True Blood Season Four Finale Review

*This Post Contains Spoilers*

After last week’s so-so episode of True Blood, I was worried that the finale wouldn’t be able to deliver.  Boy, was I wrong.  ‘When I Die’, delivered with one grand twist after another leaving me writhing in anticipation knowing I’ll have to wait until next summer for another drop.

The first big WTF! moment of the episode was a possessed Lafayette killing Jesus and taking over his magic. Marnie is a completely crazy bitch, and while I sort of figured he would die in the finale it doesn’t make it any less sad. His touching moment with a distraught Lafayette later in the episode cemented that fact, but he does bring up a good point--he’s dead and Lafayette is a medium so he’s not really completely out of reach.  In other great ghostly returns we witnessed in this Halloween-set episode, we saw the return of our big bad from season one, Rene.  If I were Arlene I’d be worried that he’s telling her to get the fuck away from Terry.  It was also a delight to see Gran again, who worked with Antonia to rip Marnie from Lafayette’s body and bring her to peace.  The moment she had with Sookie before she went back into the graveyard was sappy, but certainly delivered the message to Sookie that it’s okay to be alone.

Something I’m really digging is Eric and Bill’s new bromance after they were both dumped by Sookie.  They’ve been at each other’s throats since the first day Eric came onto the show and they’ve both had loads of chemistry together, so it’s great to see a truce even if it could only be a temporary one.  I knew as soon as Nan brought Sookie up she’d signed her own death warrant.  Why do people think it’s a great idea to threaten someone these vampires love?

But the moment that first made me scream and flail like a twelve year old girl was the surprise return of Steve Newlin, a very vampire Steve Newlin.  Keen eyed viewers noticed that in earlier episodes this season there were signs asking “Where is Steve Newlin?” as the Fellowship of the Sun figurehead had apparently vanished without a trace.  The way he was giving Jason’s naked body a once over, I can only hope the good reverend was suppressing some homosexual urges in life that he’ll now embrace in death.

Still reeling from the return of Newlin, my brain was hardly given a moment to process its own excitement as we discover that Russell has seemingly escaped his cement tomb.  While Denis O’Hare didn’t appear in the episode, the swell of Russell’s theme music and sight of the abandoned chains on the ground were more than enough to get me worked up over what’s to come for him next season.  Did he claw his way out, or was he retrieved and if so...then who did it?  Is he connected to Newlin, or even better, did he turn Newlin? I’ve been hearing some buzz that people think a scorned Pam released Russell from his tomb. But before I hop onboard that theory, remember that Alcide received the call about the problem during the day. While Pam could have dug him out the night before when Eric told her to get lost, it doesn’t quite gel with her behavior in Eric’s office later in the episode.

In the very final scene of this episode, in Sookie’s kitchen we got yet another shock as the blood isn’t done spilling yet.  Leaping out in front of the crazed gun-toting Debbie Pelt’s bullet to save Sookie, Tara gets her head damn near blown off.  Whether Tara is dead, or will be saved via vampiric or faerie intervention will remain to be seen.  I really couldn’t see what they could do with Tara next season, and if she is dead it’s going to leave Lafayette with no one -- which will be a very interesting journey to see him on.  In other deaths, Sookie showed us her BAMF card when she wrestled the gun from Debbie, then shot her in the head while Debbie begged her not to.  I liked Debbie and for most of the season was positive she wouldn’t go out the same way her book counterpart did.  But as soon as Alcide abjured her in the previous episode I knew she was a dead woman walking.

So From Beyond Fandom readers, are you all still processing that mind blowing finale?  Have some theories about what’s to come in season 5?  Leave us a comment below and we’ll all spazz out together.