Did Tony Soprano get taken out when the screen went black? Were the Losties in Purgatory all along? Finales never satisfy everybody, and lines are usually drawn one minute after a series ends.

So how did the True Blood finale measure up?

Warning! Spoiler Alert!

Well it was certainly different from the usual episodes. Whereas one can usually count on gratuitous violence, nudity, and ridiculous lines like, “You just killed my fairy godmother!”, the series finale was much tamer and somber, emphasized by sad string music. The music set the pace and was appropriate for the gravity of Sookie’s (Anna Paquin) decision about Bill (Stephen Moyer). Bill is maudlin and feeling his humanity. He wants the true death even though the cure for Hep-V had been offered and subsequently rejected by him. He wants Sookie to end him with her fairy light ball, so that she can lead a normal life with babies. He believes that as long as he is alive, Sookie will always come back to him. That’s kinda arrogant, but he is probably right. While many may disagree, Bill was falling right in line with his character: brooding, guilt-stricken, and martyr-like. This is not including when Bill was evil and much more fun during the Authority storyline. Sad, guilty Bill made me want to kill him. I’ve always been more Team Eric though.

True Blood did have the balls (after seven seasons) to kill one of the three main characters in the finale. You expected Bill to change his mind every minute, but he never did.

Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) and Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten) decimated the Japanese mob to the relief of everyone, because they were annoying and confusing. Why didn’t they kill Eric or Pam when Eric got caught in a lie in Episode 9? I’m still not sure. They became super rich and falsely cheerful in their own infomercial. For the most part, I like how their future turned out. I dug the Eric on the Fangtasia throne staring, as he was when we first met him (sans long hair).

Hoyt (Jim Parrack) and Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) got married after one day so Bill could walk Jess down the aisle, and it was sweet. More emotional than that was Sookie finally able to hear Bill’s thoughts. This tied into her beginning when she couldn’t really date because she could hear what the boys were thinking. When she met Bill, fascinated by a vampire, she could not read his thoughts and could embark on a relationship. And now, at the end, she can hear him and she heard, “All the right things. Everything that you want somebody who loves you to be thinking about you.” She couldn’t kill him on her own, so he helped her drive in the stake. That is the ultimate closure.

The last scene, taking place four years after Bill’s death, shows everyone gathered at a very pregnant Sookie’s house for Thanksgiving with a bearded no-name guy as Sookie’s man (obviously human). Everybody is happy and smiling and together. Even Jason (Ryan Kwanten) finally settled down and had children with Brigette (Ashley Hinsaw). Led Zeppelin’s “Thank You” is playing and “If the sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you,” encapsulates the happy ending.

Everyone’s happy ending that is except Sarah Newlin (Anna Camp), who is strung up like a feeding toy in the Fangtasia basement seemingly for the rest of her miserable life, talking to the hallucination of her ex-husband Steve Newlin (Michael McMillian).

For the most part, I enjoyed the finale. How can an over-the-top show top itself? By giving us the unexpected – a calm, bittersweet, closure-filled finale.

I just have one question.

Why wasn’t Eric invited to Thanksgiving?

Goodbye, True Blood. Thank you.

True Blood
Season 7 Episode 10: “Thank You”
Directed by Scott Winant
Written by Brian Buckner, Alan Ball, and Charlaine Harris (author of Sookie Stackhouse novels)
Starring Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgard, Ryan Kwanten, Carrie Preston, Sam Trammell, Deborah Ann Woll, Nelsan Ellis, Jim Parrack, Chris Bauer, Kristin Bauer Van Straten
Air Date: Sunday, August 24, 2014, 9pm | HBO