S01E12 - You'll Be the Death of Me (2008)

Director	Alan Ball
Writers	Raelle Tucker, Charlaine Harris (novels)
Starring	Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Chris Bauer, Nelsan Ellis, Jim Parrack, Carrie Preston, Michael Raymond-James
Genre	Vampire
Tagline	Thou Shall Not Crave Thy Neighbor
Country

Talk us through it

Jason is in jail after his self confession over the Bon Temps strangulations and Detective Andy is out to nail him for the multiple homicides. As more than one person has remarked Jason has the ability to talk himself into all sorts of problems. Rene visits Jason and Sookie shows up telling Jason to keep quiet as she has a lead on who the murderer is. Rounding out Jason's guest list is Orry, an evangelist for an anti-vampire church.

Meanwhile, and I'm saying that a lot in these reviews, Tara is making the best of things over at MaryAnn's Mansion of plenty. Clearly this is going to get some show time in season two but for now let's move it along. Oh and Sam has clearly meet MaryAnn before and isn't as enamelled over her as everyone else seems to be.

All roads lead to Sookie's house that dripped blood and our resident telepath is soon running for her life as the Bon Temps Strangler aims to add her to his dance card. Sam goes doggy style and charges to the rescue, while Bill does his impersonation of the human torch.

Later Lafayette is waylaid by something behind Merlottes, and is that his body in Detective Andy's car? The season finishes on one hell of a cliff hanger kids.

Review

There's something cool about coming to the end of a season's episode guide, sort of a closure thing with a sideline in signing off on a major job completed. After twelve thousand odd words on True Blood Season One we have reached the end of the road and just maybe are starting to eye repeating the journey with Season Two. Some of the plot arcs have been closed off on others are waiting for future developments, the song goes on. Let's sign off on the first season.

Alan Ball takes his second Director's credit for the season rounding out his previous work on the first episode. There's been a number of Directors, and for that matter Writers, through the course of the season that has helped to kept things fresh and intriguing. Ball here, while developing some of the other ongoing plot arcs, is primarily concerned with focusing on the central plotline of the season, our local psycho killer. There's really only one new element being introduced here, Sam being very uncomfortable around MaryAnn, all roads lead to our resident Norman Bates.

While Ball is restrained by the small screen medium he is working in here, anyone else ready for a feature length movie, he has things working like a Bon Temps Mortician. The Audience knows who the killer is, those of us who have been following the season at least, but the leads remain in the dark. Ball milks it like the professional he is with the strangler appearing in the background of a lot of shots watching the foreground action. While this is probably meant to be creepy, it sort of didn't work that way, it reinforced the notion for mine of the killer having lurked all season gathering information and striking when someone pushed the right buttons. It's almost a Hitchcockian notion of prolonging the tension and keeping the audience uncomfortable for as long as possible. We know that Sookie is going to be the target of the final episode, Ball stretches the anticipation for as long as possible, and he delivers on the expected thrills and chills as the whip comes down.

Alan Ball is primarily focused on his psycho storyline but does take time out to explore a couple more plot arcs that will no doubt be sitting up begging for a walk next season.

After the complexities of the previous eleven episodes it was surprising how stark the final episode became, especially when the serial killer plot reached its ultimate conclusion. There's a real feeling that the main aim of the episode was to close off the events of the season and allow the switching of focus to something else for the second season. Ball signs off with a pretty solid resolution that will have you not only gasping, awesome use of a shovel, but also nodding your head in approval over Sookie getting the business done.

Interestingly, and some vindication for Sam Merlotte supporters, Vamper Bill proves pretty ineffectual as the Serial killer gets ready to add another victim to his growing list while Sam goes hard on doggy style and pretty much saves Sookie from becoming a statistic. There's definitely a feeling that Sam and Sookie should be together but guess this would divert far too much from the source novels for the comfort of Charlaine Harris fans. Actually it would probably kick the underpinnings of the show out completely, but hey who want to go up against the extreme True Blood femme demographics.

While Alan Ball heads on into Psychoville for the parade down Main Street he also takes a couple of slight detours to keep the season plot arcs working. Tara is getting in over her head with the MaryAnn situation and even at this early stage you generally get the feeling that it's not going to end up all wine and roses, there's something slightly off with our pseudo social worker and I'm expecting tears as Tara learns more. Jason is also heading into trouble waters, or jumping from the mantel into the fireplace really, with an indication that the religious right might have their sights set on Bon Temp's local Casanova. Given Jason isn't the sharpest tool in the shed and has a dependant personality he's probably fertile ground for the pseudo Christian nutters of the right.

Guess we'll have to wait on season two to see what might transpire, Alan Ball certainly finishes season one on a high.

Stephen Moyer (Bill Compton) was a pretty good casting decision, with the help of the show makeup team he really does look dead while retaining that yee oldie look and feel. You really can believe that Bill is a relic from a bygone era struggling to find his place in the modern world. Moyer manages to deliver on all the requirements of a surprisingly multi faceted character and along with ScaryMinds favourite Anna Paquin holds the first season together in pretty solid fashion. I went from believing that Bill was a force for evil to signing off on him fighting for his humanity due to Moyer nailing things to the old barn door. Excellent work and dear god in heaven Moyer does one of the best ever vampires to hit the modern screen.

To round things out on the first season let's add some rock and roll to the review and have a look at the songs in the key of life. "Prelude a L'apres - Midi D'un Faun" Claude Debussy was a classy choice, Robert Schumann's "Fantasy Pieces", "Christine's Tune (Devil in Disguise)" by The Flying Burrito Brothers, "Trouble" by Ray LaMontague, "You'll Be The Death of Me" by Johnny Winter, "Cut & Run" by Bell & Cooper, and "Ain't No Grave" by Crooked Still rounded out the season's festivities in strong fashion.

Summary Execution

Season Three is just over a week away from screening in the U.S and anticipation is high amongst the fanbase as to what might transpire during the course of our third holiday in the Bon Temps moonlight. My call is werewolf mayhem as I guess zombies are going to be out of the question.

A couple of people have written in asking about sites dedicated to True Blood with anything approaching extended coverage. Sorry folks have done some research, and are sure they are out there, but the big rating sites have pretty freaking poor coverage making ScaryMinds look like a fund of knowledge. Disappointing really that Google and the other search engines rank sites with scant information over those trying to cover the show in depth. Hopefully while building the second season episode guide we'll find the Eldorado of True Blood resources.

ScaryMinds Rates this episode as ...