My Review of True Blood's 4x11: "Soul Of Fire"

Written by Mark Hudis
Directed by Michael Lehmann

Marnie (to Bill): “No-one lives forever, not even you.”

And thanks to this episode, neither do you, Marnie. Come on, there was no way in hell Marnie was going to make it out of this season alive but like with Tommy last week, even I thought Marnie’s death would occur in the last episode but what the hell? Bill brought it a week forward because that’s the kind of guy he is.

It’s amazing that in the last two episodes, the writers have succeeded in defining a distinction between Marnie and Antonia, even if it turned the former from a mousey store owner to a psychotic super bitch as a result.

Marnie seemed to take too much delight in inflicting pain this week. When Casey tried to escape from the Moon Goddess Emporium, Marnie killed her and spent most of the episode trying to justify her actions to her increasingly disillusioned coven. Only Roy was truly loyal to her in the end and it cost him his life. Not that he’ll be missed at all.

Also when Marnie wasn’t killing Casey, she was also doing her best to use her remaining vampire lackeys to take out Bill, Eric, Jessica and Pam and when that failed, she used Sookie in a desperate bid to get both Bill and Eric to stake themselves. I guess we can thank Pam’s hotheadedness from preventing that plan of Marnie’s being completed.

And then there was her attempts of killing Sookie with fire after the latter mucked up her spell on the vampires again. I really wished that during those scenes Sookie tried to use her fairy powers to save herself but considering that Jesus rose to the occasion and broke the bond between Marnie and Antonia, I can sort of give that scene a pass to a degree.

I’m glad that Antonia got to escape Marnie’s grasp and that through Lafayette everyone were still reminded that it was Marnie who went off the deep end but I also loved that Jesus summoned his own demon in order to do good in this episode. Please don’t kill Jesus off writers? I want that sexy brujo to make it into the next season, okay?

As for Marnie’s death, well a hail of bullets is a surprising move for a vampire. Considering that Eric had no problem ripping Roy’s heart out, I was actually surprised that Bill hadn’t chosen a more violent method for getting rid of his witchy problem. Of course, even in death Marnie is annoyingly resourceful.

I wasn’t surprised that she possessed Lafayette at the end of the episode but along with Jesus, I don’t want Lafayette to become another casualty in Marnie’s vendetta against the vampires. Maybe Sookie will be able to hinder Marnie once again in the next episode, eh?

Speaking of hindrances – ‘fucking Sookie?’ Bill, Eric and Pam might have had points about Sookie’s abilities for getting herself into trouble but seeing as they’re usually the cause of it; it’s a bit rich for any of them to go there. I loved that Jason called them on their crap because someone sure as hell had to, though I did feel a little bit sorry much later in the story when Eric wouldn’t Pam explain herself.

However getting back to Jason, I liked him in this episode again. He stopped innocent people from getting killed the only way he could, tried to keep our main vampires from being sucked into Marnie’s sunlight barrier and seemed a lot better towards Jessica towards the end of the episode as well. All in all, hard to fault Jason this week.

Another two people I cannot fault this week were Sam and Alcide. Thanks to the both of them, Marcus is dead and I cannot be any happier with that outcome if I tried. Marcus didn’t go down without a fight and in the end, it was actually Alcide who wound up killing him but thank feck he’s finally off our screens.

What’s interesting about Marcus’s death is the fact that it now had two different outcomes for different relationships. For Sam, he was able to avenge Tommy and can now be in a relationship with Luna without having to worry about Marcus sticking his paws in. Similarly, Luna can also raise her daughter without Marcus attempting to snatch her anymore.

As for Alcide and Debbie, it had the opposite effect. They were always heading for a split but Debbie being unfaithful with Marcus meant that Alcide abjured her. I have to admit, while I totally don’t blame Alcide for abjuring Debbie, I actually felt a bit sorry for her in this episode.

She realised that Alcide was a better man than Marcus and also knew that she needed to get off the V and stay off it but because of bad timing and choices on her part, everything went wrong for her and I have a feeling that Debbie’s going to take it out on one person next week and that person won’t be Alcide.

Last but not least – Andy had sex with a fairy? I really hope to hell that Maurella is utilised far better on this show than Claudine was (and that we get Claude back) but it did seem reckless of Andy to swear an oath to her. I have a feeling that Andy will more than likely come to regret his promise to her. As for Arlene, I get why she didn’t believe Andy but it did seem a little off too, considering that she recently witnessed an exorcism.

Also in “Soul Of Fire”

This is the first time the main villain of the season has been killed in the penultimate episode, though Marnie will obviously factor in the finale.

Lafayette (to Sookie/Tara/Holly/Jesus, re Antonia): “Marnie just puked a bitch out.”

I know she was under pressure, but wasn’t it odd that Marnie didn’t check on Jesus before his demon came? She was shadowing him when he was getting ingredients to help Casey.

Antonia (to Marnie): “You murdered an innocent, one of our own. Evil has blossomed in you. Our time together has come to an end.”

Marnie: “I’m not a freak.”
Sookie: “I just meant I feel misunderstood. Sometimes picked on even. You just want a connection.”
Holly: “And you’ve got it. We’re all on your side. We’re your friends.”

Last week Jesus talked about Marnie being his teacher and this week, Holly talked about how Marnie had met her kids and spent time with her at Thanksgiving. Maybe these were things we should’ve seen during the course of the season.

Bill (re Sookie): “Let the girl go.”
Marnie: “Oh, so you’d like to negotiate?”

Jesus (to Lafayette): “Where we’re going right now is deep and you may see or hear things you don’t want to.”

Jesus had to be cut and tied up with Marnie’s scarf in order to sever the connection between Marnie and Antonia.

Debbie: “It’s okay, we can fix this.”
Alcide: “Debbie Pelt.”
Debbie: “Huh?”
Alcide: “I abjure you.”

Marnie (to Sookie): “I wish for everyone to leave here alive. I don’t guarantee it.”

Standout music: Witch’s “Soul Of Fire”.

Tara: “I fucking quit this group.”

Jason: “So, I drank your blood again.”
Jessica: “It was either that or die.”

Chronology: From where “Burning Down The House” left off and Halloween is approaching.

As a penultimate episode, “Soul Of Fire” was solid. We thankfully were rid of two terribly annoying characters in Marcus and Roy, Marnie’s death made sense and while she’s obviously cause chaos through Lafayette, it’s also relieving to know that the fairy stuff is re-entering the mix as well. I suspect I might be in a minority with that last statement though.

Rating: 9 out of 10