Things in Bon Temps keep getting more insane as this week’s episode includes a double homicide, some pyrotechnics, multiple friendship strains and a long-awaited first kiss.

True Blood “I Hate You, I Love You” Recap

Pack Rules, V-Dreams and Marshmallows

Things for the shifter community are anything but easy right now. First, Alcide is dealing with the repercussions of having moved to Shreveport from Alabama and never checking in with the Pack Master there. Apparently, this is a big no-no amongst weres. But Alcide doesn’t care and basically tells the incredibly skeevy looking Shreveport Pack Master to go shove it, because he just wants to live there on his own terms. The guy leaves, but obviously he’ll be back. Jason, is having issues of his own – Jessica saved him with her blood, but that has a teeny-tiny side effect: sex dreams starring miss Jessica. And co-starring Hoyt, because guilt is a big part of those V-Dreams (remember Sookie’s in years past?). Outside the dream world, Jason is trying to cope with being raped by the entire female population of Hotshot while Hoyt mopes around because Jessica is being distant. Will Jason be able to keep the dreams separate from reality? Or is he going to mess up his one real friendship? And what’s going to happen when that full moon hits the sky?

But Alcide and Jason’s worries don’t stack up to Tommy’s. After Joe Lee strangles him with a chain, he pretends to pass out. When his mom and dad talk about what to do, he comes up behind Joe Lee and chokes him with the chain. Melinda, the mom of the year that she is, starts to beat on Tommy. He ends up killing them both in a brutal fight. He proceeds to freak out and goes to his big brother, Sam, for help. And help he does. They take the van Tommy put his parents in out to the swamp. On the way, they get stopped by a still jittery Andy who gets nervous when he sees blood on the car door. He asks Sam to open the back where Tommy is hiding with the two dead bodies – but when Andy opens the back he’s a bit distracted by the big gator (aka Tommy) that jumps out at him and doesn’t see there are bodies under the tarp. Nice thinking, Tommy. So off to the swamp they go. When they throw the bodies in they float, so Tommy gets worried – no need though. Sam throws in a few marshmallows – gators love them, and the bodies get chomped and brought under water. Neat trick.

Road Trip: Mexican Brujo Edition

After that small incident in the woods with Marnie and Pam (You know, where Antonia took over and rotted Pam’s pretty face), Tara, Lafayette and Jesus are super annoyed. They have had it up to here with Marnie and her crazy. Lafayette and Jesus decide to get the heck out of dodge before all those badass vampires come for revenge. Jesus says they should go to Mexico and find his grandfather who is a super powerful brujo. He introduced little Jesus to witchcraft. By having him kill a goat, natch. When they get there they find a young pretty pregnant lady and then grandpa scares them from behind. Something tells me this is going to be quite an eye-opening trip for both of them. Meanwhile, Tara goes to Sookie for some BFF comfort. Thing is, the closer it gets to dark, the more jumpy Sookie gets because she knows Eric will be waking up soon. And he does – Tara does not take it well. She freaks out yelling about all the bad things Eric has done which makes Eric go all fang-y and protective of Sookie. Tara runs out cursing Sookie. You can bet this will lead to some really bad stuff between these two best friends.

Devil Baby and Grandma Ghost

Arlene is determined that the baby is evil because it is Rene haunting them, so she decides to have an exorcism. Terry says he will take care of it and calls Reverend Daniels (who brings his wife, Tara’s mom, Lettie Mae). Arlene is a bit uncomfortable because Arlene is, well, Arlene is a teeny bit racist sometimes. But Terry likes the singing at that church better than the church they go to, so he thought this would be a better choice. Plus the reverend at their church doesn’t do this sort of thing. Reverend Daniels and Lettie Mae do some singing and burn some incense and I secretly hope one of them will say “This house is clean” like the little old lady, Tangina, in Poltergeist.Sadly, they don’t. That night Terry and Arlene have sex for the first time in a long time as Mikey lays quietly in his crib. Side note: if you think your baby is some devil child being haunted by his serial killer daddy, do you really want him in the room while you are having sex with your new husband? Just curious…. Anywho, they lay in bed talking about how well Mikey is sleeping and maybe it all worked, and then the matchbook on the nightstand bursts into flames unnoticed by either of them. So much for that exorcism. In other ghost news, Sookie heads over to meet Marnie, after listening into Holly’s head and figuring out where Eric was when his memory was stolen. Sookie convinces her for a reading, and at first thinks Marnie is just an old crazy lady. But as she listens into her head, first she hears a bunch of voices. Then it gets quiet. Marnie says someone is there – an older woman who took care of her. She says to take care of her brother… As it becomes clear it is Adele, Sookie listens in again and hears her Gran! I have to say, it is my favorite moment of the season because I miss Gran so much. Adele knows Sookie is hearing her through Marnie and tells her that Marnie is dangerous and should run. Marnie becomes very confused and nervous as Sookie starts talking to Adele without her help. Sookie gets up to run away, saying if Gran says to, she is going to. It’s a very powerful scene. And once again I mourn sweet Adele.

Vampire Priests and Maker Hallucinations

Bill is up to his fangs in witch drama, so when Portia comes by still wanting to get it on even tho she’s his great great great granddaughter (GROSS) he doesn’t have time to deal. He just glamours her into believing that the sight of him makes her want to scream and run away. Phew. Though, I doubt that will be the end of that. Meanwhile, Pam comes in with about ⅓ of her face dripping off (another kind of GROSS) and is VERY annoyed about it all. Bill agrees to have Marnie brought in to be questioned. He sends his mole back to the coven’s meeting place and they capture Marnie and lock her up in a jail in his basement. While locked up, Marnie has another dream that brings her to Antonia. In this dream we see Antonia locked up with other witches. When the Priests come into the cell we see that they are actually vampires attacking the witches. However, when awake, Marnie has no answers for Bill about how to cure Pam or Eric since she isn’t really the one who performed the spell. Again, Pam is not thrilled. I love annoyed Pam. Bill calls a meeting with all the Louisiana sheriffs (that are not currently hiding in Sookie’s house) and try to decide how to handle the witches. One of the vamps was in Spain the last time the witches were a problem (aka the time of Antonia). He recounts a tail of a witch (Antonia) who while burning at the stake performed a spell that made all the vamps in a 20 mile radius come out of their sleeping place and meet the sun. Bad bad stuff. Before that meeting ends, let’s go deal with what was happening at Sookie’s house. Eric has a dream where Godric (I miss you Godric) convinces him that he is inherently evil, and he should just drain Sookie so he can go frolic in the sunlight. And so he does…. in the dream.

When he wakes up, he goes to Sookie’s room and starts to crawl on her bed, but she wakes up. He tells her he had a bad dream (AWW) and she comforts him in bed. She tells him that while he has done bad stuff, she believes he is good deep down. And that Godric would never really say those things because he was the most human vampire she ever knew and he loved Eric. They cuddle in bed until the sun comes up. The next night, after Tara lists alllll the stuff Eric has done in the past to Sookie, Eric goes to leave, upset that he ever hurt Sookie. But she calls him back saying that she likes this Eric and she believes it is still him deep down. Then they kiss! Okay, back to Bil’ls. Pam in the heat of the moment accidentally lets it slip that she knows Eric lost his memory. So Bill commands her to tell him where he is. She tells him he’s hiding at Sookie’s and Bill gets a face that says “Oh. Em. Gee. She lied to me. I still love her. I’m sad. And angry.” Yes, it does say all of that. He runs off. Something tells me he is not going to like what he finds when he gets to Sookie’s house….

What did you think? I thought it was good, but despite having a lot happen it almost seemed a little slow. I’m very excited for next week to see what happens when Bill shows up at Sookie’s!

Written by Melissa Miller. Find her on Twitter: @serrae

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