As Season 3 draws to a close, I’d like to offer a salute to the greatest villain in True Blood history: Russell Edgington. I assume that Episode 11 will be the last time we’ll have seen the Vampire King in all his campy splendor, as the character is just too God-awful-evil to live, so while the maniacal menace is still drawing breath, I offer him this meager article of tribute.
It wasn’t clear until about half way through the season that Russell would be our main antagonist, but once he was in the spotlight, he stole the show. Played by the beloved (and Tony-award winning) stage actor Denis O’Hare, Russell chewed scenery with the pleasure and ease of the matinee idols of old.
Not only did Russell cut through the hopes and dreams of the AVL like a Ginsu knife, he also dispatched the Magister (a 1,200 year old monster who was previously the most frightening entity on the show), robbed Queen Sophie-Anne of her power, and gave Eric Northman a reason for doing something other than changing his hairdo or pining for Sookie Stackhouse.
So, Russell Edgington, we salute you (and your urn of goop), and hope our next Big Bad can live up to the sinister standard you’ve set on the show. You are to True Blood what Mayor Wilkins was to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: a whimsical madman who delights in his dark work. You will be missed.
***WARNING: SPOILERS MAY BE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR***
Bill arrives at Fangtasia looking for Sookie and is greeted with a face full of silver spray. Does anyone else find it funny that a character named Pam is using a canister weapon? Oh, I slay me.
Yvetta the stripper, still bitter over being left out of Eric’s will, frees Sookie and complicates matters for everyone. The two get upstairs just in time to restrain Pam before she can cause Bill further harm. She reveals that Sookie was going to be a gift for Russell.
Jesus and Lafayette come down off of their V high and discuss their hallucinations. Jesus is eager to do more, but Lafayette stops him, which prompts a vicious residual hallucination in the form of Jesus’ face temporarily looking like a voodoo demon’s. Lafayette quickly gets rid of Jesus, but never tells him why. Later, Lafayette imagines that his various religious figurines are talking to him—perhaps the V has shown him the path to a plotline of his very own.
Crystal explains being a werepanther to Jason, which he doesn’t take well. In fact, the topic is hardly explored at all. Jason storms out with his shotgun in search of his sister. At home, I wonder why we got into these stupid werepanthers at all if they were just going to be a footnote on the show? How aggravating
Jessica confesses the murder of the trucker to Hoyt who doesn’t seem all that broken up over it. It’s safe to say the pair are back together—Hoyt even likes being drained like a juice box in the name of vampire love. I rejoice in their reunion and would fully endorse a vampiric Hoyt.
Eric finds Russell in a museum, ‘cause that’s where ancient vampires chill out, I guess. He explains to the King that he murdered Talbot as part of his revenge for the slaughter of his Viking family. Russell hardly sees how the slaying of Talbot was a fair exchange, and moves in for the kill. Just as Edgington is about to deliver the deathblow, Eric makes him an offer he can’t refuse: “I can offer you the sun,” he says, striking the perfect nerve in Russell’s archetypically villainous psyche. Eric then receives a call from Pam saying that Bill and Sookie have escaped. As both Eric and Russell can fly at super speed, neither are concerned.
Sam Merlotte storms into his own bar in true Joe-Lee fashion, dispensing his drunken misery and rage to both patron and employee alike. After seriously offending Arlene and Holly (who walk off the job), and Terry, who seems especially hurt at being called a “shell-shocked motherf***er,” Sam disowns Tommy. Even though Tommy has lived with a pair of alcoholics since birth, he’s not used to this kind of treatment from his benevolent older brother, and takes the drunken ramblings to heart.
Hoyt’s ex-girlfriend Summer goes to see Maxine Fortenberry, his overbearing mother, and has a good cry over being unable to win over Hoyt’s affections—even with baked goods and the promise of her virginity. Maxine refuses to admit the war’s lost and Alan Ball lets us know we haven’t seen the last of Summer or Mrs. Fortenberry.
After discussing what a normal life for them might be like (with Bill teaching third grade?), Sookie and Bill’s car is stopped by Russell and Eric and the four drive back to Fangtasia. Oh yeah, remembers Bill, they can both fly at super speed. Note: He actually doesn’t remember that. But you think it might have occurred to him to hide a little better.
After having a good cry at Eggs’ grave, Tara confronts Sheriff Bellefleur at Merlotte’s, where Sam is waiting his own tables. After telling Andy that she knows the truth about Eggs’ death, Tara stands by while Sam kicks everyone out of the restaurant, and the two have a good ol’ fashioned screw-fest reminiscent of season one. Meanwhile, Tommy breaks into the safe in Sam’s office as revenge. Since this is the fourth or fifth time this has happened on the show, I think Sam should consider getting a new security system.
Holly and Arlene perform some kind of half-assed Wiccan abortion that doesn’t end up working. Moral: Never go to the crazy new Wiccan waitress with the pigtails to kill your baby. Oh, if only Miss Jeanette were still alive—she looked like she knew a thing or two about killin’ babies. Needles to say, Terry is overjoyed that his (read: Rene’s) baby survived the apparent miscarriage. Arlene is less than thrilled.
After doing a terrible job at finding his sister, and threatening a V-using Kitch Maynard, Jason returns home to Crystal and accepts her werepantherness. She convinces him to go back to Hotshot with her and stop the DEA from raiding the werepanther hideout. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible.
Back at Fangtasia, Russell isn’t buying the whole fairies-let-you-walk-in-the-sun thing. However, once Bill gets on board, and Eric agrees to be the first to sample Sookie’s blood and give it a try, he’s convinced. Helplessly, Sookie is drained by Russell and Eric while Bill watches in horror. He realizes his dreams of teaching third grade might be crushed forever.
Eric walks out into the daylight and seems fine (at least from what the club’s security cameras show). He begins to blister almost instantaneously, but the ruse has worked long enough to fool Russell. The King joins Eric in the sun, and just as Eric’s injuries are exposed, Russell gets a pair of silver handcuffs slapped on him, anchoring him to the smoldering Viking.
“Be brave,” Eric tells him. “We die together.”
Russell screams.
Episode Rating: 9.0/10. They don’t get much better than this. The werepanthers weigh down what otherwise would have been a perfect episode.
