Talk us through itFour coffins have been filled with the quickly decomposing bodies of the four "vampires" discovered after the house they got in Bon Temps was burnt down last episode. Sookie fears Bill was in the house at the time, receives no response from his phone, and leaves a candle in the window at night just in case. Meanwhile Lettie Mae is no longer suffering from the demon alcohol and is manically doing the clothes washing thing and making breakfast for Tara, something she hasn't done before. Could the exorcism have worked or are we talking simple suggestion? Jason and Amy are getting on like a house on fire, young love how sweet it is, and Amy would appear to be adapting to Bon Temps life with ease and quickly scores a job waitressing at Merlottes. This chick is so going to be next on the psycho murder list. The episode ends with all sorts of shenanigans going down. Eric has got Bill to bring Sookie to Fangtasia so Sookie can do a bit of mind reading and help determine who robbed the bar of $60k. Tara goes to see Miss Jeanette about getting her own demon cast out, run local possum population, run. And Amy shows a darker side as she enlists Jason to help kidnap a vampire that was Lafayette's source of "v juice".
Review"And we can eat pretty much anything we want. It's the circle of life." - Amy BurleyThe introduction of Amy Burley into Jason's increasingly out of control world proved to be a real winner this week as Amy gets naked again fuels Jason's pursuit of all the wrong things. We find Amy has a real dark side, underneath that entire new age hippy formica, and we also learn just how you go about getting some "v" from the source. I can't see Jason and Amy having a bright future what with vampire involvement and Amy, who gets a job waitressing at Merlottes, ticking all the boxes needed to be a future victim of our resident psycho. Jason isn't the only Stackhouse increasingly coming under the influence of blood and vampire longings with of course Sookie being dragged into Bill's sphere of blood sucking mayhem. Besides no doubt breaching various Church ordinances by having gritty dirty sex in a graveyard, that's got to be worse than a beach really, Sookie is called on to do some mind reading at Fangtasia due to someone or something, this is True Blood after all, stealing $60,000 from the till. Seems vampires are capitalists just like the rest of us and thieving off with their cash isn't a good decision. We learn that Eric, these vamps have pretty ordinary names, is a local vampire big wig of some sort besides overseeing the shenanigans at the fang bar. Sookie is going to uncover a pretty surprising perpetrator and could be in trouble, in a cliff hanger ending to the episode. Tara gets slightly more screen time than usual and we find that her mom's exorcism might have been the real deal judging from Lettie Mae's change in personality. Gone is the alcohol dependant, hey don't throw those bottles out send them my way, crazy person we have seen previously and in is the church attending, breakfast making, sober person. Whether or not this is all sort of a power of suggestion thing remains to be seen with Tara seeking the services of Miss Jeanette for some personal demon de-infestation. Boy Captain Howdy just can't seem to find good lodgings anymore. I'm actually more interested in how this particular plot point might resolve itself than the episode cliff hanger. There's some pretty slick writing going down here with eight or so characters being developed as the season advances in terms of both the timeframe and the increasingly complex plot arcs. Surprisingly The Fourth Man in the Fire failed to deliver on the tension and scares that seemed apparent from the ending of the previous episode, with Writer Alexander Woo and Director Michael Lehmann dropping the ball with the line wide open. The possible death of Bill isn't taken anywhere; if for the moment we forget bonking in the local graveyard, with the episode serving to simply move the various story arcs along rather than getting down and dirty in the horror sandpit. It's a worrying sign that the scare factor isn't being regularly humped, but it's all pretty interesting regardless and has enough gothic echoes to keep dark genre fans in the groove. What the Writer and Director slam dunk is the series' ability to keep eight or so major characters developing and the various story arcs interesting and moving along. In fact you have to say that with each episode True Blood is steadily getting more and more complex with the texture becoming increasingly like treacle in consistency. Another strength here is that things move at a fair pace without the show getting bogged down in the deep and meaningful. Underlying themes are there for anyone wanting to keep up with their wine and cheese set requirements, though in a snigger inducing fun time the themes haven't been developed to the extent the PC crowd were clearly hoping they would be. Dear god in heaven it's a gothic tale involving vampires what exactly were some people expecting The Power of One or something? 
There are a number of lighter moments peppering this episode, along with previous episodes, that keep things from being overly brooding. Jason walking in on Lafayette performing for his internet audience is certainly amusing, Sookie and Bill going some babysitting duties to the general discomfort of Arelen had me smiling, and Jason's inability to handle anything on a less than bizarre basis is a continuing source of lighter moments for the first season. Actually thinking about things True Blood wouldn't be the same without the fine acting abilities of the Aussie Actor handling Jason duties. Even more surprising Ryan Kwanten finds time in his busy True Blood schedule to star in Down Under dark genre movies, thus keeping the home fires burning and local horror fans happy with his work ethic. You da man Ryan, two thumbs up and the beers are on me if you ever get out my way. Alexander Skarsgård (Eric) has appeared in three of the eight episodes of season one I've watched thus far and is moving from being a minor character to perhaps a more leading role as the season keeps rolling. Skarsgård adds European styling to the Southern Cajun spice and certainly is a presence when he's on screen. I'm digging both Eric and Pam and they are further minor characters that I've got my fingers crossed will get more screen time as the season winds down. Actually given the complexity of things any number of spin off series could be going down in the future, my vote goes to one exploring Eric and Pam in greater detail. Sorry this time round I didn't note the soundtrack listing but I promise to hit that puppy again next review.
Summary ExecutionThe Fourth Man in the Fire lived up to the high standards previous episodes of True Blood have sustained and kept me jiving along to the beat in style. I was slightly disappointed that more tension wasn't wrung out of things but guess we can't have everything, what with the engaging characters and multiple plot arcs and everything. My feeling is that season one is devolving more into a gothic paranormal romance than a show that sets out to scare the knickers off the audience. If I need to go somewhere scarier then I'm catching movies in between the Bon Temps developments.The Season Two DVD set has gone on sale with a heavy amount of units apparently going out the door through the opening days. We'll get to round two in due course but are going to be held up by finishing the review guide to season one, our next event (Naomi Watts come on down), and various other commitments. There's something truly solid about True Blood that will either have you settling in for the long haul or simply not getting what the buzz is about. Seems a lot of folks are signing on board the groove train so my suggestion would be to check it out, have some fun times, and see what might develop in the relationship.
ScaryMinds Rates this episode as ... Slight bump in the road with nothing happening around the disappearance of Bill.
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