Hey there, everyone! I’m covering True Blood this week for Brianna so let’s jump straight to it. This is my first attempt at a photo recap so bear with me, yeah?

“We’ll Meet Again” starts right where “Whatever I Am, You Made Me” left off, with Tara in the middle of her suicide by tanning mission.

Luckily, Pam’s spidey sense tingles and she comes around in time to forbid Tara from attempting to fry herself to death again.

Back outside the grill, Sookie has just been confronted by Alcide about Debbie’s death and admits to him that she was the one to blow his ex-girlfriend’s head off. Lafayette, her partner in crime, is less than thrilled to hear that someone else is now in the know. This is the point where Sookie decides it’s a good time to honor her grandmother’s memory by following childhood lessons about coming clean.

Lafayette does not agree.

Meanwhile, Eric and Bill have been set free to go on their Capture-Russell-Edginton-or-Die-Trying quest. The Authoritah has even given them matching sweatsuits to foster team spirit.

Speaking of the Authoritah, was anyone else too busy checking out the moobs on this one to focus on their discussion of Norah?

Just me? Fine.

Anyways, Sookie is still kind of operating in crazy mode and decides to go see Jason to confess her crimes.

Jason, like a good brother, refuses and Jessica overhears the entire exchange.

Pam brings Tara back to Fangtasia where Erik and Bill have also decided to reconvene. Bill and Tara tactfully leave the other two to sort out the hard feelings still left from their last fight. Bill asks Tara if Sookie is alright and Tara’s response is basically the following:

I actually found this scene to be really sad. Tara admits that she regrets saving her best friend’s life. I understand that she hates the fact that her sacrifice ended up making her the thing she hates most but does she really prefer the alternative that her best friend had died? She also echoes Lafayette’s complaint earlier in the episode that there is always someone ready to die for Sookie. It made me start to wonder if the writers intend to make Sookie less of a damsel in distress in the future.

Unfortunately, next room over, Eric makes our HBIC Pam cry when he accuses her of digging up Russell. In keeping with the running Maker-Progeny loyalty theme that seems to be the focus this season, Pam sobs that she would never betray her Maker in such a fashion.

Pam gets so fed up with his trust issues that she challenges him to just Release her.

Back at the Authoritah homebase, the Southern lady, the African man, and the kid monitor Bill, Eric, and Norah via laptops and discuss uprisings that are taking place across the globe. Vampire civil war foreshadowing, anyone?

At police headquarters, Andy and Jason get invited on a night out with the mayor.

At the grill, Sam’s shifter buddies from last season drop by to invite him to come naked running with them again.

Also at the grill, apparently the word’s gotten out on Vampire Tara and Sookie’s role in the whole fiasco. As she walks through the bar, Sookie gets telapathic backlash from almost half the town.

I loved this scene because I think it’s been a while since we’ve seen how hard Sookie’s telepathic abilities make it for her to be around normal humans. Also, I totally forgot what assholes the normal humans of Bon Temps are.

Just outside, Lafayette goes all satanic, blue demony skull thing on Sookie’s car and makes it levitate.

Then, we finally get to see what Alcide does with the information Sookie gave him about Debbie’s death.  He goes to see the Pelts and for a moment it seems like he might tell them truth but he quickly edits the story to make Marcus the killer.

Turns out, Lafayette’s inner demony thing did something to Sookie’s car during his freakout. On the drive home, her car starts accelerating on its own. Sookie manages to jump out just in time.

Suddenly we’re in South Dakota with Terry and his fellow veteran on their way to find their last remaining war buddy. After three episodes of hinting, we finally see a flashback to Iraq and find out what really happened there. Some kind of awful ambush/crossfire that left a bunch of Iraqi civilians dead.

Anyways, now that the Pelts have gotten closure, they want to drop the case. Andy feels the whole situation is still fishy and remains unwilling to let the case go. Luckily, Jessica runs into the station and glamours the sheriff into dropping it.

In what will probably be one of the most heartbreaking scene of the season, Eric chooses to release Pam. Before doing so, he explains that it is not because he doesn’t trust her, but because he feels that his death is imminent (either at the hands of Russell or the Authoritah) and he wants her to be safely carrying on his legacy when it happens.

Bill and Jessica start tearing their house apart looking for bugs since it’s been established somebody outside the foursome of Eric, Bill, Alcide, and Pam must have found out where Russell was buried. Jessica also asks Bill about Sookie, mentioning that she has been having a rough time. Bill gives Jessica the same Sookie-is-a-trouble-magnet spiel that everyone else has been giving. Jessica doesn’t buy that crap and says “Sookie and you is different from Sookie and anyone else”.

They also share a cute Maker-Progeny moment.

Quick, who’s the better Maker-Progeny couple? Are you team Paric or team Bissica?

Back at Authoritah headquarters, Norah is about to be executed. They blackmail her into giving the name of the other Sanguinista leaders by threatening to hit execute on the app that will drive stakes into Bill and Eric’s hearts.

Then, we finally return to boys’ night out with the mayor, Jason, and Andy who get transported to some—get this—fairy burlesque, cirque-du-soleil type club where Andy runs into his one-time fairy lay Morella.

Apparently, the fairies got tired of their Romanesque garden parties last season.

In the real world, Sookie is getting drunk off her ass because how else do you deal with the crippling guilt of murder?

I found the song choice hilarious because it just reminded me of how old Sookie is. Also, is it just me or was Anna Paquin just freaking adorable this whole scene? I really enjoy Drunk Sookie. Alcide pops in for a visit and they make up blah blah blah.

Meanwhile, the shit is hittin the fan everywhere else. Terry and his buddy find their third buddy’s place and the basement is full of murals and pictures and other generally creepy stuff.

Sam finds his shifter friends with bullet holes in their foreheads.

C’mon, you know it’s gonna be bad when you see a shot from the back like that.

Tara has her first meal.

The kid vampire is revealed as the other Sanguista traitor and gets staked by the Authoritah.

Then, we come back to Alcide and Sookie.

BUT WAIT

In a moment of suspiciously convenient timing, Bill and Eric are outside to witness the hookup happen.

Bill gets pissed off and suggests they start using Sookie to find Russell.

And back at the fairy Moulin Rouge, Jason runs into his cousin Hadley (the one who used to run with Queen Sophie Anne, remember?). She starts spilling all sorts of beans, including the fact that the club is some kind of fairy refuge and then this bomb:

As you can imagine, this sets Jason in a tizzy. The fairies don’t take kindly to the commotion he causes and he and Andy both get kicked out. The episode ends with one of the fairies about to shoot a bunch of glowing light out of his hands at them.

Overall, I felt that the episode did a great job of balancing all the different storylines that were already going on (the search for Russell, Alcide+Sookie), expanding on others (Terry’s Iraq buddy, Tara’s baby vamp adventures), introducing new ones (the fairies, Sam’s shifter buddies deaths), and ending others (Debbie’s murder case, Pam and Eric’s cold war). The previous few episodes were kind of slow and this was the first one where the ball really started rolling.

DISCUSS:

1) How do you feel about Eric Releasing Pam?
2) Do you support Team Alcide?
3) Do you sense a vampire civil war coming between the Sanguinista-supporters and the Mainstreamers?