Network: HBO
Episodes: 80 (hour)
Seasons: Seven
TV show dates: September 7, 2008 — August 24, 2014
Series status: Ended
Performers include: Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Chris Bauer, Nelsan Ellis, Jim Parrack, Carrie Preston, William Sanderson, Alexander Skarsgard, Todd Lowe, Michelle Forbes, Adina Porter, Deborah Ann Woll, Mehcad Brooks, John Billingsley, Michael Raymond-James, Michael McMillian, Kristin Bauer, Patricia Bethune, and Dale Raoul.
TV show description:
This drama is based on Charlaine Harris’ The Southern Vampire Mysteries novels. The storyline focuses on vampires and humans existing together in the fictional Louisiana town of Bon Temp.
Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) is twice-orphaned, and had her life turned around by the supernatural. She’s a waitress at a bar named Merlotte’s and is also telepathic. Because of her special ability, she has a hard time forming lasting relationships. Sookie starts a love affair with a vampire named Bill after realizing that she can’t read his thoughts. He introduces her to a very different world and she’s worried that she’s not as bothered by it all as she should be. Nearly everyone in town turns against her for entering into the relationship with Bill.
Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) is a 173-year-old vampire who ditches his old life of lurking in the shadows and returns to Bon Temp, the home of his ancestry. He was “turned” against his will during the Civil War and holds onto those old memories of his human past. He’s in love with Sookie and tries to find some common ground between them. The other vampires don’t approve of their relationship either and he has to keep them at bay and protect Sookie.
Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) is Sookie’s slow-witted brother. He’s a road crew supervisor who’s well-known for bedding many women of Bon Temp. He becomes the prime suspect in the murders of four women that he was once connected to and ends up joining the Fellowship of the Sun, an anti-vampire church.
The chief investigator of the murders is Detective Andy Bellefleur (Chris Bauer) who is generally disrespected by the town’s residents. His cousin is Terry Bellefleur (Todd Lowe), a gentle-souled bartender at Merlowe’s who’s an Iraq war veteran suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder.
Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard) is a Nordic vampire who commands great respect from others as the Sheriff of the Area 5 vampire district. His scheming and disdain for humans doesn’t earn him any friends, yet no one can deny his attractiveness. He runs the local vampire bar and is interested in Sookie once he learns that she’s telepathic. This causes a conflict between Eric and Bill, but neither are allowed to act on it because of the laws of their community.
Episode #80 — Thank You
Having accepted Bill’s offer to call on her, Sookie listens as he explains his decision to end his life: If they were to stay together, Bill would be denying her Sookie all the best parts of life — including family and children. He sees no other way around it, as he loves her too much to swear her off. Finally, he asks Sookie to use her light ball on him, ending both his life and her connection to vampires forever. “If you don’t,” he warns, “there’s going to be a line of suitors from here to the gates of Hell trying to call you theirs.” Though Sookie orders him to leave, Bill begs her to consider his request.
In the basement of Fangtasia, Eric reveals to Pam his plans to release Sarah and kill Mr. Gus. He glamours Sarah into being fearful, so that Pam, who feeds Sarah her blood, can always find her. “Wherever you go, whoever you talk to, everybody wants you dead,” he explains. “As much as Pamela and I hate you, we’re the best friends you’ve got.” After letting her go, Eric and Pam call Mr. Gus to the basement and tell him that they let Sarah escape. He races into the tunnel after her, but Eric knows he’ll be too slow. Using a gas can and a lighter, he sends a fireball into the tunnel after Mr. Gus. Eric then races to Sookie’s and intercepts the Yakuza charged with killing her, and disposes of them — all without Sookie knowing.
Pam finds Sarah, eating garbage inside the carousel, at the abandoned fairground where Eric turned Willa. Sarah asks Pam to turn her, promising to be her lover and faithful servant. Pam assures Sarah she wouldn’t let her go down on her for a billion dollars. “And as for me going down on you,” Pam purrs, “there isn’t enough money in the world.”
Hoyt and Jessica arrive at Bill’s, where Jessica admits that although she doesn’t want Bill to die, she’ll be fine. “That’s what I would want to hear from me, if I was you,” she explains. When Bill learns that Hoyt has chosen to stay in Bon Temps with Jessica, he asks if Hoyt “might one day get around to asking Jessica to marry” him. Aghast, Jessica pulls Bill aside to tell him that’s not how she envisioned her proposal. “I might be a vampire, Bill, but I’m also a girl. And what just happened down there, isn’t anything like what I dreamed about.” Bill explains that he never got to see his human daughter marry and wanted to know that Jessica would be “spoken for” before he died. Jessica, touched by his words, agrees to marry Hoyt — if Hoyt will marry her that day.
Sookie heads to Jason’s house looking for advice on what to do about Bill. While they talk, Hoyt calls Jason and asks him to be his best man. At the same time, Jessica calls Sookie, asking to borrow a wedding dress. “What the hell went on last night?” Sookie asks, bewildered.
After Bill arranges for Andy to rent the Compton place to Hoyt and Jessica after Bill’s death (for $1 a month), Andy presides over the unofficial ceremony. As Jessica and Hoyt exchange vows, Sookie is shocked to discover that she can hear Bill’s thoughts. Taking his hand, she listens in as Bill thinks about his love for her and how much he hopes Sookie will find happiness someday.
On the way back to Jason’s, Sookie tells her brother that she heard Bill’s thoughts. “Last night he was saying how this disease is making him feel more human than he’s ever felt before. Guess he didn’t know how right he was,” she explains. Before she leaves Jason, she gives him her blessing to sleep with Brigette — she listened in on her that morning and thinks they’re a good match. Jason fears becoming a “girlfriend f*cker” again, but Sookie reminds him that they just came from Hoyt’s wedding and he’s free to move on.
Just after sunset, Sookie meets Bill at his open grave in the Bon Temps cemetery. Bill lays down in his empty coffin as Sookie prepares her last ball of light, but she stops short of using it. She explains to Bill that her light is part of who she is, part of her truth, whether she likes it or not. “And you Bill, you’re a part of me too,” she says through her tears, “but I can’t do this for you.” Bill still wishes to die, so Sookie makes a stake from a shovel handle and climbs into his coffin with him. Bill places his hands over hers, and helps guide the stake into his heart. As he dies, Sookie hears one last thought from Bill: “Thank you.”
Three years later, Eric and Pam ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange, celebrating their success with “New Blood.” At the Stackhouse place, a pregnant Sookie and her husband prepare a Thanksgiving turkey. They are soon joined by Jason and Brigette and their three kids, as well as Sam, Nicole and their children. At Fangtasia, Sarah Newlin remains chained up in the basement, working as a blood prostitute, just as Pam foretold. She’s tormented by hallucinations of Steve Newlin, who delights in the notion of haunting Sarah every day for the rest of her life. With the holiday in mind, Steve asks his ex-wife what she’s thankful for. She tells him: “Nothing.”
(Courtesy HBO)
First aired: August 24, 2014.
What do you think? Do you like the True Blood TV series? Are you sorry that there won’t be an eighth season?
Love the show but do you know what “ending” means ? do you want the show to run forever until it gets cancelled ??