tvthatdoesntsuck

True Blood
Season One
Episode Twelve
“You’ll Be the Death of Me”
Written by Raelle Tucker
Directed by Alan Ball

Raelle Tucker, who also wrote “Cold Ground,” otherwise known as the best episode of the series, was given the monumental task of writing the season finale to Alan Ball’s wonderfully dark new series, True Blood.  She had a lot of stuff to wrap up, and with creator/genius Alan Ball on directorial duties, the team did a very good job.

It was revealed at the end of last week’s episode that Rene is really a man named Drew Marshall, who was connected to the murder of his fangbanger sister before he disappeared.  This revelation that Rene was the murderer was only to the audience, as the fax that revealed Drew’s face was discarded by a sh**-for-brains secretary, so that dramatic irony made for some damn good tension in the first half of the show.  Michael Raymond-James did a great job as the sinister, volatile Rene, who seemed so nice before that revelation.  The way they sprinkled clues throughout the season brings to mind the way Rob Thomas subtly revealed the killers in the first two seasons of Veronica Mars.  Aaron Echolls was established as being capable of killing when he went into a violent rage on his daughter’s boyfriend, similar to how Rene was shown to have an explosive temper when he blew up at Jason in (I think) episode ten.  The fax with his face on it also brought to mind how Cassidy “Beaver” Casablancas was revealed to be the murder by Veronica finding him in a little league photo… it was all she needed to connect the dots.  Great minds obviously think alike, because the techniques that Thomas and now Ball used worked amazingly.  The early build-up of Rene might have put questions about him into the audiences head, but the hints were never too obvious.  It was really nicely done.

So, of course, the finale had to climax with Sookie facing off against Rene when she finds out he is the murderer.  Both Sam and Bill were used nicely in that fight, though I’m glad that Sookie was able to be the hero.  She deserved that.  The scene was changed dramatically from how it was done in the books, and Ball definitely improved on it.

I wasn’t sure about the rest of the episode, though.  It was all good, entertaining stuff, but I would have liked a bit less Season Two build up.  If they could have stretched out the confrontation between Rene and Sookie for a bit, the tension and pay-off would have been even greater.  Nevertheless, the establishing scenes that will lead into the arc of the next season has definitely got me hungry for more True Blood, so I guess–as one Borat would say–the finale was no less than a great success!

8/10

Trackback URI | Comments RSS