Sure, 'True Blood' (Sun., 9PM ET on HBO) is one of the most violent and gory shows on television, but at its heart it's still a love story.

What started as the story of Sookie's unlikely love affair with a vampire expanded into a love triangle between her and two vampires. In this season finale, she finally made a decision.

!!SPOILER ALERT!!

But before that could happen, there was Marnie to deal with. I have to say that once she jumped into Lafayette, I expected her to be a lot more difficult to deal with. And then she managed to take Jesus' demon spirit ... should she have been so easy to dispatch? I mean, Holly, Tara and Sookie?

It was nice to see Sookie's grandma again, but I kept waiting for Marnie to pull some kind of trick or run back into Lafayette's body. Here we were barely a few minutes into the episode, and the major villain of the entire season just decided to give up and walk away into the next realm with all the other spirits?

It kind of cheapened her murder of Jesus and in a way her entire story arc. All the evil she's done, and she's invited to just fade out with the good souls summoned? And Jesus' evil whatever it was certainly didn't make a bit of difference, so why was Jesus killed so Marnie could take it?

For four seasons, Tara has been the character dumped on the most by the writers of 'True Blood,' but it looks like she's going to be replaced by her cousin, Lafayette. Oh, if only I didn't mean that quite so literally. If Jesus wasn't enough, Lafayette has to mourn Tara, too.

It wasn't even a supernatural being that got her. Well, technically it was, but mostly it was a jilted lover. Alcide may have given his heart to Sookie, but she didn't give hers back to him. Regardless, Debbie decided the only thing to do was take a shotgun to Bon Temps and kill Sookie.

Actually, on the love front, it was great to see Sookie finally make what may be the only right decision for her. She admitted to a deep love for both Eric and Bill, but ultimately walked away from both of them. That way, she's open for a love quadrilateral next season by adding in Alcide!

But back to Tara, who took a bullet for Sookie literally this time. It was such a sudden and shocking kill, that even in a season finale where we were promised a thinning of the cast via multiple deaths, I certainly didn't expect Tara to be one of them.

Nor did I expect Sookie to rather callously blow Debbie's head off with Debbie's shotgun, though she did just watch her best friend get killed in the same way. Still, it marked a pretty dramatic shift for the character to take a life in such a brutal and direct way. Hopefully, she'll at least feel a little guilty about it. I wonder how Alcide will feel?

The writers have never really known what to do with Tara's character, so her loss won't destroy the show. All they've done is make her life as horrific as possible on a regular basis, and now I guess it's Lafayette's turn. He's lost both his cousin and his boyfriend, though with him being a medium they're not necessarily going to be gone for good. In fact, Jesus' spirit visit was a sweet reminder of how good they were together.

Elsewhere in Bons Temps, Jason took the more difficult path of being honest with Hoyt about his burgeoning relationship with Jessica, and took his lumps like a man for doing it. As hurt as Hoyt is now, we suspect he'll come around and he and Jason will be friends again in the future. That is, if Reverend Steve doesn't get Jason first.

Somehow, the good Reverend, who's about as anti-vampire as they come, is all fanged up now and decided to come visit our Stackhouse boy. Luckily, Jason should be safe if he doesn't invite him in, but Jason's not the brightest bulb in the box. If Jason does get in trouble here, who comes to save him first? Jessica because she does love him, or Hoyt because he forgives him?

Sam seemed to find some genuine happiness after the deaths of Tommy and Marcus, and it was nice of the writers to leave his story on a happy note. Not everyone needs to suffer, right? They gave a hopeful lift to Andy's story as well, with him seemingly throwing off the V and making a go of things with Holly.

But it was more bad news for other characters. Nan suffered in bringing a message to Bill and Eric that the Authority had ordered the True Death upon both of them. She wanted them to work with her from the outside, but then called them puppies over Sookie so they killed her. Can't say she'll be missed, but she indicated that the Authority may be coming after Sookie, so could this be the major arc of next season?

Or could it be the return of Russell Edgington, who somehow escaped his concrete tomb. More than likely, he'll be at least wanting to confront Eric to "discuss" a few matters between them. Maybe he turned the Reverend for some reason.

Perhaps the vaguest, most bizarre cliffhanger was when the ghost of Rene warned Arlene about Terry's past. That past showed up a bit in the form of Scott Foley, who claimed that Terry had saved his life a time or two. While it's unlikely to be a major story arc next season, I like the character of Terry, and wouldn't mind finally learning a bit more about what secrets he houses.

What did you think of the finale and this past season of 'True Blood'? Over all, I think it held together pretty well. They did a good job of tying Alcide's werewolf storyline to Bon Temps with the connection to Sam and, while I didn't care for Tommy, his death at least moved the story forward. And he's dead, which I like as well.

As for the other deaths, Nan's death works because it represents the fraying of the American Vampire League and it creates true renegades out of Bill and Eric, which should be an interesting direction for their characters to go. Tara's death brings tragedy to both Lafayette and Sookie, but her character had nowhere to go anyway, so that's fine. Plus, her and Debbie's deaths bring a whole different layer of tension between Sookie and Alcide.

Jesus' death seemed a waste as he was a good character, and I liked the idea of him not only grounding Lafayette a bit, but helping him walk into this world of magic. Now, a hurt and grieving Lafayette will probably flail into it for the wrong reasons, which actually could be pretty interesting as well. But still, that's the death I'm most disappointed by.

Now the most important unanswered question in this season finale: Who's going to fix Pam's rotting face? Or did it get fixed and I missed it? I thought she just had this temporary measure going on.