If ever an episode earned its title.
Well, then. I guess we’ll see some fresh faces and new places in season 2.
There’s never been a show quite like Spartacus. I hope they can carry the momentum into next season. It’ll be tough to replace so many good characters and actors. I have faith.
Regarding the finale: WHHHAAAAAOOOOOAOAAAA, HOOOOLYYYYY FRAKKKIN’ WHOOOOAAAA-OOOOAAAA-OHHH.
Brilliant finale.
While it does seem as if it will be a challenge to replace a lot of the quality cast, if you think about it, Batiatus was really the only main character that dies. Everyone else, although great in their own right, were just fringe characters. Asher, Silonias, the Magistrate and his son, etc. were all essential to the season 1 plotline, but we can easily move forward without them. Lucy Lawless’s character (name eludes me) was still twitching, so I’m guessing she’ll pull through. Crixos, Doctore, Illythia and douche bag Roman Husband all survive, so I think the core remains for season 2.
I believe Asher pulled through, didn’t he?
And yeah, I noticed Lucy’s character’s hand moving at the end. She’ll be back; I’m sure the producers know she’s the reason half the people watch the show. 
Good point(s) – not everybody died. But it sure felt like everybody died.
The last shot of them leaving the ludus, nothing spectacular about it, but it was nice as hell.
Welcome aboard, Wooster and Dancapistan!
nah, while I love Lucy Lawless and her character in season 1, i don’t think her character should go on to the next season. if they do it for the purpose of having Xena and Battlestar Galactica fans to keep watching, I’d say if they haven’t lured them to keep watching by now, why even bother.
My favorite season 1 characters are Varro, Batiatus and Asher. But even if they are both dead, i would still keep watching. Of course Asher yet lives, and I hope to see his deviousness to keep on shining in seasons to come.
The finale is amazing. I am glad i got past the nudity and gore for the ride.
Thanks for the welcome, dxf.
I hate to ruin an excellent show with some philosophy. But, well, here we go.
I love the character of Doctore. I think he represents us—or at least who we want to be. Not Spartacus. Spartacus is the ideal, like the statue of Jayne from “Jaynestown”. We don’t even know the man’s real name.
The best way to keep a man in a cage is to have his fellow prisoners attack him every time he tries to leave it, or even point it out. We see this in the show, where the “cage” is explicit slavery. Spartacus’s primary antagonists are not Bastiatus or Glaber. His antagonists are his fellow slaves—Doctore, Crixus, Varro, Mira, and others. They are the ones that consistently try to talk Spartacus out of escaping (Varro the first time; Mira the second). They try to talk him into believing that staying a slave is the honorable thing to do (Crixus the first time; Doctore the second).
But Spartacus will have none of that. He wants to be free, and he points out their cage. And that provokes great anxiety in all of them.
This is the basis of the “Tall Poppy Syndrome”, which says that, as tall poppies are cut down, people who live large are “attacked” by we who are still living in our cages. We attack people who point out our cages, people who outgrow their cages, people who live big. Because it reminds us that we are still in our cages—we have surrendered to our histories, surrendered to culture, surrendered to society, and we have chosen to remain small and meek and servile.
It is ironic, then, that both Doctore and Crixus are larger than life men. To call them small and meek seems odd. But they are the ones that show the greatest courage in the end. Both Doctore and Crixus, when confronted with the facts that what they call “honorable” (the house of Batiatus and their lives as gladiators) is not honorable, both men initially react with anger, hostility, and even violence.
We see this in the early part of the season whet Spartacus refuses to play the gladiator game, and Crixus expresses anger that Spartacus would live for something other than the honor of the ludis. Again, we see this during Spartacus’s first escape attempt in the early part of the season and he poisons Doctore. When the escape fails, Doctore confronts Spartacus and says (something to the effect of), “Next time you try to escape, you will have to kill me first.”
But both Doctore and Crixus, during the Season 1 finale, are confronted yet again with their cages—the lies they have been willingly believing in, fighting for, killing for, and dying for—and they confront those lies, and they do the right thing.
And for that, those two characters have the greatest of courage because they overcame the greatest fear.
Though Spartacus would have accepted his life at the Ludus being a champion among slaves had he not found out about Batiatus’ involvement in his wife’s death.
A really ideal character i guess would have be opposed to the concept of slavery on principle, even after their escape. I guess we have to wait and see if they take Spartacus down that idealic road. Or will they protray him fighting for lesser things.
That’s welcome talk. Well put.
Doctore’s turn was especially dramatic. He really had something to gain. And all he had to do was sign on with the corrupt murderous bastages. For the other gladiators, making a break for freedom was mostly upside: They would be freed, either in life, or in death. True, in the midst of a gladiator rebellion, Doctore siding with the slaves was easier to do. But he made an admirable choice & sacrifice.
i think only Crixus could have convinced Doctore to abandon what he has to gain. When Doctore realized Crixus was poisoned, there was no longer any honor left for the ludus, and Doctore’s cage is honor.
I liked how he [Spartacus] phrased it after his bout with the infection (the end of Episode 11 “Old Wounds”, I believe):
Batiatus: The gods truly favor the House of Batiatus. Behold Spartacus risen from the dead. Spartacus!
Spartacus: evil gaze
Batiatus: You’re well?
Spartacus: Yes, Dominus. I am myself again.
It took me a moment to get it.
Me: Yeah. :rolleyes: beat Holy shit! :eek:
Rarely have I been more disappointed in a pilot but happy I stuck with it anyway as I have with Spartacus.
I didn’t know a whole lot about the story of Spartacus before and only recently learned that the show so far is based a lot more on historical facts than I would have thought. I hadn’t even read a whole lot about the show before I watched the pilot, so the thing that disappointed me was the CGI which I thought was extremely cheesy and way over the top. It wasn’t just the blood but a lot of the backgrounds they used too that didn’t look natural at all. But while to me it’s still not among my top 5 shows at the moment (there is a lot of competition) I really started loving it when it cut down on the CGI a bit and we were introduced to more characters and story. Or maybe I just don’t pay as much attention to the CGI anymore because I’m more interested in the story.
Loved the finale. I didn’t like Crixus at all in the beginning, but ever since he got badly wounded he has seemed much more human and has grown on me more than any of the other characters. Like I said I don’t really know anything about the story of Spartacus so I’m curious to see where this is headed. And as much as I liked the House of Batiatus setting I’m very excited to see what is going to happen outside of the walls of slavery.
As for Lucy Lawless she should be gone. It’s one thing in a modern show to bring someone back from the edge of death, but while they did a good job with Crixus, I wouldn’t believe that the wound she has suffered and the ammount of blood she has lost is something that they would be able to heal at the time with their lack of medical technology.
He saved Bastiatus’s life from Spartacus’s sword moments before. He was doing the guards job for them, which demonstrated just how committed he was to his fantasy that there is honor in being a slave.
Clearly, in a hand-to-hand between Doctore and Bastiatus, we know who would win. So the only way that a spindly man like Bastiatus could maintain control over a monster like Doctore is through propaganda.
I think the legal slavery backed up by Roman Legions has more to do with the control, that and the institution itself. Without the ludus or the gladiatorial games, men like Crixus and Doctore would have found some other system or heirarchy to cleave to. Thats how these men think, their highest values are tied in to traditional institutions and threats to the system are met with extreme prejudice (see: Spartacus) Spartacus on the other hand is a free thinker, hes not a traditionalist. Even if he hadnt found out about Batiatus’ involvement in his wifes death he never would have become like the other two, he would just have buried his natural instincts.
I have to admit, the most surprising thing for me on this season finale was comprehending the amount of pity I had for certain characters who died. I was surprised that I had very little pity for the boy Numerious when stabbed by Farro’s widow. I was also surprised that I had more pity than I thought I would for Batiatus and Lucretia when they finally fell. It was like some sort of tragic ending to a shakespearian love story. Watching Lucretia’s hand twich after Batiatus fell . . . almost . . . made me tear up.
it would be comparable if BSG killed Baltar right next to Caprica Six after season 2…
Batiatus is Baltar without the one true god.
I mostly just bask in the show’s awesomeness, and I don’t have much analysis to offer beyond that, but I’m glad there are other GWCers discussing it.
Well, it looks like I need to eat some crow on this one. I thought they would be in the Ludis a lot longer than this and winning Crixis would take a lot longer. But Ole Sparty had it figured.
Damn that’s a hell of a good show. Hope it comes back after the network gets done with it.
Great points, and demonstrates how the show has relevance even to current day politics.
Just finished watching the first season last weekend after backlogging it on my DVR. Once I started watching I nearly couldn’t stop. I’m really looking forward to it continuing. Some have complained about the production quality, but I liked that they went for an impressionist cartoony style. Given their likely budget they were not going to look like LOTR or Avatar. Pretty much they seemed to use simple sets, simple CGI, great production design and fantastic story telling. The prequels should be great!
I hope when the DVDs come out in the fall there is an Arc for the podcast…
How’d ya like that finale, huh? I was so totally not into the show for the first two episodes. I can’t remember why I stuck with it, but I’m glad I did. I think maybe a critic said it was worth the effort.