If you still haven’t watched last night’s episode of True Blood, because you’re an “adult” or you “gave up on that stupid show three seasons ago like most sane people,” get caught up and then read my Pulitzer-considered recap. Once you’re done with that, we can proceed with the news that TV Guide ran right after “Fire in the Hole” concluded on HBO, as everyone’s favorite TV schedule and listings organizers were able to speak with True Blood star Joe Manganiello to get his thoughts on being killed off just three episodes into the final season. Yes, it’s official, there’s no magic or trickery that is going to bring Alcide Herveaux back from werewolf heaven.
Alcide’s death makes sense when you read Manganiello’s take on it, at least from the perspective of making it easier for Sookie Stackhouse to figure out which guy she’s going to end up with after leading on every living, breathing male creature in Bon Temps for six seasons. Still, Alcide deserved a lot better ending than the one he got. (UPDATE: I’m no longer upset for Joe Manganiello, now that he’s dating Sofia Vergara.)
When did you find out that Alcide would die so soon into the final season?
Joe Manganiello: When I read the script for the finale of last year, I called it. I put it down and I was like, “Oh, Alcide and Sookie are together? They’re going to kill me.” Story-wise, you can’t have her break his heart because then the audience isn’t going to side with her. You have to get her to Bill and Eric because they have to tie up the A and B plot. If you’re looking at a show like this where they’re looking for characters to help the show be vital, meaning you can kill off main characters and all of a sudden anyone can be killed off at any time, there is no one else my character is connected to except for Sam (Sam Trammell). So by default, I did some quick math in my head and was like, “They’re going to kill me really quickly.” (Via TV Guide)
This makes perfect sense from a story perspective, except it’s still the laziest f*cking solution they could have come up with. Basically, after Alcide’s pathetic Season 6 story that somehow wrapped up with him dating Sookie, the True Blood writers had two things they could do with him – Kill him off quick and easy or draw out the inevitability of him losing Sookie. I don’t blame them for killing Alcide off this fast, but the way they did it was pretty lousy. At least he got to die on camera, though, because Rutina Wesley didn’t even get that respect when Tara Thornton was killed off in the first episode of this season. (You know, if she’s dead.)
How do you feel about the way in which Alcide was killed off?
Manganiello: Getting shot in the head by some nameless, faceless hillbilly, dying naked in the woods on the ground and then being in Malibu when it was about 30 degrees out and try not to shiver? [Laughs] That’s not exactly how I saw it going down, but I guess it’s better than giving one of the vampires the bragging rights.
That’s what’s really the biggest load of crap about Alcide’s death. There was no honor in it. He took two bullets, one to the heart and one to the head, from two schmucks in the bushes. In fact, I didn’t even think about that in my recap last night. We just got done watching half of the idiot humans in Bon Temps learn how to shoot guns and somehow these a-holes not only mastered their aim, but they also managed to pop the jacked wolfman twice in the most lethal spots from within shrubbery. At least give me a JFK conspiracy theory that there was a Magneto vampire hiding in the trees, because those idiots couldn’t even shoot at Sam when he turned into an owl, of all f*cking animals.
Bottom line – Alcide should have died protecting Sookie, which I guess he kind of did, if the point was that those humans had the worst-but-luckiest aim. If Alcide had taken a bullet for Sookie, she would have felt like crap for not loving him as much, and she deserves that.
So what about the odds of the male characters remaining ending up with Sookie? I’m pretty sure Bill is even money at this point, Eric Northman probably jumps up to 3-1 and Sam Merlotte is the longshot at 10-1, because he’s Sam and he’s a nerd. What does the guy who clearly can’t leak spoilers think about that?
With Alcide’s death, do you think this opens up the door for Sookie to end up with Bill?
Manganiello: I think it paves the way for resolution of those plot lines going back to Season 1. I don’t know if it paves the way for her to wind up with somebody, but it definitely paves the way for resolution. You have to have some sort of tie-up one way or the other, whether that’s an endgame situation or a confrontation. In Charlaine [Harris’] book, she winds up with Sam, so that’s a completely different choice. Obviously we now know that it won’t be Alcide. There are infinite possibilities. The ending will be controversial, I will say that. It’s going to be polarizing.
My guess is that this all swung back in Sam’s favor for a book ending (I actually didn’t know that because LOL reading is for suckas), so that would mean Nicole would have to become diseased vampire food in captivity and then Eric succumbs to Hep-V after some heroics (or he ends up with Jason Stackhouse) and Bill realizes his destiny and/or True Death. In conclusion, I spend way too much time thinking about this consistently disappointing hour of television.
