Any show that will kill off SIX major characters in a single episode has some serious balls. I’m not completely sold on the Lucretia situation (and I was totally not sure until I read the interviews that Illythia was dead - she deserved better than that, in my opinion) but I personally really liked Ashur’s death. I know a lot of people thought it was crap, but I love how he clearly bested Naevia at every turn but ended up dead because he couldn’t just kill her already. He had to gloat a little, show off that he won - totally within his character since the beginning. And it’s what did him in at the end. Perfect.
And that’s fine - I was right on board with the idea of her killing Ilithyia and taking her baby, but then to kill herself and the baby… that struck me as just a bit too far, especially since she’s been working steadily to improve her own position by manipulating Ilithyia and Ashur and… well… pretty much everybody, really.
I get why it was done - at this stage, I’d expect Capua to be left behind as we go to Season 3 and start ramping up the scale leading into the Third Servile War which took place all across Italy - and thus Lucretia’s role would shrink in importance - so may as well give the character a dramatic death.
Yeah, pretty much.
Well, plus the second he kills her, Crixus is gonna kill him… I can see him wanting to drag it out while he tries to think up a way to sleaze his way out this rather unpalatable situation.
Except she wasn’t really trying to improve her situation, she just wanted to keep the baby safe and stay close to Illithya. We thought this was all just a blind and that, like first season Lucretia, she was just scheming for her own advantage. That her 100 yard stare and talk of hearing the Gods talk to her was just a blind. But really, she was honestly nuts the whole time. She just wanted the baby for herself so she could die with it (and presumably, take Illithya out with her).
I dunno, Lucretia’s manipulations regarding Seppia and Ashur go a little beyond (and indeed may have complicated) the mere goal of keeping Illithiya in Capua.
I’m also not a fan of explanations that run along the lines of “well, it’s because she was crazy the whole time. Something doesn’t make sense? It doesn’t matter - she was crazy and crazy don’t make sense.”
Here’s an interview with the series creator where he explains his thoughts on why certain characters had to go:
Really the only death I don’t buy is Ashur’s, just because for a character as clever and ruthless as him he had many outs. Like when Glaber first accused him, why didn’t he just say, “Look, once ole’ Spart is dead I’ll have my freedom, a ludus, and a new wife. What would I have to gain by plotting against you?”
And if that doesn’t work and he’s forced to hike up the mountain, why didn’t he just duck out of sight once he got high enough, wait a bit, them come back and say they refused the offer? How would anyone contradict him?
And even when he was dueling Naevia he was obviously in control of the fight and just toying with her. Why not try holding her hostage with a sword to her throat until he’s clear of the group?
Not that I’m upset about it, but that info about Ilithyia is somewhat of a spoiler since her fate was not made clear in the final episode.
Why are they bringing Ceaser into it? He was at that time simply known as the son of a family that actually believed that they were descended from Venus as well as being the King of Bithynia’s bum boy. I don’t think he had any part in the war.
I don’t really think of it as a spoiler since the haziness of her fate in the show wasn’t intentional - they admit that they just didn’t do a good job communicating to the audience that she is dead. When the show comes back for Season 3, they won’t do a big reveal about her, she just won’t be there and we won’t see her again.
And in regards to Julius Caesar, another interview with Steven DeKnight at the AV Club talks about that:
I don’t like it when a character is revealed to be crazy after the fact as an explanation of plotholes, but in this case Lucritia was established to be crazy at the beginning of the season. And crazy or not, I think all her actions do make sense in respect to her final goal (granted the goal itself was pretty out there).
She tries to head off the abortion thing by getting Ashur to switch vials, she tries to get herself and Illythia sent to Rome together, she tries and succeeds in getting Illythia’s trust back, etc.
He had been in the military, was in Rome and a client of Crassus at the time. I don’t think we really know one way or another, but it makes sense he would’ve participated in the Servile war. I hope they have a Pompey character though, seems like they could do a lot more with the Crassus-Pompey rivalry then with Caesar running around forshadowing all over the place.
On review (specifically of episode 5, “Libertus”), I’ll concede the point, in part because I was misremembering where the original red vial of abortifacient came from. For some reason I thought Lucretia had supplied it - instead it first appears in Illythia’s possession, it origins unexplained, and Lucretia goes to some length to talk Illythia into delaying, and Ashur into sabotaging the effort.
Overall, though, she strikes as a bit too functional to be nuts, but of course this is a culture much more inclined to ritual suicide than we are, anyway.