The Season five premiere of HBO’s True Blood is finally here! Here is a crash course on what is happening down in Bon Temps to get you up to speed with the vampires, fairies, witches, ghosts, werewolves, werepanthers, shape-shifters and…Arlene.

At the end of Season 4 – there were quite a few deaths, the end of some old romances, the beginning of some new ones and a butt-load of ghosts. Refresh your memory with this cheat sheet for the finale of last season (or read the full recap here).

• Lafayette’s boyfriend Jesus is dead – killed by Lafayette himself (while being possessed by the spirit of an evil witch). However, since L is a medium and J is now a ghost, they can still hang out so it’s totally cool.
• Marnie the witch was also possessed by the evil witch spirit (a witch within a witch? Witch-ception?). She kidnaps Bill Compton and Eric Northman but her plans to burn them at the stake are thwarted when Sookie’s Gran and a band of ghosts from a nearby graveyard show up, convincing Marnie to cross over into death instead.



• Sookie breaks up with both Bill and Eric.
• Bill and Eric kill Nan, the bitchy lady from the Vampire League, who showed up at Sookie’s house to kill her and steal her fairy blood.
• Jason Stackhouse confesses to his bff Hoyt that he’s been sleeping with Jessica and then proceeds to get his ass kicked.
• Jason and Jess continue to sex it up.
• Steve Newlin, former anti-vampire advocate presumed missing for months (years?), shows up at Jason’s house. He’s a vampire now.
• An old army buddy of Terry Bellefleur arrives at Merlotte’s and insinuates that Terry might have a darker, more insidious past.
• The ghost of Rene appears to Arlene and warns her that Terry DOES have a darker, more insidious past, and that she should run.
• Alcide’s jealous ex gf Debbie breaks into Sookie’s house to kill her but ends up shooting Tara in the head instead. Sookie then blasts Debbie’s head off with a rifle.

Season 5 promises to not disappoint: introducing a bunch of new characters (hellllll-oooo, Elliot Stabler!), delving into new and old romances, digging up new drama with the vampire hierarchy (get it? Because someone dug up Russell Edgington from the cement parking lot he was buried under?) and obviously lots and lots of gratuitous nudity and banging. Not that we are complaining. Here are a few things the teaser trailers suggest we can expect:

• Chris Meloni playing a very important vampire, likely the head of the American Vampire League (AVL) – a group of powerful elders who govern all other vampires.
• Russell Edgington, former vampire king of Mississippi, is back for revenge against Bill and Eric (who are a team now).
• Jason  and Jessica are still going at it.
• Sookie and Alcide start getting more snuggly, possibly headed towards romance. Man, everyone wants a piece of her.
• Tara is probably dead.
• SPOILER: chatter on the web has suggested we may see flashbacks to when Eric “turned” Pam.

Will this season be the epic mind-melt that last season was? Here’s hoping! True Blood airs Sundays on HBO at 9PM.