A lot transpired in ‘Don’t You Feel Me?,’ True Blood’s latest installment: more than one character bit the dust, vampire prison camp got a little more crowded, and Sookie and Warlow got down in a fairy world.

But first, it was time for someone to save Sookie (Anna Paquin), who was in the process of being drowned by the spirit of her dead father inside Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis)’s body. Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) is busy in vamp camp being forced to fight Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten) to the true death, and Bill (Stephen Moyer) can’t walk in the sun – so, he lets Warlow (Robert Kazinsky) out to go save her. Warlow manages to save Sookie and blast her father’s spirit out of Lafayette with his fairy light. With Lafayette’s help, Sookie tells her father to get out of her life, forever, and he disappears. All is well, until Bill (as Lilith) summons Warlow back to him, and the fairy vamp begins spitting up blood as he tries to fight it. Sookie takes him to a fairy plane, where Bill cannot get to him – he’s saved her life twice, she says, now it’s time for her to save his. Warlow, however, doesn’t seem too pleased to be stuck in fairyland with Sookie. He’s worried he won’t be able to resist her.

Meanwhile, Eric and Pam look as if they are about to have a majorly violent confrontation in the death match arranged by the LAVTF and Governor Burrell (Arliss Howard). The two stalk, and for a second it looks like Pam is ready to stake Eric for having turned another vampire. The two levitate off the ground, and Governor Burrell looks on from a viewing room – he can barely contain his excitement. But then, in a blink-and-you-miss-it twist, Eric and Pam soar off to open vents on the walls, where guards wait with their guns pointed down at the vamps. The guards, needless to say, tumble down to their death, and Eric even skewers one to the one-way mirror, making a hole through which he spots Steve Newlin (Michael McMillian).

Unfortunately, now that Eric has succeeded in pissing off Gov. Burrell, it’s time for some revenge. After his vamp daughter, Willa (Amelia Rose Blaire), begs him to get her out of isolation and with the other vampires (‘her kind’), Burrell is none too pleased with Eric and decides that fair is fair – it’s time for Eric to lose someone he loves too.

Eric, now locked up in a tiny, one man cell, must watch helplessly as his sister, Nora (Lucy Griffiths), is rolled in on a stretcher and injected with ‘Hep V,’ a deadly virus the LAVTF has concocted. Eric and Nora exchange ‘I love you’s, and then Eric gets crafty. He summons new vamp Willa. Tara (Rutina Wesley) gives Willa some tips on getting to the guards, and Willa is on her way. She gets Eric’s cage open, unties Nora, and the escape has begun!

Meanwhile, in fairyland, Warlow can feel the night coming (even though the sun never sets there), and asks Sookie to tie him up so that he doesn’t hurt her when his vampire side emerges. When she accurately points out the fact that she’s been with him at night before, he admits that he had been able to control himself because he had fed before seeing her, unlike tonight. Sookie ties him up like he asks, reinforcing the knot with her fairy light, and the two engage in a sorely needed heart-to-heart.

Though she’s warming up to Warlow, Sookie is still upset by the fact that he brought out an ancient marriage contract that claimed her as his. Warlow offers to tear it up when they get out of the fairy plane, but the fact that he mentioned it in the first place still bothers Sookie. Warlow admits that he has done things he’s not proud of. He truly seems to hate himself and what Lilith made him. He pleads with Sookie, telling her that his dream is for them to make ‘a closed circle’ – one where both of them would be fairy-vampires and would disappear together forever, only needing each others’ blood for survival. He wouldn’t need to kill anymore, the hunger he despises could be controlled… but Sookie would have to turn.

Back at LAVTF headquarters, Jason (Ryan Kwanten) has successfully infiltrated the militant group. (He wowed at his interview, and has charmed the higher-ups with his fast talking stories of his vampire slaying – no surprise there.) His plan hits a snag when Sarah Newlin (Anna Camp) tries to play on his weakness: Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll). She knows he’s only here to save Jessica, but if he goes down, she goes down with him, so she comes up with a plan: to force Jason to watch as Jessica becomes part of the copulation study.

Jessica is brought to a room, where James (Luke Grimes), a sweet, shirtless vampire boy, is waiting. He tells her that ‘they’ want to watch them have sex. Jason watches, trying hard not to react. James introduces himself, and claims he won’t take part in the experiment, he’s not a rapist. And then Sarah hits him with UV light. Over and over, she burns him, until Jessica takes off her shirt, and says she’ll do it. James insists that they don’t deserve this, but Jessica (still suffering from a lost sense of self) isn’t in total agreement. Still, when it becomes obvious that James cannot be convinced to fornicate with her, Sarah calls it off, and Jessica is taken away.

Eric, disguised as a guard, leads Willa and Nora out of the room he was being held in, and they begin to find a way out. Willa insists they save Jessica and Tara too, and Eric reluctantly agrees. On their way to rescue the girls, Eric stumbles upon what appears to be a TruBlood bottling facility. He investigates – it’s not just TruBlood being put in those bottles, they’re being laced with Hep V!

While Eric is discovering Gov. Burrell’s evil plan to render all vampires extinct, Bill puts himself in a coma so that he may communicate with Lilith. She’s not much help, and expresses her disappointment at his inaction, and hints that Jessica has been taken to the vampire camp. When he awakens, Bill drinks the last of the fairy blood and goes to confront Burrell at his home (during the day). Without ceremony, Bill beheads Burrell, killing him instantly, before storming off.

The other man to meet his end this week was poor, disturbed Terry Bellefleur (Todd Lowe). Terry, who’s past in the marines haunted him so much he couldn’t bare it, was preparing for his death. He awkwardly forces Lafayette to accept a key to a safety deposit box Arlene (Carrie Preston) knows nothing about. Of course, his actions call up a red flag, and Lafayette calls Arlene right after Terry leaves his house. Arlene is sure Terry is planning on killing himself – she knows it in her gut. So Holly suggested that they get a vampire to make Terry forget about all the awful things that torment him. The vamp (Holly’s son’s friend’s dad’s husband) glamours Terry, telling him that he will forget about the marines, and, as Arlene instructs him, that he is a father, and a step-father, and a husband, and that’s all that matters. Once the vampire leaves, a weight has been lifted off Terry, and Arlene cuddles up on his lap, blissful for the first time in a long time. Of course, none of this happiness could last long, and, as anticipated, the next day Terry was shot in the neck and killed (presumably by his marine friend who had agreed to help Terry die) in the Merlotte’s parking lot. Arlene rushed by his side after hearing the shot, but it’s too late, and all she can do is comfort him in his final moments. She holds him tight, and sings him a lullaby as he dies.

Where was Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell), you ask? He was busy giving Emma (Chloe Noelle) back to her grandmother, at Nicole’s behest, who promises him that she will never return to the pack. Emma cries when she says goodbye to Sam – it might be the last time they see each other. After Emma leaves, Alcide (Joe Manganiello) and his father show up, demanding to know where she is. Sam, surprisingly, tells him the truth, that she’s safe and with her grandmother. Alcide considers killing him, but the two shape shifters were friends once, and Alcide tells Sam that he is free to go, but that he should never return to Bon Temps. Alcide can choose not to kill Sam, but he can’t promise that the rest of his pack will be equally forgiving.

In an epic final act, Sookie and Warlow continued to get to know each other, and, in a surreal moment, Sookie took control and let Warlow bite her, and then she bit him back. Oh, but that’s not all, she then proceeded to have her way with him, and their fairy light glowed bright. And… just like that, the episode ended.

True Blood airs Sundays at 9 P.M. on HBO.

Olivia Truffaut-Wong

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