True, with the possible exception of Atia, who seems to be the only truly amoral character on the show—and I can’t decide whether that makes her more realistic or more cartoonlike, compared to the others. It certainly makes her chilling; she’s one of those that I’d least like to have on my bad side.
I thought Vorenus’s opposition to finding a man for his daughter was interesting—reminiscent of the “any club that would have me as a member” joke.
What was the deal with the man who kept smiling at Vorenus’ daughter (the one who sent her the straw dolls?) I must have missed something. I caught a snippet of a man seeming to indicate the “she’s the one” to the smiler. Is it some sort of a set up in which this man is trying to make the daughter fall in love with him as part of a plot, or is there another reason behind it?
I didn’t catch an “evil vibe” from the look he gave her after he sent the dolls to her, and nor did they do the traditional Hollywood *demonstrate-that-he’s-a-villan shot *of him grinning evilly or looking around with shifty eyes after he had slipped away.
I agree; that was the least successful of the scenes. It reminded me somewhat of the lame recreations you see on the History Channel where four guys in costume recreate Thermopylae.
If that was the best they could do with Philippi, I shudder to think of what Actium is going to look like.
I didn’t get that either. I assumed it was foreshadowing of something that’s going to make Vorenus’s happiness short lived. It has something to do with they guy (I’ve got to do a better job of catching the names) who agreed with Vorenus about giving the loot to charity.
I believe that Mascius, the third in command, is hatching a plan to do something to Vorenus’s daughter in order to knock him off the top job in the collegium. Then he can take care of Pullo, he thinks.
Mascius could also be trying to set up some sort of Vorenus-Pullo fight.
I think Gaia is likely a confederate in Mascius’s machinations.
My thought was that the captain who supported the “let them eat fish” plan is hatching a plan involving the paper doll maker (who is obviously in his employ) and Vorenus’s daughter. We see this captain meet with the paper doll maker followed by a scene where Pullo said he was too clever by half. I wish I could remember the captain’s name. I don’t think it was the 3rd in command, but I could be wrong.
Memmio
I watched the episode again last night. He meets up with Memmio on the stairs outside and the Memmio asks him something to the effect of “how did it go?” The doll-maker gives a smile and says: “It’s done!”
Another question occured to me: As Atia is leaving Antony’s camp, she says something about how she’ll be happy to spend the rest of her life with him and that he can bring her Brutus’ head as a wedding present.
“Ah, the wedding,” Antony replies, and says they’ll discuss it some more later.
At first, I assume the idea of Antony marrying Octavia was what was being discussed, but upon second viewing, I’m not so sure. Is Atia confused, thinking that Antony meant he would marry her?
I’ll bet you next week has a scene of just that…Atia going ballistic when she learns that Octavian has promised Octavia to Antony, and that Antony has jumped at it. Maybe a huge catfight between the two, with the pulling of hair and the rending of garments.
I can see Atia going ballistic if she is misunderstanding the situation, but why would she attack Octavia? She knows Octavia is in love with Agrippa and isn’t exactly campaigning for the match.
The fact that she didn’t mention it when she teased Octavia about the affair with Agrippa makes me think she doesn’t see it coming. She didn’t say: “You’re not going to be able to marry him; you’re promised to Antony.” Instead, she spoke of Octavian picking out a marriage for Octavia like it was something which would be addressed in the future.
I think that’s a good question, and it’s one of the things about this show that’s most striking to me. People in that age apparently killed whoever brought them the letter they didn’t like. They lashed out at whoever was handy. They cut off people’s body parts and nailed them up.
Somehow, I think there was a key to it all in Octavia’s conversation with Agrippa. “But you rose through your own merit … (today: which makes you all the more deserving) … which is comendable in its own way, I suppose.”
It’s like a whole 'nuther way of thinking.
It looks like the show is glossing over the fact that both Antony and Octavia had other marriages previous to being married to each other (Octavia even had a couple of kids, if I recall correctly), but I guess they only have so much time to work with.
I don’t know that Atia would be that upset about Octavia being married off to Antony. People had a much different perception of marriage back then, especially at the level of nobility. It wasn’t about love or romance, but politics and money. Strangely enough, the real Octavia stayed loyal to Antony even after he went off to Egypt to be with Cleopatra. She even took in and raised the children Antony had with Cleopatra after A&C were dead.
Ocatvia was married at the beginning of season one. Recall her suspicions that Atia killed her previous husband so that she could be married to Pompy.
