This week surprised me a great deal on True Blood. I'd resigned myself to ending out the series by sucking harder than a $400 Dyson, but instead it showed that sometime there are things that the show actually does do better than the books.

Welp, maybe better is a strong word. Let's say "differently to obvious benefit" instead. The decision to keep Lafayette alive, for example, is an undeniably good idea. Television Sam is a lot more likeable than book Sam, as well, and Sookie works much better with Alcide onscreen than she ever did in print, honestly.

The real triumph, though, is Arlene. In the books, Arlene is an objectively terrible and trashy person who deserves every bad thing that happens to her. Thanks to some good writing and Carrie Preston's portrayal, though, Arlene manages to be an absolutely awesome character that transcends her surroundings without ever losing the flaws that made her real under Charlaine Harris' pen.

Trapped underneath Fangtasia, she consoles and encourages her children's fourth-grade teacher-turned-Hep-V-infected vampire to free her and her friends in honestly one of the best scenes in the entire series. It's utterly ridiculous, but it really brings home the human aspect of the show in a way that hasn't been scene since Stephen Root played Eddie the sad, gay vampire. That's the beauty of this week's episode: it showed viewers why it was worth making a show out of the books in the first place.

Another scene produces our song for the week. The episode is called "I Found You" after an old jazz blah-blah-blah; I couldn't care less if they paid me. You know what song really defines this episode? "Stick to My Guns" by the Genders.

The song plays as a scared Bon Temps decides to raid the police station while the main cast is away. Claiming "Second Amendment rights," the mob acquires new weaponry to take arms against the coming vampire apocalypse.

It's honestly a silly scene full of people vastly unqualified to be near firearms being allowed to shoot them at will. And yet, it sort of sums up the whole show at this point. It's an anthem to taking the law into your own hands and doing what thou wilst. That's a pretty good moral for the story at this point, I feel.

Oh, and just for fun... "Stick to my Guns" came out seven years ago when True Blood first aired. I don't think that's a coincidence. I think the show is trying to say that there's a light at the end.

Jef has a new story, a tale of headless strippers and The Rolling Stones, available now in Broken Mirrors, Fractured Minds. You can also connect with him on Facebook.

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