In retrospect, it should have been clear some time ago that the plot twist in this week’s episode of ‘True Blood’ is where the season would be going. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make it any less cheesy or disappointing. On the plus side: Full frontal nudity!

After he killed Roman, I hoped that Russell would take center stage as the season’s “Big Bad.” He is, after all, the most entertaining character the show has ever created. For a while, that seems to be the case in episode ‘In the Beginning’. Russell puts on a show about being a “born again” Sanguinista for the benefit of Salome and Nora, but it’s perfectly clear that he’s just happy to be free to cause chaos again.

With Roman dead, Salome wants everyone to drink from the sacred blood of Lilith, the first vampire. Dieter (Christopher Heyerdahl) objects that this is blasphemy. Russell literally tears his head off. Hoping to avoid the same fate, Bill and Eric agree to drink. After all, it’s just vampire blood. They’re vampires. What harm could it do?

Cut to the next scene, and the vamps are blitzed out of their minds, traipsing through the city streets high as kites. Soon, they wind up at a karaoke bar where Russell decides to crash a family’s party. All of this is very funny, especially Russell’s karaoke intrusion. A bloody feeding frenzy commences.

In the middle of this, a drop of blood magically falls from the air, creating a big puddle from which Lilith is resurrected by way of a super-crappy visual effect that looks like CGI rendered circa 1994. She seems pleased by what’s going on. Eric has a vision of a ghostly Godric head telling him that this is wrong, and he has to save Nora.

I suppose this means that Lilith will take over as the season’s primary villain. That’s too bad. She doesn’t get to say a line in this episode, so the jury’s still out on whether the model cast in the role can act, but judging by her few seconds of body language, I’m doubtful that she’ll be anywhere near as charismatic a character as Russell. But she is very, very naked. So there’s that.

Other Stuff That Happens

• Sookie learns from the fairies that she has a finite amount of “luminescence,” and that if she keeps using her fairy magic, she’ll run out and basically become human. Sookie thinks that this sounds like a great idea, and sets about doing just that.
• Hoyt thinks that the rednecks who kidnapped him are a great bunch of guys, and agrees to join their hate group. “Hate groups is about more than hate,” he’s helpfully informed. He decides that he hates all vampires, including Jessica. They receive a call for mobilization from a mysterious leader named “Dragon.”
• Andy pays a visit to retired Sheriff Bud Dearborn (William Sanderson) for advice. Bud acts a little shifty and basically tells Andy to go screw himself. Obviously, Bud must be Dragon, or else why would his character be brought back on the show now?
• Alcide trains to fight J.D. He gets hot and heavy with his sparring partner, but refuses to juice up on V when she suggests leveling the playing field.
• Martha catches J.D. giving V to the other wolves, including trying to give some to her granddaughter. She’s quite pissed, and will likely support Alcide now.
• Lafayette goes to Mexico in search of Jesus’ grandfather. He finds Jesus’ decapitated head in the house. The grandfather gets the jump on him, stitches Lafayette’s mouth closed (a welcome relief for a few minutes!), and tells him that he’s going to cut into Lafayette’s head to extract the demon and pass it on to his unborn child. His pregnant wife/girlfriend/slave/whatever apparently doesn’t think this is such a hot idea. She stabs the hell out of him and frees Lafayette.
• Tara is now pole dancing in Fangtasia and Pam has a heinous new hairdo. They both look awful. Tara’s mother stops by to cut her daughter out of her life. Tara and Pam share a moment that results in a hug.
• Terry and Patrick wait for the demon to kill them. Strangely, it doesn’t. Terry turns suicidal, but eventually the both of them decide to go down fighting.
• Jason and Jessica have a fight, and he shoots her in the head. She’s a little peeved about that.

This episode is decent enough overall, neither great nor terrible. I’m a little wary of the Lilith storyline, but I’ll reserve judgment to see where that goes in the next few episodes.