Armed soldiers move through a foggy forest. Mira, Naevia, and Spartacus et al. lay covered in leaves, hiding in the brush. Suddenly, Naevia screams and takes off running. (I know we all want to be mad at her for that, but after all the beatings, multiple rapes, hard labor, and who knows what else she’s suffered, it’s understandable that she’s a bit out of it.) A soldier runs after her; Mira runs after them; Sparty and the boys attaaaaaaaaack! The soldier catches Naevia and is just about to slaughter her when Mira leaps upon him with catlike agility and stabs him repeatedly in the throat. Nicely done, Mira! 
At the house of Batiatus (I’ll never stop calling it that; I don't care who's living there.), Virinius is mad because Glaber’s men weren’t at the games. Glaber, who hates Virinius because he keeps flirting with a loving-the-attention Ilithya, insists they weren’t there simply because he needs them to hunt Sparty. Ilithya eases the tension suggesting a party in Virinius’s honor to make up for the slight. 
Glaber ain’t happy. And later, neither is Ilithya upon seeing that Seppia stopped by for a visit to see Lucretia. And she’s SUPER unhappy upon finding out that Seppia wants Lucretia to pray to the gods that Virinius will ask Seppia to marry him. (Oh, get over yourself, Ilithya. You’re already married, you’re pregnant, and you’re wealthy [read: a spoiled beeyatch].) In the forest, Ashur tries to convince a head soldier dude that his men are spread too thin to defeat Sparty and company, but the fool is of the opinion that a bunch of slaves are no match for Roman soldiers. Mind you, he’s saying this as they stand among the dead bodies of the soldiers Sparty and the boys just killed.
Ever the observant one, Lucretia totally doesn’t miss the stricken look on Ilithya’s face when she hears Seppia’s intentions. Seppia leaves; Lucretia asks Ilithya if she’d like her to pray for a different union? But Ilithya, who is having none of Lucretia’s friendliness, spits at her that as soon as the soldiers return w/o Sparty, Lucretia will be revealed as nothing more than an empty vessel who doesn't really talk to the gods. The soldiers return just then with three captives. 
Glaber’s mad that Sparty is not among them; Lucretia is taken aback to see that Crixus is. 
(Are we finally going to get to the bottom of that stabbing-Lucretia-in-the-stomach flashback Crixus had?) In the dungeon, Oenomaus and Crixus are reunited; Crixus says yes it sucks to get caught, but at least Naevia is alive and freed from the mines. Cut to: soldiers attacking! Neavia, Sparty, Mira, and Nacir survive, but Nacir is badly wounded.
Back at the crib, Virinius’s party is in full swing, the writhing, humping, barely clad pile of slaves in the middle of the room the focal point of the festivities. Glaber calls for a toast to Virinius; everyone applauds him. Seppia fawns over him. Ilithya is not alone in not being cool with this; 
Seppius is also clearly displeased with (more like jealous of) his sister’s affection toward Virinius. Gross. Glaber then has Oenomaus, Crixus, and the other two captives brought out in chains, hands Virinius a sword, and invites him to kill them. Virinius showily and grandly and ostentatiously declines (OH THANK GOD!), saying that the captives should instead die in the arena; that would honor the entire city and not just one man.
Out in the forest, the other two gladiator dudes want to kill Nacir because he’s slowing them down; Sparty’s all like, over my dead body. They snatch up swords and it's about to get fighty when Naevia, at last, speaks. She reminds them all that Crixus was once wounded way worse but made a full recovery, and says the wound needs to be cauterized. The other dudes don’t want to risk building a fire. Sparty tells them to go on ahead.
At the party, Lucretia and Crixus keep stealing glares at each other. Meanwhile, Seppius is all like eff the arena; he wants to kill the captives NOW, since they were involved in the death of his cousin Sextus. Virinius offers a compromise: 
kill one now and send the other three to the arena. Ilithya's dad Albinius says that after all she’s been through, Lucretia should get to pick who dies. Crixus immediately gets an I-am-so-screwed look on his face, but Lucretia picks the guy next to him. She tells him she spared his life only so she can enjoy watching him die in the arena; 
he tells her he’ll gladly die knowing Naevia is safe. Elsewhere, the slow death of the unfortunate other guy begins with Seppius cutting off his lower lip. I squirm. As parts of him continue to be removed, Ilithya has a hushed conversation with Albinius; she suggests that her marriage to Glaber was a mistake and Virinius would make a much better husband. Albinius says Ilithya’s preggo w Glaber’s kid, and anyway, Virinuis seems to have taken a shining to Seppia, so it’s not happening. Lucretia overhears the whole convo. Glaber sidles up to Seppius, notes that Seppius doesn’t seem too pleased with Virinius’s affection toward Seppia. (Seppius and Ilithya, please learn to hide your emotions a little better.) Seppius says no, but because he really wants Sextus avenged, he’s playing nice to keep Virinius helping in the hunt for Spartacus. Glaber reminds him that Glaber offered to do that … minus the attempts to bang Seppius’s sister. 
Lol, BURN. Virinius gives Seppia the sword to kill the by-now very mutilated gladiator, but she chickens out; Ilithya happily swoops in to deliver the kill blow. Virinius is terribly impressed. Lucretia and Albinius chat on the balcony; she tells him he seems troubled and should talk to her about what bothers him; 
he says that sounds nifty. (HA! How pissed will Ilithya be if Lucretia became her stepmother?) Seppia is off somewhere crying over either embarrassment at her inability get violent or jealousy at the two new chicks hanging on Virinius’s arms (or both); Seppius says let’s leave and kisses her, she says ok. GROSS. 
Ilithya approaches Virinius and just puts it all on the line, tells him she’d much rather be his wife than Glaber’s. He slips his hand between her legs and gives her good feelings while telling her that if she can get Albinius’s approval for a divorce, he’d happily marry her. She’s on cloud nine after this conversation—until she walks in on Lucretia girl-on-topping her dad. HA HAHAHA HA HA HAAAAAAA!
Out in the forest, Sparty bumps into one of the two who went ahead; they find the other hanging from a tree, dead. Ashur and his company of soldiers attack! Ashur and Naevia share a long look. The other dude is killed (by Ashur), but Sparty fights like a man possessed and kills all the other soldiers, badly wounding head soldier dude in the process. Ashur grabs head dude and they flee, but then Ashur kills him because he won’t stop yelling for other soldiers, and Ashur doesn’t want Sparty to find them. Good call, Ashur, because Sparty would gleefully kill you.Lucretia makes the mistake of telling Ilithya that she (Lucretia) totally remembers everything that transpired between,
so Ilithya knocks her to the ground, chokes her, tells her she’s about give her the Likinia Special (bashing girlfriend's head against the floor til she's dead); Lucretia gasps out that Albinius is willing to dissolve Ilithya’s marriage, and that she banged him to seal the deal, to mend the rift between them. A delighted Ilithya totally falls for it, stops choking Lucretia, and kisses her. Beeyotch, PLEASE. You can’t trust Lucretia as far as you can throw her. Scratch that—only half that distance. But I’m loving this, because I hate both of them, and I hope to see them each dead or enslaved when this series ends. Whatever you’ve got planned, do it big, Lucretia! Destroy her! And then may a large rock fall on your head.
Dawn breaks out in the forest. A semiconscious Nacir and an exhausted Mira, Naevia, and Sparty see the mountain they’re traveling to in the distance, 
half a day’s journey away. But they can hear soldiers approaching. They lay Nacir down and prepare to make a last stand—and are relieved to see the approaching hoard isn’t soldiers, it’s their fellow fugitives. Whew!
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