Review

With the Tolerance Festival in Shreveport turning into a bloodbath Sookie calls on her Faery powers to stop Bill from staking Eric, in the process Sookie breaks the spell Antonia had cast on the Nordic vampire. Apparently Eric retains his fluffy bunny thoughts, yeah right! Bill has had enough, basically tells Nan Flanagan to back the hell off and leads a commando raid on the Moon Goddess Emporium to end things once and for all. Unfortunately Antonia has erected a magic defence field around the Emporium and has already captured Sookie's advance rescue team leaving Jason bewildered.

Speaking of our boy Jason, he asked Jess to glamour him so he can face Hoyt which didn't go down well with Jessica. Terry has dragged Andy to "Fort Bellefleur" for an intervention after Arlene discovered Andy was using "V". Alcide is reconsidering his alliance with Marcus' pack after the beating Tommy took. And Tara along with Holly are trying to join a mass exodus from the Coven. We also learn Marnie is perhaps a bit more dedicate to the war against the vampires than Antonia who is sickened by the casualties during the Tolerance festival attack.

Dispensing with any idea of redemption Burning Down the House is simply littered with the concept of revenge and resolving issues in the most violent way possible. Sam is after blood, which calls into question Alcide's loyalty to pack Master Marcus. Though I suppose by one action Tommy has redeemed himself in his brother's eyes. Likewise our four core vampires are lock and loading on the Moon Goddess Emporium following the shambles the Shreveport Tolerance Festival was left in after the Coven attack. Clearly Vampire Bill and Eric are after blood, preferably Antonia flavoured, Pam is as ever pissed off and volatile, while Jess just wants to kill something following Jason wimping out on the Hoyt issue. With two episodes left in the season there's going to be a reckoning, and I'm not expecting that to be a fluffy bunny moment!

Director Lesli Linka Glatter is across the episode with some damn fine visuals that reminded me just how good the production values in this show are. Loved the final scene of the vampires arriving in Shreveport, which referenced The Right Stuff in one of those weird pop culture moments that makes you an instant fan of the show. Glatter keeps the focus exactly where it should be and adds a layer of wicked framing and angles to have the audience humming along.

Things are coming to the boil nicely with the end of season in sight, sorry episode reviews drag by the end of a season no matter how good the show is.

While the two apparent major plot arcs of the season are headed toward some sort of final solution Glatter takes time out of her busy schedule to visit with some of the minor developments that are constantly bubbling away just under the surface. The Bellefleur intervention was a good chance to resolve Andy's V addiction but also to bring to light some of the tensions and issues facing that dysfunction Southern family. While we have been focused on baby Mikey's possible supernatural leanings Andy's obsession with his drug of choice has been surfacing from time to time. Nice chance to draw a line under the plot arc and finish it before it drags out.

I'm also intrigued as to where Alcide's divided loyalties may leave his and Debbie Pelt's relationship. Clearly Debbie needs the Pack but Alcide is questioning how the Pack is being governed with the psychotic Marcus seemingly out of control. And just what is going to happen with Marcus and Debbie get real friendly just recently, Sam may happen to be the least of Marcus' problems over the penultimate and final episodes. Are we starting to see the emergence of a possible recurrent theme in True Blood, vampires pollute relationships either purposely or by their sheer existence. Stayed tuned folks, I'm expecting some fireworks pretty soon from this direction as well.

I guess it doesn't need to be pointed out that Eric directly lead to Marnie going toe to toe with the Vampire nation and of course Antonia had prior experience with the darker side of the blood suckers. Once again Vampires poisoning the well of humanity, there's still some retribution to be had here also.

With the second season heading towards a pretty climactic showdown I'm still not seeing any indications as to what is going to go down next season. Normally by this stage things are starting to fall into place so I'm wondering if they are purposely letting us dangle a bit with something completely unexpected planned for Season Five. Two threads haven't been tied off yet, Russell Edgington is still not done with in my opinion and Sookie has to face the Faery Queen Mab at some stage. Either or both antagonists are available for the new season.

With the final quarter of the season now underway things are boiling along nicely with a couple of major confrontations to look forward to. I was digging Burning Down the House as the gloves came off and the Vampires finally got their fang on towards the end of the episode. With a few sub plots still floating around we'll have a pretty full dance card over the final episodes.