone. What a joke! And before dying, Jesus passed his demon onto Lafayette or something like that, what a nice parting gift. We also didn't get to see how Marnie captured Bill and Eric and managed to tie them up so she could burn them. I would've liked to see how that happened, especially since Marnie was in Lafayette's body with a demon creature now. Marnie's entire subplot of the episode was boring and the only purpose it seemed to serve, besides killing Jesus, was to show that Sookie still misses Gran and so Sookie could (finally) break up with Bill and Eric (wonder how long that will last). Then because it was Halloween this episode, the veil between the living and dead was weaker. Which means Arlene saw Rene's ghost and he warned her of Terry. I really hope they don't ruin Terry's character because he seems like such a good sweet guy. Jason told Hoyt that he slept with Jessica so now there's bro drama. And I guess Jason and Jessica are friends with benefits now? Wolves show up at Sam's door since he killed an alpha, no surprise there. The head vampire lady goes to Bill and Eric saying she wants to start a revolution or something and they kill her for saying they have puppy dog eyes for Sookie. I wish they had actually heard her out because a vampire rebellion sounds mildly interesting. Alcide found out that vampires dug a hole in some concrete and left behind chains, so I wonder what (or who) they dug up. And the episode ends with Sookie shooting Debbie in the face with a shotgun after Debbie shoots Tara in the head. Lovely. What a dumb way for Tara to die after all this time. Pretty awesomely gruesome of Sookie to shoot Debbie tho. This whole season felt all over the place and this episode was no different. Some of it was wrapping up previous storylines and starting new ones but none of it felt like it had any clear direction or purpose, just a lot of miscellaneous plotlines.
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