Let me be very clear. These are NOT predictions. This reflection is me, simply giving voice to a theme that I think has run throughout True Blood, a theme that if the writers were intentional about, could lead to the ending I would like to see. I say could because while I still think there is hope for Eric and Sookie (more on that in the last paragraph), I have started to feel like maybe they did get sloppy with this season. Maybe they are just trying to wrap things up in little bows. For sure, they did that with Tara. She deserved a better-executed end to her story. However, if the writers weren’t being lazy it would be hard not to pick up on the theme that while we idealize our first loves, it’s the ones that follow that help us grow. Most of the time in re-visiting them, we discover we can’t go back and we realize that each relationship that followed brought us closer to true love.

If we look at characters like Lettie Mae, we see that she discovers what real love is with the Reverend (after revisiting that memory of the ass that beat her). Tara thought she loved Jason, then learned how to love with Eggs, but I think we see her really grow with Pam. Arlene made a huge mistake with René, but found real love with Terry (that she re-visited on the edge of death), and maybe has a chance to grow more by dropping her fear of vampires and letting Keith love her now. Lafayette had love with Jesus but has a second chance with James. Alcide has his wolf woman and then Sookie.

Sam thought he loved Sookie, found a real relationship with Luna and has developed a relationship leading to a family with Nicole. (He re-visited the Sookie choice at the end of last season). Will his choice be to do the mature thing and sacrifice to be with his wife and daughter? Jason thought he loved Sarah Newlin, but then found Jessica, even though it hurt his friendship with Hoyt. He learned what he didn’t want with Violet and then we have the sweet car scene where he and Jess absolutely describe loving each other, but stop short of defining it that way.

So that leaves us with two foursomes that could go lots of different ways.

Hoyt and Jessica were each other’s first loves. They didn’t have a healthy relationship. Hoyt moved on and found Bridget. Jessica moved onto Jason, and James, back to Jason…will she end up again with Hoyt? I don’t think so. It’s natural for Jessica to glamorize her first love (and glamor him, too! haha) and maybe revisit it, but the couple switch story that seems imminent would truly be lazy writing. I think Jess and Jason make each other better and help each other grow, as they both said to each other in the front seat of that car.

But what about Bill, Sookie, Pam and Eric? Let’s start with Pam. I absolutely agree Pam loves Eric but they showed them together in that flashback of their first time and she has pretty clearly been a lesbian ever since. I know she likes guys, too, but I think what she learned about herself over the years is that she prefers girls. Sookie started out with Bill as her first, followed by Eric, followed by Alcide. Eric loved Godric, Nora, Pam, the French chic and Sookie. Bill loved his dead wife, and Sookie.

When we look at the Sookie, Bill, and Eric triangle we find that they’ve all “revisited” first or past loves this season. With Bill we saw in tedious flashbacks how much he loved his first wife…at first sight. We saw that to him, loving her meant sacrificing his happiness and keeping his “darkness” away form her. He has also sacrificed himself for Sookie in this way when he didn’t kill Eric and sent him back to her in season four (when he thought he had “light” in him). So, it makes sense that he would sacrifice his life so that Sookie could have a human life and family. That’s the way Bill expresses love.

Sookie “revisited” Bill, Alcide, and Eric. Bill was Sookie’s first love but he couldn’t give her a human relationship. Alcide could give her that but was taken from her and she “revisited” him with the smelling of the jacket and driving of the truck. She also had her “moment” with Eric when her returned and she ran to him.

The big question for me, if the writer’s had a vision, which I’m not sure they did, would seem to be which relationship would help Sookie to grow? I think she’s grown all she can from Bill and his way of loving her is to sacrifice himself anyway. But Eric – Sookie ended that in season four out of fear. She was scared of embracing Eric’s darkness. She refused to grow further with him despite him letting her know that both sides of him were still in him. If I were writing these characters I would think that that’s the one relationship she still has room to grow in, a relationship where she has to truly accept all sides of a person, not just the good. But, it could be that Bill as a human, or even Sam could help her grow into being a mother/wife.

Remember, these aren’t predictions in any way, shape, or form. I think the ending will go one of two ways. I think they’ll take the easy way out and have Jess with Hoyt, Jason with Bridget, Sookie with (human?) Bill or even Sam, and Eric with Pam platonically or dead after giving up his life for her as Godric did for him – OR – judging from the previews for the next episode, it’s possible Bill dies, Sookie’s alone and we think Eric dies. We see Bill tell Eric how they take Sookie’s light away. What if Eric goes to Sookie and leaves her for her own good? The episode is titled “Love is to Die”, but if the only person that dies is Bill that’s too predictable. Hidden in the Eric/Sookie teases is the pic of Pam being silvered. What if the choice Eric faces is to die for Pam and he takes her place. We could see him silvered and taken away at the end of episode 9. The 10th episode could begin with Bill’s funeral. I’ve heard there may be a time jump in the last episode just like last season so what if in the time jump we see Sookie has been alone just like Eric wanted? …And then it ends with Eric at her door because he somehow got away from the Yakuza before dying. So we don’t get a happy Sookie/Eric ending but we get the tease of one.

If you read this far, thanks and I truly hope you get the ending that makes you happy. The one thing that’s for sure is there will definitely be people disappointed after that last episode airs. I choose to keep hope alive for Sookie and Eric and to keep hoping the writers are better than they appear. Be nice to each other and me in the comments, True Blood was True Love for all of us at one point no matter how disillusioned people become or how hurt we are when we don’t get what we want after time invested.