True Blood: Looking Ahead and Behind

Ausiello on the continuing death march-

Question: So, I’m gonna make the Smurf in your new office disappear by magic if you don’t give us a clue about who’s gonna die on True Blood. —Marie
Ausiello: In light of Tommy’s untimely demise this past Sunday, I think you mean who else is gonna die. And for an answer to that question, I invite you to hop in my time machine and travel back to Comic-Con ’11. It was there that EP Alan Ball told me, “We will lose a handful of major characters towards the end of the season, unfortunately.” Meanwhile, I have to wonder whether one of those major characters is featured in this article.

Not much of a spoiler since he's #1 in the dead pool on a lot of boards.Wake me if it's Holly so I can celebrate and someone has to "meet their maker" as Ball said (new Vamp in town?) and Nan is DUN.  

                                                              Fang Squad                                                                                    
I don't know how I missed this from TV Guide's interview with Todd Lowe-

Whether Terry will be able to knock some sense into the Bon Temps' sheriff remains to be seen. "That will be Andy's decision, ultimately," Lowe adds. "But Terry is going to spell it out for him."
Terry will also be dealing with problems of his own when Patrick (Scott Foley), an old army buddy, arrives in the season finale. "He looked [Terry] up" Lowe explains, "He found him and I guess he has something to say and something to talk about. You don't just wander in and find someone at their workplace unless you have something important to share with him."
Though their encounter in the finale will be brief, Foley is expected to return in a bigger capacity next season. Lowe hopes this means viewers will see flashbacks to Terry's time in the war. "I'd like to maybe trim my beard and see Terry look a little younger," he says. "I'd like to see where his post-traumatic stress disorder actually came from. Was it a series of events? Was it a friend or life that was lost in front of him? Was it someone's life that he took? I'd like to see where that goes and see why Terry is so screwed up.""I have a feeling it's going to go kind of dark," he adds. "I got a hint from [executive producer] Alan Ball that we're going to see a little darker side to Terry."
They'll be plenty of dark as the HBO series heads into the season finale, which takes place during Halloween — a holiday you'd expect to inspire even more craziness given all the supernaturals running around. "Wouldn't you think it'd be just a little bit anticlimactic with all this other stuff going on?" Lowe counters. "But I guess the people of Bon Temps find a way to celebrate the Halloween holiday."

Marshall Allman Talks Tommy to EW

Fans have long been expecting Tommy, Sam’s screw-up brother, to exit the show. But even if you were one of the viewers who’d hoped it’d happen sooner, Marshall Allman’s death scene had to move you. At least that’s what the actor, who knows Tommy had haters, hopes. He admits it’s tough playing a polarizing character.

“To act, no matter how the character is, you have to love and have compassion for the character you’re playing,” he tells EW. “You can’t judge a character that you’re playing because then you’re fighting against doing what the character’s doing. People were pretty vocal about not liking Tommy, and I would have to understand and just hope that the True Bloodteam would give Tommy some sort of redemption so that he’s not just hated and forgotten, and people are just like, ‘Well, glad he’s dead.’ At this point, at least it’s not pure hate. That’s all I’m grateful for.” He laughs. “I was so honored that they would give me that time in the show. I love Tommy so much, and for other people to see him the way I see him would be a joy. And to all the Tommy fans who believed in him from day one, it’s like a rebel crew of people, they’ve got a soft place in my heart.”

Producers told him early in the season Tommy’s end was near. “I was sad, but then I was seeing where the story line was going, I don’t know that Tommy could ever go on forever,” he says. “When I saw the writing that they were doing for me, I was like, ‘Man, if Tommy’s gonna go out, this is a really great way to go out.’ The reason why it was perfect is because Tommy tried to do good, but then he messed up. He tried to defend Sam, but he didn’t hold on to the shift to make them think Sam had died. He failed at being a martyr, which is perfect for Tommy. He messed that up, too.”

Why did Tommy make so many bad decisions? The answer is in the advice Allman gave costars Sam Trammell (Sam) and Dale Raoul (Maxine Fortenberry) when it came time for them to act as if Tommy had shifted into their characters. “All I gave them was that through everything that Tommy’s doing, whether it’s good or bad, he’s always got this junkie part of him that gets a high off the adrenaline,” Allman says. “And that’s what turns [his] decision-maker off. He’s more about the adrenaline of the moment than he is about the wisdom of is this a good decision.“

The most difficult part of acting the actual death scene was getting the biology right. “Basically his insides had exploded. How does that physically look, what was shutting down at what times, and the breathing — that was mainly the challenge of the scene,” Allman says. “The heart, what Tommy says, that’s what I’ve been feeling for two years working on the character. Caring about Sam and wanting a family — that part was easy. And like any great scene with Tommy, he has some self-loathing. So it was nice that there was a little bit of comedy, a little self-effacing humor. It was just a beautiful scene.” (For that, he’s grateful to writer Nancy Oliver.

Allman has become somewhat of an expert on death scenes. “There’s a running joke amongst some of my friends. They’re like, ‘You die in everything,’” he says. That includes as a guest star on Cold Case, Ghost Whisperer, Law & Order: SVU, and Grey’s Anatomy, as well as in the 2005 Bruce Willis film Hostage. “That was a pretty epic death scene, too. That was when Ben Foster threw me over a 40-foot railing and I plunged to my death in my brother’s arms,” he says. “It was the most insane setup with flames, water, and a crane, and they’re like, ‘This is a very expensive shot,’ and when we cut, they’re on a megaphone like, ‘Did you move?’ The underlying pressure is, ‘You better not have moved, because if we have to do it again, you’re gonna cost us time and money.’ That’s intense. If any actors need advice on how to die on camera, I’m right there. It varies from situation to situation.” The easiest kind of exit, he jokes, is “when you die off-camera and others characters announce your death in a really dramatic way with some sort of pop song orchestrating the emotion of the scene.” The next easiest is “when they cut away fast,” he says. Also a piece of cake: Something like what happened to his character on Prison Break. “We just kinda didn’t really hear from him anymore. So that was pretty easy,” he cracks. “Unemployment is a lot easier than a death scene. No, I’m just kidding, unemployment is harder than a death scene.”

Hopefully, he won’t have to worry about that. He has three movies awaiting release, including the Billy Bob Thornton-directed Jayne Mansfield’s Car with Thornton, Robert Duvall, Kevin Bacon, and Robert Patrick. For more updates, follow him on Twitter, where he’s listed five rules for Tommy’s funeral. (Sample: “Jessica must attend, clothing: minimal.”)

Meredith Woerner's Pros and Cons of "Burning Down the House". More photos, vids at the link.

True Blood lets the leather-jacketed, supernatural war of Louisiana begin!

Pro: Nan loses her shit, pushes over all of the cameras (which doesn't actually turn them off) and kills one of her Marnie Possessed Vampire Sheriffs with a pencil. DEATH BY PENCIL. Anyone else noticing that the vampire deaths are getting a lot less spluttery than the first time we witnessed Sookie stake that long haired vamp at Fangtasia?

Pro: I'm pretty sure in the collection of important Eric memories I caught the Talbot death scene and a Russell Edgington meet-and-greet. Since True Blood is usually so light handed at the foreshadowing I think we can all assume that the greatest vampire of all times is about to head back to Bon Temps. 

Con: ALICIDE IS STILL THERE ON TOMMY'S DEATHBED TELLING HIM ABOUT HEAVEN. At what point is Sam going to turn to Alcide and say, "I'M SORRY WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU AGAIN?" Hey Alcide, stop bogarting Tommy's death. OK?

Pro: Fort Bellefleur is a real fort. I did not see this coming.

some caps are from Shadow of Reflection


From THR, seems like an excuse to kill off Tommy to me-

"Death is a part of the life of this show, so characters do die," the exec producer tells THR. 

On Sunday’s episode of HBO’s True Blood, the series said goodbye to Tommy Mickens (Marshall Allman) in a very dramatic scene in which he made peace with his brother, Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell). Since last season, viewers knew Tommy to be part conman, part seeker for where he belonged in life. In the end, he skinwalked as Sam to spare his brother from the beating that ultimately took his life.

“I think we needed to redeem Tommy at the end,” True Blood’s executive producer and writer, Alexander Woo, tells The Hollywood Reporter about the manner in which they ended Tommy’s story line.

“Despite all the terrible things he does, we always felt he had a good heart on the inside,” Woo adds. “He has done so many things that have hurt others and hurtful to himself, but ultimately we thought it was important to emphasize the basic humanity at the bottom of that character.”

The Hollywood Reporter: When you’re choosing to kill off a character, what is the thought process among the producers and writers?

Alexander Woo: It’s not something we take lightly at all. As writers and fans of the show, you get to know these characters as real people. So, saying goodbye to them when you’ve gotten to know them for a period of years is never easy. There is a lot of discussion about whether to do it and how to do it. This is a vampire show. Death is a part of the life of this show, so characters do die. The heart of the show is always going to be in Bon Temps with this small core group of characters that we have. So often when we lose a character, we feel it from the point of view of our main characters.

THR: Going forward, how will Tommy’s death affect Sam?

Woo: Sam has a lot of heavy stuff to deal with. He went out in search of his family. And because he went out if search for his family, they’re all dead, which of course is quite a heavy burden for him to carry and it’s something he’s going to have to come to grips with.

THR: When a death like this happens, is that a way for the producers to send some kind of message to the fans?

Woo: I wouldn’t say explicitly, but implicitly when we say goodbye to characters and have them die, it conveys a world where things can happen very suddenly and life changes happen very quickly just like real life. Game of Thrones, I think, shows that beautifully this season. And I think that viewers have grown to appreciate and expect to be surprised and to have a show where their relationships with characters in the show reflect their relationships with people in the real world. And life-changing experiences happen sometimes overnight, sometimes not necessarily for great reasons, sometimes for real terrible reasons. And I think it would be unrealistic and a disservice to the viewers if we just saved everyone all the time.

THR: Can we expect some major casualties in the final two episodes?

Woo: Yeah… How about that? No one is safe. Essentially, the vampires and witches are going to war and it’s not going to be a war without casualties.

Soul of Fire

Marnie and her hostages brace for the vampire attack on Moon Goddess Emporium






 From the HDroom
True Blood danced the line between cool and campy in last night's episode 'Burning Down the House' when Bill, Jessica, Eric and Nan showed up at Marne's hideout looking like they stepped off the set of The Matrix. Armed to the teeth including an RPG rocket launcher, the fearless undead foursome are out for witch blood no matter the cost.

That RPG will get fired directly at Marne by Nan according to the preview trailer for 'Soul of Fire,' next week's new episode of True Blood that marks the second-to-last in this season. The trailer also shows where Sookie, Tara and the others vanished to after Marne's spell, and it won't make the vampires' execution mission any easier.

Some of the other subplots are teased in the trailer as well. Sam's anger management issues are put to the test following the heroic/stupid death of Tommy. He's armed again, and we already know he's not afraid to pull the trigger.

Debbie, meanwhile, looks ready to take her flirting with wolf pack leader Marcus to the next level. Alcide could end up with some anger management issues of his own.

What could really turn the tables in the war between vampires and witches is the demon within Jesus. We caught a glimpse of it as Jesus broke through Marne's force field spell. The trailer brings back the demon complete with fire breathing power, likely what the episode's name is referring to.

True Blood “Soul of Fire”” Season 4 Episode 11 – As the Wiccan-vampire standoff reaches a critical juncture, Sookie (Anna Paquin) summons her faerie powers to prevent Marnie (Fiona Shaw) from bewitching Bill (Stephen Moyer), Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) and Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten) into a suicide march, while Jesus (Kevin Alejandro) casts a secret spell designed to un-bind Marnie/Antonia and break the witch’s deadly defenses. Sam (Sam Trammell) settles a score with Marcus (Dan Buran); Alcide (Joe Manganiello) confronts Debbie (Brit Morgan) about her allegiances; Andy (Chris Bauer) finds unexpected passion in the forest; Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) is consumed by the past.