‘True Blood’ Review: “Somebody That I Used To Know”

‘True Blood’ season 5 faerie blasts its eighth episode of the year, as Eric doubts the Vampire Authority's newly reinvigorated religious fervor, Sookie and Jason uncover clues toward their parents' murder, Hoyt is faced with a difficult choice and Sam finds Luna in a strange position during their investigation.

Last week’s ‘True Blood’ episode “In the Beginning” saw Bill, Eric, Russell and the council tripping their way through New Orleans on Lilith's blood, while Hoyt found himself embroiled with the shifter-killers and Lafayette confronted Jesus' brujo uncle.   So, what will the latest episode of ‘True Blood’ bring?

Read on for your in-depth recap of everything you need to know about ‘True Blood’ season 5 episode 8 “Somebody That I Used to Know!”

In the hospital, Sam watches as the leader o the Shifter-killers is taken away, before rushing in to comfort a violently angry Luna.  Sam leaves, assuring that he’s got things under control, when vision starts getting fuzzy for Luna, and she finds herself skin-walking into Sam before passing out!

Still high on Lilith’s blood, the Vampire Authority giddily arrives back to headquarters, Eric seemingly the only one shaken by what they’ve all seen.  Back in Bon Temps, Jason catches Sookie as she attempts to expel the last of her Faerie powers, but he convinces her that her abilities make her who she is, particularly someone who they could potentially find their parents’ killers with!  Meanwhile, Luna awakens (as Sam), and does her best to exit the hospital without any suspicion.

While Jessica gets led to the Fangtasia bathroom by a man she meets, the Vampire Authority still basks in their high and proclaim themselves born again, free to eat whomever they want.  Disgusted, Eric goes to leave, but sees that Bill isn’t  joining him.  Over in Shreveport, Alcide and his new lady friend get it on!  Yeah, this show jumps around a bit.  Especially considering back at the Authority, Salome invites Bill to dine on a human with her, before he flashes back to his own ailing child begging him to make her a vampire in 1910.  Conflicted then as he is now, Bill ultimately feeds on the human.

The shifter-killers take their new ally Hoyt to a remote cabin, where they reveal his initiation rite:  he’ll have to kill a bound, and silvered Jessica!  Hoyt is clearly troubled by the thought, as the gang taunts her and locks the two alone in the room to do the bloody deed.  Meanwhile, Sookie and Jason pay a visit to  Claude at the Faerie club, who reluctantly agrees to help them figure out who killed their parents.  Elsewhere out on the road, Lafayette uses a stash of vampire blood to repair the damage from his lips being sewn shut, as a vision of Jesus appears in the passenger seat, holding his hand.

Over at the police station, Sam shifts into a Cobra to coax information out of the shifter killer, when Luna (still as Sam) arrives at the station, very much confusing Andy.  She seeks out the equally confused Sam, believing her transformation will kill her as it did Sam’s brother.  Out at the bridge where her parents died, the Faeries attempt to lead Sookie to inhabit the mind of her mother that night (because Einstein was half-fairy, and time travel and stuff), and our heroine has a vision.  Though she sees through her mother’s eyes, and the vampire’s after that, she can’t make out the creature’s face.  Just then, Sookie sees that Claudine was there that night, and blasted the creature with her magic.

Though it seems to cause him a great deal of confusion, Hoyt hovers over Jessica pondering whether or not to kill her, considering she slept with his best friend, and admits she could never love him again.  He places the barrel to her temple, as the man outside hears a shot.  When he rushes in to see the results, a freed Jessica appears from behind, and snaps his neck!  Jessica thanks Hoyt for freeing her, as he heads out to get them some help (being daylight, and all), but his response is…well…terse.

Holly and Arlene pay a visit to Lafayette, looking to enlist his services as a medium in order to convince Terry that his curse has been lifted, but the weary Lafayette only agrees to do it for $300.  Back at the cabin, Sam, Andy, and Luna (as Sam) find Jessica, but without having encountered Hoyt at all.  Luna manages to smell that there was a human woman present in the cabin, before doubling over in pain.

Talking to Claude, Sookie and Jason can’t really make heads or tails of Claudine’s appearance on the bridge that night, as Claude worries that Sookie psychically connected with a vampire.  Reliving the event, Sookie notices that Claudine specifically called the vampire “Warlow,” meaning she must have known him.  Meanwhile, at Fangtasia, Tara runs into an old high school classmate, and begins berating her after the woman gets subtly racist, but Pam intervenes to pull a leash on Tara’s attitude.

Over in Shreveport, Alcide and J.D. prep for their pack-master challenge, but Alcide backs down when he learns the challenge will be to hunt an innocent human teenager.  J.D. celebrates Alcide’s forfeit by electing to hunt the boy anyway, causing Alcide to begin the fight, and nearly wolf out.  Meanwhile at the Vampire Authority, Eric reappears to try to convince Norah of his vision of Godric, but Norah denounces her former maker in favor of what she believes to be Lilith’s true vision.

Over at Sam’s a truly bizarre scene unfolds as Sam comforts a still-convulsing Luna (as Sam) that she isn’t going to die, and as the two reconcile a kiss on the forehead brings Luna back to her true form.  Huzzah!  Back at Fangtasia, Pam demands a word with Tara about her attitude, but downstairs reveals that her high-school classmate has been bound and gagged, and glamored into thinking herself a complete slave to Tara.  Grateful for the gift, Tara happily chows down on her new toy.

Out in the woods, Alcide brawls with J.D. to spare the teenager’s life, but J.D. gets the drop on him and nearly kills him before Martha arrives to beg him to spare Alcide’s life.  J.D. Reluctantly complies, but only if Alcide will find himself a new pack.  Back in Bon Temps, Terry and Patrick arrive at the house believing there had been a fire, but instead find themselves met with Arlene, Holly and Lafayette.  Lafayette makes an insincere effort to appear as though he’s channeling the woman who placed the curse on them, before she possesses Lafayette for real!  Identifying herself as Zifira, she agrees to lift the curse, but only if either Patrick or Terry kills the other.  Unsure of what to do, Patrick bolts from the home.

On a desolate stretch of road, Hoyt finally flags down a truck, but whoever drives it points a gun at his face!  Back at home, Sookie cleans herself up, when a ghostly visage of the vampire Warlow appears to proclaim her his!  Meanwhile back at the Vampire Authority, the council plots for how best to take down the mainstreaming movement, when Bill comes up with the best idea of all: destroy the five Tru Blood factories, forcing even the mainstreamers to feed on humans!  Eric seems taken aback, asking Bill why he’d help or what he’s doing, to which Bill ominously responds, “evolving.”

Honestly, it's difficult to give honest feedback on 'True Blood' from week to week.  The story jumps around so much between characters that its hard to feel that there's ever a cohesive whole, or link between the characters.  After all, what does Alcide and his new lady-friend vying to be pack-master have to do with a fire demon, or the vampire who killed Jason and Sookie's parents?  It's not that "Somebody That I Used To Know" isn't entertaining, but only a few select stories within the narrative seem interesting enough to pursue.  In other words, pretty much just the Vampire Authority.