Eric and Pam track down Sarah Newlin and Jessica catches James cheating on her with Lafayette in True Blood’s “Return to Oz.”

After last week’s war at Fangtasia, things are settling down in Bon Temps. Arlene (Carrie Preston), Holly (Lauren Bowles), Nicole (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and Jane are safe at home, and the Hep-V vamps plaguing the town seem to be gone for the time being. Now, it’s time for Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) and Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten) to start their hunt for Sarah Newlin (Anna Camp).

Eric And Pam Follow Sarah Newlin To Dallas

After releasing Willa (Amelia Rose Blaire) as her maker, Eric and Pam follow a lead Willa gave them in exchange for her freedom. When she was living with her father and Sarah, Willa once overheard her stepmother talking on the phone to her vampire sister in Dallas. After giving Ginger (Tara Buck) an unceremonious goodbye, Eric and Pam get in their coffins and are off to Dallas.

In Dallas, Eric and Pam find Sarah’s sister, Amber, dying of Hep-V. While Pam checks her house to make sure she’s not hiding Sarah, Amber tells Eric of how she was turned by her boyfriend, Peter, who recently died of Hep-V. When Sarah married Steve Newlin and became the mouthpiece for the Fellowship of the Sun, she paid Amber off to live in hiding and used her ‘missing sister’ as a story in the press to demonize vampires. Amber isn’t sure where Sarah would be, but when Eric informs her that he will probably be killing Sarah, she seems fine with it and helps. Sarah, Amber says, always comes home to her parents, and, it turns out, she called Amber just the other day to ask where their parents were. The Newlins are attending a Ted Cruz fundraiser at the Bush Library in town, and Amber thinks Sarah will definitely show up.

That night, Pam and Eric dress each other up as upstanding, Southern Republicans – complete with sequins and a cowboy hat – and crash the event. While they go looking for Sarah’s parents, Sarah sneaks in and finds her mother in the ladies room. Her mother doesn’t appear thrilled to see her, and kindly informs her that Laura Bush has not returned her calls since Sarah created the virus that then created monsters terrorizing half the country. But, Sarah needs her help, the Yakuza are after her. Just then, the Yakuza show up and shoot all the security at the fundraiser and Sarah Newlin’s father. Sarah and her mother run through the back halls, but the Yakuza are closing in and they kill Sarah’s mother. Eric appears, blocking Sarah’s way and goes straight for the throat. He lifts her in a chokehold, but drops her when the Yakuza catch up. Eric runs up to them and kills them all, ripping out the jaw of the man who forced him to kill either Pam or Sylvie in France all those years ago.

Lafayette Forces Sookie To Throw A Party

Back in Bon Temps, Sookie (Anna Paquin) comes home to a devastatingly empty house. Luckily, Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) and James (Nathan Parsons) are there to welcome her home. Sookie half-heartedly declares she needs to clean up, but Lafayette takes her straight to bed, tucks her in and tells her he will still be there when she wakes up. She sleeps through the day and wakes up the next night. Jackson (Robert Patrick) and Jenny have arrived, and Jackson tells her that he packed up all of Alcide’s things and will keep everything safe until Sookie feels ready to sort through it all. Meanwhile, Lafayette and Jenny are running around the kitchen, cooking up a feast. They are throwing a party, Lafayette informs Sookie. What she needs right now is not to wallow, but to celebrate life because that is what Tara and Alcide would have wanted them to do. Sookie is reluctant, but a cleaned up Bill (Stephen Moyer) appears with flowers and a sweet smile motivates her to go upstairs and get ready for the party.

By the time Sookie comes back downstairs, her home is full of guests – both human and vampire – who have all brought alcohol. Arlene, Holly and Jane are drinking away their memories of being held captive as Nicole, pregnant and sober, watches on. Violet (Karolina Wydra) and Jason (Ryan Kwanten) try to comfort Sookie, though Lafayette has forbid anyone from telling her they are sorry for her loss, and Bill is still hovering around. Lettie Mae (Adina Porter), desperate for more vampire blood to see her visions of Tara, even drugged her husband with sleeping pills so she could sneak out to attend the party.

Jackson gives a touching toast to his son, Alcide, saying that Sookie was worth fighting for and that he died a hero. Lettie Mae followed, saying that her daughter also died a hero – Tara died saving her even though she had been a horrible mother to her.

Andy Proposes To Holly

Outside, Andy (Chris Bauer) finds Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) standing guard and encourages her to come into the house and enjoy herself. He wants her to stop beating herself up for what she did to his daughters. Seeing her constantly torture herself keeps the pain fresh for him, and keeps him from moving on. He knows she protected Adilyn (Bailey Noble) and helped save Holly. He doesn’t say he forgives her, but he certainly doesn’t hate her anymore. He also needs a favor: he wants to borrow one of Jessica’s rings so he can ask Holly to marry him. Jessica, however, insists that he cannot propose to Holly with any of her rings. Instead, she zooms into the house and asks Sookie for her Gran’s ring.

Gran left the ring to Jason, but when Violet declares that she doesn’t need a ring for the world to know that Jason is hers, Jason gives Andy the go-ahead to take it. The gang makes their way downstairs, and Jason casually informs Adilyn and Wade that if they are having sex, they’re going to need to stop now. Andy awkwardly kneels down in front of Holly in the middle of Sookie’s living room, and asks her to marry him. She says yes, and everyone cheers. In the corner, Sookie looks on, smiling sadly, and Arlene, seeing she is about to fall apart, ushers her upstairs to her room. Arlene sympathizes with her, and reveals that, after Terry died, she would wear his jacket at night to feel like he was holding her again. Tequila, she admits, also helped ease the pain. Sookie cries a little before taking Arlene’s advice and going straight for the bottle.

Downstairs, a very tipsy Arlene and Sookie bump into Keith (Riley Smith), the hot vampire who healed Arlene at Fangtasia. He has been looking at her all night, Arlene tells Sookie, and when he comes over to them, Sookie asks him to please “dial down his sexy.” Keith tells Arlene she’s the most beautiful woman he’s seen in over 300 years, so he can wait. Besides, he says, he’ll see her in her dreams (not so much a line as a fact considering the vampire blood-induced sex dreams).

Jessica Catches James And Lafayette

Outside, James and Lafayette talk and finally hook up. Unfortunately, Jessica goes outside and finds them having sex in her car. She runs into the house and gets Jason to rescind James’ invitation so he can’t follow her. In Sookie’s room, Jason tries to comfort Jessica, and Lafayette shows up and tells her that he is sorry, but he knows James better than she does. If she doesn’t love him, she should let him go.

Lafayette leaves Jessica and Jason upstairs and gets to the living room just in time to stop the vampires from attacking Lettie Mae. Lettie Mae, desperate for blood, stabs Willa with a knife, but is unable to get any V. Lafayette steers her out of the house, and things are about to go back to normal when Nicole has an outburst. Nothing about this is normal or fun, she tells them. Things like this don’t happen in other towns, and she wants to go home. Violet offers to escort Nicole and Sam (Sam Trammell) out safely.

Jason And Jessica Hook Up

Upstairs, Jason reveals to Jessica that, when Violet said she didn’t need a ring to know Jason was hers, all he kept thinking was that Andy better take that ring and give it to Holly before Violet changed her mind. He doesn’t want to be hers. Jessica understands, and then the two have sex. Violet returns to the house in time to overhear their moans, but she leaves quietly before anybody can know she was there.

Bill Is Infected

Outside, Sookie, drunk and wobbly, goes outside to say goodnight to Bill. He’s been daydreaming about his time in the Civil War. Bill actually started as a pacifist. He knew the war would bring nothing but destruction to Louisiana, and he tried to flee the South with his family and a group of slaves, but the party was stopped by a Confederate soldier and old friend of Bill’s. Bill congratulates Sookie on her ability to bring vampires and humans together in a way he never could, and she gives him a big hug. Instead of going for the kiss, Bill walks her to her door. When Sookie goes to bed, she finds Alcide’s leather jacket waiting for her. Jackson overheard her talking to Arlene and left the jacket behind for her, in case she needed it. She puts it on and goes to bed.

At home, Bill remembers promising his wife that he would return home safely after the war, telling her that she was his one true love. Looking into the mirror, Bill notices the veins of Hep-V growing on his chest.

True Blood airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.

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Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.