Rome 2x05: Heroes of the Republic

[vaznetti]

I liked this Octavian because he is so clearly evil in all his scenes, but especially with Octavia and Cicero. He appears to be quite soulless, which strikes me as quite right, especially at this point in his life. Was that just me? It's hard for me to tell, because I really do despise Octavian, so he always seems a little loathsome to me. But tonight it seemed like other people might have thought he was loathsome too.

The rearranged a bunch of events here, but that's OK: 43 was a busy year, and they're just trying to tell the story, more or less. I kind of liked the sense that Octavian was pressured into the alliance with Antony, and am pleased that they remembered that Lepidus existed. Except that really, I am very sad that this will not be the miniseries with the two-man triumvirate, which would never have stopped being funny.

Oh, Cicero. I love that you never give up on the Republic, even long after everyone else has given up on it, and on you. I hope you get your death scene.

And TIRO! They put in TIRO! I had a little moment of happy geekery, right there.

The thing with the orgy totally cracked me up. AN ORGY!!!! Just when you think that the show might pass on a cliché, it goes for the throat. Next, I suppose we'll have people vomiting in a vomitorium!

So yes, the orgy was hysterical, and the writers have decided that Octavia can stand in for Julia as well, since she ended up married to Marcus Agrippa and ran afoul of her father's moral legislation. Which dates to 18 BCE. Really, the moral legislation wasn't even a gleam in Octavian's eye in 43 -- he was too busy committing adultery himself, according to report. I don't really care about Agrippa's crush on Octavia, and am rather sad that the writers have decided to make her a drug-addicted incestuous lesbian. The real Octavia is laughing in the afterlife about it, I'm sure. Well, not about the lesbianism, which probably seems like a good idea after Marcellus and Antony.

So, Vorenus. I think that queenofthorns put it best then she described his as the most embarrassing father ever. And also, the extent to which he has no idea of what's going on around him is quite impressive. I really do like the fact that his children hate him -- of course they blame him, not only for their mother's death, but also for what happened to them. And Vorenus has no idea that he needs to do more than simply say that the past is past, and can't really explain that he didn't exactly kill their mother, just because she threw herself off the ledge before he could do it himself. All of a sudden, the elder Vorena is becoming an interesting character, too -- it's her doing, I suspect, that the other two are alive, and I wonder what she had to do to keep them all together.

Last year, around this time, I predicted that Vorenus would make it into the Senate (although I didn't expect it to happen quite so fast, or end quite so badly); this year I suspect that he'll die at the end of the season. I do love the message he made Pullo carry to Octavian, although it makes me wonder how on earth a man with so little common sense survived to adulthood.

I also really liked the scene with Vorenus and Pullo's discussion of Octavian -- "your boy"! But not only do Vorenus' own children want him dead, but he's pissing off everyone else around him, and he won't want to live in what Octavian will make Rome into.

Pullo, as usual, is entirely wonderful. "You're half his weight," indeed! But Eirene's not wrong -- he does love her, truly, but he's bound to Vorenus.

To be honest, the episode felt slow -- alliances forming and re-forming, families being patched together (and whether or not the patches will hold, who knows) -- and everything in that moment of silence before the storm of triumvirate and civil war.


It occurs to me, as I type this up, that I'm not sure who the title refers to -- Octavian? the fallen consuls, Hirtius and Pansa? Brutus and Cassius, waiting in the wings? Pullo and Vorenus? Antony and Lepidus? Not, ironically, to Cicero himself -- the singular hero, not the plural. After Mutina, one can't really speak of heroes or of the republic, I suppose.

Comments

[vaznetti]

I think you're right about the title being essentially ambiguous. I just thought it was ironic, that everyone is in pairs or groups of three, except for Cicero, who is both isolated and (imho, of course) the one man who probably does deserve the title in 43.

If so, did you notice that Mere Smith wrote this episode?

I did not! And I never paid attention to who wrote what episodes of Angel -- but of course Angel was full or horrible parent-child relationships, wasn't it?

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

I loved how much of a theme children forgiving parents was in this episode - and neither Octavian nor the Voreni actually meant any of what they said! Heh!

but of course Angel was full or horrible parent-child relationships, wasn't it?

I tend to think that was Joss Whedon and HIS issues, but I just found it funny that it was an "Angel" writer who wrote this one.

[vaznetti]

I loved how much of a theme children forgiving parents was in this episode - and neither Octavian nor the Voreni actually meant any of what they said! Heh!

Oh yes! That's perfect! (And neither, of course does Atia -- while Vorenus has no idea that he needs to ask for forgiveness.)