VOD TV review: True Blood Season 7 Episode 8 (Almost Home)
Review Overview
Closure
7Costumes
6Kinky props
7Jo Bromilow | On 25, Aug 2014
It’s getting harder to know what to make of this final season, what conclusion to eventually draw, as the various threads get tied up. What started out as a decent scale conflict between our protagonists and the Hep V vampires has nigh on disappeared, and as another potential villain (or just misunderstood obstacle) meets their maker this week, we’re supposedly left with just the Yakamono Corporation standing in the way of… well, what exactly?
But perhaps that’s the beauty of True Blood Season 7 – we’ve discussed many times how the strength of the show lies in showing us the characters, and removing petty distractions such as wars with werewolves, Wiccans and Greek mythological creatures means that all the characters have left to do is deal with themselves.
This week’s episode (Almost Home) does a great job of demonstrating that, for all their immortality, physical perfection and psychic abilities, our supernatural cast are no closer to happiness than their mortal counterparts. Violet (looking exceptionally sassy this week in a leopard-print corset and flowing skirts, while sporting a frankly terrifying array of props in a sex dungeon that makes Christian Grey’s Red Room look tame enough to be used as a creche), for all her beauty and allure, cannot retain the love of Jason. Eric, no matter how hard he struggles to be noble, is still seemingly driven by a love for money and power. And Bill, no natural fit to the demonic side of vampire nature, still longs for a simpler life of nothing but love.
Thankfully, it looks like this week might finally give a happy ending to one of the show’s most long-running sob stories – Lettie Mae and Tara. Rutina Wesley has been dealt one heck of a losing hand by this show, taking on the role of the best friend who is inexplicably angry at all times (and who finds it hard to make any friends or have boyfriends without them dying/trying to feed off her) while doing her very best to make Tara anything other than, well, an angry best friend. Her character’s closure – and the reason why she has always been so angry – is long overdue.
Another storyline that might finally get to see its completion is the reuniting of one of the show’s best couples: Jessica and Jason. Since their nookie in Sookie’s bathroom at the party, a few distracting forces have kept them apart, not least the return of Hoyt – Jessica’s former boyfriend and Jason’s best friend, glamoured out of his mind to make him forget the emotional trauma that love triangle caused him – and the potential that he might not only see Jessica, but start to remember. Deborah Ann Woll has been another consistently strong presence across the series, from nervous naïve young girl to precocious baby vampire to the mature, measured and fiercely loyal young woman she is now. She, like Tara, deserves a resolution after taking supporting roles in recent seasons… but will the return of Hoyt throw a spanner in the works?
These two storylines ensure tenderness overwhelms tension in Episode 8 of Season 7. True Blood has consistently delivered us cliffhanger finales and unexpected twists. Given the neat tying up of loose ends and the considerable slowing of pace, it might not be too crazy to think that it’s about to deliver the biggest unexpected twist of all: a happy ending. But hey, there’s still a few hours until dawn…
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