SPARTACUS: episode 10

[hradzka]

"Party Favors," SPARTACUS's tenth episode, is perhaps the most predictable episode yet. It's not terrible -- not any more than the series is in general, anyway -- but as a follow-up to the glorious WTFery of "Whore" it's a little disappointing. I called some of the climactic events of "Whore" relatively early in the episode, but I had this

Comments

[theweaselking]

It's not that I was surprised to see Varro die, it's that I was surprised by *why* and *how* he died. It made me sit up and go "Illythia, you DICK!"

Because, I mean, that was evil, impressively so, in a way I simply didn't see coming until the second Batiatus told the kid to decide the loser's fate. Before that I was going "huh?" and thinking she was trying to make Crixus angry, or trying to get out from under Lucretia's thumb because she knew that the "insult" to Crixus would make Lucy go all Axe Crazy on the kid who was key to Batty's ambitions.

[sinanju]

Illythia's scheme was brilliantly evil. It was a win for her no matter what happened. If Spartacus wins, he's forced to murder his friend. If Varro wins, he's forced to kill Spartacus. (If they balk long enough out of friendship, they both die.)

However it turns out, Spartacus suffers. That really was cunning.

I'd say that Lucretia better watch her back. She thinks she's got Illythia over a barrel, but if she pushes her far enough, Illythia will turn that vicious cleverness in her direction. (Okay, it'll happen eventually anyhow, but it'll happen that much sooner....)

[theweaselking]

Oh man. Your profile says you're a SUSE fan and that you think the worst critics of the US are in the USA, but, despite being crazy, anyone who'd sign up with a username of Sinanju, nine years ago, I must love.

So I love you!

(But yes. Her plan was *the perfect storm* of awesome for a manipulative Citizen. No matter the result, the person she hates suffers *and* cannot respond even if he figures out the source of the problem. And, for *real* bonus points, the exact method of her revenge fooled me until the few seconds before it happened, leaving me with reactions that went "What's she up to? Oh, she didn't. Fuck, she did. Crap, they're FUCKED", in about that speed - which makes for infinitely entertaining TV)

[coasterchild]

You know, I completely agreed that Varro was going to get offed, but it wasn't until this episode (what with all the blatant BFFing going on) that I actually became worried about it. I think I'd said it before, that until now, Spartacus has been to preoccupied with his own crap to really have much invested in his friendship with Varro.

I'm pretty sure my tweet when Ilythia saw them being BFFs was simply "Uh oh." Because that sealed it. (That she would seduce a 15-year-old to do it, I did not anticipate.)

I really don't have much of an idea what will happen to Ilythia now. A little part of me is imagining her and Ashur crossing paths. Seeing as she's got a secret, and he's profoundly good at learning things he shouldn't. And she's, well, profoundly good at fucking people up. I think their face-off could be pretty impressive.

All that being said: I AM GOING TO MISS VARRO'S STUPID BLOND CURLS ;_______;

[sinanju]

Speaking of the seduction of the 15 year-old, I was amused by watching how they cut that scene to show us Illythia undressing in front of and seducing the boy without actually filming it. From the point at which she starts undressing, they start cutting back and forth, but you don't see them in the same shot again.

[hradzka]

My bet is that Starz lawyers had a lot to say about how that scene was shot. I mean, A LOT. For good reason.

I was really grateful when they cut away, actually.

[sinanju]

Oh, I'm absolutely certain of it. They can't have a 15 year-old boy in a scene with a nude woman. Not legally, I'm sure.

Which is why I was entertained by watching how they cut the scene the way they did. There's no doubt whatsoever about what was going on, but they could (and no doubt did) shoot them separately for most of it.

[droolfangrrl]

I'm trying to figure out what's the roman equivalent for a fridge. I mean they've got to have something to stuff all these bodies into...

[hradzka]

Amphora? Or maybe a krater. That's a Greek thing, originally, but the Romans used picked it up. The krater was basically a punchbowl, if you were serving watered wine, but sometimes it was used like a champagne bucket (fill it with ice, put your amphora or whatever in it, and the wine stayed cool). I think "kratered" kind of has a nice ring to it. Or we could just say "jugged."

[droolfangrrl]

Doing a little bit of looking around, I learned that food preserving techniques for those times included smoking, drying, salting, and pickling.

http://ammonastery.wordpress.com/2008/03/16/roman-food-lalimentation-romaine/

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/nchfp/factsheets/food_pres_hist.html

I'm all for stuffing the bodies in pickling vats and calling it a day.

[sihaya09]

I always expected Varro to die, even at Spartacu's own hand. It was just the SUDDENNESS that shocked me. There was no "oh hey, he's totally going to die in this episode" giveaway. And for as much as he's underwhelmed me in the past, Jai Courtney did an excellent job with that scene.