True Blood recap: 'Karma'

All season we’ve been promised that True Blood would put the focus back on the people of Bon Temps, and this felt like the first hour to do it in a satisfying way with Jason and Sookie having time for a brother-sister heart-to-heart and Arlene being able to counsel Holly and Andy through catching their kids in bed together. Sam still feels underserved this season, but perhaps his time is coming (only four episodes left). Let’s break down the new developments.

Sarah Newlin is the antidote for Hep-V: Who saw that coming? What’s great about it is it justifies having Sarah Newlin take up screen time from someone like Sam—there is a purpose to her beside comic relief. Though of course, she provided plenty of that breaking and entering into her sister’s home wearing a gray hoodie and Chanel No. 5.

Amber is about to kill Sarah, but instead, she starts vomiting blood on her tackled sister’s back. (And still, it’s not as gross as Anna Camp’s Pitch Perfect puke scenes.) Amber passes out in a campy near-death way, and when she comes to and hears that their parents are dead, she’s happy. They all turned their backs on her. It’s a little tough to pity her when she’s standing in such a large kitchen, but go with it. Sarah pleads the case for the new her (hence the name change to Newme). Amber is the best new character introduced this season, and the actress, Natalie Hall, plays her eye-rolling disbelief/disinterest so well as Sarah recounts her conversion to Buddhism. “You can’t just dye your hair and blow a guru and absolve yourself of all the horrific s— that you have done in your life,” she finally says. But Sarah Newlin, being the ultimate narcissist, can: If she hadn’t created Hep-V, then Amber wouldn’t be sick, and Sarah wouldn’t have the power to heal her. So all of this death and destruction has been to bring two sisters back together? To make Sarah the center of the universe? Sarah tells Amber that scientists had created an antidote to Hep-V, and she drank it all down as the vamps revolted at Vamp Camp because she is evil and wanted them all to die.

Eric and Pam have their first sunrise together: Did everyone notice the slit in Pam’s purple sequin dress last episode, or was she off making it while Eric had his epic hand-to-hand fight with the Yakuza at the Ted Cruz fundraiser? That’s a great start to an episode, and makes me wish we’d get to see more of Eric in that mode. He’s like a super-powered Jason Bourne, only still dressed in his Texas businessman attire and carrying around that jaw he ripped out earlier (nice touch). The “Really?” when sickly, exhausted Eric saw another rush of men coming after him was Alexander Skarsgard’s idea, according to writer/director Angela Robinson, and it was hilarious. (Read our full postmortem with her.) Harkening back to France in the 1980s, Eric has to give up the fight because the Yakuza have Pam silvered. It felt nice and Matrix-y to place them in front of a window at the Yakonomo Corporation headquarters, but necessary: They have until dawn to give up what they know about Sarah Newlin. “Our first sunrise together,” Eric cracks. Those looks they exchange—they really do have the best chemistry on the show.

Pam can’t imagine dying in a room with wall-to-wall carpet, but she almost does because Eric and Gus Jr., the Yakonomo Corporation North American President of True S—, are too proud to compromise. They both want to kill Sarah, but finally, Eric suggests he’ll kill her and Gus Jr. can have the body. That, of course, is a problem one would think, if Sarah is the cure and can’t be killed.

In the end, Eric, Pam, and Gus Jr. come strolling up to Amber’s door, and it’s the coolest shot of the episode. Amber answers the door looking flawless—even her hair is better—and Eric grabs her by the throat and asks her why she’s healed. (Because you and Bill can’t go out like that, Eric?)

NEXT: Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!

Sookie gave Bill Hep-V: Karma is Bill originally coming back to town because of Sookie’s blood, and now, it’s what he thinks will kill him. At the time, you may not have realized why Alcide was so adamant that Sookie get washed off after the Hep-V vamps splattered on her during the woods fight. (Perhaps you thought he just didn’t want her having sex dreams about another vampire.) But that’s the night she got infected: She’d cut her arm to draw the H-vamps, you’ll remember. Sookie realizes it when Jessica tells her she overheard Bill having a conversation with a lawyer, Madeline Kapneck, claiming he’s Hep-V positive and wants to get his affairs in order.

While Bill’s at the lawyer’s office, with a waiting room right out of Beetlejuice, Jason raises Sookie from her hangover slumber to take her to Bill’s house to get the news from Jessica. Jason asking Jessica if she’ll be okay alone during the daylight hours while he takes Sookie to get tested > than Jason tucking Violet in when he got up from their bed.

Sookie gets retested at the clinic as Bill’s freakishly fast-moving Hep-V veins—must be Sookie’s fairy blood—freak out a man who changes seats to get away from him. The HIV metaphor continues right down to the Silence = True Death sticker on the wall as Sookie gets her blood drawn.

It’s great to see Sookie and Jason have time together, even if it’s them sitting in the bed of his truck in front of the liquor store and Grabb it Kwick waiting for her test results. Sookie talking about the way she can still sense Bill because he was her first love is either setting us up for seeing them together in the end—or explaining why she can have such strong affection for him (you never forget your first) and still be with someone else. Jason thinks maybe Jessica could have been his first love if there wasn’t all that Hoyt baggage. (Here’s hoping Hoyt tells them he’s happy in Alaska, and Jason and Jessica will give it another go. Then again, is his karma for cheating on Violet to have created more baggage—the potential deaths of Adilyn and Wade—that will keep them apart?)

The lawyer, Kapneck, is a fan of Bill’s book on the Hep-V crisis, but what that really means is she knows he has money that she can extort to move him to the top of the progeny adoption line so he can leave his estate to Jessica. Gov. Burrell had made it so wills drawn after you turned into a vampire don’t count for anything anymore because the government can then seize assets. Bill doesn’t have the five months to a year for the adoption battle, so Kapneck asks him to pay $10 million to jump in line. She has anti-glamour contacts in, so he has no choice but to stab her with her letter opener when she starts going off on how vampires can’t judge her for trying to make money when they’ve had centuries to amass their future and feed off the human race. It was a badass moment for anyone caught in red tape, though you’ve got to wonder if that will come back to haunt Bill. A lot of witnesses there, should anyone care.

Sookie eventually gives Jessica the news that she unknowingly infected Bill, and when he returns home, he finds the two of them with tear-stained faces on the staircase. Maybe now Bill’s human flashbacks make sense—this time he gets to return home to his wife (Sookie) and child (Jessica) after a war and be properly grieved. (Or is it again that he fails to return home to them alive?) Prediction: Bill could marry Sookie, and presumably she would get his estate—then she could leave it to Jessica in her will. Question is, will the antidote get there before or after that?

NEXT: More Lettie Mae

So Lettie Mae is not full of s—: Imagine what could have happened if Lettie Mae hadn’t come home with Lafayette after Sookie’s party. James was waiting for Lafayette, needing a place to crash. (Swoon.) James’ drug history has him suggesting to Lafayette that maybe Lettie Mae does need to have her consciousness elevated to communicate with Tara. Thinking it’ll prove a bust and he can shut this bitch down afterward, Lafayette agrees to get high with his aunt (enjoy those sex dreams, Lettie Mae!), and we all get to laugh as James tells them to “Enjoy the ride.” (Again, a totally different meaning if Lettie Mae wasn’t there—damn her.)

If two people share the same trip, it’s supposed to prove that it’s real? Lafayette and Lettie Mae find Tara on her cross with her snake speaking in tongues again. They get her down, and she runs off. It’s all stylishly shot, but nope, still don’t care about this. They chase after her and find her digging like a dog in the yard of the house where they were living when Tara was a baby. They don’t know what it means: Perhaps that something is buried there—either an object physically or a truth metaphorically? The Rev. interrupts them, pulling them out of the trip, and both Lettie Mae and Lafayette are pissed because Lafayette now believes Lettie Mae isn’t just an addict crying wolf. The Rev. gives Lettie Mae an ultimatum because he doesn’t believe her. Lettie Mae chooses Tara. On the one hand, you can appreciate the idea: An addict can be telling the truth, and a bad mother can choose her child over a man. On the other, this time could be spent on Sam.

Violet kidnaps Adilyn and Wade: What’s her end game there? To do something to Adilyn and frame Jessica? Let’s back up. Jason returns home after having sex with Jessica at Sookie’s party and finds rose petals everywhere (the flower shop is open again?) and an amount of candles that any one person should feel mortified even having. Violet is scantily clad in sexy black lingerie and wants Jason to feel appreciated and in control and know that she is his—so she sits him in his recliner and goes down on him.

When Jessica phones Jason to have him bring Sookie to her, Violet overhears. Insert creepy shot of Violet sitting up at the foot of the bed. She throws a fit, and honestly, you can’t blame her… she’s been in that uncomfortable lingerie for hours.

Over at Andy’s, he catches Wade and Adilyn having sex and kicks Wade out. After the two teens say “I love you” for the first time during a scene in the front yard, Holly decides to take Wade home and deal with Andy later. Holly trying to cover her son’s bare bottom as they walked off—classic.

Later, Holly shows up with Arlene at Bellefleur’s, and the two of them see the shambles it was left in after the mixer where they were kidnapped. “S— happens, Holly, you clean it up,” Arlene says. Andy arrives, and Arlene plays mediator as he and Holly fight over which kid is to blame (“Everyone knows about fairies,” Holly quips, then apologizes for slut-shaming). Arlene has a new confidence about her since the kidnapping. She handles them easily, saying their kids are walking hormones but good kids. They need to talk to them. As Holly scares Rocky into revealing that Adilyn and Wade went to Fort Bellefleur to be alone—and Andy reveals his great biceps—I was just wondering if Arlene took a nap and dreamt about Keith. How long do we have to wait?

Jason returns home motivated by his talk with Sookie about not wasting time with someone you know isn’t true love. He shadowboxes his courage up to break up with Violet, but he finds her gone. The place is a mess, and she left him a note that says the relationship isn’t working for her so it’s over. He’s relieved… and also stupid if he thinks a woman like Violet stops at destroying her bedroom.

Violet follows Adilyn’s scent to the Fort and tells her that she and Wade can’t risk H-vamps finding her as well. She offers them a place to stay and tells them to ditch their phones so they’re not tracked by Andy. Who is she to stand in the way of true love? A woman scorned…

Nicole is leaving town and wants Sam to go with her: The celebration of life party made Nicole realize that Sam is the mayor of Crazytown, and she doesn’t want to raise their daughter there. She wants Sam to come with her to her mother’s place the next day, but Sam is torn: He ran for a long time before settling in Bon Temps. It’s his home, the only place he feels safe—which Nicole believes but also thinks is f—ed up. Is this karma for Nicole and Sam sleeping together too quickly and her being annoying? Are you a horrible person if you want her to leave town? You want Sam to have his child though… Oh god, what if Nicole gives birth, and Sam and Nicole both die saving the baby from an H-Vamp attack, and Jason and Jessica get to raise the baby? Too much, right?

Predictions?