TV.com

True Blood Season 5 Episode 5

Let's Boot and Rally

Favorite

Watched It I've Watched This 6

Next
Episode Previous
Episode

AIRED: Jul 08, 2012

8.4

User Rating

126 votes

Your Rating: 10
Your Rating: 9.5
Your Rating: 9
Your Rating: 8.5
Your Rating: 8
Your Rating: 7.5
Your Rating: 7
Your Rating: 6.5
Your Rating: 6
Your Rating: 5.5
Your Rating: 5
Your Rating: 4.5
Your Rating: 4
Your Rating: 3.5
Your Rating: 3
Your Rating: 2.5
Your Rating: 2
Your Rating: 1.5
Your Rating: 1

Rate Now

EPISODE REVIEWS
By TV.com Users

Write A Review

Episode Summary

EDIT

Time is running out so when Bill and Eric can't find Russell, they turn to Sookie for help. Lafayette seeks out Jesus' spirit. Terry and Patrick find themselves hostages. Jason has to deal with after effects of a troubling dream. Jessica decides to give Tara some guidance. Sam has bad news for Luna.

moreless

TV.com Episode Review

True Blood: Rabble Roused!

In "Let's Boot and Rally," the good plotlines were excellent and the bad ones got better.

By Price Peterson, Jul 09, 2012

Fan Episode Reviews (7)

How to ruin in 666 steps an episode that could have been one of the best (Spoilers)

5.0

By jmw, Jul 27, 2012

Drive fast, outclass your opponents and crash into a tree like a dumb test dummy right before the finish line. It's how this 5th installment felt because the beginning augured of the most epic episode ever but slowly infection spread : Myriad of arcs, reashed stuff, dated editing

I'm in love with True Blood ! Let's start with what went right and why the show is irresistible. No harpies and gentlefeeders I'm not talking about Jason and Andy's fantastic butts. How Alcide & Sookie's drunken romance ended was expected but its execution was hilarious. Watching him declare his long time desire for her and the lady throwing up right on his boots was a moment I'm not ready to forget. Things got even better when Bill & Eric, always there when you don't need them, appeared right behind the fairy and the wolf. Next if there's one storytelling element I enjoy it's definitely fantasies, dreams or nightmares. I just can't get enough of these surreal and oneiric incursions so Jason's one was no exception. Ryan Kwanten is by far my favorite actor on the show and his He-Man tee-shirt killed the last breath of zany air I had in my body. As Barney Stinson would say : Suit up ! . More seriously his vengeful arc, as he's now convinced that their parents were butchered by vampires, has tremendous potential and considering Tara has now joined the dark side it's even more exciting to imagine what's going to happen next !

True Blood, I hate you ! Hoyt had a few anecdotic scenes so I'm still convinced Jim Parrack's talent is under exploited considering how percussive his few appearances in season 4 were. But this time the most important issue wasn't a secondary story, it was the main one. Even Terry Bellefleur and the ifrit were better. I still don't know how his arc will merge with the others but mixing contemporary warfare and uncommon mythology is quite refreshing. It also reminds me, so there's probably a connection here, that Lafayette's wicked persona has become my guilty pleasure. The desperate way he smashed the religious figurines and their high-pitched voices were reminiscent of cult horrors films like Dolls (1987) and Child's Play of course. Let's hope they will come back and fight him as a demon in some sort of reimagined story of Stephen King's Battleground ! And

he was supposed to point out what went wrong. Yes I was but when you have such hypnotic gems in sight how can you look somewhere else ? It leads us, finally, to what ruined my night fever : Sookie and her gang. Shame on me for comparing them to the Scooby Gang in some other review ! Joss Whedon isn't behind True Blood, Sookie is no Buffy, Alyson Hannigan made the sexiest geeky girl and no one can be as dangerous as a Xander armed with a wooden stick ! I can't believe how badly executed and predictable was Sookie and her men's exploration of the hospital. From the fat chicken she was forced to mind read to the creative less mix with other arcs I'm still stunned of such a bad development. It wasn't scary. It was funny. It was just dead boring and the highly awaited discovery of this season's villain completely spoiled by the misplaced music, soporific slow motions and epileptic switches between stories.

To sum things up the mad editor, mummy writer and negligent director deserves to be buried alive with candy canes for only food supplies. Who will be the last (wo)man standing ? You'll know next week and until then, be as cheerfully blondie as Sookie !

Note : This review was first posted on Kritikenstein, my weblog.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
1 1

Flag
Share Hide
A Deadly Deadline

9.0

By Neksmater, Jul 17, 2012

Poor Alcide, getting thrown up on in the moment by Sookie, then getting thrown into Eric and Bill's hunt for Russell was totally unkarmatically deserved. Tara starts tending bar and has a rather connecting moment with Jessica about the perils of being a baby vamp and how hard it is to deal with the perils of the impulse control but Pam's surrogate mother role to Tara and Tara's seeming lack of gratitude is a good dynamic to see her character in given her own relationship with her maker now. Bill and Eric's hunt leads to the glamored construction worker who found Russell unearthed and Sookie tickles his mind into remembering and sees who appears to see Salome freeing him from his chains and the trail leads them all to an asylum where they explore it in a haunted house like suspense thriller way. They find Russell who is still recovering and Eric promises to kill him now that they've found him. Russell coolly tells him to give it his best shot and Alcide is made to transform into wolf form we assume. Lafayette calls for help from beyond and Jesus to help him contain the Bruho spirit that is running rampant in him. Terry and his buddy Ron turn the tables on their captor but Terry remembers what happened that night in Iraq when they were cursed by a woman who's entire family they killed and the fire demon was said to be about to devour them all in flames just like the rest of their old unit. But Ron doesn't believe it and wants to take the crazy one to the police or a hospital but Terry now knows that what he saw was real so it creates a weird twist to their relationship and Ron's disbelief. Jason and has a disturbing dream involving his parents in response to the revelation of vampires allegedly killing the Stackhouses. He awakes naked, so does Andy in their homes after being booted from Club Fairy. Andy and Jason investigate the case of Sam and Luna's shifter friends being murdered and put together that it was multiple shooters and Jason gives a good monologue on how all the supernatural crime is only now coming to light thanks to the revelation of vampires. Sam helps the investigation of his friends' murder and goes to tell Luna about it but when they get into a fight and he is about to storm off of the property he is shot and so is Luna because they are supernatural. Sam yells for Emily to run and she escapes in wolf form into the forest. I hope Luna makes it out ok, it would be a hell of a shame to have Sam go through all this stuff with Tommy dying and he can't even keep the woman he's been fighting for the past season. The shooter angle is the most interesting thing outside of the hunt for russell that happened and it's taking elements from the fifth book and twisting them appropriately to show the hatred and prejudice prevalent in show's allegory for marginalized groups like vamps. Not bad and hopefully next episode delivers on Russell's now onscreen presence.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
1 1

Flag
Share Hide
The humans strike back...

10

By ionee24, Jul 13, 2012

...because only humans shot to kill little girls in their pajamas, after shooting their mothers to death and, what they must believe to be their fathers, in their own house. Only humans slaughter shapeshifters for a crime such as to share dinner and hunt down babies because of how they were born. Emma shifts into a werepup and runs for her life ...

Meanwhile, the monsters keep fighting for their right to be part of the human race.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
3 2

Flag
Share Hide
WTF is going on!?

2.0

By GeraldC7, Jul 12, 2012

What's next, a unicorn, Rebecca Black..? I mean, True Blood ever since S3 has walked a very fine line of craziness but this is just too much. The absurdity level is getting higher with each episode, between Lafayette's drama, the fairies and the smoke monster there's so much WTF-insanity that you would think we're in Kimberly Shaw's subconscious.

- Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse a whole lot of shit happens in this episode. What the hell is wrong with the show? It's almost like they're doing everything they can to make us stop watching the show. I seriously can't imagine anyone actually liking this season.

- WTF, WTF and some more WTF! I just had to say it again. A speaking decapitated head and a smoke monster.... what is this, Lost? A smoke monster! Are you serious? I really want what the writers are smoking (no pun intended). I can only imagine them pitching the ideas:

Writer #1: We've had witches, were panthers, a maenad, werewolves and fairies... how can we top that?

Writer #2: "Well, the Terry storyline isn't going anywhere.... why don't we add a smoke monster?"

Writer #3: "A smoke monster you say? What an interesting and unexpected way to end his storyline. Maybe we could add a giant peach in the next episode?"

- The funny thing is that even with like 10 different storylines, nothing is really happening and we're nearing midpoint of the season.

- Now that they killed off Luna, can they also remove: Andy, Hoyt, the whole Vampire Authority, Terry and Holly?moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
4 13

Flag
Share Hide
Best Episode of the season so far

9.0

By MinitureMo, Jul 10, 2012

Its fair to say that this season has been very disjointed with so many story lines happening at once, its difficult to find interest as each scene moves too quickly that you don't have time to sit and take in what has just happened.

Its too rushed this season and the show needs to slow down with the story lines. They are cramming too much or trying to fill air time with meaningless stories, which are not very interesting. The big examples being Sam and the werepack (which I never thought was an interesting concept in the show anyway BUT I HAVE LOVED SAM SINCE THE BEGINNING)

So thank god the boring story lines that we have endured for the past 4 episodes finally come with a big interesting twist in this episode and True Blood now becomes the best programme we know and love. And Alcide is just fit... enough said.

Lets hope from this episode forward, the rest of the season will make may for some truly terrific drama.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
2 0

Flag
Share Hide

See All Fan Reviews

Cast & Crew: STARS

EDIT

Anna Paquin	Sookie Stackhouse
Stephen Moyer	Bill Compton
Sam Trammell	Sam Merlotte
Ryan Kwanten	Jason Stackhouse
Rutina Wesley	Tara Thornton
Alexander Skarsgård	Eric Northman

See All Cast & Crew

Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

EDIT

Lawrence Adimora	Jemarcus Kessler	Guest Star
Chris Butler	Emory	Guest Star
Christina Moore	Suzanne	Guest Star
Kevin Alejandro	Jesus Velasquez	Recurring Role
Chloe Noelle	Emma	Recurring Role
John Billingsley	Mike Spencer	Recurring Role

See All Cast & Crew

Watch Online

Episode Photos

Rutina Wesley and Deborah Ann Woll in Tr...

©2012 Home Box Office
Rutina Wesley in True Blood from "Let's ...

©2012 Home Box Office
Stephen Moyer, Joe Manganiello, Anna Paq...

©2012 Home Box Office
Stephen Moyer and Alexander Skarsgard in...

©2012 Home Box Office

See All Photos

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

FILTER BY TYPE

TRIVIA (0)
ADD TRIVIA
- ADD TRIVIA from this episode.
QUOTES (1)
ADD QUOTES
- Sookie: (sitting at her kitchen table she starts laughing while Bill, Eric and Alcide argue) Oh, I'm sorry. I just keeping thinking that if I make the right choice, all this madness will end and my life will go back to normal. But it's not gonna end, is it? This is it. It's not gonna change. We say goodbye, and the next thing, you guys are back in my house and a 3,000-year-old vampire wants to suck my blood. (Sookie stands up) Must be Thursday! (Sookie leaves the room to put on her jacket) Well, come on. What are y'all waiting for? Let's go hunt Russell. Onwards into the jaws of death. Boot and rally.
  EDIT SHARE
NOTES (3)
ADD NOTES
- Original International Air Dates:
  United Kingdom - October 15, 2012 on FX/FX HD
  Czech Republic - October 30, 2012 on HBO
  EDIT SHARE
- Featured Music:
  "Let's Make Santa Claus Happy Tonight" by DidiPop (Jason has flashbacks to Christmas with his parents and Sookie)
  "Rescue" by Echo & The Bunnymen (Jessica talks with Tara while she's tending bar)
  "Undertow" by Warpaint (NIC Remix) (Tara takes a smoke break and talks to Hoyt)
  "Let's Boot and Rally" by Iggy Pop with Bethany Cosentino (end credits)
  EDIT SHARE
- Although credited,Lauren Bowles (Holly Cleary) and Michael McMillian (Steve Newlin) do not appear in this episode.
  EDIT SHARE
ALLUSIONS (0)
ADD ALLUSIONS
- ADD ALLUSIONS from this episode.