Episode Title: “The Bitter End”
Writer: Steven S. DeKnight
Director: Rick Jacobson
Previously on “Spartacus: Gods of The Arena”:
Following the brutal murder of Gaia (Jaime Murray) at the hands of Tullius (Stephen Lovatt), Titus (Jeffrey Thomas) — the patriarch of the house of Batiatus — ordered his son Quintas Batiatus (John Hannah) to dissolve his marriage to his wife, Lucretia (Lucy Lawless), or leave the ludus forever. When Batiatus did not immediately choose her over his father, Lucretia slept with the gladiator Crixus (Manu Bennett) in the hopes of giving her husband a son. Meanwhile, Tullius brought wine to Titus as a half-hearted apology and demanded that he sell him Gannicus (Dustin Clare) or else their house would be excluded from the games forever.
When faced with the chance to murder his father, Batiatus could not do it and choose to stay with his wife. Before they left, they witnessed Crixus and Gannicus engage in an epic duel which Gannicus intentionally lost so that he would no longer have to be around Melitta (Marisa Ramirez), the woman he loved who happened to be married to his friend, Oenomaus (Peter Mensah). However, Titus fell violently ill, leading Batiatus and Oenomaus to seek aid for him. As Melitta took some wine to Gannicus and began to give into her desire for him, Lucretia tended to Titus.
It turned out that Lucretia had poisoned the wine to kill Titus and frame Tullius for the crime, but Melitta drank the wine as well and died violently. When Batiatus and Oenomaus returned, the house was in mourning.
Story:
At the wake for Titus, Tullius’ man, Vettius (Gareth Williams) arrives and demands ownership of Gannicus, who was sold to him by Titus before his death. Batiatus angrily refuses the sale and he is told that his house will be banned unless he concedes. Gannicus soon finds Oenomaus praying for his dead wife, but he takes the time to comfort Gannicus and tell him that Melitta loved him as a brother. At Titus’ funeral pyre, Batiatus announces that none of the men will be sent to the salt mines, which frightens Ashur (Nick Tarabay) because his now half-blind and former friend Dagan (Shane Rangi) won’t be going anywhere.
Gannicus comes to Batiatus privately and asks to be sold to Tullius so that he will have the chance to avenge Titus and Melitta. Batiatus refuses, but he sends his friend Solonius (Craig Walsh Wrightson) to warn Vettius and Tullius that he is trying to sneak Gannicus out of the country, Tullius brings a number of his men to cut off Batiatus, but it’s an elaborate trap for him. Batiatus’ men decimate Tullius’ forces, leaving Vettius alive and Tullius at the their mercy. Tullius attempts to come to terms with Batiatus, not realizing that they blame him for the poisoned wine.
Batiatus, Oenomaus and Gannicus each take turns stabbing Tullius before walling him up alive in the new arena. Meanwhile, Solonius coerces Vettius to lie and tell the magistrate that Tullius left for business so that his absence will not be noted. At the opening games for the new arena, Vettius does what he was instructed and announces his own retirement from gladiatorial games. But much to Batiatus’ surprise, Solonius makes sure that Vettius sells him all of his slaves, leaving him the owner of the largest ludus of fighters. Batiatus rages at the betrayal, but Solonius tells him that he learned from the best.
Several members of the house of Batiatus emerge as winners in the arena before being brought back to the arena for a final brawl with the winners from Solonius’ fighters. Although outnumbered, Batiatus’ fighters begin to cut down their opponents and Ashur takes the opportunity to murder Dagen. He proposes to Crixus that they attack Gannicus, which Crixus violently refuses and he cripples Ashur in response. However, Crixus is eliminated, leaving Gannicus to face a giant warrior alone. As expected, Gannicus wins and drinks in the adoration of the crowd.
Looking to screw over Batiatus, Solonius suggests to the magistrate that Gannicus be given his freedom. Although Batiatus fumes, he has no choice but to comply. Later, the fighters of Batiatus wish Gannicus farewell, although Crixus is still eager for a real match between them. With his departure, Crixus is the new house champion and the rest of the men resume training. Batiatus also tells his fighters that they will all be rewarded for what they have done. Flashforward five years, Batiatus and Lucretia lie mortally wounded near each other as Spartacus explains to the men why he led the uprising against them. And Spartacus vows to make Rome tremble…
Breakdown:
Looking at “Spartacus: Gods of The Arena” as a whole, it’ definitely seems like the story was padded out into six episodes. The first few installments kind of dragged their feet and it wasn’t until the fourth episode that the miniseries really came together with a compelling turn of events. Even the final episode feels a little bloated. Once Tullius was dealt with, the rest of the episode was largely anticlimactic.
Which isn’t to say that it wasn’t good. The arena scenes were exciting and it had some of the best action sequences of the miniseries. The biggest surprise was that Gannicus not only survived the story, but he walked away a free man. He’s unquestionably being set up to come back for the second season of “Spartacus” and I suspect that if Spartacus hadn’t been recast and Andy Whitfield remained in the role, then Gannicus would probably have been the main character until Whitfield was healthy again.
Dustin Clare carries Gannicus largely on his own charisma, but the character was badly served by the story and very underdeveloped. His sudden romantic love for Melitta was never convincing and the fact that his entire motivation in the final episode was to fight in her name just wasn’t believable. Over the course of these six episodes, all we knew about Gannicus was that he was a fantastic fighter, he had a devil-may-care attitude and an unhealthy attachment to another man’s wife. Those are all surface elements. The man himself is more of an enigma less by design than by a lack of attention.
Because Gannicus and Oenomaus never had a confrontation over Melitta, their story arc together seems unfulfilling. It may be dealt with at a later point, but the miniseries feels incomplete without it. The true star of this series was John Hannah’s Batiatus, who was an arrogant ass, but we came to understand why he was that way. And he was much more sympathetic than Tullius and even his own father, Titus. The inevitable betrayal by Solonius seemed to lay the blame on Batiatus for treating his friend poorly. But it seemed to overlook that Solonius had been subtly stabbing Batiatus in the back for some time by reporting to Titus. It was enjoyable watching the former friends verbally spar during the final match, but it did feel like their relationship had skipped a few character beats.
The strength of “Spartacus” is that the supporting characters are very strong, like Oenomaus, Crixus and even that snake Ashur, who finally got what was coming to him. It’s unfortunate that Whitfield’s health kept Spartacus himself from making an appearance here. His expected cameo at the end never happened aside from hearing his voice off camera.
“Gods of The Arena” proved to be a mixed bag. The ultimate destination was entertaining, but it should been tightened up with a better exploration of all of the lead characters. However, with a full 13 episodes to work with, I’ve little doubt that “Spartacus” can come back strong next season.
Crave Online Rating 8 out of 10.
