True Blood Season 5 Spoilers: What Happens to Bill and Sookie

Culture

True Blood, the HBO werewolf and vampire-oriented show, has taken a turn for the political in its fifth season, where the back stories of characters like Terry Bellfleur – the disturbed Iraq veteran who works as a cook at “Merlotte’s” – start to surface with a tone that has nothing to do with fairies and Maenads and everything to do with America’s current political environment.

In the “Let’s Boot and Rally” episode (aired on July 8), the character Terry Bellfleur (played by Todd Lowe) flashes back to the time when he was serving in Iraq, during a 4th of July alcohol and drug-fueled celebration in which American men in uniform accidentally killed a whole Iraqi civilian family -- then burnt them down to hide the evidence.

Though initially the episode raised some eyebrows because of the ugly portrayal of American servicemen, Bellfleur's story has since focused on the consequences that the deployment of American soldiers overseas have on veterans and their families once they return home. Terry Bellfleur’s story, an honest man who is trying to rebuild his life after a traumatizing experience, is a reminder of the thousands of troops who have gone through similar experiences of horror.

In addition to Bellfleur’s story, True Blood has sunk its fangs in another hot political topic: religion and political extremism. One of the new characters introduced in season 5 is Roman Zimojic, the chief of the “Vampire Authority” – played by Christopher Meloni (Oz, Man of Steel), and allegedly inspired in former Pennsylvania senator and GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum.