We can't help but wonder, as True Blood approaches its series finale (*sob*), who will Sookie end up with? Bill? Eric? Neither, because she's an independent woman who doesn't need a man? Or neither because Sookie dies (god forbid)? True Blood has been about a lot of things during its seven seasons, but at its core it's always centered around the tangled love life of half-faerie half-waitress Sookie Stackhouse. So before the show wraps up for good this weekend, we need an answer to this question.
Actually, maybe I'm too anxious to wait for the episode to air on Sunday. Maybe we should all just see how Charlaine Harris ended her Southern Vampire Mysteries books instead. That seems like a good idea, right? In Dead Ever After, the thirteenth and final entry in the series, Sookie breaks up with Eric, (who she'd been vampire-married to), gets arrested for killing Arlene (!!!), gets kidnapped by Steve Newlin, saves the day, and ends up with Sam.
Wait, what?
That's right, in Harris' books, Sookie doesn't end up with Bill or Eric. She doesn't end up with a vampire at all. She ends up with her clingy, shapeshifting boss who's pined after her unrequitedly for a dozen novels. Fans were largely outraged by this ending, which makes us wonder: the True Blood writers wouldn't dare pull a similar stunt, would they?
There are many reasons why this ending wouldn't work in the television version of the story, not the least of which is that Sam has just left Bon Temps, seemingly for good. (Although, really, what are the chances he won't pop up in the finale?) Secondly, he's currently in a loving relationship with Nicole, who's carrying his child. Thirdly, he and Sookie have only shared romantic sparks sporadically since Season 1. It seems like the writers dropped the Sookie and Sam pairing fairly early on, so why would they go back to it at this late hour?
Well, for one thing, far stranger things have happened on this hot mess of a show. And while it doesn't seem likely that Sookie and Sam are going to hop into bed together anytime soon, don't count out the possibility of a series-ending time jump. True Blood wouldn't be the first show to end with a glimpse into the future, and if Bill and Nicole were both to die in the finale, it's not impossible to imagine that the faerie and the shifter might find solace in each other's arms a few years down the road.
There's one more factor pointing us towards a Sookie & Sam romance. In the eighth episode of last season, "Dead Meat," the pair shared a surprisingly tender moment. "Part of me always thought that you and I would, I don't know, wind up together or something," she told him. Pretty much the only reason they didn't make out then and there was because Nicole had a bun in the oven. "Your timing could not be worse," Sam complained. But what if the timing was finally good? If Bill meets the True Death, as every indication says he will, and Nicole were to somehow perish in a climactic Bon Temps battle, what would there be to stop the writers from ending the show the same way Harris ended her books?
(Oh, right.)
Images: John P. Johnson/HBO (2); allgeektome.net
