vaznetti | Rome 2x10: About Your Father (Reply)

Oh, Vorenus. It's been an honor serving with you, too.

Pullo, however, is literally MADE OF WIN! Not only does he rescue Caesarion, he even gets rewarded for it! And I'm not sure it even occured to Octavian that Pullo might have lied to him. (I did, however, want the last words of the series to be a shrieked, "WHAT?" from Caesarion.)

Atia is also made of win, even if it's a bitter victory; I am perpetually surprised by her survival, and loved that final exchange with Livia. All so completely ahistorical, but deeply satisfying in it's way, and the triumphal montage only underlined the way the show really has belonged to the women in it, and to Atia most of all. (As an aside, that was another point at which this episode looked back at an earlier one -- to Caesar's triumph -- most strikingly, of course, the battle by the wagon, which brought back the very first episode, with Octavian in the Caesarion's place here.)

Oh, Vorenus. I know I said that already, but still. And anyway, we never saw the body: maybe he's living somewhere outside Rome with his children.

And Antony, dying like a Roman, the way Cleopatra died like a queen. I have to admit that I found their romance unconvincing, and thing that this is where the abbreviated season really hurt the story -- even two more episodes might have helped, there. Part of that may just be me -- I've never found their story particularly engaging -- but I just didn't really buy their sudden love, especially after Antony's scenes with Atia. I felt the connection between Antony and Vorenus more deeply than that between Antony and Cleopatra, here. I mean, that final scene with Vorenus holding the sword, and the embrace as Antony died, and then Vorenus washing and dressing his body -- in his armor, note. Whereas Cleopatra seemed weaker here, at least until the very end. (I didn't help that although something like 16 years have passed between her first appearence in the series and her death, she hasn't aged -- of course, none of them have, but it mattered more in those scenes. And actually, it isn't clear how many years have passed in the show -- not as many as in history, judging by Caesarion's age.)

Octavia is becoming colder, which is not a great surprise -- somewhere between her mother and her brother -- the years since her marriage to Antony can't have been easy for her.

I'm sure I had more to say, but I've been overwhelmed by love for Pullo and Vorenus. Of course Pullo knew where to find them, because Vorenus was waiting for them. And of course Pullo brought him home. There was never any other option.

Oh, Vorenus.

I'm going to post this, now: I think I may have more to say, later, about the show as a whole.