Three and a Half Torches (Out of Five)
Warning: The following review contains spoilers for the “Mark of the Brotherhood” episode of Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
So, the past couple of episodes have been real downers. Therefore, it’s refreshing that with “Mark of the Brotherhood,” Spartacus: Blood and Sand starts to return to form.
At this point, though it’s been shy of two months for us, time has marched along a tad quicker in the ludus, and Batiatus is ready for some new blood to bolster the ranks of his academy. He heads out to the market to bid on new gladiators, and after a brief bidding war with his rival Solonius, he ends up overpaying for a slew of fresh blood. He doesn’t mind, however, since he now has coin to spare, and he rather gets a kick out of showing up Solonius in public.
The new recruits arrive, and in an echo of the second episode, Doctore indoctrinates them into the ludus with his speech, only this time it’s Spartacus who provides the grace notes rather than Crixus. It seems old Sparty is really taking to his new identity as the Champion of Capua.
Ilithyia watches the goings on from the balcony with Lucretia and Batiatus, and by now her fetishistic enjoyment of the gladiators is so obvious that Lucretia suggests she becomes a patron to one of them. To further goad her, Batiatus orders all of the new recruits to disrobe, and we get a gander at what I imagine has to be one of the show’s notorious prosthetic penises. If I’m wrong, the actor playing the new Gaul slave has a lot to be proud of. A lot.
The major sub-plot running throughout is Crixus’ attempts to win back the favor of both Lucretia and Batiatus (though he uses very different methods for each, natch), and after seeing him bully around Spartacus and Varro for so long, it was gratifying to see him become the underdog.
In the scene where he challenges Spartacus to a fight, I was suddenly reminded how the show use to focus on heavy-metal-driven slow-motion fight scenes, and, in fact, that they were integral to its identity. But, as will happen, the show has evolved to focus more on the characters and less on the spectacle, so it was fun to see a bit of the old Spartacus return as Crixus and our champion threw down.
The show has also done a good job exploring the role of women in this society, and the bitchapalooza that ensued when Ilithyia brought her friends to the ludus was a fun, snarky diversion, while also setting up what will be an important plot point in the episodes to come.
I have to say, when the show began, I never imagined that Ilithyia would grow to be such a villain while her husband Glaber is largely absent, so the writers deserve credit for the ingenuity. The only character who is truly pure of heart is Spartacus, as many others, even Varro, have succumbed to ignoble desires, while Crixus, who began as a one-dimensional bully, is evolving into a sympathetic character.
The show deserves praise for taking chances, as much for its willingness to show the dark side of every character as its daring displays of violence and nudity. As I’ve stated before, it treads where other shows dare not. While it saddened me that Barca and Pietros are seemingly forgotten by every single person in the ludus, I guess I have to move on and realize that for those living in this world, an untimely death is as common as the sun rising in the morning.
Spartacus remains a kick-ass show. And wait until you see the next episode …
![[Bloglines]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
![[Digg]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Fark]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/fark.png)
![[Google]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[Squidoo]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/squidoo.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Twitter]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
Okay, so last week’s episode was a bummer. We know that.
I didn’t realize how emotionally attached I had become to Pietros. Seeing him wandering around the ludus, a lost soul who believes he was abandoned by his one true love, was bad enough, but then on top of this he becomes the favorite victim of another gladiator, one who routinely beats and rapes him. When he started appearing with swollen black eyes and cuts, it set off every protective instinct in my body.
To be fair, it does set up nicely what I imagine might be a future storyline, in which Doctore discovers the truth behind Barca’s “departure,” but I’ve seen the next two episodes and that doesn’t factor into either of them. But I will say this — the next two episodes are pretty awesome.
The action starts immediately, as Kahlan is plucked off the ground by a pair of dragon-monster-things and taken to the castle of a wicked monarch who has made a deal with the Sisters of the Dark and the newly resurrected Nikki (in a new body … just go with it): he’ll hand over Kahlan in exchange for eternal life.
Also amusing was having Craig Horner, now under the persona of a blond lothario prince, strutting around the castle as women throw themselves at him. The show sometimes seems to go out of its way to ignore how freaking sexy its three young leads are, and I’m pretty sure that Craig Horner gets a similar reaction from women wherever he goes in real life, so it brought a chuckle to see it lampooned on screen.
Yeah … so …
When Sura’s cart arrives, Spartacus is distraught to find his wife has been attacked on the road, and she dies in his arms. Even more disturbing is the fact that Batiatus arranged her death.
After last week’s brilliant double-Kahlan episode, which used a fantasy gimmick as a lens for a great character study, this episode does the same with Cara. And since Cara has such a dark past, this story understandably gets really grim.
One night, Darken Rahl comes to her in a dream and encourages her to kill Thaddicus. She almost does, but can’t go through with it, so Thaddicus, surprisingly, grabs her hand and forces her to kill him.
Much of Cara’s arc so far has been about her regaining her humanity. This is someone who was abducted as a child, radicalized through torture and brainwashing, and turned into a lethal, remorseless killer. Though she has left the Mord-Sith, she is struggling to fit into a world that doesn’t want her, and she tries to be good when a lifetime of training so often tells her to be vicious.
The hook of this episode is that the Magistrate is interested in using one of Batiatus’ men in the main event, or Primus, of his latest games. One fighter has already been chosen, belonging to Batiatus’ rival, Solonius.
This ep had an incredible character moment for Illyithia, a character who had so far been shown to be little more than a flighty airhead. She is the wife of Glaber, the main villain, and we caught a glimpse of the power she wields when she and Lucretia summon Spartacus and Crixus to their chamber for a private viewing.
The power play between the genders is fascinating. We have a notion that in the ancient world, women were automatically subservient to men, but the scene in which Lucretia and Illyithia are ogling Crixus is interesting because even though he could kill them both with his bare hands in seconds, he has to do everything they say.
We begin with the gang spotting two men hanging from a tree. They learn that someone has assigned himself the title of “High Lord Regent” and is attempting to usurp Kahlan’s authority in Aydindril. So the heroes decide to split up (which always works out so well for them, doesn’t it?) with Zedd and Kahlan heading to Aydindril while Richard and Cara continue on the quest. Just as they’re about to teleport, Kahlan wishes she could stay with Richard, and surprise, she does! Well, one version of her, anyway.
So the silver lining? Without her confessor power, that means she and Richard can finally — FINALLY — get it on. (Again, I remind you, it’s Valentine’s Day, so we’re all thinking about the same thing, right?) Over in Idendrill, the Kahlan who’s all business is continuing that trend, deciding that Fyren is the best choice around to sire the next Confessor.
So what made this episode so great? Usually I favor the more action-oriented episodes that deal with the internal mythology of the show, and this episode was not that. Instead, it gave us a deep psychological insight to Kahlan, who is a fascinating character given all the challenges she must face.
killed? Conversely, how many times have we let our romantic feelings get the best of us, and found ourselves saying and doing things that seem odd, sometimes even crazy, all in the name of love?
Depending on your point of view, the latest episode of Spartacus: Blood and Sand will either be your favorite episode so far, or you will want to take a nail to your corneas in an attempt to scratch the images out of your body.
To put it another way, if the gladiator arena is Wrestlemania, the pits are barbed-wire-laden backyard wrestling at its most disgusting.
ground-breaking thing is that the show treats it as a non-issue, in that it’s just another part of Roman life to the characters. Just one more example of how this show pushes boundaries in all the right directions.
That having been said, it’s still getting four stars, because this show takes serious chances, and goes places other shows don’t even dream of daring to go.
When I read that the Valentine’s Day episode involved a rogue “Cupid,” I was expecting another humorous episode.
In the show that continues to kick ass and take names, we begin with Spartacus (Andy Whitfield) slowly, meditatively strapping on pieces of armor (although it seems kind of negligible, considering his most vulnerable body part is protected by what barely qualifies as a handkerchief), before busting some dude’s face open in the ludus.
Crixus, who up till now has been a fairly standard bully, gets fleshed out (no pun intended). We see he’s the object of lust for Lucretia (Lucy Lawless), who as the domina, or lady of the house, can command the slaves to her will, and even blatantly cheat on her husband, firm in the knowledge that the slave will never speak of it.
The show is coming along nicely, and is much smarter than many people (and critics) realize. It’s exactly what it claims to be — a firmly genre-rooted, graphic-novel show — while at the same time offering us genuinely interesting and sympathetic characters.
“I used to hate the guy,” Sam tells John. “But now I get it. He was just trying to keep it together in this impossible situation. … The truth is, my dad died before I got to tell him that I understand why he did what he did. And I forgive him.”
The episode opens with Richard back in the Palace of Prophets, confused because he escaped there in the previous episode. He is told by Sister Verna that it was all in his head, a figment of his imagination that seemed real because his wizard training is affecting his mind.
Richard shakes off the magic of the Valley and rushes to save his friends. With an assist from Zedd, Nicci and the Sisters of the Dark are killed. They burn Leo on a funeral pyre, and head off to find that Stone of Tears.