‘True Blood’ Review: “May Be the Last Time”

‘True Blood’ season 7 spurts out its 7th episode of the final year, “May Be the Last Time,” as Sookie seeks out a miracle to cure Bill, while Jason and Arlene deal with surprising conflicts of interest, and Pam and Eric partner with the Yakuza to track down and capture Sarah Newlin.

Last week's ‘True Blood’ installment, “Karma,” saw Bill attempting to deal with his newfound infection, while Eric and Pam continued the hunt for Sarah, and Lafayette discovered the truth about Tara's fate, so what's next for the final year?

Read on for your in-depth recap of everything you need to know about ‘True Blood’ season 7, episode 7, “May Be the Last Time”!

Eric interrogates Amber as to whether Sarah came to see her, but where Mr. Gus attempts to proposition Amber into exchanging Sarah’s cure for money, Eric loses control and stakes Amber. Meanwhile, Holly and Andy arrive to Fort Bellefleur, only to find Adilyn’s cell phone abandoned, while Jessica and Sookie ponder Bill’s unusually-progressive infection. Andy calls Jessica for news on Adilyn’s mental state, to which Jessica reports that she hasn’t felt any danger from the girl. Elsewhere, Violet shows Adilyn and Wayne to a lavish mansion, chock full of sex toys for the young lovers to use on one another.

Arlene finds herself dreaming intimacy with her vampire savior Keith at Bellefleur’s, only to wake up in a fright. Meanwhile, Mr. Gus attempts to proposition Eric out of directly killing Sarah Newlin, instead capturing her for a “New Blood” cure and acting as their vampire spokesman, something Eric reluctantly accepts. Back at Bill’s house, Jessica agrees to stay with her maker and observe his worsening condition, while Sookie resolves to find a “miracle” for Bill to survive. Bill dreams back to 1855, wherein his father first informed him he’d be expected to marry the neighbor girl, Caroline Shelby.

Hoyt Fortenberry returns to Bon Temps with his new girlfriend Brigid, surprising Arlene for breakfast at Bellefleur’s, as well as with the knowledge that he no longer remembers Jason. Arlene phones Jason with the news, shortly after which “Officer Stackhouse” arrives to the diner and greets his former friend, stifling his attraction to Brigid all the while. Meanwhile, Adilyn and Wayne decide not to make use of Violet’s various props during their time together, while Sookie calls on the acerbic nurse Ludwig to check on Bill’s advancing condition.

Bill remembers his surprisingly successful first meeting with Caroline, while in the present, Nurse Ludwig finds herself out of her depth with Bill’s advancing condition. Sookie identifies herself as part faerie, but once Ludwig realizes her to be a descendant of Niall Brigant, Ludwig quickly flees the premises. Meanwhile, Jason watches Hoyt and Brigid identify Hoyt's mother’s body, Jason lying about the circumstances of her involvement with the vigilante mob, and having taken down her killer.

Sookie calls for Niall in the graveyard, eventually finding her Faerie godfather in her home’s kitchen, looking for spaghetti. After a meal, Niall acknowledges Ludwig's fright, and not intervening with Bill’s infection by his distaste for the vampire, ultimately agreeing to attempt a magical cure. Meanwhile, Sarah Newlin arrives to the abandoned Light of Day institute, and experiences a vision of Jason telling her she’ll die that night. Back in Texas, Mr. Gus’ satellite tracks her to the abandoned compound.

Arlene and Sam share a drink over their difficulties with Bon Temps and moving on from lost loved ones, while Andy and Holly investigate yet another dead end toward their children, Andy losing his composure over how much strife they’ve been made to endure in recent years. Back in Bon Temps, Niall sits Sookie down outside of the Compton manor to reveal that Bill had endured a number of miracles in his day, the birth of his children included, though no amount of magic will save him from his current fate. Meanwhile a young girl discovers Lafayette and Lettie Mae digging in her front yard.

Arlene continues drinking past sundown, after which Keith shows up to the bar, having sensed her distress. The pair dance, while Arlene admits herself to be hep-V positive, to which Keith suggests they only continue dancing. Meanwhile, Violet interrupts Adilyn and Wayne to chain up the former, alerting Jessica to their plight. Eric and Pam awaken from oversleeping, but find Mr. Gus and the other Yakuza waiting for them to track down Sarah. Elsewhere, the woman herself imagines the ghosts of Steve Newlin and her guru lover arguing over which religion to chose before the end, even as “Noomi” insists on believing in herself as a curing messiah.

Sookie races from her own home to Bill’s, vowing to be with him until the end, and rekindling their romance, while Eric, Pam and the Yakuza arrive to the Light of Day compound in search of Sarah.

OUR REVIEW:

At this point in ‘True Blood’’s final season, we’re not expecting much beyond a bit of wheel-spinning until the end, particularly now that Sarah’s cure has been established as within reach, the main threat of H-vampires has been dispatched, and most Bon Temps characters seem to be looking to move on with their lives. And where last week had a few bombs to drop and action threads to follow up on, “May Be the Last Time” seemed to suffer the most for its position within the season, essentially killing time with established threads until the final three (or two, more likely) episodes can move things along.

On the plus side at least, it was nice to have Jim Parrack back as Hoyt for a more extended stretch than his earlier phone call, even if it seemed entirely baffling to have Jason undercutting any emotional resonance to their scenes together by obsessively ogling his girlfriend Brigid. We don’t mind spoiling that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Hoyt within the season, though his appearance here had little meaningful to accomplish, other than to distract Jason for an hour and incorporate Arlene, whose own story proved fairly weak in addition.

The last season will naturally give tertiary characters a bit more spotlight than they’ve been afforded in recent years, and while Carrie Preston certainly, well, carries Arlene toward a strong sense of sympathy from the audience, any developments or fantasies within the hour feel somewhat betrayed by the closing consensus that she and her new vampire attraction Keith can’t consummate their relationship anyway, at least for the time being. It’d have been an intriguing idea to explore in any other season, but considering the shortage of real estate in the final hours, we’re hard-pressed to justify any real interest here.

And in the completely baffling corner, we had Bill’s continued flashbacks being folded into Sookie’s efforts with Niall to find a cure, though the lacking result seems only to have afforded Rutger Hauer a brief opportunity to return, as well as a flimsy reason for Sookie and Bill to return to one another’s arms before the end of the series. Elsewhere, Sarah had visions of her former lovers while Eric and the others napped, Violet continually dragged out her bizarrely specific revenge plot to afford Adilyn and Wayne the chance to turn down kinkier sex opportunities, and Andy and Holly traveled as far as Oklahoma in search of their children, rather than call anyone for help. Do you care? I don’t.

Three to go, ‘True Blood.’

Well, what say you? Did you get your fill of fang-banging ‘True Blood’ action?  What did you think about tonight's revelatory installment, “May Be the Last Time”? Join the discussion in the comments, and check back again next Sunday for another all-new recap and review of 'True Blood' season 7's latest, "Almost Home"!