Note: This review contains spoilers for all aired episodes of Spartacus: Blood and Sand, including the most recent, “Legends.”
The third episode of Spartacus: Blood and Sand may lack a small degree of the oomph of the first two installments, but that is understandable, as “The Red Serpent” and “Sacramentum Gladiatorum” were very much about establishing the show’s characters and world, whereas this one finds Our Hero settling into his situation, albeit uneasily so. Overall, however, it is a very solid episode that provides numerous twists that neatly defy audience expectation.
The main thrust of the plot is seeing Spartacus continue to chafe against the unbearably restrictive life of the gladiator. The show’s writers are doing something very interesting and unusual for this type of story, though. Throughout the episode, we hear Spartacus doubt the legends spoken of other gladiators, such as the brutish, boastful Crixus, who he thinks is all talk and bluster. In his opinion, Crixus’ reputation, along with other famous gladiators, is the result of good PR, so to speak, rather than actual talent. In his complete dismissal of the training Doctore is cruelly trying to instill in him, Spartacus is following a tradition of many cinematic heroes. We as viewers are trained to expect that our protagonist will be the most competent fighter and easily tear apart anyone who faces him, lack of training be damned, because he is Our Hero. After all, we saw him dispatch four people in the arena in the second episode, not to mention countless on the battlefield.
The show is actually playing with our expectations, though, for by the end of the episode, Spartacus finds himself soundly thrashed by Crixus, his downfall the result of his own hubris, every bit as a detriment as Crixus’ will, most likely, eventually be. At this moment, we realize that Spartacus’ initial victory was a case of luck meeting strength meeting adrenaline. The series won’t let him succeed this early in the plot nor that easily, an important thing to establish. If Spartacus is going to eventually emerge free and with the money to purchase his wife’s freedom in kind, he will first have to earn it, physically, emotionally, and narratively.
What, then, is the series’ stance on the so-called legends spoken of in hushed tones throughout the episode? Earlier on, we saw them through Spartacus’ perspective and found them just as preposterous as he might have. Now, we have to question whether the others had a point about them. At the very least, we have learned not to casually disregard them as swiftly as Spartacus did.
Another aspect of the series’ world that this episode continues to bring into sharp focus is how the gladiators are truly not treated as human beings but as animals, possessions, things to bring entertainment and amusement. When Spartacus misbehaves, he finds his face rubbed in piss and later his body submerged in shit. At Batiatus and Lucretia’s reception, guests are invited to touch and admire the gladiators’ muscles as they stand in the middle of the room; afterwards, Lucretia orders Spartacus’ sole friend in the gladiator ranks, Varro, to fuck one of her slave girls in a room full of onlookers, and coaxes Illythia into stroking his chest before he climaxes.
More than any other television series or film in a long time (perhaps since Roots), we get the full sense of what it is like for people who have been robbed of their autonomy and free will. Gladiators are toys to play with and then discard. Notice how the crowd, which was rooting for Spartacus in the second episode, clamors for his blood the instant he demonstrates weakness in this episode. This is a culture that has made a sport out of encouraging cheering throngs to watch as men dismember one another as gorily as possible–a culture that has made an industry out of training men to fight for the express purpose of watching them then die all the more spectacularly.
Meanwhile, Lucretia continues to play her fun, quite elaborate games, with Illythia, with Crixus, with her slave girl, using sex to widen her sphere of influence, control, and feelings of personal empowerment. She’s a fascinating character, all the more so because we don’t quite yet know what her long-term goals are. We see her actions but aren’t ever allowed inside her head or behind-the-scenes, so we must surmise based on the effects of her manipulations. Her seduction of Illythia seems to be for political power; her affair with Crixus to reassert her own feelings of power, over him and her husband. One wonders how long it will be until, regarding this pesky Spartacus situation, she takes matters into her own hands, so to speak.
That’s life in ancient Rome for you. Another day, another conquest.
Related posts:
- Spartacus: Blood and Sand 1.04: “The Thing in the Pit”
- Spartacus: Blood and Sand 1.09: “Whore”
- Spartacus: Blood and Sand 1.05: “Shadow Games”
- Spartacus: Blood and Sand 1.12: “Revelations”
- Spartacus: Blood and Sand 1.08: “Mark of the Brotherhood”
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Almost makes me think about paying good money for yet another channel…
Naw, just wait for it in syndication or DVD and save the $$$ -kh