Rome 2.06 Phillipi
By and large I felt this episode was a little disjointed. Some parts where touching, other parts I didn’t really get - and some parts, like Tymon and his brother I didn’t see the point of.
This episode largely dealt with death, both on the battlefield and as a result of the proscriptions. A main feature was the killing of Cicero executed by Pullo.
This involved swords and peaches, and we learned that Titus "Luck" Pullo decided to try a peach, seeing as he doesn’t know when he would have the chance again*. ;P That said the whole execution scene was slightly odd. Touching in places, but Pullo’s behaviour seemed strange. The way he was talking and joking and focusing on peaches, all while Cicero was making a rather touching fare well to life. I guess I was just a little surprised at how easy Pullo went about his task, and I'm not sure I like it.
Not that I think Pullo has abstained from killing, it was just that his whole "okay then" acceptance of the executioners job seemed a little rushed. And the fact that he suggested they make it into a trip to the country seem even odder.
My theory of Pullo’s strange behaviour goes something like this: he didn’t know Cicero personally and therefore didn’t have any qualms about killing him. After all he has killed people before. In addition the killing of Cicero made Pullo feel useful. Through the episode it becomes clear that he is unsure of his place in the collegium, signalled at the beginning by him scribbling XIII on the table (and I loved that btw. Such a great little detail), and articulated afterwards in his conversation with Vorenus.
Pullo doesn’t feel cut out for collegium life and ponders going back to what he knows.
That said some doom and gloom descended when he was in the rain, nailing Cicero’s hand to the Senate door.
I did love Eirene being preglant, but Pullo you oaf! Go and comfort her - don’t just stand there smiling.
Now there were some things I really loved. The storyline of Vorena Major continues to grip me - and I desperately hope the scary man working for Memmio doesn’t hurt her. Don’t trust him Vorena! His has a necklace made out of fangs! That cannot possibly be good.
I also loved the Agrippa and Octavia storyline, even if the sex scene did take me by surprise.
Not that I mind,and the scene by the fountain managed to be both hot and very sweet. My inner romantic also got all mushy when Octavia sprinted in to say goodbye to her brother. *g* And she loves him! Huzzah! alexandral, you were right in all you’re theories! Hee!
It also seemed pretty clear that Maecenas knows about them, both from the look he gave Octavia in the garden and from his face in the courtyard. Which means that Octavian is the only one that doesn’t know, and something tells me he will not take it kindly if he finds out. He is far to possessive for that.
Now I feel a little strange for saying this but most of the battle bored me. This was mostly to do with a few of the editing choices. All that slow-mo, half dead soldiers and blood squirting was a little uninventive. (and I feel so bad and blasé about saying this in conjuncture to scenes of people dying. In fact I feel horrible saying "the battle bored me", but it did - so there you go).
My main problem was that the use of slow-mo and close-ups of arms being cut of gave the scenes a feeling of "look, now we will show you that battle is horrid and that men die - and there is blood!"
Which yes, this is true. They do die, and there is blood - and we know that. In fact we have seen these types of battle scenes many times before - so many times that the close up of a sword cutting of a hand is becoming cliché.
So in my opinion, humble or not, it would have been better to show just how the Romans fought, with all that cold discipline and tactical columns.
Instead we were given standard battlefield shots, and that robbed the scenes of their drama. Instead of becoming gripping/spectacular etc they were simply standard fare.
Now parts of the battle were very good. For instance the inside of the the testuda with the arrows and the sound of Cassius breathing.
Then there was Brutus who, somewhere along the way, took my heart and ran away with it. In the end when he walks to his death, throws away his armour and dies in an echo of Caesar I was all teary. The final shot of just his hand in a pile of corpses and the ring being cut of was chilling. So dies the republic, and we are left with a boy with cold blue eyes and a brute with a sense for bad one liners. (Seriously? Marc Antony’s "This is the smell of victory" kind of bugged me. I love Apocalypse Now, but it gets a little boring to see it referenced or made homage to by almost every war movie.)
In the end what I really loved about this episode was how the losers were shown as the good guys, and the winners as manipulative asses. In fact Agrippa and Octavia were the only truly sympathetic people on the Octavian side of the conflict. All the others just seemed too immersed in the slaughter.
"We mustn’t appear as butchers", Octavian says, but for all his words and plans that is just what they appear as.
Also - two weeks till the next one? *sob*
*Because every post should have a gratuitous Martin reference yes?