Rome 2x07:Death Mask

[vaznetti]

First of all, I feel the need to ask -- does everyone else shout "Yay for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Judaea!" whenever Timon and his brother come onscreen now? No? You're all shouting for the Judaean People's Liberation Front, aren't you? Scum - you'll be first up against the wall when the revolution comes!

Just me, then.

I would have thought Herod would be more Greek, but whatever. And I was more shocked by Levi's death for Timon's sake than for itself. I mean, I never really cared about Levi, at all, although Timon is kind of interesting.

I LOVED the way Servilia's storyline worked out -- I thought it captured something of the aggressively public nature of Roman life, the way she wasn't shaming herself by kneeling on the ground with ashes poured over her head -- that it was Atia she was shaming. And then the curse, sealed with her own death, and then her freedwoman's. Wow. And Atia's expression, because she knows that this is for real. (The contrast to the first curse Servilia makes -- the curse tablet -- was really striking, at least to me.) It was just beautiful, the way Servilia wears her down and destroys her. And so well shot, because the point isn't just what Servilia does, but that everyone sees her doing it.

That is exactly the kind of thing Romans did to each other, by the way.

And the marriage to Octavia... well, I guess we knew it was coming, although it was handled rather oddly. They kind of wrote themselves into a corner, I guess, with the affair, and then had to come up with some kind of crazy world where Roman women don't control their own marriages, or their daughters'. Ha! I don't know why they didn't just kill Atia off before the wedding, frankly, except that this was Octavian seems even more cold-blooded. And you know they've gone over the top when I think they're making Octavian too much of a monster!

Moving on from the history... I find that I cannot care about Vorenus' domestic troubles any more. Although now I kind of want Vorena to realize that she's being played and reconcile with him, rather than being Memmio's pawn. Or possibly use Memmio against Vorenus. Will we have in her a small-scale version of the ruin Atia and Servilia brought to the republic? If so, I might get interested in that plotline again. And I am sadly, sadly disappointed in Pullo. And worried for Eirene!

Of course, Pullo hasn't really done anything wrong by Roman standards, but Eirene will see it as an insult. There's a sense in which Gaia has to get rid of Eirene, before Eirene demands that she be sold, disfigured or even killed. I'm disappointed in Vorenus, frankly, too, but it's just typical of him not to realize that yes, he should have administered the beating, just to avoid trouble with Maschius.

I really want to see Posca's domestic life with Jocasta, by the way. (I do wish they'd stop giving freeborn Roman women Greek names, though. It's so confusing: I never know who's a slave and who isn't.) That amused and pleased me so much -- and this time they actually looked up something about Roman marriage ceremonies, rather than whatever they were thinking with Pullo and Eirene and the dirt-smudging thing. At least, it pleased me on a dramatic level -- for Jocasta it really is horrible to end up married to a freedman, but I suspect that Posca is just what you want in a husband, in some ways.

So it was all marriage and death, or sex and death -- Servilia and Levi, one death meaningful and one death not. And then Octavia and Antony and Jocasta and Posca, two marriages more about necessity than affection, and Vorena and her lover, where she doesn't even know it's a sham. Possibly the two sets don't have much to do with each other, now that I look at it.

Anyway, it's all a big soapy mess now.

Comments

[maidenjedi]

I kinda liked the way the Antony/Octavia thing came about (since it had to, in order for the show not to totally jump off the historical ship), except for the part where Antony didn't tell Atia until she had gone on and on about plans for their life together. I thought that was a little needless, especially since we all knew it was coming when Octavian got that evil glint in his eye at the mention of marriage. Way to solve all of his problems in one go.

And it's definitely the Popular Front for the Liberation of Judaea!! (I could not stop thinking that!!)

[jood.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't listening. I was over here, gestating this fetus in a box.

[tabula-x-rasa.livejournal.com]

I would totally marry Posca. I loved the final Servilla vs. Atia. Pullo made me sad and I hope Gaia's evil plot gets foiled because I've come to really like Eirene.

But I definitely felt the way they handled Antony and Octavia's marriage was bizarre. I mean, I've been waiting for it for ages, but I still don't think it was satisfactorily explained for the show.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

About the only thing I liked about this episode was the Servilia suicide and curse, because it anticipates all those lovely spectacular suicides of the empire so well. Well done her - it was about all she had left and she played her hand very well.

But mainly I remain astonished that any of these people have any energy left over for running an empire with all the bedroom antics. Maybe that's the real reason why Octavian won: he was the one with all the free time to plot.

I find it hard to get worked up about the Jewish subplot especially when there's no one selling wolf nipples in the background.

[ethrosdemon.livejournal.com]

I really thought that the whole way they played the Octavia/Antony marriage was to show that Octavian is a raging psychopath who can't stand his wimmin to be happy. It was so out of control I was both lead by the nose by it and not buying it at the same time. I think it's the way they shoot his scenes focusing on his deadlike eyes. He seems very vacant and serpentine.

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

There's a sense in which Gaia has to get rid of Eirene, before Eirene demands that she be sold, disfigured or even killed.

Well, buying an abortifacient for Eirene when her pregnancy is that far advanced is probably going to do the trick - and now I officially LOATHE Gaia. I totally don't blame her for resenting that Eirene, also formerly a slave, is now giving her orders and as much as I am very, very disappointed in Pullo for sleeping with Gaia, I also don't blame Gaia for preferring seduction to a whipping, but now she's setting out to kill Pullo & Eirene's child and probably Eirene as well. (Isn't the penalty for that death? Unpleasant death?? I hope she gets it!)

[se-parsons.livejournal.com]

So, am I the only one who has been calling Levi Loretta this whole time? Oh no! Loretta has been stabbed!

[rosekay.livejournal.com]

I think my upstairs brain left me at some point during this episode, so I hiked over here for the vaguely historical and still reasonable reaction. ;)

I am so scared for Eirene I'm sick with it! I don't really watch BSG, but I think this Octavian is a cylon.

And really, with all the melodramatic flipping of fortunes that's constantly going on, I think Jocasta got the sweet deal.