‘True Blood’ recap: High stakes for Bill (Bilith?) in season opener

Remember how “True Blood” ended last August? The Vampire Authority compound is in flames. Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) drinks all the sacred blood supposedly preserved from Lilith (Jessica Clark), the mother of all vampires. Then Bill gruesomely dies the “true death” and reincarnates as a far-more-powerful version of who knows what.

Has he become a god? A devil? That’s the burning question as Season 6 of the popular HBO series launches with Episode 61: “Who are You, Really?”

The action picks up right where it left off, at the compound turned fiery slaughterhouse. Fleeing the carnage are Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), her brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten), vampire Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgård), his “sister” Nora (Lucy Griffiths) and vamps Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll), Tara (Rutina Wesley) and Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten).

PHOTOS: ‘True Blood’ Season 6 premiere

The compound explodes with Bill inside but he emerges very much intact, “like a naked, evil Superman,” as Jason puts it. Has Bill’s troubled spirit merged with Lilith?

“If Lilith is walking the earth — in any form — we have to destroy her,” Nora insists. What? Kill Bill? Or Bilith?

That’s just what Sookie attempts when Bill starts to strangle Eric. She plunges a stake into Bill’s back but it’s a mere annoyance. It’ll take a lot more than that to knock this super vamp off the show.

Now the only character remaining loyal to Bill is his young progeny, Jessica.

“I don’t know what I am. I don’t know why I am,” Bill confesses to Jessica. “I need you to keep me honest,” he implores, so his newfound powers don’t turn him into a monster. Jessica agrees, but it’s a huge responsibility for a baby vamp.

Meanwhile, Louisiana Gov. Truman Burrell (Arliss Howard) declares war on vampires, who increasingly prey on humans because synthetic TruBlood is in short supply. “Buy a gun. Buy as many guns as you can,” the Governor urges his non-vampire constituents. “Stock up on wooden bullets.”

Definitely a man with a plan, the governor approaches a TruBlood manufacturer and offers use of a shuttered bottling factory. With TruBlood back on the market, vampires would once again become peaceful, taxpaying members of society, he figures. And the crafty politician would rake in lots of reelection cash.

SECTION: Summer TV Sneaks

After the governor imposes a nighttime curfew on vampires and shuts down their businesses, his troops raid the Fangtasia vamp bar and shoot feisty Tara. Good thing she’s got regenerative powers.

Meanwhile, back in bucolic Bon Temps, restaurateur Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) mourns the loss of girlfriend Luna (Janina Gavankar), a “shapeshifter” who died while escaping the Authority. Sam enlists the help of flamboyant short-order cook Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) to care for Luna’s werewolf child, Emma (Chloe Noelle). Major bonding ensues.

As for Sheriff Andy Bellefleur (Chris Bauer) — who sired those half-human, half-faerie quadruplets with oh-so-fertile Maurella (Kristina Anapau) — he’s overcome with new daddy anxiety.

“I don’t know how to take care of my own babies. That’s the sad truth,” admits Andy, who receives diapering lessons from cousin Terry (Todd Lowe) and his wife Arlene (Carrie Preston). Those cute little girls, by the way, are growing at an incredible speed. At this rate, they’ll progress from kindergarten to college in a couple of episodes.

Finally, Jason makes a strange new acquaintance when hitchhiking home. The eerie driver (Rutger Hauer) seems to know all about the ill-fated Stackhouse clan, including the murder of Jason and Sookie’s parents by Warlow, an ancient and mysterious vampire.

“You cannot keep Warlow away from Sookie,” the driver hisses before disappearing in a flash of light. Yikes!

ALSO:

Christopher Guest shakes his ‘Family Tree’

‘Scandal’ ups Scott Foley to series regular

Emmys 2013: A Golden Moment in Drama