Pullo has fallen on even harder times and becomes a mob assassin – referred to as mortality work – which kills me. In the process of doing his mortality work, he kills a dude in broad daylight and is thrown in jail which in Rome, looks like a cross between the sewer and an oubliette.
Vorenus is busy being all magistrate-y and one of his old soldier buddies comes to him and basically tells him to tell Caesar that the former members of the 13th want farmland. Haggling ensues with Vorenus making a better deal than Caesar expected. As a “reward”, Caesar invites Vorenus and his wife, Niobe to Atia’s upcoming party. Vorneus tries to gracefully decline and Caesar tells him to get used to hanging with a better class of people.
Brutus is freaking out because of all the graffiti around town showing him killing Caesar, and his buddy, Cassius, is trying to talk him into getting with the program and offing Caesar already. Oh yeah, and I guess Caesar has declared himself Dictator for Life.
Atia has a symposium, which is what I’m going to start calling any party I throw, and warns Caesar that Servillia wants him dead and not to trust Brutus. Marc Antony tries to convince Octavia to put in a good word for him with Atia because I’m guessing he’s board and wants back in her bed. Atia mean girls all over Niobe and her homemade dress at the party while Caesar and Vorenus talk business.
See? Super fake smile.
Octavian begs Caesar to intervene and save Pullo from what will likely be guilty verdict and an execution. Caesar refuses, saying that if he helps, it’ll look like he was the one who hired the hit on that guy. (Spoiler alert: he was.) Octavian has his hired man attempt to a lawyer for Pullo, and nooooooobody wants to touch that case. Finally, a guy who looks like he’s got no trial experience whatsoever takes the case. It’s a train wreck and Pullo is convicted of death by combat. Before he’s brought to the arena, he catches a giant, disgusting cockroach and makes an offering to the gods to protect Eriene, Vorenus and his family. Then he disgustingly kills the cockroach. With his bare hands.
Vorenus goes to the arena to watch and weep over his friend’s impending death. But Pullo won’t fight. He just sits in the middle of the arena and waits to die.
The three gladiators goad him, trying to wound his pride to get him to pick up arms. But he doesn’t care…until they trash talk the 13th. Then, friends, it’s all over. Pullo loses his damn mind and turns into a berserker and kills them all. More replace those guys, and he kills them, too, in the most epic hand to hand combat scene I’ve seen in quite some time.
Pretty soon, all the champions are dead.
Except this dude. And Pullo is exhausted and can’t possibly fight anymore, and Vorenus is crushed. (Picked that picture for you, Jarman.)
Just as the big dude is about to kill Pullo, Vorenus leaps into the ring to save his guy while the crowd is chanting Pullo’s name.
Later, Caesar tells Brutus that he’s going to send him to govern Macedonia and Brutus isn’t having it. They have this super loaded conversation about how they consider each other to be father/son and Caesar tells Brutus that he could order him to go and Brutus storms off and admits to his mother that she’s right – Caesar must die.
And now…the questions.
My favorite part of the episode:
Honestly, I’m really not the bloodthirsty type, but that hand to hand combat scene with Pullo being especially Pullo-y? That was pretty great.
My least favorite part of the episode:
Honestly? The squished cockroach. That was pretty vile.
Favorite costume:
It’s hard to see, but Atia’s symposium dress was pretty nifty.
Team Atia or Team Servillia, and why:
Atia was suuuuuuuuch a bitch to Niobe.
Favorite watch-a-long tweet (obviously used with permission):
Guess Jess’s head canon.
Oh, this isn’t hard. The winds are freshening and the Jarmada has hoisted the mainsail. The Pullo and Vorenus ship is full sail. Vorenus damning the consequences to rescue Pullo is the sort of thing that makes Jarman particularly happy.
What made Jenny super happy?
I feel like my answer is often Atia being Atia, but…yeah. That.
One thing I really liked about the scene at Atia’s party is that when she laughed at Vorenus’s joke about how he got Niobe to marry him, it sounds legit and surprised.