True Blood Season 7 Episode 3 Recap: Shot in the Dark

True Blood concluded one of the most boring and pointless episodes in series history with a shocking death tonight:
Rest in peace, Alcide Herveaux.
The werewolf was shot and killed after coming to Sookie's rescue after one of her dumbest plans to date, sitting in a field, waiting to be taken by the infected vampires... while annoyingly talking to Bill (sitting in a tree, about 20 feet away) the entire time.
Alcide, of course, spent a majority of the past couple seasons in his own storyline and then the series quickly got him together with Sookie to conclude True Blood Season 6 and then it fast-forwarded the action six months and asked viewers to somehow buy into this relationship.
So. Yeah. Hard to say we were much infested in Alcide's life or death, especially not when he was wearing a shirt.

But at least Alcide's murder took us by surprise. At least it gave us something to talk about with friends.
The rest of True Blood Season 7 Episode 3 nearly made us fall asleep.
Lafayette and James are clearly gonna hook up. That's nice, but not connected to any other storyline or remotely suspenseful.
Tara's mom has somehow managed to be more annoying than her daughter, while the reverend seems to be a kind guy and all - while coming across as utterly useless abd time-consuming on screen.
Eric somehow escaped death when the sun hit him (will that ever be explained), only to contract Hep V (will that ever be explained?) and then tonight we were treated to a VERY long flashback in which we learned he chose to save the life of Pam over some French woman named Sylvie in 1986.
See, he had upset The Authority by not acting covert enough in his lovemaking and the corporation behind Tru Blood wasn't happy. So they flew to France and forced Eric to choose between his progeny and his girlfriend. He chose Pam.
Why was this brought up now? Why did it cause Eric essentially give up on life after all these years? We have no idea.
But those suicidal thoughts vanished as soon as he learned Sarah Newlin is still alive. We met her at some spiritual retreat and watched as those same corporation bad guys killed her lover after he refused to divulge here whereabouts.
Sort of interesting? We guess? Sigh... this show is dying a very slow and very, very painful death.