Written by Craig Chester
Directed by Howard Deutch
Lafayette (to Jessica): “Did it ever fucking occur to you that maybe I want a piece of happiness too?”
I think the sad answer was that before Lafayette even realised it, it was a case of ‘probably not’ during his argument with Jessica. However there’s no escaping the fact that while he was right to point out to Jessica to let James go if she didn’t love him, Lafayette also had sex with James while he was still with Jessica.
I’m not sorry to see Jessica and James actually break up. It has been overdue for Lafayette to get some happiness and while I’m not excusing his actions, I do think James could be better suited to Lafayette than Jessica at the moment. Also in order to further prove that maybe Jessica’s heart wasn’t that into James, she did end up having sex with Jason too as Violet overhead the whole thing.
That led to another point – Violet. Of all the new vampires carried over from the previous season, she hasn’t always been the most likeable but I actually felt like she was making a genuine effort in this episode – consoling Sookie over Alcide, making sure that Sam and Nicole got home safely and actually not acting like a jealous girlfriend when Jason wanted to comfort Jessica. Too bad now it looks like she’s going to end up doing something rash to get back at Jessica though.
The theme of this episode seemed to be ‘fuck death’. By that it meant having Lafayette, James, Jackson and Jenny throwing a party to celebrating the lives the recently deceased had led rather than mourning their loss. Essentially it was actually a nice gesture with the most successful integration of vampires and humans so far in the series but on the other hand, I sort of got where Nicole was coming from.
She didn’t exactly approve of the idea of the party and made that clear after a desperate Lettie Mae stabbed Willa for more vampire blood/Tara hallucinations. That doesn’t mean that I agree with Nicole but given how nondescript she’s been so far this season (and arguably in general), at least she finally got to have a moment where she stood out for once as a character.
Getting back to the grief – remember I said that I didn’t buy Sookie and Arlene as friends in the past? Well, this episode again made me eat my words. Arlene’s comforting advice to Sookie was actually the very thing the latter needed and it made me appreciate the former a lot more as a character. Also, Arlene can actually be a fun drunk too, which I also didn’t expect.
As for Sookie – I liked the last scene where she got to wear Alcide’s jacket as solace and I quite her scenes with Bill at the party too. I think the scenes they’ve had in the last few episodes have been the best ones they’ve had since the first two seasons. It’s too bad now that Bill also seems to have gotten Hep V. At this rate, will any vampire be immune from it?
Keeping with the Hep V plot – Eric and Pam’s trip to Dallas was a hoot. From the garish Republican outfits (Eric’s especially) to meeting Sarah’s vampire/infected sister, Amber (an enjoyable guest character) to the whole Yakuza showing up and killing Sarah's parents at a George Bush party, I really could’ve done with some more of their scenes together. Eric even got close to taking out Sarah but it seems the newly converted Buddhist has the lives of a cat given that she just about managed to escape with her life here. Still there are five more episodes for Eric to take her out though.
Also in “Lost Cause”
I was actually surprised that we didn’t get to see Hoyt in this episode but given that Maxine and Alcide have yet to be buried, maybe that’s not so shocking after all.
Willa (to Pam, re Eric): “He may be my maker but he sure as fuck didn’t raise me. Tara did. She was the one who taught me how to feed and how to control my impulses. He left me and you left her when we needed you the most.”
Eric actually released Willa upon her request and seemed to take it well when she refused to help kill Sarah. However, he wasn’t keen on having sex with Ginger.
Ginger: “Do you know what a sex slave is without the sex?”
Pam: “A slave.”
Jenny: “I know what you’re probably thinking honey but death doesn’t have to be a sad thing.”
Sookie: “Actually it does. Death is inherently sad.”
We got some more flashbacks with Bill, highlighting a deserter’s past but to be honest, they were some of the dreariest ones we’ve had with him.
Amber (re Sarah): “Are you gonna kill her?”
Eric: “There’s a real good chance that’s what’s gonna go down.”
Amber: “Then you can count me in.”
Pam: “I like her. I like you.”
Arlene (re Alcide): “You miss him?”
Sookie: “How can I miss someone I don’t believe is dead?”
Andy’s proposal to Holly was actually pretty sweet, Jason tried to stop Adylin and Wade from having sex, Eric has Stage 2 Hep V and Keith was flirting with Arlene in this episode.
Pam (to Eric): “Oh my God. I’m a Republicunt.”
Standout music: Beck’s “Lost Cause”.
Sarah: “I’m not a monster. I’m a Buddhist.”
Chronology: From where “Death Is Not The End” left off.
“Lost Cause” was another solid return to form. It was nice actually see a community that went from irrational blaming Sookie for their supernatural woes to actually accepting her as one of them while the whole Yakuza is a lot better than the Hep V vampires or Vince from the first four episodes of the season. Basically, the show has improved for now.
Rating: 8 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment