Pullo and Vorenus are getting their 15 minutes of fame for the whole killing everyone in the arena thing, but Pullo misses most of his because he’s recuperating in the hospital and when he hears he’s all kinds of popular, he leaves in what I can only assume is the Roman equivalent of AMA and heads back to Rome.
Vorenus and Niobe and family are gifted with some prime farmland from Caesar and head out with some priests to bless the field. Blessing the field entails having sex on the ground in front of everyone including the kids. Like you do…
Pullo ends up at Vorenus’ and Eriene is understandably furious at not only having her fiancé’s murderer in the house, but also at having to take care of him. Niobe prevents Eriene from stabbing Pullo, even though Pullo seemed okay with having Eriene off him. Later, Niobe gave Eriene the task of taking care of Pullo – feeding him and changing his dressings.
Vorenus, for his part, is so damn popular, Caesar decides to make him a senator. The rest of the senate in-crowd protests, but Caesar isn’t having it and makes Vorenus a senator anyway. Not only that, he allows Gauls and Celts to be senators, too. The senate in-crowd is furious. Brutus, Cicero and the rest of the dissenters meet at Servillia’s and plot Caesar’s murder and Servillia helps.
She also sends Atia a letter and invites her for tea. Atia doesn’t trust her at all, of course, but her curiosity can’t be contained. (I get you, Atia. I so get you.) Meanwhile, Servillia sends one of her servants to distract Vorenus by telling him a terrible secret, and the rest of the conspirators distract Marc Antony and other loyal and physically dangerous Caesar supporters. Once Brutus and the rest of the dissenters have Caesar mostly alone, they attack.
Okay, so you don’t go into a show loosely based on historical events and think Caesar’s going to survive. If you do, maybe Western Civ was never really your thing. But anyway, it’s not like I expected Caesar to make it out of season one, but his death was surprisingly horrific. And the look on his and Brutus’ face, when Brutus finally stabbed him, hurt. And I didn’t even like Caesar most of the time.
Back at Tea Time with Servillia, Servillia is laying out Caesar’s death and precisely what that will mean for Atia is great and glorious detail. And for once, Atia is stunned into silence. At least, briefly.
Meanwhile, Pullo has gone off to a specific shrine to ask forgiveness for all the terrible shit he’s done and he invites Eriene to go along with him, and she does. And Vorenus is storming back to his family’s home to find out if Servillia’s servant told him the truth about the boy being Niobe’s child rather than his grandchild.
Niobe tries to explain that she thought he was dead, he picks up a knife, clearly barely able to control his temper. She begs him to remember the child is innocent right before she throws herself out their window to her death. Vorenus is instantly all kinds of remorseful, but it’s too late. She’s dead. And the last scene we see is Pullo leaving the shrine, offering to hold Eriene’s hand, and she accepts.
And now, the questions.
My favorite part of the episode:
Not gonna lie. I really kind of enjoyed Teatime with Servillia. She is the consummate hostess, even while delivering the most intense threats.
(After dropping the bombshell about Caesar’s death)
Servillia: Would you like some honey water?
Atia: *declines*
Servillia: I will make you suffer slowly. Slowly and deeply.
My least favorite part of the episode:
Niobe’s little boy seeing Vorenus crying over Niobe’s dead body.
Favorite costume:
Giving it to Eriene this week. I love those colors, and I especially love what she did with the scarf thing in her hair.
Team Atia or Team Servillia, and why:
Nobody offers honey water and suffering like my girl, Servillia.
Favorite watch-a-long tweet (obviously used with permission):
Guess Jess’s head canon.
Jess was all about the Vorenus and Pullo bonding when Pullo left the hospital and ended up at Vorenus’ place.
What made Jenny super happy?
I’m going with Vorenus’ prowess.
Jess’ take on The Kalends of February.