Season two begins with a pile of dead bodies and “The house of Batiatus has fallen." We learn that Spartacus and the boys escaped and have been terrorizing the city of Capua for weeks. An annoyed young nobledude named Seppius has hired a gang of mercenaries to quell this most bothersome revolt. Too right, Seppius. Slaves not wanting to be slaves anymore is just ridiculous. I mean, what’s next? Electricity????
Anyhoo, the mercenaries FAIL, and Sparty and the boys make quick work of them after a bloody skirmish and rob the bodies of valuables and supplies. Sparty carves a message onto a mercenary’s chest. Cut to Rome, where Claudius (I HATE HIM.) is chatting with a friend about war matters. His boss/father-in-law arrives just then, tells him that such discussions are moot when he can’t even stop a little slave uprising in Capua. By a gladiator who is openly mocking him by carving “Claudius” on dead bodies. (LOL. Nice touch, Sparty.) Pops tells Claudius to handle this little problem forthwith or rise no further in the senate. Later, Claudius and a pregnant Ilithia argue; she doesn’t want to go with him to Capua. He tells her she will, goshdarnit.
Sparty and the boys arrive at Headquarters Inside which Gladiators Hide (HIGH). (Where, I’m sad to see, the female slaves who escaped with them are all still barefoot, mostly naked, doing domestic duties, and relying on the men for food and survival. :( I know I’m being way too 2012 liberated feminist with this, but nobody wants to wear shoes, put on some real clothes, and strike out on her own?) Sparty passes out swords but, one of the slave girls (Sparty’s now-deceased BFF Varro's wife Aurelia) reminds him,
they need food, not swords. Crixus’s peeps arrive just then, laughing, joking, and chowing down on vittles. Sparty asks where’s Crixus, is told he’s off trying to find Navia. (OMG PLEASE FIND HER!) Sparty orders their food split with everyone else; they don’t want to but eventually relent. Major tension between Spartacus Squad and Crixus Crew, yo. Crixus arrives later, says he’ll talk to his men about playing nice, and also that he won’t stop looking til he finds Navia. (YAY!) Sparty asks him about Doctore; Crixus says Doctore loved the ludus and probably doesn’t want to be reunited with those who brought about its downfall. Cut to: disguised Doctore sitting in the crowds at the arena, intently watching a bloody battle. Up in the VIP box, as the VIPs bemoan how crappy the fighters are these days, we meet Seppius and his sister Seppia, who totally give off incest-is-best vibes. Doctore leaves but is recognized by a dude in the crowd … who later with a couple friends and unwisely tries to bring Doctore in for the reward money. In a fight that seems almost unfair, lol, Doctore easily kills them. HE’S DOCTORE, BITCH.
To honor Varro’s dying wish, Sparty gives Aurelia all the money he’s managed to steal and sends her off to find her son and buy them safe passage to faraway lands. Then Spartacus Squad and Crixus Crew head to a whorehouse that the guy who sold Navia frequents. Crixus get a good lead on his lost love, and everyone finds out that Claudius et al. are coming for them.
Claudius et al. arrive at the house of Batiatus. It’s a blood-smeared wrecked mess, and Ilithia is furious about having to stay there. Claudius tells her to STFU and get busy putting the house right. Ilithia discovers none other than by-some-miracle-still-alive Lucretia wandering around, dirty and driven mad. (Good. I HATE HER.) Ilithia yells at Claudius to kill “it”
(because, you’ll remember, Lucretia knows Ilithia killed Likinia), but his fellow soldier suggests she be shown to the people of Capua as a symbol that a woman escaped Sparty, so obviously Sparty’s not all that. Claudius agrees; Ilithia is re-furious. As Lucretia is bathed, Ilithia notices a scar on Lucretia’s lower abdomen. (When season one ended, Lucretia was preggo.) She asks Lucretia about the scar, about how she survived the uprising, and about Likinia. Lucretia can’t answer the first two and thinks Likinia is still alive. Which pleases Ilithia immensely.
Back at HIGH, Doctore shows up, warns everyone about the small army Claudius has brought, and advises everyone to get while the getting is good. Then after telling them not to call him Doctore anymore, The Artist Formerly Known As Doctore leaves. Crixus tells Sparty that going after Claudius is stupid and Sparty should leave along with Crixus Crew. But Claudius is, of course, the man responsible for Sparty becoming a slave/losing his wife, so Sparty wants his head, dammit. Later, Mira implores Sparty to leave with Crixus to avoid a bunch of needless death; he assures her he doesn’t want to see anyone die for him; they get it on. The next morning, she wakes to find him gone.
Oh snap. He’s at a gathering of the townspeople, waiting as Seppius blathers on (as Seppia practically drools with lust) for the arrival of Claudius with a murderous gleam in his eye. Claudius arrives and parades out Lucretia. The little stunt has the desired effect on the crowd and completely shocks Sparty—and then he’s again startled when Claudius has a bound, bruised, and bleeding Aurelia brought out. 
As Claudia promises to torture her until she talks, Sparty grabs his sword and attaaaaaaaaaacks! He puts up a good fight, even slicing Claudius’s arm, but he’s quickly surrounded. Just as he’s about to be seized, the other gladiators arrive, YAY!, and the brawl begins. Crixus sees Lucretia, looks even more shocked than Sparty did, and has a momentary flashback about cutting her stomach. (What? I need that explained, please.) Crixus yells some sense into Sparty; the gladiators grab Aurelia retreat.Back at HIGH, Mira is pissed and yelling at Sparty; Sparty’s all, but I can’t let Claudius live! Then Crixus punches Sparty in the face and explains that the only reason he showed up was to stop the Claudius assassination, which would result in Rome sending thousands and thousands and thousands of soldiers to stamp out the rogue-gladiator problem; then Crixus’d never find Navia. Aurelia has Sparty called to her side, makes him promise to stay away from her son, then dies. Which was completely bitchy, but makes Sparty decide to give up his desire to kill Claudius—until Sparty has a properly trained army, that is.
No comments:
Post a Comment