Tonight’s new True Blood continued to bring back lots of old characters so viewers could say goodbye before the show leaves our televisions for good.

Our True Blood season 7, episode 7 recap breaks down the events of this sex-heavy episode in which we sort of got closer to capturing Sarah and killing this Hep-V problem once and for all.

The hunt for Sarah

The episode kicks off with Eric trying to learn from Amber where Sarah went. When she refuses to say, Eric kills her. Later, Mr. Gus Junior proposes that they find Sarah Newlin and synthesize her blood to create a new product called “Nu Blood” (clever!), an over-the-counter cure for the Hep-V infection. Gus wants Eric and Pam to be Nu Blood’s spokespeople so the public can trust Yakamoto again.

Now completely on her own, Sarah runs to the Light of Day Institute to seek help, but no number of visions of previous lovers like Jason, Governor Burrell, and her former husband Steven Newlin can save her from Eric and Gus, who close in on her at the very end of the episode.

Fifty Shades of Violet

Jessica isn’t useful to Andy and Holly when they’re trying to find their kids, so the parents go looking at a friend’s lake house in Oklahoma. Though that search area turns out to be a waste of time, Andy finds beauty in how peaceful the lake house is. It makes us wonder: Will the newlyweds be moving out of town once they find their kids?

Meanwhile, Violet introduces Wade and Adilyn to her gorgeous home. The kids are infatuated by the expensive look of the place. She drops them off at her sex dungeon where, judging by his reaction to the dildo, Wade doesn’t know what a penis looks like or how a woman would use one.

The kids decide they aren’t ready to have sex despite the private room and access to lots of sex toys, but Violet doesn’t care. She knocks Wade to the side of the room and straps Adilyn to the bed. What’s up with this woman?

Fifty Shades of Fireplace

Sookie wonders if the infection is spreading through Bill so quickly because of her fae powers. With that in mind she decides to enlist the help of Dr. Ludwig, the colorful little person who enjoys blasting music in her Hummer. She’s “throughly” grossed out by his infection, and to make matters worse, when she finds out Sookie is a part of Niall Brigant’s fae line, she gets freaked out and leaves.

Sookie then summons Niall, and begs her great-great-great-times-a-million grandfather to use some of his allegedly oh-so-powerful magic to help Bill. At first Niall says he may be able to do something, but after a dramatic moment outside of Bill’s house, he says that there’s nothing he can do to save Mr. Compton.

Upset, Sookie runs into Bill’s house and vows to stay with him “until the very end” before making out with her man. Then they hit the ground in front of the fireplace to have sex. So this is it… they’re back together! We were impressed by Bill’s ability to keep it up even though he’s dying of a serious virus.

Fifty Shades of Keith

Arlene meets her vampire escort named Keith who’s more than happy to make her feel good on the restaurant pool table. Oh wait.. it was just a dream. Why do so many great sex scenes on this show have to be fantasies?

Luckily, in real life Keith senses the pain that Arlene is feeling and shows up at the bar to comfort her. Instead of having sex for real, they decide to “just dance” because of Arlene’s infection. It was a lovely moment of protection and care during such a rough season.

Elsewhere…

– Hoyt arrives in town for his mother’s funeral, and Jason has a hard time seeing his old friend now that he has no recollection of their former friendship.

– In flashbacks, Bill’s ailing father begs him to marry a particular woman named Caroline so that when he passes, the family will have enough land to continue making money.

– We noticed a theme in this episode: The characters want to stick with the people that they love. Arlene put it on display when she explained that that’s why she hasn’t wanted to move out of Bon Temps. Sam said a similar thing on last week’s episode when Nicole wanted to move out. And of course, Sookie has had this feeling for a while now.

Will Nu Blood come to fruition and save the day? Will Bill survive and wed Sookie so they can finally live out their happily ever after? It all depends on whether or not Eric can capture (not kill) Sarah, and right now that looks highly likely.

True Blood season 7, episode 8 airs Sunday, August 10 at 9 p.m. eastern/pacific on HBO. Only three episodes of the series remain until we say goodbye to Bon Temps forever.