'SPARTACUS: BLOOD & SAND' 1.7 – "Great And Unfortunate Things"

[SPOILERS] After the previous episode's surprising twist of the knife, "Great And Unfortunate Things" did a capable job of exploring the mindset of Spartacus (Andy Whitfield) now his wife's been killed, and continued the show's intention to see this unruly Thracian gradually slip into gladiatorial ways. Every week he seems to gain an insight into this "brotherhood" he's been forced to join, and perhaps is now beginning to see its value. At the very least, Spartacus is coming to believe that his late wife's faith in the Gods perhaps wasn't misplaced, and he's more willing to shrug off his atheism and embrace fatalism.

Like quite a few episodes of this series, there were period when not much was happening of great interest, but at this point in the series it's easier to feel invested in the characters because everyone has more of a back-story. In fact, Varro (Jai Courteney) was given some overdue development when his wife and child came to visit him, bringing awful news that she's pregnant with another man's baby while he still has a year of slavery in order to pay their debts. I guess this means Varro has a reason to want to escape now, which will perhaps come into play when Spartacus reverts to type. Elsewhere, Doctore (Peter Mensah) is becoming a favourite character of mine, particularly now he's investigating the unexpected disappearance of Barca. He clearly smells some deception, and will come to discover that Batiatus (John Hannah) killed one of his gladiators over a simple misunderstanding. Again, Doctore feels like someone who may help Spartacus escape once he realizes his master's such a perfidious toad.

Every episode tends to build up to an arena battle, and this was no different. Here, Batiatus accepted a proposal to recreate a great clash between a client's Roman grandfather and six Thracians, and Spartacus is picked for the starring role. The action sequences on this show are still indulgent and silly some of the time, but they're also enormous fun if you're in the right mood, and it helps that you generally get a full hour to build expectations. And in terms of fun choreography, crazy visuals and copious bloodletting, Spartacus doesn't disappoint when the fights come. The digital blood even looks effective these days.

Overall, while this was something of a comedown after the sixth episode and didn't deliver the expected meltdown of Spartacus, the story did a solid job of dealing with Spartacus's grief, while poking along some of the smaller storylines; such as the convalescing Crixus (Manu Bennett), who still has animosity towards Spartacus, but it comes more from hurt pride over losing his champion title than anything else. The two men still appear to have more in common than they'd like to let on, it's just that Crixus has been fully brainwashed by his training... and now Spartacus is starting down that same path, willingly. It'll be interesting to see how Spartacus comes to learn the truth about Sura's murder, and exactly how the inevitable escape from the ludus comes about.

Asides

• I'm not sure the suicide of young Pietros (Eka Darville) was as powerful as it might have been, mainly because the abuse he suffered at the hand of Gnaeus (Raicho Vasilev) wasn't really shown, and I don't think Pietros has been written all that well. Beyond the fact he kept pigeons and was gay, there really wasn't much to go on. Still, I didn't expect we'd see him swinging the episode after his boyfriend was slain in error, so at least that provided a raised eyebrow.
• Anyone else really liking Viva Bianca's chirpy performance as the spoilt Ilythia? A fun character to have around. Just a shame Lucy Lawless hasn't managed to nail her part, because she's always in Bianca's scenes and tends to sap the energy.

WRITERS: Brent Fletcher & Steven S. DeKnight
DIRECTOR: Jesse Warn
GUEST CAST: Peter Mensah, Erin Cummings, Nick Tarabay, Viva Bianca, Jai Courtney, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Eka Darville, Mark Mitchinson, Brooke Williams, Greg Ward, Raicho Vasilev, Siaosi Fonua, David Austin & Marlow Robinson
TRANSMISSION: 6 July 2010 – BRAVO, 10PM