If you, like me, recorded the True Blood finale but unlike me have not yet watched your recording, read no further – SPOILER ALERT!

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I finally sat down last evening to watch the True Blood season six finale; as a series fan all I can say is, thank Lilith Bill is Bill, Warlow is dead and now things can return to normal in Bon Temps in season seven.

Way back in the season five finale, Bill drank more than his share of Lilith’s blood and became a sort of vampire god.  He spent most of season six trying to understand his powers, hang on to his “humanity” and figure out how to save his vampire friends from being turned to ash by humans bent on destroying vampire kind.  Bill thought he had figured out how to save all vampires by having the scientist, Takahashi, who synthesized True Blood do the same with the ancient vampire Warlow’s blood.  However, Eric Northman had other plans, which involved using Adilyn to cross over to the fairy plane where Warlow was hiding, drain him of his blood and save his friends.  Bill couldn’t let Eric be the one to save the small group of vampires, which included Tara, Jessica and Pam; so after finding their location he dove right in and let the group sink their teeth into him.  This act saved his fellow vampires, giving them the ability to walk in the light, but drained Bill of most of his blood and seemingly all of his “god” powers.

Sookie had promised Warlow if he agreed to help out she would be bound to him for eternity as his fairy-vampire bride; leave it to Sookie to attempt a renegotiation of terms.  Warlow was having none of it and showed his true colors, slapping her and saying some, shall we say, ugly things.  Meanwhile, back on the human plane, Sookie’s friends and brother Jason were planning a rescue mission; Adilyn was called upon to transport the band to the fairy plane.  She did, and they were able to retrieve Sookie and escape.  Bill was left behind, but made a last second lunge at Warlow, grabbing his leg and hitching a ride back to the human plane.  This is when things got really tense; Warlow was on the offensive, zapping anyone within reach and tossing Jason and Andy in the cubby and locking them in with his light.  He was unstoppable as he searched for his bride to be; he found Sookie hiding in her bathroom.  Unknown to Warlow was the fact that Adilyn had hidden in the cubby and was able to use her light to free Jason, who caught up to Sookie just as Warlow was getting ready to claim what he thought was his; at just the right moment, fairy Grandfather Niall broke through from another plane, grabbed the aggressor and asked Jason for “a little help” which came in the form of a stake through the heart, ending Warlow’s exceedingly long life.  This victory was not without repercussion; it meant the end to vampires walking around in the daylight.  One astonishing result of this lost ability was the death of Eric who was sitting atop a seemingly remote mountain in Sweden sunbathing, au naturel; at the moment of Warlow’s end mighty Eric burst into flames and apparently met the true death.

Season six seemed to me like an amusement park ride that was so fast and going in so many different directions that I became a little queasy early on and didn’t recover until it was over, in this case when the credits rolled at the end of episode 10.  I never did figure out if Bill was a bad guy this season or a good guy.  I never figured out what Lilith wanted from Bill.  After Warlow’s true nature was revealed I’ve had to reevaluate my opinion of Sookie’s parents; though I don’t like their method of protecting her, I do appreciate the sentiment.  In the end Bill wrote a book, Sookie hooked up with Alcide, Jason was doing his best to make his vampire lover Violet happy, Tara seemed to reconcile with her mother and Mayor Sam Merlotte and other community leaders came up with a short term solution to the impending Hep-V epidemic.  The two-season “Lilith arc” seems to have ended, which means things have settled down a bit and are ready to return to normal, which in Bon Temps looks a lot like running from an advancing horde of Hep-V infected vampires.  As a series fan from from the beginning I can tell you this, I am ready for some clearly defined lines between good and evil; it appears this is the direction season seven is headed.

So, what did you think?  Was it an accident Sookie chose the bathroom, where she knew a portal between planes existed, as her hiding place?  Is Eric Northman really dead?  Are you, like me, wishing there had been two more episodes like every other season of True Blood?  What is your opinion on the death of Terry Bellefleur?  Are you glad Bill’s “god” powers are gone or do you wish they had remained?  What do you think of the Sookie and Alcide matchup?  Please feel free to answer these questions or simply add your own questions and comments below.

— John Morton