Javier’s unofficial official Blog

With the fifth episode of Rome’s Season 2, we witnessed the death of the Republic. Brutus and Cassius tried to replicate Caesar’s epic underdog triumph against Pompey, but failed miserably. All we see is Antony and Octavian’s men rather quickly breaking a flank and overwhelming the army of Brutus and Cassius. Brutus then strips himself of his armor and walks into a legion of Antony/Octavian’s men ultimately dieing in the same manner as Gaius Julius Caesar, by multiple stab wounds at close range. As Brutus succumbs to all his wounds, we see the Republic collapsing with him. All that remains is for Octavian’s crowd to partition the spoils amongst themselves.

It’s scary to see how casual Romans are portrayed in their deciding of who gets to live and die. As Octavian builds a list of supporters for Brutus and declares they must all die, Atia casually adds the father of Jocasta merely because she believes her to be a bad influence on Octavia. Who is the bad influence is debatable as Jocasta has witnessed rape and torture while in Atia’s house. That seems to pale in comparison to smoking pot and attending orgies. Just the fact that the previous sentence could be written about the lifestyle of the Romans makes me shake my head!!! Octavian and Antony agree to add him to the list jsut so they can pilfer his money!! Another head-shaker. Romans truly were cruel people.

Amongst all this hoopla, we find our favorite protagonists as the executioners of the poor souls on that list. A rather baffling moment is seeing Vorenus offer no opposition to the blatant assassination of so many men. In the past, Vorenus would have at least felt a pang of guilt having to execute such dreaded orders, but with this one he just did the deed with no trepidation. It’s hard to figure where Vorneus’s head has gone after so many dreadful events in his life recently.

Our friends Pullo’s head is clearly worried. Last time there was peace he nearly died at the hands of gladiators. He’s worried that with the upcoming spell of peace, he may not do so well. Eirene then informs him she is pregnant, to which he is initially shocked but then seems to be genuinely happy. Poor Eirene (who seems to doubt Pullo’s true love for her), is left sobbing after informing Pullo. Seems like their honeymoon period has ended and now have that cancer of a woman Gaia with her gaze fixated on Pullo. Hopefully our favorite brute pulls through without giving into her.

I must give our passive-aggressive spineless wit of Cicero a mention here. He thought he could outsmart everyone, but wound up only out -smarting himself. He repeatedly failed to see more than a few moves ahead as to how Caesar and/or Octavian were trying to come to power. He was a very effective character that aptly symbolized the lack of fortitude of the old Republic. At every turn when he was pushed, he failed to fight back and ultimately fell.
The near future will surely lead us to the next inevitable clash between Octavian and Antony. This will undoubtedly bring closer to realization another battle between Vorenus and Pullo. I’m not sure how they’ll work it in, but they can’t end the series without Vorenus fighting for Antony’s forces while Pullo fights for Octavian’s forces. With Pullo being the ever loyal friend that he is, we know he will take arms for Octavian. With Vorenus accepting Antony’s offer to join the Evocati with loyalty until death, this clash is inevitable and will surely be a defining moment of the series.

The 5th episode of Season 2 for Rome was by far the best in terms of quality of the sophomore run. The tempo was just right and there was a return to the more detailed character development that was forever present in Season 1. Unlike the first 4 episodes where it felt like everything was progressing at break neck pace, the audience was allowed to go along for the trip of events. Previously, we went from Antony running Rome to him being labeled a traitor and fleeing to Gaul in less than 2 scenes. It would’ve been nice for the show to develop that transition a little more thoroughly, but when you’ve been limited to 10 episodes to tell your story, I guess somethings inevitably suffer. For now, it appears the writers have decided to dedicate more time to the rise of Octavian. We’ve got 5 episodes left to see how he grows during his transformation into Augustus.

There was also excellent and funny dialog in this episode. Pullo telling Vorenus, “My boy gave your man a whipping” was a classic Pullo-ism that we grew to expect from Season 1 banter. That line was later topped by Pullo proving his love to Eirene by assuring her that if she and Vorenus were drowning at the same time, he would “rescue her first without hesitation.” Truly classic. Made even more classic by adding, “you’re half his weight, much easier to rescue.” But the best line of the night was by little wimpy Octavian as he reprimands Cicero in the Senate by imploring him to “move away from my chair.” That spineless twerp Cicero had no idea he’d been played by Octavian assuming his “wisdom” would keep him a step ahead of the neophyte politico. As soon as that line was uttered, I immediately found myself sitting up and inching forward to make sure I didn’t miss out on what would happen next.

One issue I can’t get out of my head is that the series is drifting towards an inevitable clash between Pullo and Vorenus on the battle grounds of war. Pullo the faithful friend is backing Octavian while Vorenus has sworn allegiance to Antony ’til death. Anyone who knows history understands another battle is inevitable between the Octavian and Antony camps. My gut is that next battle will also pit our beloved protaganists against one another and truly test their friendship as well as our connection to both of them.

Bring on the next episode, this stuff is getting good!!!

Marc Antony has been ousted, Vorenus has found his children, and Octavian brings his army back to Rome. So much is changing leaving just as much uncertainty as was replaced. Will Vorenus’ children forgive him for the death of their mother? Will Romans welcome another general bringing his army back into the city? How long before Marc Antony tries to regain power?

While all of this is still unknown, one constant remains. Titus Pullo is the best friend any man can ever hope to have. After that little squabble with Vorenus, he actually came back to Rome looking for him and went searching for the kids with him. Pullo always seems to have the welfare of Vorenus’ family in mind. Going so far as to letting him know that killing the boy would leave him in a bad light with his daughters. Which lead to the classic line from Vorenus, “You talk too much.” And Pullo’s reply, “We all have our faults.” Each recognizing their own faults without actually admitting to them.

Back to the unknowns, Atia sure mumped up after catching Servilia’s mole trying to poison her. Now Timon isn’t obeying her anymore and Octavia already disapproves of her actions towards Servilia (to some extent at least) and her son has in essence abandoned her. She’s spent the entire duration of the show trying not to be alone, and here she is alone once again. Will she ever learn to be a better judge of future events and land on the correct side for once? She always seems to go for the short term win and does little to ensure her long term happiness if it means short term sacrifice. (Choosing the unfit ruler Marc Antony over Caesar’s hand picked successor would be one such instance.)

Another thrilling chapter in the epic series has drawn to a close and I eagerly anticipate the next step of Octavian. How will he avoid upsetting the Senators like Julius Caesar and at the same time gain the people’s love like his uncle/father. It should be a good episode next week.

Peace Out.

Ever since that horrible NCAA tournament when Gonzaga as a #10 seed beat the #2 seeded Stanford, I have had a hate-hate relationship with the Gonzaga basketball program. Well, they just added some more fuel to that fire last night winning at Maples in double overtime. I’m too upset too be rational over this loss, so much that I have to remember back to last year when Gonzaga choked against UCLA which left Adam Morrison crying on the court. Other than Cal, wins over UCLA are the wins that bring me the most joy. So it’s an uneasy feeling having to think back to a win by a rival to help soothe the sting of another loss to Gonzaga.

As I saw it, Gonzaga won because they have better ball handlers than Stanford. The collapsed their defense into a zone that crowded the Lopez twins and dared the Stanford guards to win the game. They kept it close, but when the second OT came around, it wasn’t even a contest as Jeremy Pargo and Derek Raivio just took over and dominated with their dribble penetration, good passes, and even better shots. Stanford doesn’t have anyone to do that consistently and it cost them this game, and once their remaining opponents get a glimpse of this game tape, I’ve got a hunch it may cost them a few more.

Again it may not, as Gonzaga did pretty much what Air Force did to Stanford and no one seemed to adopt that game plan. So maybe there’s hope yet.

Argh, Gonzaga basketball.