Review by Matt Fowler

True Blood: "Dead Meat" Review

Thank you, Jesus.

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

First off, let me say that I really enjoyed the awkward chase/brawl between Sarah and Ms. Suzuki. Probably more than I should have. It was randomly inserted, sure, but there were also some pretty funny beats and an overall maniacal gruesomeness to it that I appreciated. Especially when Sarah tried to snap Suzuki's neck in the way that a Navy SEAL would have. Like she'd watched too many action movies, or somehow thought she had vampire-sized strength. From there, Sarah, so desperate not to be caught in a lie, chased Susuki through the underground internment camp - getting more violent as the pursuit continued. By the end, Suzuki had a jacked up ankle, a mashed up face, and the heel of her own shoe embedded in her head. With Sarah treating it all as if it was another test of her faith.

With two episodes to go in the season, the mostly okay "Dead Meat" also moved our principal players into the dreaded and much-prophecized sun room; meaning being James, Steve, Pam, Tara, Jessica, Willa, and Jason's new keeper, Violet. Oh and speaking of Violet, I guess Tara never really stood up to her like the end of the last episode would have had us believe. It looked as though Tara was finally going to have an interesting moment this season by protecting Jason from Violet, but the follow-up scene this week skipped over a few moments and showed Jason sitting down, already being Violet's property. Which thusly introduced him to the concept of "mine" for the first time on the series.

Likewise, Sookie had to make a deal to become Warlow's eternal "mine" - which in his case meant an accompanying vampirization. Look, if there's one thing Sookie's done to death on this show it's look back and reflect on how crazy her life's become. Usually in a quiet moment with Jason or Tara (before she became a vampire, that is). But at least this time, as she made her rounds to Sam, and then her parents' graves, she had a much better reason to be treating her situation like it was her last night on Earth. It felt a little more earned, to be honest. In the end, she decided to accept Warlow's "proposal" mostly out of spite for her mom and dad, who she both basically told to "f*** off."


But the deal goes south after Bill and Sookie discover that Eric's gotten to Warlow first. So we can assume now that Eric can day-walk. And as much as I'd hate for Sookie to not go through with becoming a vampire after spending a giant chunk of this episode mulling it over and weighing her options, I do like that Eric's become a rogue, unpredictable element. It suits him. This is basically how he should always be on the show.

Sookie even wound up making a Sam stop this week, strangely telling him that she'd always thought that the two of them would wind up together. Which isn't really anything anyone's ever picked up on. There's been nothing on the show to suggest that Sookie considered Sam to be her stable back-up plan. He was the nice guy that she ditched in favor of a dangerous, sexy life with vampires. The funny part is too, we never really found out why she specifically went to go talk to Sam at all. He told her to get out before she ever got to a point.

The Alcide pack story finally ended for good this week too, with Alcide besting Rikki an a few of her friends in a fight. Then it was all Alcide and Sam bonding over some Wild Turkey. What was the ultimate point? I don't know. Alcide never wanted to be in a pack. Then he joined a pack and learned that, yup, he doesn't want to be in a pack. He had it right all along. And for a while, he was a dick. The end.

Nicole, unknowingly, is carrying Sam's - aka Silver Fox's - baby. I can't even imagine where this story is headed but I doubt they'll have Sam paired up with a pregnant girl for the next "nine months within the show." I mean, the past two seasons have still only taken place over a few weeks' time. There's no way she can have that baby in a normal time frame, if at all. Look, they wouldn't even let Andy's daughters be babies for more than ten minutes. This series just doesn't have that kind of time. Unless they decide to do another year-long time jump like they did between Seasons 3 and 4.

Terry getting bumped off was the right thing to do for the show, but now we have to put up with all the Terry aftermath. Which is almost as bad as pure Terry. Arlene is now objecting to all the lies (big and small), much in the same way Terry objected to lies - which caused him so much guilt over things that viewers didn't care about that he became intolerable. By the end though, it seemed like Arlene was willing to give it all a rest and accept the two million in life insurance.

My guess here is that the resolution to the whole "Bill's vision" story, regarding the sun room, will get dealt with next week leaving the finale to revolve around far less-interesting Sookie/Warlow stuff. I just can't imagine the show keeping all those characters locked up in one room more than a single episode. "Dead Meat," aside from the Terry business, didn't have anything overtly objectionable. And, in fact, the moment of lunacy that it did contain (Sarah/Suziki) was pretty fun.


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  • Sarah's trouble murdering Ms. Suzuki.
  • Sookie deciding to become a vamp.
  • Terry wrap-up.
  • Alcide takes back everything.