‘TRUE BLOOD’ RECAP: Season Four, Episode One

Review of “She’s Not There” (04:01)

It has been a long wait (too long), but now it’s back.

True Blood’s season four premiere, titled “She’s Not There,” began right where we left off in season three.

Sookie (Anna Paquin), everyone’s favorite spunky vampire lover, is off to fairyland, a world where she finally feels like a normal person, or so she thinks. It seems as though fairies aren’t just pretty, glowing characters. Mab (Rebecca Wisocky), queen of the fairies, takes a special interest in Sookie when she first arrives in this alternate reality.

After almost being tricked into eating an unexplained fruit of light and meeting up with her grandfather, Sookie escapes from the clutches of Mab and returns to Bon Temps, Louisiana. Finally she is back home, only it’s not her home. We’re not in Kansas anymore.

Sookie thinks she has been away for a couple of minutes, but in the real world she has been missing for almost 13 months. And the world has changed drastically.

Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten), her brother, is now a Bon Temps police officer. Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), Sookie’s first vampire love, has moved on and become magister of the local area and head of the chamber of commerce. Tara Thorton (Rutina Wesley) has started a new personal and professional life down in New Orleans. Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) attends anger management classes with a group of fellow shape-shifters after he shot his brother, Tommy Mickens (Marshall Allman), who has now turned into a proper gentleman.

Hoyt Fortenberry (Jim Parrack) and Jessica Hamby (Deborah Ann Woll) are still together, but have drifted apart (those vampire-human relationships are a tough nut to crack). Arlene Fowler (Carrie Preston) and Terry Bellefleur (Todd Lowe) are raising a new serial-killer baby. Sheriff Andy Bellefleur (Chris Bauer) is now addicted to vampire’s blood, also known as V. Lafayette Reynolds (Nelsan Ellis) and Jesus Velasquez (Kevin Alejandro) get involved in some heavy duty hocus pocus.

Ah, what a wonderful day it is in Bon Temps. Glad to be back with this motley crew.

It seems as though everyone gave up on poor Sookie, everyone except the increasingly mysterious Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgård), the infamous vampire who owns the local club, Fangtasia.

Witches are the new group of supernaturals you can add to the long list of oddities in the bayou. Marnie (Fiona Shaw) heads a coven and has many spells and secrets hiding in her pocket. She has the power to take control over anything and everything, including vampires.

Vampires were the ones to fear. Now it’s their turn to be scared. Who will be first …

I am pretty impressed with how season four began. It turned the storyline completely upside down. I was getting tired of the constant struggle between Bill and Sookie, and this season they completely turned that relationship on its head.

Sookie did not seem to0 thrilled with Bill’s reserved reaction when she got home. I was ready for Bill to fall to his knees and start to weep. But that was not the case. It seems as though someone new has taken over Bill’s heart. I bet you were not expecting that.

The one relationship to watch is between Eric and and Sookie. Where is this going? Well, hopefully we’ll find out on the next episode.

By Marie Amelia / TV Columnist / Marie@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• True Blood

• HBO, Sundays at 9 p.m.

• Created by Alan Ball, based on the books by Charlaine Harris

• Starring Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Chris Bauer, Nelsan Ellis, Jim Parrack, Carrie Preston, Alexander Skarsgård, Todd Lowe, Fiona Shaw, Deborah Ann Woll and Kristin Bauer

• Bubble score: 4 out of 4

• Click here to purchase True Blood Season One on DVD.

• Click here to purchase True Blood Season Two on DVD.

• Click here to purchase True Blood Season Three on DVD.

• Click here for more information on True Blood.