True Blood Season 6 Episode 1 (Spoiler Alert!)

Bilith

As always, season 6 picks up right where season 5 left off, this time showing the last few seconds through Bill’s point of view (or Bilith as he’s known now). We watch Sookie and Eric stare at him in horror and awe as he rises naked from a pool of blood before Eric shouts at Sookie to run, which is where we left off last time.

The pair get to the safety of a car and swing by to pick up the rest of the crew (Jason, Nora, Pam and Tara) just as the building explodes. Bill has a whole host of new powers, including being an arsonist! They drive off just as naked, blood soaked Bill emerges from the burning building, and Sookie being Sookie yells at Eric to stop the car. That girl just can’t let go! Fortunately they all see sense and as Bill blasts up into the sky like superman, Eric puts his thousand year old Viking foot down.

If anyone happened to read any of the spoilers that have been floating around about the first episode, you might have noticed an emphasis on the fact that a main character was going to die in the first episode. You’d be forgiven for anticipating a big death, I fell into that trap too, when in fact the casualty was Luna whom we last saw get shot several times. The final episode of season 5 eluded to her death and it came as no surprise at all, and she wasn’t really a main character. Sam escapes with Emma, finds Lafayette holding down the fort at Merlottes in all his colourful, straight talking glory and insists that Lafayette has to forget he’s seen them.

Let’s get back to Bilith, he now has lots of powers; obviously he can fly now and he can start a fire with nothing but his mind, but what else? In True Blood vampires have always been able to summon their progeny’s but Bill can now drag Jessica by the heart it seems. The poor girl doubles up in agony and coughs up blood with her heart swelling and throbbing all scary and purple while Eric tries to stop her following. Sookie manages to convince Eric to let her go with Jessica, or Jess might die, so she bravely sets off to face the new Bill with just a pained Jessica by her side. Let’s just say we learn a lot more about Bill’s powers when she arrives and finds he ‘just wants to talk’. He insists he means them no harm, but unfortunately it turns out he’s invincible as Sookie stakes him only to watch him effortlessly pull the stick from his heart.

Andy Bellefleur’s got a lot on his hands with his fairy kids, all of which creepily appear during the night as fully fledged children that can walk and talk despite being only a few days old. There’s something very sinister about them! Jason’s in a car with Rutger Hauer, who is meant to be both Sookie and Jason’s fairy great grandfather Niall (if you haven’t read the books, you probably won’t know who he is) and the elusive Warlow, murderer of Sookie and Jason’s parents. How that works I’ve no idea! Niall wasn’t Warlow and didn’t kill their parents in the book, so your guess is as good as mine! Alcide has a threesome with two other werewolf women, one being his new girlfriend. That’s all a bit weird, and as always with the werewolves there’s a fair amount of nudity! Not that I’m complaining about a naked Alcide, and finally the vampires are faced with new rulings by the governor of Louisiana who wants vampire businesses shut down, and vampires to remain in their homes after sundown to avoid more human deaths in the wake of the Tru Blood factory terrorist attack. His mind is in his wallet though as he strikes a deal to get Tru Blood back on the shelves in order that the vampires become tax paying citizens once more.

There’s a lot going on as always in Bon Temps, with plenty of stories to keep you entertained. One thing I’ve always praised True Blood for is the amount of story arcs and characters, there’s always at least one story that you can enjoy even if the rest go tits up! The Bilith thing might get boring but for the most part it’s bearable; the religion thing is over for the most part and Bill seems more level headed, he just has a few new powers to play with.

Overall I actually enjoyed this episode. I hated season 5 (my article on why it was so awful will be up on Planet Ivy soon!) and wasn’t sure it could ever redeem itself, but it’s doing a good job so far. I’m a bit annoyed by certain changes to the books, not because I’m a book snob but because the changes seem really stupid (the Niall, Warlow thing for instance) but all in all it looks to be a promising series.