Stars: Lucy Lawless, John Hannah, Peter Mensah, Dustin Clare, Jaime Murray
Writer: Brent Fletcher, Created by Steven S. DeKnight
Director: John Fawcett
Network: STARZ, airs Friday nights
Original Telecast: February 18th, 2010

This is the next to last episode of SPARTACUS: GODS OF THE ARENA, and it is appropriately named “Reckoning”. Everything has been building towards this episode where it really hits the fan (appropriate since this is almost the end of the series).

I called it a few episodes ago, that Titus (Jeffrey Thomas) coming back to the House of Batiatus to act as the head of the household, would end with his death, most likely by poisoning via his honeyed wine. So it came as no shock to see him meet the Gods in that manner in the new episode. The fact that the poison had to be stepped up was a bit of a surprise, and the bloody end was a bit more entertaining that I had expected, but it needed to happen for Batiatus (John Hannah) and Lucretia (Lucy Lawless) to move themselves into the position we met them in during the first series.

The unexpected and equally violent death of Doctore’s (Peter Mensah) wife was kind of a shock. I kept waiting to see how she was going to die in the series, because very little was said in BLOOD AND SAND, other than the fact that she had died. It all makes sense now, that Doctore doesn’t drink wine on purpose since a poisoned libation is what caused the untimely death of his wife.

Gannicus (Dustin Clare) is being sold off to Tilius (Steven Lovatt), but we’ll see in the final episode if that actually happens. I suspect that Tilius won’t be around for the opening of the new arena, or if he is, he won’t be around long after the new arena is built. The audience has been rooting for his demise since the first episode, and it would be a terrible shame to be denied his death at the machinations (or possibly even hands of Batiatus himself).

Gaia (Jamie Murray) has not been forgotten, and indeed Lucretia is wearing the red wig in the second half of this episode. It is a marked transformation from the sweet, submissive wife in the earlier episodes to the more cold and calculating woman she ends this episode as. Everything she does is for love. The love of Batiatus, or even her love of her lost best friend Gaia. Never mistake that Lucretia does things motivated out of spite. If she kills it is to help the ones she loves, or to avenge them.

I loved the snake speech between Lucretia and Titus. It was a beautiful and dark transformative moment that, again, the audience has been waiting for. Lucy Lawless is so great at delivering these carefully measured and spoken speeches that I really felt her inner Cylon coming out again just a bit.

Speaking of Lucretia, the other interesting turn on this episode was seeing the start of her love affair with Crixus (Manu Bennett). Of course, we see that it started out more as a stop-gap measure to try to help her conceive, and was not the hot and heavy (albeit one sided) love affair of the first series.

The end of this particular chapter for SPARTACUS is coming to a close, and I have mixed feelings. I can’t wait to see how it all ends and then on the other hand I don’t want it to end this quickly. Either way, I can bet that the finale will not only be explosive, but there will be many entertaining death scenes!

AGREE? DISAGREE? Leave a comment below and let us know what YOU thought about this episode.

CLICK HERE for AX’s exclusive interview with SPARTACUS star PETER MENSAH

CLICK HERE for AX’s exclusive interview with SPARTACUS: GODS OF THE ARENA Dustin Clare

CLICK HERE for Part 1 of ASSIGNMENT X’s exclusive interview with GODS OF THE ARENA creator Steven S. DeKnight

CLICK HERE for Part 2 of ASSIGNMENT X’s exclusive interview with SPARTACUS creator Steven S. DeKnight

CLICK HERE for Part 3 of ASSIGNMENT X’s exclusive interview with SPARTACUS creator Steven S. DeKnight as he talks about what Season Two of the series will be

CLICK HERE for ASSIGNMENT X’s exclusive interview with GODS OF THE ARENA star LUCY LAWLESS

CLICK HERE for ASSIGNMENT X’s reviews of SPARTACUS: GODS OF THE ARENA and more news

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