HBO’s True Blood may be a show known more for its wild sex scenes, it’s gory, shocking deaths, and it’s outrageous plot twists, but that doesn’t mean the supernatural series (which you can stream on HBO Now) lacked heart. In fact, the world of vampires, fairies, and werewolves seems rife with tragedy, if we’re to judge the entire seven-season run. Deaths, break-ups, goodbyes, and an unfinished pie mark some of the most tear-jerking moments on the show, and we’ve combed through all of them, armed with tissues and hardened hearts so that you can re-live all of the heartbreak, turmoil, and grief once more.
Get ready to be staked right in the feels because these are the saddest moments on True Blood we’re still not over.
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
10. Jesus Moves On… To The Afterlife
True Blood gave us plenty of unconventional relationships and pairings we knew would never last. Lafayette and Jesus were one of those couples. Sure, they both dealt in the dangerous and occult – Jesus was a Brujo with a demon inside of him and Lafayette was a powerful medium who liked to dabble in recreational drugs – but when these two found each other, we dared hope a ride off into the sunset might be in sight. Count on a deranged witch to spoil those plans. Jesus’ death at the hands of his lover was terrible, but the true tearjerker was when he said goodbye to a grieving Lafayette with a simple, “Just keep breathing, baby.”
9. Tara’s Sacrifice
Tara Thornton had a f*cked-up time of it on True Blood. Her boyfriend died, her mother was an abusive zealot, she was made into a vampire against her will, and a deranged bloodsucker once used her as a sex slave. Through it all, Tara remained her tough, no-nonsense self. She was caring, sharp and loyal to a fault, which is what made her human death the more tragic of her two farewells on the show. When an enraged Debbie Pelt comes hunting Sookie Stackhouse on Halloween, Tara jumps in front of the shotgun to save her best friend. She’d later be turned into a vampire, but before that ending was revealed, her bloody cliffhanger and the image of a distraught Sookie cradling her dead body hit us all right in the feels.
8. Eric’s Family Tragedy
Eric Northman had a, uh … complicated relationship with his “sister” Nora. The two were both sired by Godric, they called each other familial endearments, yet they regularly fought, and f*cked, like animals. Still, any bad blood between them was squashed when Nora contracted Hep-V and lay on her deathbed. The two reminisced about their first meeting when a still human Nora was suffering from the plague, and Eric offered her eternal life. Her goodbye to him was bittersweet but Eric’s reaction to her death? Cue the waterworks.
7. Bill And Sookie’s Phone Breakup
Bill and Sookie’s relationship on True Blood was, in a word, rocky. They broke up, they got back together, she staked him, he tried to kill her. The usual couple conflicts compounded by their competing natures and vastly different lifestyles. And despite Bill becoming a huge pain in the a** in later seasons, his break-up with Sookie over the phone early in the show’s run (which he orchestrated to keep her safe) felt like one of his nobler acts. Of course, Sookie didn’t know the whys, just the how, and getting the news that your vampire boyfriend is tired of your vanilla sex-life through a flip phone is never fun. When Anna Paquin cries, we all cry.
6. Eric Releases Pam
One of the truest bonds on the show was between Eric and his progeny, Pam. Pam was unfailingly loyal to her maker and Eric doted on her in the only ways he knew how. Their friendship, their familial connection, and their love for one another made the moment Eric decided to release Pam from her bond with him one of the show’s most affecting. Especially since he did it to keep her out of the war brewing between himself and Russell Edgington.
5. Jessica’s Wedding
Another relationship that felt frustrating at times was the one between Bill Compton and his progeny, Jessica. The two rarely saw eye to eye and Bill wasn’t much of a father – in his human or vampire life. Still, their goodbye in the form of Jessica’s marriage to Hoyt, well, it tugged at the heartstrings. Jessica gave Bill the opportunity to walk his daughter down the aisle before he died, and Bill gave Jessica the father-figure she so desperately needed when she needed it most.
4. Gran’s Last Pie
Sookie’s relationship with her Gran served as a kind of moral compass for her during the show. When Gran is murdered in the first season, Sookie goes mental on a woman attempting to remove Gran’s pie from the freezer. Later, she finally finishes off that same pie, silently crying and munching on the sugared treat while a melancholy tune hums in the background. The show was full of outrageous, loud moments, but this quiet, intimate moment gave us one of TV’s more thoughtful reflections on grief and how people cope with it.
3. Godric’s Farewell
Vampires, as a species, are not that sympathetic. They feed on human blood to survive, they never age, and they’ve got some overbearing personalities. We say this to highlight how surprising it was that a centuries-old vampire’s decision to commit suicide managed to make everyone on the show and at home, cry. Godric was Eric Northman’s maker, an old-as-dirt vampire completely done with living in the human world. His death was a poignant reminder that living forever has its downside. Watching Eric tearfully plead with his maker to save his life and Sookie stand by his side as he faced the sun, marked one of the show’s more emotional moments.
2. Hoyt Leaves Town
Hoyt Fortenberry was doomed from the start on this show. You can’t exist in the land of vampires, werewolves, and witches with a last name as plucky as that and not expect to experience some kind of tragedy. Hoyt and his vampire girlfriend, Jessica, had a storybook romance until Jessica began craving blood and his best friend, Jason Stackhouse. Once Hoyt found out about their affair, he decided to leave Bon Temps for the Alaskan Bush and before he went, he asked his former flame for a truly agonizing favor: to glamour him so that he’d forget about their time together, and his friendship with her new beau. She did of course, and the scene marked a brilliant performance from actress Deborah Ann Wolf, but we’d be lying if we said that glimpse of Hoyt obliviously enjoying his burger and beer doesn’t linger.
1. Sookie Stakes Bill
Whether you were Team Eric, Team Bill, or Team Human Schmo, you can’t argue that the final goodbye between former lovers Bill Compton and Sookie Stackhouse marked the show’s most emotional farewell. It didn’t help that Bill decided to sacrifice himself so that Sookie could enjoy a full life, or that he asked her to be the one to give him the stake. The two crazy kids had a time of it in Bon Temps, always fighting to stay together, destined to be apart, but watching them drive a wooden weapon into Bill’s Hep-V infested body, that was an ending no one saw coming. And we didn’t see it because our eyes were blurred by too many tears.
