‘True Blood’ season 7 spoilers: Return to the past of Rutina Wesley’s Tara

Have you felt at times that Tara has been one of the forgotten on “True Blood”? We understand, mostly because her entire sixth-season story was a record scratch. Save for staying alive and befriending Willa, can you really sit here and label what happened to her that stood out? Maybe her plot was the victim of big expectations, given that there was the potentially going in for an epic romance to be written between her and Pam, who was far too concerned with Eric to care.

Maybe HBO is trying to cleanse you of your worried in season 7 after seeing some fan reaction; or, maybe this was always the plan and we need to have more patience / trust. According to an E! News report, one of the episodes in the final ten will give you deeper insight into Tara’s pretty-terrible childhood, which included her alcoholic mother (who you’ve already met), as well as her to-be-seen angry, also-alcoholic father Joe. These flashbacks will also include younger versions of Sookie and Lafayette.

Flashbacks in themselves are not always exciting, but this one pleases us since it gets us back to what was one of the first real essences of the show: The relationship between some of the longtime residents of Bon Temps. Sure, we want to find out what happens to Alcide and Willa, but people like Sookie, Bill, Sam Merlotte, Tara, and Arlene have all been there since the beginning. We’ve really invested in them, and the story will be a letdown if they don’t get their due. (Plea to HBO: Don’t be like “Dexter.” Give everyone a proper ending rather than just one or two characters.)

We’ll continue to have more “True Blood” news worth sinking some fangs into the rest of the way, so be on the lookout for that.