True Blood is returning for its seventh and final season on HBO in just two days. Despite some compelling advertising for the new series, the Bon Temps crew has been overshadowed by several great Game of Thrones episodes and a bold and frightening trailer for the subscription cable network’s new series The Leftovers (Hilariously, a quick YouTube perusal of True Blood yielded a Leftovers preview. I Blame HBO.) Now, as the countdown for the new season is getting closer to showtime, HBO is attempting to garner a little more interest through seven—yes seven—brand new videos highlighting Season 7. Can you feel the excitement? Let’s take a look at what we know leading into Season 7 and what HBO is teasing with these last minute promos.
Last Season on True Blood
Last season ended on a bit of a cliffhanger. After the slew of imprisoned vampires were saved from painful death, they spent some time in the sun, thanks to some blood from the hybrid vampire and fairy Warlow. Unbeknownst to the vamps, Warlow was busy trying to turn Sookie into a vampire and when he died by Jason’s hand, the vampires lost the ability to spend time in the sunlight. True Blood’s biggest bad boy, Eric, in fact went up in literal flames. Pam was last seen going after her maker and Jessica has a new vampy boyfriend.
Outside of the realm of True Blood’s main characters, the vampire virus Hepatitis V is spreading through Louisiana and other parts of the country. Hepatitis V played a small but integral role over the years on True Blood, but now it seems to be heading to the center of the trouble, at least in Bon Temps, where vampires, humans and all manner of supernatural creatures have lived in uneasy symbiosis for years. It doesn’t help that the factory creating True Blood was contaminated and the vampires don’t have a safe option to feed.
There’s some other small stuff that happened last season. Sookie found out a bit more about her fairy family roots. In probably one of the most emotionally wrought scenes the show has ever produced, Terry died, leaving the human community in Bon Temps to mourn the fallen soldier and father. Then, Sam skipped town, leaving Arlene to manage the bar. The side characters in Season 6 really stepped up and brought us some interesting plots during a time when many of the vampires were prosecuted and imprisoned. Now, that we’re all caught up, let’s look at HBO’s latest trailers.
Season 7's Final Teasers
Anyone who has seen any of the early previews for Season 7 should know that the fight between humans and vampires in Season 6 should be heating up in the new episodes. First, the vampires are angry after having been imprisoned by a political crazy who tortured and killed many of the immortals. The average human isn’t particularly happy, either. Bands of angry and Hepatitis V ridden vampires are terrorizing towns. As the first video True Blood released on Friday notes, the solution from Sam and Bill “Always-in-Charge” Compton is to send the healthy vampires home with healthy humans to feed. I don’t know about you, but I would not be keen to let a random vampire drink my blood in order to save that vampire, and it seems likely that many of the Bon Temps residents feel the same way.
The second clip follows tormented heroine Jessica as she stands outside the Bellefleur home, talking to Adilyn for the first time since she totally ate the part-fairy’s siblings. She’s clearly upset about her actions, as is Adilyn, but they seem to come to a truce of sorts. As you can see, however, Andy Bellefleur’s daughter is not keen to ask the vampire in. Personally, one of my favorite things about True Blood is watching the vampires cry blood, so this scene is really a perfect capsule of why HBO’s drama sucked me in in the first place.
Finally, HBO puts the spotlight on Sookie in a third clip that features a church. Everyone’s congregated at the place of worship, and Sookie makes the point that even though most people in the town have a low opinion of her, she’s willing to fight and to work with the humans to come to a truce with the vampires. There’s some soft music that plays in the background, so you really know she’s being sincere.
All of the clips are from Season 7’s first episode, so True Blood will clearly be attempting to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time.
What Needs To Be Wrapped Up
Time is a clear problem for the residents of Bon Temps. Beyond the obvious war brewing between the vampires and the humans, a lot of plotlines need to be resolved before True Blood can say its last goodbyes. True Blood’s seventh season will feature 10-episodes, and I have no idea how the show will have time to manage numerous plotlines and see all of its characters come to some sort of conclusion, whether satisfactory or not.
True Blood was initially about Sookie Stackhouse coming to terms with her ability to mind read, coming out of her shell to form relationships and having a lot of steamy sex in her grandmother’s home. Sookie’s still keen to hop into bed, but the show has expanded its universe a lot from the first few episodes. Viewers are invested in Tara finding happiness and dropping her dour attitude. People want to know if Pam and Eric can ever officially restore balance in their relationship. They want the bumbling Andy to finally settle into a peaceful existence and they want Jason, Jessica and Sam to end up with appropriate partners. I realize a lot of these plots revolve around romance, but they still need to be resolved. Plus, Bill really, really needs to sort himself out. It’s a lot to accomplish in ten episodes, and while the latest advertising from HBO takes baby steps in the right direction, I’m still a little skeptical about the way the series is going. I’d love to be proved wrong.
True Blood premieres on Sunday, June 22 at 9 p.m. ET, only on HBO.
