‘True Blood’ recap: Kill Bill, Volume 1

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Sookie’s amusing sex dream in which she considers a romantic life involving both Bill and Eric might have been the most salacious component of Sunday’s installment of ‘True Blood,’ but the episode, ‘Let’s Get Out of Here’ also saw a serious ratcheting up of tensions in the brewing war between the vampires and the witches. Namely, Antonia reveals her plan to use Eric to kill Bill in front of a crowd of onlookers and TV news crews.

The action begins as last week’s cemetery showdown comes to a close. Alcide rushes a wounded Sookie home, but Bill overtakes them and gives his ex his own blood to help her heal from the gunshot that nearly killed her. Frustrated when Sookie comes to and begins chastising the boys for not running out to immediately search for Eric, the werewolf heads home to Debbie, who’s lying in bed watching ‘Cheaters.’

The witches bring docile Eric (or, as Antonia calls him, ‘blond one’) back to the Moon Goddess Emporium, where she informs her coven of her intention to disrupt the following evening’s Festival of Tolerance ceremony in Shreveport. In anticipation of the big event, Nan Flanagan has arrived at Bill’s place, where she intends to spend the day, but she’s confronted with a sobbing Jessica, who’s pouring her heart out about her breakup with Hoyt. Nan, unsurprisingly, is less than sympathetic.

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She’s also less than ecstatic about the fact that she must be bound in silver in Bill’s cell -- along with Jessica and the king -- to protect herself against any spells the witches might cast summoning them out into the sunlight. She and Bill argue, with Nan telling him that his request to cancel the Tolerance event is out of the question.

Meanwhile, Hoyt is boxing up Jessica’s belongings -- including her copy of ‘Twilight’ -- when Lafayette (possessed by the spirit of Mavis) rushes in with Mikey, waving the gun he/she picked up from Andy Bellefleur when he/she took the infant. Lafayette/Mavis orders Hoyt out of the house, and Hoyt calls Jason, who, along with Andy, is attempting to console a distraught Terry and Arlene. Andy, attempting to calm his own nerves, takes the V that he had hidden between the cushions on the sofa in the sitting room. Dreaming, Sookie tells her two vamp suitors that she’s in love with both of them and she’s decided not to choose between them. After all, no one bats an eye when a man is with two women, so why should she have to limit her options? The feuding gentlemen are not on board with the plan (Bill reminds her that he is the king of Louisiana) until Sookie disrobes and insists that it’s her way or nothing at all. Before things can get too X-rated, however, she wakes up.

Sam and Luna take Emma on an impromptu camping trip as a means to escape Marcus, leading to some idyllic communing with nature; Sam even turns into a bunny at one point so that little Emma -- who tells her mom she hopes to grow up to be a shifter, not a werewolf like her dad -- can pet him (awww). Back at Merlotte’s, Tommy is leaving a goodbye note for his brother, when Marcus comes around asking for Sam, saying that he should stop by Marcus’ garage for a chat that evening.

Tommy, in a fairly stupid move, shifts into Sam and pays Marcus a visit himself. Alcide, who’s just told Marcus that he’s willing to take a crack at moving up in the pack to please Debbie, is there too; he tries to hold off his fellow werewolves once they start beating up Tommy, who, naturally mouths off about Luna. He doesn’t have too much luck though. Once Tommy’s been sufficiently battered, he ends up shifting back into himself and Alcide carries him outside.

Back at Hoyt’s, a hopped up Andy breaks down the door to rescue Mikey, but Lafayette/Mavis fires the gun, sending Andy and his backup Jason for cover. Before long, Jesus arrives on the scene and takes charge. He tells Mavis he can, through magic, help her realize that she is a spirit who no longer belongs to this world; he explains that she must have taken possession of his boyfriend to conclude some unfinished business. She tells him about the night her own baby was murdered and recalls seeing the child’s father digging in the dirt out by the tree in the yard. Sure enough, that’s precisely where Jesus discovers not just the baby’s remains but Mavis’ and he sends her back to the beyond.

An anxious Debbie scores some V off a dealer and heads to Sookie’s with a bouquet of flowers and an offer to assist her with whatever troubles she must be having. Sookie listens in to her thoughts to test her intentions, and after deciding that she’s being honest, Sookie enlists her in a plan to rescue Eric. The plan requires Debbie to drive Sookie to the Moon Goddess Emporium and distract Antonia with the promise of pledging the Shreveport werewolf pack to her anti-vampire campaign. Sookie breaks in and manages to find Eric, who tells her that he intends to kill the king at the Festival of Tolerance.

At the same time, Debbie points out to Antonia that she has brought Sookie to her, and Tara comes stumbling out, drawing a gun on Sookie but telepathically insisting that Sookie charge at her in order to escape. She does, Tara fires wildly and Sookie and Debbie meet up back at the car (though that sure didn’t seem like Debbie’s original intention). Debbie drives Sookie to the Shreveport hotel to warn Bill of the impending assassination attempt, while Antonia summons Eric and the witch Roy to her side to begin their attack.

Before they depart, she casts a spell to keep the remainder of her acolytes locked into the store. Tara tries to open one of the doors and draws back an injured hand, the skin of her palm covered in blisters.

Despite Nan’s insistence that the Festival of Tolerance was too important to cancel, it seems rather sparsely attended ... though that blogger with the fondness for posting violent vampire videos on YouTube is on hand to document the festivities. Things get off on the right foot, but before too long, Antonia has bewitched Bill’s sheriffs, who murder the king’s guards just as Sookie arrives and calls out his name. She tells her ex to run just as Eric flies down from the balcony to presumably do him in.

Surely, Jessica will sense the danger to her maker and rush to his aid. If she does, it will most certainly interrupt her tryst with Jason, an encounter that began innocently enough with Hoyt’s best friend dutifully returning Jessica’s belongings to her but ends up with the pair having sex in the bed of Jason’s pickup truck to a Taylor Swift soundtrack...

Predictions for next week? Will Bill survive? Will Eric get his memory back? (I say yes to both.) Will Sookie find a way to make her dreams come true?

What do you think? Leave your best guesses below.

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-- Gina McIntyre