True Blood: Season 1, Episode 12 You'll Be the Death of Me

First aired: November 23, 2008

We open with a shot of Jason through jail bars, dictating his will. He leaves his jacket to Hoyt, house and money to Sookie, and truck to Rene, who is listening from the other side of the bars and apparently responsible for executing said will. They exchange a few platitudes, and Jason expresses remorse for his supposed crimes.

Rene, in a misguided attempt to console him (and let the audience know, once again, who the real killer is), plays down his crimes by claiming his victims were fangbangers who would have gotten murdered eventually. Jason takes exception to the labeling of his grandmother as a fangbanger, which is strange, because he explicitly did not confess to the murder of his grandmother in the previous episode.

Sookie angrily bursts into the jail, overriding the warden's objections to letting two visitors in at once. Jason and Sookie embrace between the bars and reconcile. Sookie tells Jason to shut up and stop confessing to things, because she's "real close to finding out who the real killer is." The camera shifts focus to Rene, who's sitting in the background and soaking all this up. The title sequence rolls.

Sookie spills the details about Drew Marshall; Rene wonders internally why she hasn't gone to the cops with this information. Sookie expresses her disappointment with the police verbally (and, after all, Rene's picture is sitting in a stack of papers somewhere in the police office), and Rene looks a bit surprised by the mind-reading. Upon questioning, Sookie reveals that, although she doesn't know what Marshall looks like, she does know he's the killer from her mind-reading. We hear some more echoey thoughts from Rene that I'm not exactly able to make out.

Sookie and Jason argue some more about his supposed guilt, then Jason enlists the help of Andy to escort Sookie out. She frantically asks about the faxed headshot of Marshall, and Andy tells us what we already know; that the police don't know about the fax and that he suspects Jason.

We pan across a framed copy of La Grande Odalisque. Since this series takes place in the future, I suppose it could even be the original. The rest of the room, as we see subsequently, is black and white and looks expensive, and we see Tara wake up in it. She looks awfully happy and comfortable, then perturbed. She puts on a robe, and is served breakfast on a sunlit patio by a seemingly mute butler in a Hawaiian shirt.

Maryann joins her, and in the ensuing conversation admits that she is not just a social worker but also "many things." She avoids detailing what said things are by turning the conversation back to Tara, who is understandably abashed at being labeled a "drunk-driving bartender." She goes on to suggest Tara use this low-point in her life as an "opportunity" to cut her ties to her friends, mother, and job, and to rebuild her life. Tara half-heartedly tried to leave, saying that Maryann must have more needy people to see to, and Maryann brushes that aside and reiterates that she wants to help, specifically by giving her a place to stay until she figures things out. Meanwhile, the mute butler makes the bed and steals her phone, who Sam is trying to call.

We see Sam leaving a frustrated message back in his office at the bar, then being surprised that Sookie's shown up to work. She responds that she won't act ashamed of her brother, then, in another dose of heavy-handed dramatic irony, talks about how Marshall could be anyone in the town, even a bar regular, etc., etc. Sam wonders, reasonably, why she hasn't "heard" him, then, and she asks, also reasonably, why he hasn't smelled him with his weredog talents. She reminds him that she spends most of her time trying not to hear people, and Sam apologizes instead of explaining the smell thing.

A be-suited old white guy shows up outside Jason's jail cell, peddling "The Fellowship of the Sun," a religious group that is really against vampires. Jason reflects that he rather liked the vampire he got to know, and mentions that he got him killed so we know he's talking about Eddie, not Bill. Old white guy goes on about how vampires suck and how, while it's not technically okay to kill human women, fangbangers or no, he thinks it's kind of awesome and that the church will fund his defense. He gives Jason some literature and creepy music plays.

Back at the black-and-white mansion, Tara goes for a swim in the pool, then runs across a hot guy playing guitar in a fruit-filled room. Hot guy introduces himself as Eggs, short for Benedict, and Tara cracks up. She apologizes and offers her own name, acknowledging its lameness, and when Eggs totally doesn't get it, she first makes a squinchy face, then lets it go because he's totally hot. Hot guy already knows all about Tara's problems through Maryann, of who he is also a protege and of whose Kool-aid he has clearly drunk. He hits on her just a little, and when she displays a little skepticism about "things too good to be true," encourages her to "stop looking over [her] shoulder."

Meanwhile, Maryann sits in a chair in the yard facing her pig, eyes closed, vibrating scarily, and completely justifying any shoulder-looking.

We cut to Rene in Jason's truck, singing along to "The Devil in Disguise," which I think is this version. He takes us to Merlotte's, where Andy is defaming Jason to a crowd to the displeasure of the sheriff and Sookie, who is overwhelmed by the patrons' negative thoughts about her brother. Sam, perhaps not entirely altruistically, offers her the use of his trailer, but she claims to need to escape entirely. He objects, and she placates him by saying she'll just drive around with her car doors locked. A quick hug and she's off.

Of course, her car won't start. Surprise, surprise. Rene, accompanied by scary music, pops up and offers to take a look at her car, which he tells her he can't fix and offers to give her a ride and stay with her at home till Sam gets off. During this exchange, Terry drops by, tells Sookie he knows her brother isn't a killer, and, more importantly, witnesses Sookie and Rene together, despite Rene's dropped head. As Rene puts the hood of her car back down, we get a glimpse of cut wires.

Together in the truck, Rene makes her buckle up, even though he himself is free of seatbelt. He asks about the mindreading, and we hear him trying to think about nothing, to which Sookie responds that one can't think about nothing. She then notes that his thoughts "don't have an accent." He quickly changes the subject to how hard it must be for her to hear people's thoughts, and in yet another bit of heavy-handed dramatic irony she complains about how "sick and twisted" some people are. She cries about potentially losing her brother and he hands her a tissue.

We cut to the back of a TV, the sounds of Maudette Pickens' vampire sex tape, and the very shocked faces of Arlene's little girls. Arlene walks in on this, and Lisa, under interrogation, reveals they found it in the garage and that it's Rene's, pointing to a yellow box. Arlene opens the box, and, amidst many VCR tapes, finds a cassette labeled "Cajun Dialect for Actors" and has a look of realization.

Rene and Sookie arrive at her house. While she's preparing tea, Rene wanders through the house a bit and spots a shotgun propped against a door frame.

Back at Merlotte's, Lafayette finds Rene's work vest and tosses it to Sam, who smells it and promptly has a flashback to rolling around in Dawn's bed. He runs out, finds Terry, who relates seeing Sookie with Rene, and the plot moves on.

Rene circumnavigates the house and startles Sookie in the kitchen. Seeing the kitchen prompts a memory of him killing her grandmother (apparently, just because Sookie wasn't there, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense), and Sookie drops the tea, totally giving away that she overhears this. Rene cottons on, Sookie goes to get a mop, Rene follows. She grabs the gun, tries to shoot him, but he has had the foresight to remove the bullets. He starts to have angry yelling thoughts about fangbangers, accompanied by jerky head movements, which lets us know he is going into crazy mode. He takes off his belt and Sookie screams and hits him in the head with the gun, which knocks him down but not out. She runs off toward the woods, and I would like to take this opportunity to say that if someone is chasing you and you have the choice of where to run, this is not a good choice. The main road is better. Anyway, a chase ensues, intercut with scenes of Rene, er, Drew confronting and killing his sister and the other women. Interestingly, Rene/Drew claims that he can tell Sookie is reading his mind.

Meanwhile, Bill wakes up despite it being broad daylight, and Sam pulls up to the house. He sees Rene/Drew's blood and uses his weredog senses to track them, ripping off his shirt as he goes. Bill actually gets up and walks out into the daylight, which is really weird, because last time he thought Sookie was being killed by the same person in the same way, he stayed underground. He starts to fry in the sun.

Sookie hides in an open grave, which is so her, while Rene/Drew think-pretends to go back in the woods to look for her. She is totally fooled and starts to get up, but of course he's standing right behind her. Tip Number 2: If you do have mind-reading abilities, it is super useful not to let people know it. He gets a couple good punches in and starts to strangle her while an increasingly fried Bill zombie-walks towards them. It's Sam the collie who saves the day, knocking Rene down. Rene quickly gets the upper hand, and Sam shifts back to human once he's out. Rene is freaked out and takes a break from the strangling to kick and curse at an unconscious Sam. Bill steps into a patch of sunlight, starts frying more, and just manages to croak Sookie's name (which is good, because he's pretty unrecognizable by now) before falling down. Sookie comes to, spots a shovel, and uses it to knock down, then decapitate the bad guy, once again completely not using the telekinesis she displayed in the first couple episodes. The shovel falls down with a gross squishy sound.

In the distance, Bill's body continues to sizzle. Sookie rolls him over, exposing his face to the sun, and he actually manages to lift his head and apologize for his uselessness. Sam, on the other hand, has the presence of mind to pick him up and throw him into the open grave. He uses the very useful shovel to bury him.

Later, a bruised and drugged Sookie wakes up in her house in the presence of her friends. She tries to spill the beans about Sam's shapeshifting, but of course Tara and Lafayette assume it's the drugs talking. She continues to talk Sam up, and Tara looks uncomfortable. Arlene tromps in clumsily holding a bouquet, which she brandishes at Sookie while sobbing and squeaking. (Carrie Preston is pretty awesome in both this and her previous scene.)

Back at the police station, Sheriff Dearborne breaks the news to an blustering, indignant Andy that Rene/Drew is clearly the killer and not Jason. Andy surlily releases a surprised Jason.

Arlene is crying, pacing, apologizing to Sookie, and bemoaning her stupidity re: Rene/Drew. She begs Sookie to do a brain scan on her next beau. Finally, she asks about Bill, about whom Sookie is not optimistic. Despite the drugs, she breaks up.

Lafayette heads back to the bar, leaving Sam and Tara on the porch together. Sam mentions, pissily, that he left her five messages, and Tara says she never got them, so I guess the mute butler erased them, then gave her back her phone. Tara changes the subject and thanks him for saving Sookie. When he says he was worried about Tara, she dismisses it as he "worr[ies] about everybody," and I think she's trying to convey that she's relinquishing him to Sookie. She gives him a little kiss as Maryann pulls up in her red convertible. Tara briefly introduces them and gets in the car. Sam recognizes her, and asks what the hell she's doing there. Maryann responds evilly with "Did you think I wouldn't find you? Silly dog."

Back to Arlene, who alludes to Rene's odd proclivities in bed before Jason walks in, thrilling Sookie. He gives her a (painful) bear hug and trash talks Rene right in front of Arlene, who runs off. Jason looks slightly taken aback, but goes on to talk about being Saved and how he's meant to do something important with his life. Sookie, smiling, hope this means he's going to stay out of trouble. He claims he will, before running out, tripping over furniture along the way.

Lafayette takes out the trash, bitching about the bags other people have left lying around. Cleaning up, something rushes up out of the dark. Through the something's eyes, we see Lafayette freak out and jump up on the dumpster. The something gets very close very quickly before we abruptly cut away.

Sookie is still on her couch, watching a scene from The Little Princess in which Shirley Temple hugs her father and claims she knew he wasn't dead while the father sits there with a bandaged head and kind of looks like he has amnesia. The bell rings, and hooray, it's Bill, risen from the seeming dead. Faced by her joyful shock, he admits to having fed, which doesn't phase her in the slightest. She rescinds her rescinded invitation and they embrace. He goes to bite his wrist, but she refuses his super-healing blood, saying that after everything, she just needs "to feel human." This strikes me as a somewhat insensitive thing to say to a vampire, and indeed, he looks a bit taken aback, but maybe he's just thinking about the increased libido she won't be experiencing. He apologizes again for not saving her, which she of course does not hold him responsible for, and we have kissing. He gently kisses the bruises on her face, which is sweet, and then they go back to macking on each other. Looks like they're getting into it, so I presume Sookie has some rather painful sex.

The words "TWO WEEKS LATER" pop up; Merlotte's employees watch news coverage of Vermont legalizing human-vampire marriage (because gays are just like vampires.) Their eyes slide over to Sookie, and Arlene pokes her on the shoulder and teases that now she can marry Bill. Sookie demurs, and Sam, very cranky and snide, encourages her to marry Bill and notes how cheap the celebration would be without booze or food. Sookie storms off and Tara takes him to task, quoting Maryann in the process and thus pissing Sam off further. Sam asks if she's heard from her cousin, so I guess he's been eaten by the something from earlier (a big, supernatural pig, perhaps?). Tara is not too perturbed, since Lafayette's been known to run off before.

On the other end of the bar, Terry tries to chat up Arlene. First, he talks about how even when people disappear, "the good parts of them always stay put," which makes her smile. He strikes out, though, with "your hair's like a sunset after a bomb went off." Or at least, he seems to, but she giggles after he shamefacedly slinks away.

In a reasonably large church, a baby-faced preacher declares whatever Christians call jihad against vampires. We find Jason in the enthusiastic congregation, praising Jesus and kissing his neighbor, who is not a pretty girl.

Back at the bar, Tara tries to cut Andy off, but he incites a little sympathy in her, and she pours him another drink, calling it his "pity party." She then goes on about how it takes energy to hate people, blah blah blah. Kool-aid has been drunk.

Sookie serves Hoyt, who is looking kind of dapper and enquires after Bill. He expresses approval of their relationship and muses, only somewhat joking, on the possibility of finding a vampire girlfriend himself, perhaps through Bill. Sookie, probably considering Bill's female acquaintances, only laughs.

Bill plays a jaunty tune on a piano in his dark house, the door opens, but, much to his visible disappointment, it is not Sookie but his bratty "daughter," still bratty. Apparently, she is so very bratty that not even the incredibly repressive Eric and his female henchwoman (wearing a rather Jackie-O nubbly pale blue skirt suit, which is awesome) can manage her. They bare fangs over Sookie, henchwoman rolling her eyes, and Bill gets saddled with the brat. The brat bares her own fangs (the plasticky sound of which reminds me for the hundredth time of a Pez dispenser) and asks "who's good to eat around here." Bill looks tired.

Andy is drunk and doesn't want to give Sookie his keys. She consoles him a little and calls him "Detective Bellefleur," at which he perks up a bit. Meanwhile, Sam, looking very purposeful, transfers great stacks of money from a safe to a plastic bag. Sookie and Tara follow Andy to his car, still asking for his keys, which he says he left in his car. He finds his car stolen, but, kind of amusingly, Tara points it out just a little farther away. Of course, Andy grunts that that isn't where he left it, and it seems he's actually right, because now his car has a body in the back seat. Upon opening the back door, a black leg with painted toenails falls out, which means it's probably Lafayette. The ladies scream, which signals the end of the episode.