'True Blood' Recap: Eric And Pam Fight To The Death

Last night’s True Blood episode, ‘F*** the Pain Away,’ not only left Sookie (Anna Paquin) fighting for her life, but also ended with main vamps, Eric (Alexander Skarsgard), Tara (Rutina Wesley), Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten), and Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll), in vampire lock-up.

Picking up where last week’s episode left off, Sookie has Warlow/Ben (Robert Kazinsky) cornered by her ball of light, and he tells her he loves her, and that he means her no harm. She's not convinced. He insists that he killed her parents out of love for Sookie. Huh? Turns out, after Warlow approached Sookie’s parents and told them that Sookie was his soul mate and that, when she grew older, he would turn her into a fairy-vampire and the two of them would live together forever, Sookie’s father decided that he would rather have her die than suffer such a fate. On the night of her parents’ death, Sookie’s father had intended to drown her.

Sookie doesn’t believe him, and hits him with her ball of light. Her anger fuels her, but, just when she really begins her attack, Bill (Stephen Moyer) appears and takes Warlow/Ben away. Since Bill has become a sort of re-incarnation of Lilith (the vampire who turned Warlow), he felt Warlow/Ben being attacked and ordered him, as his ‘maker’ to come with him.

Bill takes Warlow/Ben to his underground research facility to extract a sample of Ben’s fairy blood (his original plan of taking blood from the four teenage fairies killed by Jessica now useless). In a flashback, we learn that Lilith turned Ben because God had told her that he was “destined to save vampire-kind.” Warlow hates what he is, and rejects Bill’s assurances that he is meant to be the savior of vampires.

While Bill takes Warlow/Ben as his prisoner, Tara and Eric turn themselves in to the LAVTF (Louisiana Vampire Task Force) in a desperate attempt to save Pam from imprisonment. Eric instructs Tara to find Pam, and the two are escorted through the camp, put through a series of endurance tests, and assigned a level: Eric and Pam are level 1, Tara is a level 3.

As Eric and Tara acclimate to their new surroundings, Pam is forced to have a session with a psychologist. Seduced by the promise of a hot, living meal, Pam spills her guts in therapy, declaring that, since Eric released her, she no longer feels any sense of loyalty towards him, nor would she feel any pain should anything happen to him. The doctor is not convinced.

Across Bon Temps, Jessica, high on fairy blood, cannot let go of her guilt at killing three of the four fairy girls – one survived after being fed vampire blood by her father, Sheriff Bellefleur (Chris Bauer). Desperate for comfort, she goes to see Jason (Ryan Kwanten) who has just finished having sex with his ex, and current anti-vamp politician, Sarah (Anna Camp). Jason tells Jessica that he had loved her, and tells her that she is a good person. Unfortunately, the sweet moment is ruined when Sarah and Jessica come to blows and Sarah has Jessica arrested by the LAVTF. To get Jessica back, Jason makes plans to join the LAVTF.

Meanwhile, Sam (Sam Trammell), Emma, and Nicole (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) are still hiding out in their hotel, with Alcide (Joe Manganiello) in pursuit. And Terry (Todd Lowe) has decided he can no longer live with himself, and asks an old Marine buddy to give him a few days to get his affairs in order and then kill him. The friend agrees.

At the vampire prison, while Jessica reunites with Tara and the two end up indebted to a powerful and threatening fellow inmate, Eric and Pam are put in a room and instructed to fight each other to the death!

Like Eric and Pam, the episode leaves Sookie fighting for her life. After Warlow/Ben’s revelation about her parents, Sookie recruits Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) to hold a séance so that she can communicate with her dead parents. Shockingly, her parents admit to attempting to murder her, and her father possesses Lafayette’s body to try to kill her a second time! The episode ends with Sookie being drowned by her father/Lafayette – and, with all of her vampire friends locked up, who knows who will save her.

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

– Olivia Truffaut-Wong