True Blood kicked off its seventh and final season Sunday night with Hep-V infected vamps attacking Bon Temps, killing Tara, and Pam traveling the world searching for Eric in “Jesus Gonna Be Here.”

R.I.P Tara

The entire town has gathered at Bellefleur’s Bar and Grill for the ‘One vampire for every human’ mixer, where they are promptly attacked by a group of Hep-V infected vampires. Chaos erupts, with Sam (Sam Trammell) and Alcide (Joe Manganiello) turning into their animal forms to help Bill (Stephen Moyer) and the other vamps fight off the crazed attack. In the chaos, the Hep-V vamps take Arlene (Carrie Preston), Holly (Lauren Bowles) and Nicole (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) hostage, among others, and kill Tara (Rutina Wesley), who was trying to protect her mother.

As suddenly as they appeared, the Hep-V vamps take off with their hostages, leaving the wounded and lost to take refuge inside the bar. Jason (Ryan Kwanten) calls Andy (Chris Bauer), who stayed at home with his daughter Adilyn (Bailey Noble), and tells him to come to the bar. When Andy leaves the Bellefleur house, he instructs Adilyn not to invite Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) in and then tells her quickly about Tara’s death before storming off. Jessica is left crying on the porch, but she is determined to protect Adilyn and stays where she is.

At the bar, Willa (Amelia Rose Blaire) decides to care for Lettie Mae (Adina Porter) and convinces her to drink her blood so she can heal and Bill assigns Jessica’s boyfriend, James (Nathan Parsons), to pair up with Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis). Sam and Alcide return, transforming back into their human forms right outside the bar, and inform Bill and Andy that they lost the scent of the hostages. Bill and Andy decide on a game plan: the infected vamps are most likely nesting, so all they need to do is find the nest and find the hostages. They send Jason and Violet (Karolina Wydra) to check out an abandoned building on the outskirts of town while they head to a closed-down slaughterhouse.

Bon Temps Blames Sookie

Vince (Brett Rickaby), Sam’s losing opponent in the mayoral race, confronts Sam at the bar after seeing him transform back into a human outside. Sam convinces him to keep quiet, and promises to tell him everything once things in Bon Temps have settled down. Meanwhile, Sookie (Anna Paquin) overhears Vince thinking that she is to blame for all this insanity. If only Sookie had not slept with Bill, he thinks, none of this would have happened. Sookie tries to silence the thoughts, but the entire restaurant is buzzing with thoughts of those who blame her. When she focuses on Alcide, she hears him thinking the exact same thing, and she takes off by herself.

Alcide calls Sookie, but she throws her phone out into the woods on her lonely walk home. Later, Alcide comes home and finds Sookie sitting in her bathrobe in the kitchen. She confronts him about what she heard him think, but admits that she also hears how much he loves her. She just wants to be alone. After some time, Sookie eventually goes upstairs and joins her new love in bed.

Bill And Andy Team Up

Jason and Violet arrive at the abandoned building to check for the infected vamps. Instead of finding raging monsters, they find Vince and his three religious followers, equipped with guns and wooden crosses. Vince dismisses Jason’s authority and reminds him that Bon Temps is now a town without law, without a government to protect them. Jason tries to talk him down, but Violet steps in and threatens them, angering Jason. In his anger, he demands that Violet have sex with him, and finally, she agrees.

Bill and Andy have more luck at the abandoned slaughterhouse, where they find evidence of a Hep-V infected nest. Bloody mattresses line the dirty floors, but there are no vampires in sight. Finally, Bill and Andy find a handful of corpses strung up and dead – they had the blood drained from their necks. Andy throws up and walks out, and when Bill follows, they are met with Vince and his goons. Vince wants to kill Bill because of his vampirism. Andy steps in, saying that he and Bill have a history and so, if Vince wants Bill dead, he should be the one to pull the trigger. Vince agrees, handing over his gun to Andy. In a tense moment, Andy aims his gun right at Bill’s chest before suddenly swinging around and pointing it at the youngest of Vince’s gang, a man named Lou (Lucas Adams). Andy warns Lou that taking a human life is something you can never take back or move on from. Eventually, Lou lowers his riffle and leaves the slaughterhouse with Vince and the rest of his friends. Bill thanks Andy for sparing his life, but Andy doesn’t want to hear it. He only saved him because he knows he needs Bill if he hopes to find Holly and the others.

Adilyn Invites Jessica In

Back at the Bellefleur house, Adilyn opens the window to talk to Jessica. She’s afraid of the vampire who killed her sisters and left her for dead, but she wants to give her condolences to Jessica for Tara’s death. The girls talk about the night Jessica attacked Adilyn and her sisters before moving on and talking about boys. Unfortunately, their bonding is cut short by a crazed Hep-V vampire. He can smell Adilyn’s fairy blood and he wants a taste.

Jessica implores Adilyn to drink just a bit of her blood so that she will always be able to track her and protect her when she’s in trouble. Adilyn agrees and reluctantly tastes a bit of Jessica’s blood before closing the window. Jessica stands in front of the Bellefleur house, engaging in a stand off with the infected vampire, who tries to tempt Jessica, telling her that they should have sex with the girl and then drain her together. As dawn approaches, Jessica and the Hep-V vampire begin slowly steaming from the sunrise. Adilyn lowers her window and yells at Jessica to get out of the light before she burns, but Jessica refuses to leave her alone, so Adilyn decides to invite Jessica in. They have an attic, she yells before running out the door, forcing Jessica to come inside to protect her. Jessica slams into Adilyn, fangs out. Embarrassed, she quickly retracts her fangs and runs up to the attic to hide from the sun while the Hep-V infected vampire explodes on the Bellefleur’s doorstep.

The next morning at church, Lettie Mae informs Sookie that she is to blame for Tara’s death and asks that she leave. Sookie gets up and implores the town to forgive her, accepting some of the blame for what happened and declaring her intentions to help the townspeople survive.

Finally, we see Holly, Arlene and Nicole are tied up in the basement of Fangtasia, where the Hep-V infected vamps have taken over. They feast on a human upstairs, while the others listen, terrified.

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

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.