Director	Michael Ruscio
Writers	Raelle Tucker	Tweet
Starring	Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Chris Bauer, Mehcad Brooks, Anna Camp, Nelsan Ellis, Michelle Forbes
Genre	Vampire
Tagline	Ready for New Blood?
Country

Review

Sam manages to escape an imminent meeting with the sacrificial knife due to Andy Bellefleur making the scene. Next day he learns a lot more about Maryann from Daphne, but the revellers of the night before have no memory of what went down during the supernatural bender. Meanwhile Sookie and Hugo are under lock and key in the Church basement, Sookie surmises that the Dallas Vampires have a traitor in their midst. When Steve Newlin discovers Sookie's surname and where she is from he immediately suspects Jason is a fang banger, and considering Jason was doing some banging with Sarah Newlin the evening before a lot of confusion ensures.

Bill is being held by his maker, learns that Eric is involved, and is desperate to reach Sookie. Still on Bill's agenda is discovering Jessica is entertaining Hoyt, looking forward to that little discovery. We learn a bit more about Bill's past and how he came to shy away from the normal vampire blood soaked lifestyle. Think I covered it all, with the odd spoiler avoided.

A couple of observations before moving along here. When Sookie is down in the cellar checking the Church's strange mix of board games, it would have been cool if she ran across a "Probe" box, sort of inhouse horror reference. Also notable are the nude revellers at Maryann's little after hours party, the next day some of them are wearing the same hats in Merlottes. C'mon that's not even trying!

Release Me kicks into high tempo from the get go with Sam coming very close to being Maryann's sacrifice during some out of control pagan ceremony involving a cumbersome looking bull mask. A drunk Andy Bellefleur saves the day in the nick of time. We learn during the episode that Maryann is a Maenad, a female follower of the Greek God of good times Dionysus. Talk about bringing your chaos into a normal, well okay partially normal, environment. Apparently Maryann is interested in Sam as he is the one who got away that she can't influence, unlike the rest of the township who are only to ready to get down and dirty. Clearly Maryann plans on Sam being the main attraction ergo her settling into the comfortable environs of Bon Temps.

Very solid episode that is bringing a lot of plot threads together as things are made slightly more clear.

Though perhaps the most important part of the episode for Blooders would be the flashbacks that showed Bill developing a conscience about the slaughter of humans and defying his maker by refusing to indulge his blood-lust. Lorena claims it's due to his young age, a conscience is one of those things older vampires apparently don't have to concern themselves with, perhaps pointing out that Bill's vampiric nature will eventually win out. Something to ponder in perhaps future seasons, as True Blood doesn't simply throw in lines for the sake of them. Bill being unable to overcome Lorena and rush to Sookie's rescue, due to Lorena being stronger and faster than him, underlined for me at least that vampires grow in abilities the older they get.

Speaking of growing in abilities, Sam demonstrated during the episode that it's not just dogs he can morph into. Some intriguing possibilities right there kids.

For once I was picking up on some themes during Release Me. Either I've been missing them in previous episodes due to being fully engrossed, besides the prejudice angle of course, or the Writers simply haven't been overly concerned with adding depth. Probably the former kids. Firstly lets get the bigoted angle out the door. Raelle Tucker gives the Fundos a real serve in this one which was good to see. While a lot of the PC crowd were positively glowing about True Blood through the early part of season one, it quickly became apparent the bigotry being addressed wasn't racial but life style choice. We get another thinly veiled attack in the current episode where Tucker strafes the Fundamentalist lifeboats for the increasingly shrill and it has to be said insane views of the Christian lunatic fringe in the U.S. Apparently turning the other cheek isn't in the play-book of Evangelistic movements.

However if anything Release Me is all about betrayal, both small and longer lasting, the episode is simply dripping in it. Bill and Sookie have been betrayed by Eric Northman, for reasons that still aren't absolutely clear. Sam is betrayed by Daphne, while Maryann is pretty much taking advantage of the entire township. The Dallas Vampires have been betrayed by the most unexpected source, and what's with Godric? Naturally Jason has betrayed his new found religion, pretty much at the first opportunity, but is accused of something else entirely. The list goes on folks, is there anyone who isn't knifing someone else in the back currently?

On Lafayette watch, our fav character, the flamboyant one is back and he's pushing v juice. That can't be a good development, especially with Eric and Pam supplying. I'm waiting on a nasty twist in the plot right there.

Look at that out of room again. Okay I dug Release Me, we got humour – Jason and Andy providing most of it, some blood soaked violence, and the plot arcs being pushed every which way. Clearly we're gearing with five episodes left in the season, don't get lost in the rush toward what could be an explosive final half of the season. You need to be watching each and every episode friends and neighbours.

ScaryMinds Rates this episode as ...