Review - True Blood Season 4 Episode 3 If You Love Me, Why Am I Dyin'?

I realized that I was spending far too much time reviewing True Blood, so I decided to cut down on my reviews by not fully recapping the stuff I didn't like or didn't care for. For "If You Love Me, Why Am I Dyin'?" there was very little I liked, so I'll keep it short. The episode displayed True Blood's normal tendencies to a high degree, with many, many storylines but only a few that actually have something to look forward to. Basically, half the episode is relegated to the "this again?" or "why does this matter?" categories while the other half keeps us interested and has actual content to work with in future episodes.

The spell Marnie put on Eric last week led the episode in a fun direction. Without his memory, Eric is a nice, innocent guy who doesn't know what to do with himself. Alexander Skarsgard is quite good in this role, extending his charm from bad guy Eric to good guy Eric. This makes for lots of funny scenes, as Sookie slowly realizes that this Eric is much easier to control than the old one. Of course, Eric still has his base urges, biting and killing Sookie's fairy godmother who, to be honest, didn't seem like much help anyway, and the episode ends on a hilarious, "Sorry."

Since Eric is in trouble, Pam got a lot to do, first explaining to Sookie that Bill likely setup Eric and then trying to deal with the Wiccans. In the end, she cuts a deal with Tara and Jesus to not go after the group as long as they bring Marnie to reverse the spell. But given the way Marnie was so invested in this spirit that possessed her, that likely won't happen without a big fight. As always, Pam had the funniest lines, so it was a pleasure to have more of her than usual.

There was one last thing I liked in the episode, Jessica's talk with Bill to begin the episode. It's a sweet moment, the vampire version of a father-daughter talk, and it allows Bill to reflect on his deception with Sookie. Also, Jessica's plot finally moves forward a bit when she glamors Hoyt, who is upset that she drank someone else's blood. This opens up a dangerous can of worms which I'm sure will be opened further as the season progresses. And that doll business seems pretty spooky too.

Sadly, the rest of the episode was mired in irrelevance: Hotshot people being crazy while Jason dies, Andy being addicted, Tommy being bad, random meetup with Alcide and Debbie, Bill and Portia hooking up, Arlene worry. All this stuff is probably relevant later on, but right now it all seems like a big chore to watch these snippets of plots which hardly seem important. What I would prefer is if they concentrated these plots in one episode for once so we get lots of development in one week instead of waiting half a season to see what happens.

Score: 8.4/10