According to True Blood, Halloween is the day when the wall between the living and the dead is the thinnest, and that’s true for the season 4 finale. Many, many dead and former characters return while a whole bunch of current ones get killed. It’s a total blood bath full of some very huge cliffhangers.

The best way to look at it is to see who died and who came back:

Jesus Dies: Lafayette, now possessed by Marnie, wants Jesus’ dark magic, so she stabs and kills him to get it.

Nan Dies: Nana Flanagan has quit the Authority and the American Vampire League and tries to recruit Bill and Eric to join her mutiny. Unfortunately for her, they don’t like being called puppy dogs (or having threats made against their fairy Sookie), so Bill delivers the true death.

Debbie and Tara Die: In the final scene of the episode, Debbie storms into Sookie’s house with a shotgun, angry that Alcide left her. She fires and it hits Tara in the head, presumably killing her (there’s a lot of blood, but I guess it’s possible Tara will live). Sookie tackles Debbie and blows her head off. Utterly gruesome but a great and shocking way to end the season.

Gran Returns: Marnayette strapped Bill and Eric to a burning stake, so Holly the witch summoned the spirits of the dead for help. Sookie’s awesome grandma Adele showed up to rip Marnie’s ghost out of Lafayette’s body in a truly bad-ass scene. Then Gran and Antonia convinced Marnie to move on.

Rene Returns: Arlene saw the ghost of evil Rene! He warned her about how Terry is bad news, but I’m guessing he’s talking about Terry’s old war buddy Patrick (Scott Foley) who showed up to talk. That was definitely a set-up for next season, because it went nowhere.

Reverend Steve Newlin Returns: Jason told Hoyt about his sexual escapades with Jessica and got beat down. But later that night Jessica came over in a naughty Little Red Riding Hood costume for some more sex games. It turns out she doesn’t want a relationship, she just wants sex. That’s fine with him, but right after she leaves Jason hears a knock at the door and finds none other than his old mentor Steve Newlin, leader of the Fellowship of the Sun, who is now a vampire!

King Russell Returns (Sort Of)
: Alcide gets a call from a parking lot and goes to find that some vampires dug it up, and it seems to be the exact spot where King Russell Edgington was buried in concrete, only now he’s escaped. We don’t actually get to see him in this episode, but ‘m guessing he was one of the vampires Nan was lining up for her mutiny.

With all of that death and history coming back, True Blood definitely packed a lot into it’s season 4 finale, but now it’s a long wait until next summer for season 5. Here are eight immediate cliffhanger questions the show will need to answer.

Eight Cliffhangers Questions for True Blood Season 5

-What is the deal with Terry’s old war buddy Patrick?

-Will Sam survive being attacked by a pack of werewolves?

-What will happen with Andy’s fairy sex partner?

-Is Tara dead?

-What does Steve Newlin want with Jason?

-Where is King Russell and who dug him up?

-How will Bill and Eric survive the Authority’s order to kill them?

-Since Sookie chose to leave both Bill and Eric, does that mean she’s going to take Alcide up on his offer to be together?

(Image courtesy of HBO)

John Kubicek

Senior Writer, BuddyTV

John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire DiariesSupernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.