with the newest resident in Bon Temps,

Nathan Parsons.

( cheering, applause )

And then the beautiful Jessica, Deborah Ann Woll.

( cheering, applause )

Lafayette himself, Nelsan Ellis.

( cheering, applause )

( woman shouts )

Thank you.

Miss Arlene, Carrie Preston.

( cheering, applause )

And his first time at Comic-Con,

Chris Bauer, Andy Bellefleur.

( cheering, applause )

And the now Buddhist Sarah Newlin, Anna Camp.

( cheering, applause )

( laughs )

Executive producer Brian Buckner.

( cheering, applause )

Bauer: Dead man walkin'.

Pam, Kristin Bauer van Straten.

( cheering, applause )

Man: I love you, Pam!

- ( Stack chuckles ) - ( cheering, applause )

The dearly departed Tara Thornton,

Rutina Wesley.

( cheering, applause )

Stack: Look at that jacket! That's such a cool--

I love that jacket.

Sam Merlotte, Sam Trammell.

( cheering, applause )

Mr. Bill Compton, Stephen Moyer.

( cheering, applause )

And the lady who without this show wouldn't exist,

Sookie Stackhouse, Anna Paquin.

( cheering, applause )

- Audience members: Go, season eight! - Okay.

- ( laughs ) Season eight. - Season eight.

This is crazy.

Well, you guys, let's go back--

since this is maybe one of the last times

you'll all be together onstage,

what do you all remember from shooting the pilot?

Did you immediately think, "This is something special"?

Did you think, like, "I can't believe this--

I don't know if this is gonna go"?

What did you guys think? What are your memories of that pilot?

- Moyer: Can anybody remember seven years ago? - ( laughter )

There was that little lot--

I just remember that "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody"

was shooting right next door

and we had all these naked bloody people walking around.

That's my memory.

What about the rest of you guys?

You have any memories? Anna, Stephen?

- No? - I mean, yeah, but somebody else go first.

- Stack: Okay. - I remember Merlotte's.

- Stack: Yeah. - One of the only sets that was actually built

at the time was his bar,

and I remember walking around

and looking at every single detail,

every beautiful little-- there's loads of posters that you won't have seen

of the Louisiana peach-eating competition

or the best peach in Louisiana.

- Paquin: I think it's Peach Festival. - Peach Festival.

And all of these little posters up

that were brought in by Ron and Suzuki Ingerslev

and just thinking, "Wow, this is amazing,

this-- the world that they're setting up."

Trammell: Yeah, they literally have, like, cards

for carpenters and plumbers from Louisiana,

like real people tacked on the back of the bar.

It's really detailed. It's pretty amazing.

Rutina, do you have any memories?

I love when Tara yells at that lady in the store.

That's, like, my favorite-- I love that.

Wesley: I think that's one of my favorite scenes

of the whole series.

I remember from the pilot for me just being terrified

because it was my first job--

almost my first job out of school,

and I was like, "Oh, my God, just please don't fire me.

Please don't fire me."

But I remember just having a lot of fun,

learning a lot really quickly.

And all these guys, of course, were so welcoming,

so it was a lot of fun.

And Nelsan, Lafayette was supposed to die originally

and you-- I think Stephen told me the story

that you-- I think you were, like, with Alan.

You guys were, like, "We can't kill this guy off. He's too good."

Woman: Yeah, he is!

( laughter, cheering )

Well, I'm glad he kept me with a job.

( laughing )

It's funny because what I remember most is

I was like, "Do my shirts have to be this tight?

Jesus, okay."

Do you guys have-- over the course-- over seven years now,

do you guys have favorite sort of, like, what-the-eff moments?

Sort of fave-- I always think about the meat tree.

I love the meat tree. I think the meat tree is just--

I like the idea of it.

But, like, Stephen, do you-- the Lorena sex where you--

I'm just gonna go back to something

'cause you just made me think of it, Nelsan.

There was a moment in the pilot

that we talked about before, Tim--

there was a moment in the pilot where Nelsan

is cooking grits or something.

Was it, Nelsan? What were you cooking?

Ellis: I think I was cooking burgers.

Paquin: When you started humping the thing--

And he starts basically doing this...

Ellis: Oh, six gear.

That was my six gears.

- What was it? - That was my six gears.

( Buckner laughs ) It's your six gears.

And at which point he turns around and says,

"Everybody love the pussy.

John, even you. You scared of the pussy, right?"

And there was this guy,

this extra that was there just for the day

that was Big John, as he became known,

and because of that moment when Nelsan turned around and said,

"Even Big John's scared of the pussy," even at that moment,

Big John has been in every single one of our episodes ever since.

- Because of him. - Stack: Oh.

Because of Nelsan.

I like that, I like that.

Brian, there's been a lot more flashbacks, I think, this season,

especially with Bill and Pam and Eric.

Is that a conscious decision to show--

I mean, do you guys want to bring things full circle?

Because it started with Bill and the Civil War stuff.

Well, with Bill-- we've got a character

who we turned into a vampire god.

And he wasn't that nice when he was a vampire god,

so, honestly, the thinking there was,

as Bill tries to find his way back to himself,

let's give him a little help by flashing back to his human life.

And that's kind of the case across the boards

with a lot of the flashbacks--

to give a little bit more context, you know.

How Pam and Eric came to Shreveport in the first place.

Just filling in holes that were out there

and learning something else about these characters

who we've already spent a lot of episodes with.

So, yeah, for sure conscious,

but we've always done flashbacks.

There's just some purpose to them.

- Stack: Right. - Yeah.

I love-- my favorite flashback so far this year

was the fact that Pam and Eric owned a video store franchise.

Mm-hmm.

Who came up with-- where'd that come from?

Was that your idea? How did that even come to be?

We wanted to do a flashback to how they came to Shreveport.

There was, um--

we're like, it needs to be the worst punishment imaginable.

Like, the worst punishment imaginable.

And it was one of our writers, Craig Chester,

who actually said, "A video store."

And, yeah, so that's how we came to that.

And, Kristin, how-- those must've been so fun to shoot.

I mean, the '80s clothes-- I know you love your costumes as Pam,

but those were, like, another level, I think.

Was that a blast to shoot?

Yeah, the '80s was another level

and it was really fun to go back there and have even more hair,

and it really is so brilliant

that we end up in this fluorescently lit video store

and then also that the throne,

which Alex and I had been imagining he was carrying around since his Viking days

and treasuring that it was his father's,

you know, was found by Ginger in an alley.

( laughter )

It was amazing, and to see Ginger,

how we met her and the transformation,

and Alex-- you know, the slo-mo walk where he was dressed

basically as Jason Priestly when Ginger first sees him

and gives up her college career.

Alex sort of did the slo-mo walk.

He didn't have to, but he kind of actually in person did it

and it was really-- it was an amazing day.

Yeah? And, now, you were telling me earlier, you want--

there's a piece of Merlotte's-- not of Merlotte's,

of Fangtasia you specifically want to take.

Can you explain what-- that piece you'd like to keep?

Well, you know, it was my last day in Fangtasia,

I think I was the only one who realized it,

and then it was the end of a long day

and everybody was busy and trying to get out of there

and I was trying to stay out of the way,

( voice breaks ) but take a moment--

uh-oh, Stephen, it's happening.

And he's counting how many times today.

96.

And I really was too overwhelmed

'cause I'm thinking, "Do I want to cherish

that weird little Aunt Jemima skeleton tchotchke for the rest of my life?

I don't know what I want."

I took nothing,

and then I realized that there's three paintings.

So it's our executive producer Gregg Fienberg as a vampire,

Clinton as a vampire, and Bush as a vampire.

And-- Clinton and Bush, I'm good with either,

but after this last episode, Republi...can,

I think it should be Bush.

I love that, I love that.

Speaking of last days-- so, you guys have wrapped, you're done.

What were your individual last days like?

- I mean, do you-- - Oh, boy.

It must've been just so surreal

because it's been seven years.

It's been a huge journey. So many life changes.

- I mean, what... - ( cheering, applause )

And I'm assuming you all wrapped on different days,

so what were those days like for you all?

( panel laughing )

Um, I remember my last day was very-- it was weird.

I did my last close-up for the night, you know,

and then it was just kinda like-- it was over.

And then I kind of walked to the side,

and Adina just came running up to me,

and she just, like, grabbed me

and we just hugged for a good five, 10 minutes and just cried.

It just kind of hit me all at once.

I didn't think it would hit me like that,

but it just kind of hit me, and it was just--

it was beautiful and sad

and also, like, it's on to new things, you know?

Let me jump in real quickly and say that people have not seen the last of Rutina yet.

When she talks about her last day--

you haven't seen her last day yet.

'Cause I know a lot of people are worried about that.

( cheering, applause )

Woll: I would say, in true "True Blood" fashion,

my last day-- I wrapped at 4:00 AM

out in the woods somewhere.

Um, but I don't know.

I thought that was kind of fitting and it was nice

because we actually did wrap a bunch of people

all together earlier that night,

so we had a moment where at least half the cast,

if not more, were together and could kind of say good-bye,

- and I was just a couple hours later. - Buckner: It was 17.

- It was, like, 17 people in one scene. - 17 people wrapped at once.