You'll Be the Death of Me

Directed by Alan Ball
Written by Raelle Tucker

Rene visits Jason in jail, the two of them talking through the bars of his cell. Jason still can't figure out how he could have done all this, but he sure feels guilty enough for it. "They were all fangbangers," Rene tells him. "If you hadn't done it, it was just a matter of time ..." Jason immediately cuts him off, insisting that his Gran was not a fangbanger. Rene backs off, just as Sookie bursts in, forcing herself past the deputy to Jason's cell. She reaches through the bars, holding Jason's hand as she tells him the story of Drew Marshall, with Rene listening intently. Andy comes over to ask what's going on, and she asks him about the fax that came from the police department in Bunkie, which he's heard nothing about.

Tara wakes up to a royal breakfast at Maryann's house, and when she puts on a robe and explores her temporary home, realizes it's more like an estate. On the patio, she meets Maryann, who tells her that she should take this time to figure out what she wants in life - not to mourn what she's already lost. "Maybe your life has been cleared of all the things that weren't working for your," Maryann suggests. She says she wants to help Tara simply because the young woman deserves it. Upstairs, as the servant Karl makes Tara's bed, he notices her phone ringing with a call from Sam, turns off the ringer and slips the phone into his pocket.

Jason receives another visitor in jail, this time a representative from the human-purity movement Fellowship of the Sun, who tells him that a legal defense fund has been set up for him. Not that the Fellowship can condone murder as a means of ending human fraternization with vampires, but Jason's actions were still "a service to your race and to Jesus." The man, Orry Dawson, leaves Jason with a pamphlet and tells him the church will save him.

Tara finishes her breakfast and goes inside, where she finds an attractive young black man (nicknamed "Eggs" after his real name, Benedict) playing guitar. Embarrassed to even be there under the circumstances, Tara does loosen up after Eggs explains that he was in even worse shape. Outside in the back yard, Maryann sits in a lawn chair, vibrating magically. In front of her rests the giant pig.

Merlotte's is abuzz with news of Jason's arrest, to the point that Sookie can't concentrate with all the horrible thoughts floating into her mind. She tells Sam that she's leaving, but when she gets to her car, it won't start. Rene offers to take a look at the car - which he sabotaged himself - then tells Sookie he can give her a lift home.

Arlene, at home with the kids, catches them watching a porno, more specifically the sex tape that Maudette made with Liam before she was killed. The kids say they found it in the garage, along with some other items Rene had been hiding, including a cassette tape titled "Cajun Dialect for Actors." Back at Merlotte's Sam finds an orange work vest that Rene left behind and immediately recognizes the scent of the murderer. He bolts out the door toward Sookie's house.

But Sookie is already making the same realization. Standing at the refrigerator about to pour a glass of iced tea for Rene, she picks up his last memory of her kitchen - when he was killing her grandmother. She makes her way to the living room "to get a mop," where a shotgun leans against the wall. Rene follows, and when she grabs the weapon and whirls on him pulling the trigger, the gun clicks harmlessly. Rene holds up the shells he removed from the shotgun, but when he lunges at her, she swings it like a club, striking him in the head. As she runs out the door, she sees his first murder flashing through his mind: His sister Cindy, who allowed a vampire to bite her. Then Maudette, and Dawn ... and all the others.

As Sookie flees, Bill feels her terror and wakes up in his hiding place. Forcing himself to step into the sunlight, he trudges toward her, ignoring his sizzling skin. Rene corners Sookie at the cemetery, where he overpowers and strangles her. As she struggles to breath, Sam arrives in dog form and jumps on Rene, buying Sookie enough time to attack him with a shovel, which she drives into his throat as soon as he hits the ground.

Sam - who's transformed back into his human form - embraces her, but then she sees Bill, horribly burned and lumbering toward them. She runs to him as he collapses, whispering, "I'm sorry," to her. Sam hoists the vampire from the ground and buries him in an open grave to protect what's left of him from the sunlight.

That evening, Arlene, Tara, Lafayette - even Jason after he's released - come to the house to visit Sookie, who's battered but alright. All Arlene can do is apologize for not seeing Rene for what he was. Jason tells Sookie that he's realized his life was meant for greater things, and now that he's been saved by the Fellowship, he can do something good with himself. Sookie's skeptical but at least glad that he's alright. When Tara leaves, Sam walks her out and gets a nasty surprise when he sees Maryann, who he's met before. "What, you didn't think I'd find you, you silly dog," she asks him before driving off with Tara. After everyone leaves, Bill appears on Sookie's doorstep - without a mark on him. "I've fed," he tells her. He offers her his blood as a healing agent, but she declines. She just needs to feel human. Sookie deflects Bill's apology for failing her, telling him how much his self-sacrifice means to her and pulling him into a passionate kiss.

When Lafayette gets back to Merlotte's that night to "make sure Terry ain't PTSD-ing all over my clam chowder," he takes out the trash and gets ready to close up shop. Noticing that the garbage is scattered all over, he complains to himself and starts to clean up until something unseen bursts from the woods. Twirling around toward it, all Lafayette can say is, "Holy s**t" before it takes him down.

A couple weeks pass, and Lafayette still hasn't turned up at Merlotte's, though Tara tells Sam that unexplained disappearances are not uncommon for him. With Rene dead, the town has already started to move on: Tara pursuing a quest for self-improvement, Arlene showing a newfound interest in Terry and Sookie noting the legalization of human-vampire marriages. Andy, however, isn't so thrilled to be living in the wake of his failed investigation into Jason. He sits at the bar, slowly getting hammered. Jason, on the other hand, has found Jesus through the Fellowship of the Sun and attends a service in Shreveport where the Rev. Steve Newlin speaks out against the perversion of vampires.

Bill's outlook is not so sunny. Eric and Pam - fed up with Jessica's annoying behavior - drop her off at his house. "There are favors, and then there are favors," Eric tells him before leaving the irritating girl in her maker's care. At Merlotte's, Andy displays some annoying behavior of his own, demanding to drive home even though he's inebriated. Tara and Sookie walk him out, trying to talk some sense into him, but when he opens his car door, a lifeless foot - black, with brightly painted toenails - slumps out.