'True Blood' Season 6 Finale Recap: Magic Blood

Oddly enough, True Blood’s season finale, “Radioactive,” was the first episode where the final scene didn’t leave me on the edge of my seat. I have to say, I’m pretty disappointed with the finale. That said, I still have questions that I want answered. Well, just one question: is Eric really dead? If so, the show killed Eric in the laziest way possible. His character should have gone out in a blaze of vampire glory, not a fire in the Swedish mountains!

Let’s rewind a bit. At the beginning of the episode, the whole vampire gang is fresh out of Vamp Camp, very high off of Warlow’s blood, and celebrating their day-walking abilities, orgy-style, outside of Bill’s mansion. Except for Bill. He’s coping with the loss of his God-like abilities, readjusting to life as regular old Bill Compton, and coming to grips with the fact that he sacrificed Sookie’s life for Warlow’s blood. When Jessica finds Bill sulking in his study, she convinces him to devise a plan to save Sookie from being turned into a vampire.

And saving she needs. After Sookie catches up with Jason and meets Violet, his new, overbearing, neurotic vampire girlfriend, she makes her way back to the fae plane. There waits Warlow, who’s jumped the gun on their fairy vampire nuptials. With her vamp friends safe and sound, Sookie wants to reconsider the promise of eternity. She’d rather date Warlow, and help him adjust into a normal life in Bon Temps. Warlow, however, is not impressed with Sookie’s flip-flopping. He becomes enraged, smacks her, and begins choking her.

Back at the Compton estate, Pam’s high wears off, and the reality of Eric’s disappearance hits her hard. (Pam clearly has some serious abandonment issues.) She informs Tara that’s she’s going to look for him, and that Tara should take care of Willa while she’s gone. In classic fashion, Tara replies, “You guys are the worst fucking makers ever.” Agreed.

Bill is able to recruit Jason and Violet (and, later, Andy and his daughter Adeline) to save Sookie. They need Adeline’s fairy light to open the fae plane in the cemetery. The crew shows up just in time, as Warlow begins to drain Sookie of her blood. Bill begins fighting Warlow, while Violet grabs Sookie and heads back to the Stackhouse residence. Warlow follows them, but is eventually met by Grandpa Nialle, who fights his way through whatever black hole he’s been in long enough to hold Warlow down while Sookie and Jason stake him. And just as swiftly as he entered the season, Warlow is gone.

With Warlow’s death comes a return to normalcy for all vampires who drank Billith’s blood. This includes our beloved Eric, who apparently decided to return back to Sweden for some R & R. We find Eric sunbathing in the snowy mountains, when he bursts into a ball of flames and drops to his knees. This is the last we see of him the episode. By all accounts, he’s probably dead, but I still have hope for his resurrection next season.

"Radioactive" then goes where no True Blood episode has gone before: to the future. Six months later, we find Alcide and Sookie as a happy couple; Bill as a vampire god turned Hep V theorist turned New York Times best-selling author; Jason and Violet in a torturous, dangerous, lust-filled relationship; and Sam as the mayor of Bon Temps. 

Sam calls the people of his town together at church to propose a crazy scheme he’s drafted with Bill, which aims to protect humans and vampires alike from the Hep V epidemic: all healthy humans are to pair with a healthy vampire, and trade feeding for protection. Sam and Arlene (now the owner of the Bellefleur Bar & Grill) throw a mixer later that night, to help humans and vampires find a “mate.”

At the mixer, Tara’s mom seeks out her daughter. She wants to apologize for her poor treatment of Tara as a child, and offers Tara the chance to feed from her, to make up for all the times she forgot to feed Tara as a child. Tara obliges. I cringed, because I can’t help but think her mom is infected with Hep V, and is purposely trying to kill Tara with the delusional intent of "saving" her. 

Finally, as Alcide and Sookie leave the shindig, Bill reappears with an offer of protection. Just as Sookie declines, Alcide and Bill both smell a pack of ravenous, sick vampires approaching the party. The camera pans to this large, multiplying group before cutting to black. 

It was a very lackluster ending. But it should make for an interesting opening scene next season — the bloodbath at Bon Temps, perhaps? Either way, it’s been great recapping this season for you folks! Who knows when Season 7 will begin. In the meantime, I'm focused on the following:

What did you think about the finale? What are you hoping to see next season? Let us know in the comments!