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Director: Michael Hurst
Writer: Steven S. DeKnight (creator)
Stars: Liam McIntyre, Manu Bennett, Dustin Clare | See full cast and crew
Bloody hell.
This show is always bloody but tonight is truly bloody hell as loyalties and ground shifts both among the rebel slaves and Marcus Crassus' army.
Heracleo and his merry band of pirates arrive with their shipments but they have more wine than food and that is becoming a serious problem in the city as everyone is going hungry as they take in more rebel slaves inside the city walls.
Crixus and Gannicus don't see the point of feeding the captive Romans, or keeping them alive, but Spartacus keeps trying to point out that they are not barbarians like the Romans they're better than that. While Gannicus seems to get this and abide it if he doesn't like it, it actively makes Crixus angry and many others as well and people start acting out, beating the Romans. One is particularly beaten when asked about his missing sister.
So Spartacus is trying to fight two fires: hunger and dissent while also trying to plan his next move against Crassus who, they hear, is amassing a huge army nearby to lay siege to the city. The others want to take the fight to him, but Spartacus says they are safer from fighting within the fort of the city itself.
Agron mans the gate letting in refugees who are forced to show their slave brand as price of entry. When a group of Roman soldiers dressed as slaves tries to mount an attack one of the newbies take great relish in killing a Roman. It is Caesar, operating undercover, there to gather intel and help bring Spartacus down from the inside.
Even as he lets them in because it's the right thing to do, Spartacus is wary of all the newcomers and tells Crixus and Gannicus to keep an eye on them to ferret out spies.
Caesar falls into league with a disgruntled Nemetes, who is a begruding loyalist to Spartacus at best. He's in the "let's kill 'em all" camp as well as being angered that coin he stole off Romans had to be surrendered to do the deal with Heraclio. Caesar tries to foment this anger by saying he wants to kill his "enemies" as well. Nemetes is wary of him and decides to test him. He brings him to a dungeon where he is holding a captive Roman girl - the sister of the guy beaten for asking where she was. She is bloody and traumatized. Nemetes says Caesar should have his way with her and then cut her like so many of his brethren have done to prove himself loyal to the cause of hurting Romans. (Spartacus does not know about this girl.) When Nemetes leaves Caesar reveals his identity and says her sacrifice will be repaid in the blood of the slaves. She doesn't care she just wants to be put out of his misery. So he kills her and brings her body to Nemetes saying he wants his enemies dead.
Meanwhile, Spartacus and Agron are meeting with Heraclio trying to strike a new deal to bring them more food and maybe a way to double cross Crassus. After talking to Laeta about her husband's dealings with Crassus, he learns just how crafty, patient, and smart his enemy is and that he'll need to outthink him as well as outfight him. He and Heraclio come to some kind of agreement when Nasir enters with the pirate who was hitting on him and informs him that all hell has broken loose and Crixus and the others are killing all the Roman captives. As they hustle out, Agron does not let it go unnoticed that Nasir is hanging out with the pirate.
Caesar and Nemetes brought the body of the dead girl to the courtyard and falsely claime she tried to attack them. The crowd is whipped into a frenzy. Simultaneously, Gannicus has learned that Attias was not aiding the escape of the Roman slaves so Naevia killed him in cold blood so he and Crixus go at it. While this is happening the brother of the dead girl wraps his chains around Nemetes neck. A crafty Caesar whips his knife across the courtyard, killing not Nemetes but the Roman thereby further cementing his loyaltry. Naevia saves Crixus from Gannicus by basing him in the head with a rock. Crixus goes wild and tells everyone to start killing Romans. Everyone obliges. It is not pretty.
Just as Gannicus' German lady friend is trying to lead Laeta and her escapees to safety they are caught by Crixus and the other. Just as Crixus is about to behead her Spartacus swoops in, again calling for sanity. The situation is defused but Crixus says, aloud to Naevia - who knows they owe Spartacus their lives but thinks he's wrong in being civil to Romans - that perhaps it's time to break off into their own faction. Caesar smirks at this. Crassus plan is working.
Meanwhile over at Crassus's army encampment he finds time to make sweet love to Kore who is glad to have brought with. He broods about Tiberius going against his orders and getting hurt. She says that Tiberius proved himself in battle and that he needs to stop treating him like a son and treating him like a soldier / leader in his command. Little did she know what that would lead to.
Crassus expresses his displeasure with Tiberius going against his word and engaging Spartacus which, if nothing else, makes Crassus' first battle a loss to the rebel leader. Worse, the men fled after Tiberius told them to stand their ground. Crassus says they must be punished so he orders a "decimation."
This untidy bit of business means taking a group of soldiers, dividing them into smaller groups of ten, forcing the ten to pick rocks from a bag. Each bag has one white rock. Whoever draws this is beaten to death with clubs by the rest of the group. A reminder to obey orders. Even though Sabinus stood his ground and helped a wounded Tiberius he is to be forced into the decimation. Tiberius wants to exempt him but Sabinus says he must allow it so his father will admire his constitution. Crassus goes one further: since Tiberius disobeyed his orders, he tells his son he must participate in the decimation. So you probably know where this is going. Tiberius gets a regular rock and Sabinus draws the white one so he is forced into beating his best friend - his friend who stood his ground - to death. It is not pretty. Making it all less pretty is the fact that the decimation is intercut with the slaughter of the Roman captives. Tiberius goes back to his father bloodied and a different man. Perhaps matured as a leader and cowed as a soldier as his father wanted but hating him at the same time for forcing him into the decimation thereby risking that he would have to beat his own friend to death at best but suffer being beaten to death himself at worst if he had chosen the white rock. "Your lesson well-learned imperator."
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