Did you catch last night’s True Blood , “Fire In The Hole?”
If your DVRed True Blood remains unwatched, DO NOT READ THIS POST. Go on, off with you. Go play that new goat game, or open Reddit, or watch it, because spoilers are coming fast and furious… and nowhere is safe.
In fact, if you were on Twitter last night, you were inevitably spoiled by a rather suggestive trending term… one that evidenced a shocking show twist that surprised both TV and book fans alike.
For much of the post-Truebie-kvelling-hour, the topic “Not Alcide” was trending on Twitter, because yes, viewer favorite twoey (book-speak for “two-natured”) werewolf Alcide Herveaux went on to the great Merlotte’s in the sky, a casualty of anti-supe violence.
As we’ve mentioned in earlier posts, the television adaptation of Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries has definitely veered into fanfic territory. Having a planned end that no longer matches up with the books is one factor, and another is that the conclusion of the series proved incredibly unpopular with fans .
In romance novel speak, Sookie’s “HEA” (happy ever after) breaks all the rules of the genre — and in a way that most fans didn’t appreciate. (Oddly, the book is titled Dead Ever After , which seems to hint at an awareness of the trope and its reversal.)
So the big question is how the series will handle the fan schism… and really, whether Sookie will wind up with Bill, Sam, or Eric. As such, Alcide’s on-screen avatar, Joe Manganiello, believed the only logical conclusion was to kill Herveaux off as part of the wrap.
Manganiello explained to HBO why he knew Alcide was going to buy the ranch:
“I called it pretty early on. As soon as Sookie and Alcide got together, I remember turning to a friend and saying, ‘I’m dead.’ You can’t go anywhere from that; she needs to settle up with Bill and Eric. You can’t have her break Alcide’s heart, because then the audience is going to be angry with her for breaking the nice guy’s heart. I told my friend, ‘I bet you everything I own that I’m dead.’”
He continues:
“The other side of it is, if you look at all the other characters, Alcide no longer has anything to do with the story. If you talk about characters that you could kill and make an impact with, I was probably No. 1 on that list. Why would you keep me around? All Alcide ever did was get in the way. I had dinner with [showrunner] Brian Buckner and he cited all the same reasons I just told you.”
Just like fans, though, Manganiello isn’t so keen on Sookie’s potential fate. He adds:
“Yeah! I would have been like, ‘Here, drink this drink.’ And I would have roofied it and then stuck her on a plane and then we’d be gone. She would have woken up in some tropical place and never thought of crazy vampire town ever again. ‘Sookie and Alcide go to Bermuda’ — that’s my spin-off show.”
With Alcide out of the picture, how do you think True Blood will end? Is there any way the show can be true to the ending of the books and remain watchable?
[Image: True Blood, HBO]