After the end of the Series Finale of Rome, you’re left asking the same question about a many different things. Did Vorenus really die? Did Pullo tell Octavian some lies or nothing but lies during that last visit? It’s unimaginable that a show of such high quality would purposefully leave such a vague ending. The only reason I can imagine the writers ended it like this would be just in case the series is revived in one form or another.
As it stands now, Vorenus died being genuinely happy for the first time since roughly the second episode of the first season. There are arguments that although Vorenus was getting more successful as Season 1 progressed, he was selling out his core values along the way which were causing some internal strife. Thus leading to some unhappiness. At the end of the Series Finale, he got what he’d wanted most all season long: the earnest affection of his children. Vorenus is a soldier through and through who can’t read the emotions of civilians even if they were to explicitly tell him how they were feeling. So it was no wonder that he was clueless about how his children actually felt about him. But there is no doubt that when Vorena the elder came in at the end, she felt genuine affection for her father and that really made Vorenus happy. It was nice to see Vorenus’ tortured soul experience some merriment. It would have detracted from the sincere end scene with Vorenus and his children to see his final resting. But you still wonder, it seems that Vorenus would have died well before the month it took to arrive at Rome. So it’s not a far-stretch to imagine Vorenus had beaten the worst and was actually on the mend while in Rome. Again we wonder, did he or didn’t he?
We all knew at some point during the series Pullo and Vorenus were going to find themselves on opposing armies in the same war. In hindsight, it should’ve come as no surprise that the two men were ultimately loyal to each other and manufactured a way to meet on their own friendly terms although they were supposed to fight each other. Their rendezvous lead to one of the funniest exchanges of the entire season when Pullo tells Vorenus the recent events in the Aventine (”Anyone misbehaves, she gives them a look like Medussa on the rag” and “I head-butted the cunny and bit his tongue out”). I was doubled over laughing.
Octavian (aka Agustus Caesar) trumps all ala Michael Corleone. Antony winds up drugged up and commiting suicide. Not the greatest ending for one of Rome’s greatest warriors. It was a brutal end to his life, but the man was thinking with the wrong part of his anatomy. Never one to keep his libido in check, he finally ran into the woman that brought his life to a crashing halt. Antony provided many excellent scenes throughout the two seasons so it was tough to see him go out that way. Kudos to Vorenus for dressing him up as a Roman at the end there.
For my final thoughts on Season 2, the writers were handcuffed early on due to the lame duck status of the show. These 10 episodes should have been a minimum of 30. The final death of the Republic along with the deaths of Cicero and Brutus should have been the end of the second 10 episode season. The ruling of the triumvirate of Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus should have been a third 10 episode season. Finally, the days of Marc Antony in Egypt should have been a final 10 season episode. I appreciate the outline the writers laid out for us. I saw the outline of a grand series that was ended prematurely and only wish the production crews would have found a way to make the finances work out so that HBO would continue to air such quality television. Nonetheless, I got 22 hours of excellent television and countless re-runs that I continue to enjoy off of TiVo and DVD.
PS My wife says that she’s disappointed in Season 2 primarily because of their handling of Lucius Vorenus. A character with such strong convictions deserved better than to become the Son of Hades and become mortally wounded by Roman hand in Gypo land.
Overall, the 9th episode of the second season of Rome felt like a masterful buildup to the grand finale. That shouldn’t detract from the overall quality of the penultimate viewing, but after it was all over I’m sure most people were busily trying to figure out how everything would end tne following week. Will Pullo and Vorenus face each other on the battle field in the inevitable conflict that is to ensue? How exactly will Pullo help Caesarion survive? Will Vorenus find purpose in life once again or will tragedy continue to follow him until it takes the ultimate price–his very own life? Will Atia and Octavia ever live happily again? Will Cleopatra betray Antony? Or will Antony betray Cleopatra? If Pullo does manage to get Caesarion out alive, that means some other dead body will be shown to Octavian. Whose body will that be? I’m sure all of these questions will be answered in some shape this coming Sunday and that we will all be left thinking about for quite some time.
Back to the contents of last weekend’s episode. By far one of the most thought provoking scenes from the episode was Vorenus telling Antony they both share a common disease, to which Antony seemed to agree or maybe didn’t really care. One can tell this scene provoked lots of thought from viewers by browsing the thread on the Bulletin Board on this very topic. At first viewing, I thought it must be due to wanting women they couldn’t have. This obviously was too shallow of an interpretation. Many of the viewers on the Bulletin Board have come up with more analytical and much more qualified interpretations. My 2 favorite so far: pride and loss of a moral compass. When we first met Vorenus, he had strong convictions about right versus wrong and prided himself on doing what was right to a fault. Willing to sacrifice an extremely competent soldier–Pullo–for disobeying one rule. He then went so far as to follow Antony because he gave his word. As the drama draws to a close, he follows Antony just to escape his own life, accepting everything happening around him although most of it goes against his core values. Why? That’s what is sparking the great comments on the Bulletin Board. You should read more of them yourself if it interests you.
Our other protagonist seems to be well in control of the collegium he inherited from Vorenus. Pullo calmly spoke to the people of the Aventine and there was no riot as a result of denying hungry people food. Even the most decent person would resort to heinous acts when in need of food. Preventing an entire mob of hungry people form resorting to rioting is impressive leadership. Seems Pullo has matured somewhat in the years that were to have transpired since the end of the last episode. He was happy with Gaia (until he finds out she killed Eirene and his unborn son, at which point he accelerates her last breath and dumps her into the river like a piece of trash) and seemed well-adjusted to his new life without war. But circumstances require that he go back to war. He also has a personal agenda for going to battle. There is the possibility that Caesarion is his son (that scene where Caesarion asks Vorenus about his–Caesarion’s–father and Vorenus proceeds to describe Pullo was very telling of the friendship between Pullo and Vorenus) and doesn’t want to see the boy killed by the very army he just joined.
As this all draws to a close and all the different plot lines head towards a resolution, I can’t stop but wonder what our last image of Pullo and Vorenus will be. The first one was the Vorenus reprimanding Pullo for getting out of formation during the battles of Gaul. We can only hope their last encounter of the series will be representative of the great bond and friendship the 2 have formed since that time. Let’s not kid ourselves. All of the viewers have developed emotional bonds to these 2 characters and we want to see them be happy at the end of this long and tragic tale. As all of the story lines come to conclusion this weekend, this is the one we’re most interested in. The series has been full of one tragedy after the next, but us viewers want to adopt Pullo’s eternal optimism and envision Pullo and Vorenus finally finding peace and merriment even when all precedents point to tragic outcome.
Here’s to what will undoubtedly be the most memorable Searies Finale to date.
Last week I ended the post wondering who would find misery on the next episode of Rome. Little did I know there would be no shortage of misery to come.
A quick recap of events that lead to some level of misery without the help of a second viewing:
- Pullo loses his wife and unborn son
- Vorenus finds out how his children really feel about him and can no longer stomach being in Rome
- Atia and Octavia are separated from their adultering lovers. (If you watch the show you know that the married folks in this scenario are doing it merely for political reasons and not out of love or desire to be together and being with the adulterers actually brings joy. Rome how twisted art thou.)
- Pullo and Vorenus said good-bye for what they believe will be the very last time.
- Memmio thought he had loads of gold and riches, but instead winds up without a tongue and miserably dead.
- Elder Vorena thought some ugly guy actually loved her. Her heart will be broken if not already.
- Mascius was recently beaten to near death.
- Posca is resorting to scheming and stealing to attain enough coin to indulge his new wife’s expensive tastes.
The only characters who you can never fully get a handle on their inner emotions and motivations are Octavian and Gaia. Octavian is the original Machiavelli, he wants to be ruler of Rome like his “father” and execute any means to achieve that goal (including pimping out his sister). Although the adulterous relationships of his sister and mother may have shown him some disrespect, I’m not convinced it brings him much emotional distress. The man is a robot. The entire situation is just another scenario for him to contemplate the means to achieve his end goals. I wonder if having taken a wife will finally get the robot to loosen up a bit. Up until this past episode, Gaia came off as power hungry woman willing to sleep her way to the top. How killing Eirene helped her at the time she did was unclear. Maybe she was betting on Vorenus’ eminent departure hoping to land #2 man Pullo (while actually sleeping with #3 Mascius) since her attempts at becoming Vorenus’ woman failed. His insistence that she take the money made it clear he wanted no more relations with her. Now we see her fighting alongside Pullo and Mascius, it’s hard to gage what her end goal really is but I’m sure we’ll find out more next week.
For the overall reaction to the episode, WOOOOW!!!! By far one of the top 2 episodes of the season so far. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and was seriously glued to the screen for every gut wrenching dramatic moment. From Pullo and Vorenus’ farewell, Vorenus nearly choking his daughter to death, Octavian confronting all of his adulterous family members after which he dares Marc Antony to continue choking him, and the heart breaking passing of Eirene and the unborn tiny Pullo this episode offered a plethora of memorable moments. After it was all over, I couldn’t stop thinking “Wow, that was a good episode” as I went over another moment. I can only hope the final 2 episodes will be this good.
For next week we have Pullo trying to run the Aventine. We know Pullo is a good soldier and can kick any man’s tuckus in combat (remember last season in the Gladiator arena…), but he’s always been impulsive and lacked the ability to add complicated foresight to his strategies. With the impending grain shortage, it’ll be interesting to see how he deals with that hardship. We also get to the episodes where the legendary escapades of Marc Antony and Cleopatra are portrayed. If nothing else it should all be enjoyable and we look forward to having as many memorable moments in the final 2 episodes as this last one.
As one of my favorite TV series of all times starts the path towards its premature end, one can’t help but notice that none of the characters on the drama seem genuinely happy. Perhaps this is just a ploy by the writers to get us to watch every week, since I doubt ratings would take a nosedive if everything was A-OK and there were no conflicts ever. But the writers seem to take the extreme opposite route. If a character is “happy”, then it’s usual a temporary state of felicity or a delusional state present only because that character lacks some knowledge of something that will cause the happiness to screech to a grinding halt.
That leads us to Episode 7 of Rome’s second season. Eirene seems happy as mistress of a household rather than being a slave, but Gaia seems intent on bringing that to an end. Vorneus seems genuinely content with the state of his livelihood, but he is clueless as to how much his oldest daughter despises him. Poor Pullo’s lack of impulse control has lead him to do something he regretted the moment it was over. Never send Pullo to beat a woman, the man can’t stop himself. Atia was happy with her relationship with Antony going so far as to think they were getting married, only to have her son–of all people–destroy that for her. Octavia and Agripa were happy during their secret little meetings, but those came to a crashing halt as well. So who in Rome is actually happy at this point? It’s hard to say whether Octavian is happy, he shows as much emotion as a cadaver. He seems content to have risen to power in Rome, but there is a sense to him that he is not happy with his accomplishments just yet. I guess Posca is happy having just been freed and married to a young wife. Surely that will be short lived as well since Jocasta, Posca’s wife, couldn’t stop *crying* out of sadness on their wedding day. Indeed, Romans just can’t seem to stay happy. That if nothing else typifies the mob that is so commonly referenced in all Roman works. It’s fickle, and requires a lot of work to maintain happy for even just a short period of time.
I am indeed saddened to realize that Pullo and Eirene’s family seems headed for a tragic ending. That Gaia is nothing but trouble and she now has her sights on Eirene and her baby. Judging from the previews for next week’s episod, she indeed gets to Eirene as we all saw Pullo screaming for help from within his bedroom. Vorneus and Naobi’s marriage ended tragically, and it appears Pullo and Eirene’s may have a tragic ending as well.
The only hope is for Vorenus to get his head out of his butt and do something constructive instead of assuming everything is “fine.” He’s the one with enough smarts to head off the disaster before it starts (being the only one who forced Gaia to take money reinforcing that he’s in charge and not her), but he’s in so much denial over his personal affairs, I think he doesn’t want to come back to reality for even a split second.
Servilia’s finally gone. The whole power struggle between her and Atia was getting rather tiresome, so I’m glad that story line has drawn to a close. Her character deserves a mention as she was rather pivotal to the events of Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2.
Here’s to finding out who finds misery next week on Rome.
