‘True Blood’ season 7, episode 4 review: Who returned in ‘Death Is Not the End’?

We have to start off our review of this week’s “True Blood” with some serious praise: That opening sequence was among the most heartbreaking we’ve ever seen. It was nice to have Hoyt back on the show and Alcide’s father, but they were cameos that were appropriate to the moment as they each learned about some devastating news back home. Having Jason have to pretend like he didn’t know Hoyt? Even more devastating.

The hard thing about Sunday’s episode was that the story had to follow this up with something spectacular, and what we had was a little mixed. We still don’t care that much about the H-Vamps, and this feels not like the villain that we wanted for the show’s final season. It’s nameless, and lacks the excitement of a Russell Edgington or a Marnie.

Still, the rest of this brought us some interesting stuff, especially when it comes to the realm of Eric and Pam. We saw the formation of Fangtasia over time, and learned that it was actually not either one of their ideas originally. It was Ginger’s. While this happened, the two traveled down to Bon Temps in order to collect Willa, and we had immediately a nice moment between him and Sookie.

Seeing most of the gang back together was to us one of the night’s biggest selling points, and it made up for some of the weaker moments. Spending a lot of buildup before the buildup to the Fangtasia rescue mission is one example of that.

As for some other fangtastic parts of the episode.

• Arlene finally knows the truth about Sam! How in the world did we not find out about this before now?
• Jessica was saved by Lafayette, who was encouraged heavily by James. It feels pretty easy to guess that this romance between James and Jess is not going to end very well.
• Is anyone else surprised that Eric was willing to risk Sookie as bait in a room full of vampires?

The beautiful moment to tie this episode together in the end was seeing ANOTHER  cameo, this time Terry, as he made certain that Arlene stayed in the world of the living. Overall, though, this was by far the best episode of the season. It reminded us more of the “True Blood” of old, and made us question the mortality of these characters. It’s been a while since we’ve done that. Grade: A-.

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