Yeah, the girl Vorenus sleeps with. I think she's african and the whole elephant thing was some kind of ruse on her part. I don't think there's any reason to introduce that into the narrative elsewise. I wonder if she's somehow involved with Cleopatra and will become far more important to the story soon.

I think with the Octavia/Julia plotline it's probably a matter of managing the size of the cast. They have so many main characters already that from a media perspective they were probably trying to limit their entanglement issues. A lot of big historical pieces have tanked because they didn't minimize their cast issues (internal dialogue of the makers, personally, I am neutral on the topic). It's probablly an issue of tv/movie making convention. HOWEVER, that being said, I will ADORE Octavia if she becomes Julia and takes on Augustus in full pomposity. I wonder if that's where they're going. I suppose it depends on if they get a third season.