Entertainment

True Blood Season 5 – Episode 5 –Let’s Boot and Rally – A Recap and Review
By Kelowna TV buff Andrew Buckley
Read more about Andrew's world at planetkibi.com

Photo: Contributed

This is somewhat of a retraction article in that I’ll not be complaining about boring storylines that happened in the latest episode of True Blood, Let’s Boot and Rally. This is mainly because the boring storylines became less boring, more interesting, and added cleavage and a fire demon. My long standing hatred of Tara (Rutina Wesley) actually dimmed a little with this episode and my usual loathing for Terry (Todd Lowe) and his Full Metal Jacket circus almost vanished completely.

We’re almost midway through the season and the stories have moved increasingly fast to this point. The worst thing a TV show can do is pre-eja. . . . <insert your own friendly family euphemism here that iterates it’d be a bad thing for a TV show to have all the action happen too early in the season>. By all rights True Blood looks to be balancing it’s action and story development nicely and hopefully it’ll maintain the momentum until the end of the season.

This week Sookie (Anna Paquin) throws up on Alcide (Joe Manganiello) while they’re trying to get it on. Vomit is a notorious mood killer, as is turning around to find two of your ex-lover vampires standing in your doorway. Bill (Stephen Moyer) and Eric (Alexand Skarsgard) crash the party to let Sookie know that Russell Edgington (Denis O’Hare) is free and likely wants to kill her but at the same time they need her to help them find him.

Lafayette’s (Nelsan Ellis) struggles with his blue demon thing continue as it growls at him in the mirror driving him to reach out the Jesus (the gay/dead/nurse/ex-boyfriend, not the other guy). Unfortunately the only thing that transpires from his pleas is the head of Jesus with the mouth sewn shut. I can’t even speculate as to what’s going on here anymore.

Terry discovers that he’s being haunted by a fire demon called Ifrit (possibly the least scary name for a demon next to ‘Simon’ or ‘Tootles’) which is quickly confirmed when the creature shows up and eats the soldier that Terry and his friend were looking for. While it took a long time to get to this point it’s actually a nice development for an otherwise boring character. At the very least they introduced a supernatural element so I’m happy.

After Jason (Ryan Kwanten) and Andy’s (Chris Bauer) brush with the fairies last episode they both wake up on their respective couches completely naked. Jason has a disturbing dream about his parents involving blood and cereal before being called out to a homicide investigation involving Sam (Sam Trammell) and his two dead shifter friends. It’s amusing that Andy no longer even bats an eyelid when informed that the two dead people were shape shifters. Because, ya know, it’s common these days in Bon Temps.

Back at Fangtasia Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten) lends Tara a new wardrobe, apparently to accentuate her breasts, and puts her to work tending bar but not before warning her not to eat the customers. Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll), who is by far one of the more interesting characters on the show and a fan favorite, shows up to befriend Tara as she feels they can relate to each other both being new vampires. Later in the show Tara tried feeding on Hoyt (who is dressed like an overly colorful goth) which causes a bathroom cat fight ‘vampire style’ between the two ladies.

At the Vampire Authority Roman (Christopher Meloni) questions their goals and makes a lot of speeches, most of which I zoned out on because they weren’t that interesting. I have an itchy feeling that Salome (Valentina Cervi) is up to something as she spends a lot of the episode looking very shifty. Someone should keep an eye on her.

Sam visits Luna (Janina Gavankar) to let her know that their shape shifting friends have been murdered and moments later they’re both gunned down by a group of people wearing masks. Luna’s daughter escapes by turning into a puppy dog and running off. Apparently it’s a bad time to be a shape shifter.

In the last scene of the show Bill, Eric, Sookie, and Alcide venture to an abandoned insane asylum and find the recovering Russell Edgington. It looks like we’re in for an epic brawl with the ancient bad guy and then…credits! If nothing else True Blood knows how to plant a cliffhanger.

Let’s Boot and Rally was a return to form the show as not only did it maintain the pace set by the previous episodes but it also re-introduced the quirky humor that made True Blood a hit show (that and the blood/nudity). Examples include Arlene finding Andy naked on the couch, Jason wearing He-Man pajamas, Sookie freaking out (“It must be Thursday!”), and countless hilarious lines from Sherriff Andy. This was by far the best episode of the season so far!

I give Let’s Boot and Rally 9.5 overly colorful goths out of 10.