Rome “Kalends Of February”

The first season of Rome ended in a way with a lot of people in a bad place.  This could be a place where the living might envy the dead.

Well, actually, that was what Krusty the Clown thought would happen if television went away.

How bad is it?  Well, for Caesar, it’s really bad.  He’s dead.

Historic SPOILER warning for the previous revelation.

But let’s look at how this plays out.  Pullo is recovering in the hospital.  Caesar would normally punish Pullo and Vorenus, but since the two of them are both super popular right now, he has to reward them.  First up is Vorenus, who Caesar names a Senator.  Promote a plebe to the Senate?  And some of the peoples he conquered?  That doesn’t sit well with folks like Cicero, though all he’ll do is verbally complain.  Brutus on the other hand…

Yeah, Brutus is leading a coup attempt, all for Rome or his mother.  I’m not sure which.  Neither does he, I’d wager, but he won’t stoop to lowly murder.  It has to be public and visible.  Servilia is fine with that, but with Vorenus being both a Senator and an unofficial body guard, there’s an obstacle, and Brutus doesn’t want to kill anyone they don’t have to.  Then Servilia remembers something Octavia told her about Vorenus.

Pullo, meanwhile, skips out of the hospital and injures himself anew.  He manages to get to Vorenus’ place, and Eirene is still kinda mad he killed her lover.  And she almost kills him herself, but Niobe talks her out of it and Pullo doesn’t even seem to care if she does it or not.

Back to the plot…Vorenus is distracted on his way to the Senate on the Ides of March.  He’s told Niobe is the mother, not the grandmother, of that baby boy she was holding when he got home.  He gets supermad and heads home, leaving Caesar.  His anger most defuses when Niobe tells him she thought he was dead.  If he wasn’t holding that knife, maybe Niobe wouldn’t have killed herself while reminding Vorenus the boy was innocent.

So, yeah, Niobe is dead.

Caesar gets jumped.  Marc Antony is kept outside, Caesar’s servant is knocked out, and Brutus, reluctantly, makes the last stab.  And while Cassius makes some statement about thus to tyrants, Brutus clearly hates himself.

When I wrote about the first episode, I remember wondering how dangerous Atia was.  In the end, the answer is “not much”.  Sure, she can arrange a murder, but everyone knows she does it.  Her subtly sucks, and Servilia doesn’t mind rubbing it in by telling Atia her uncle and patron was dying at the moment Atia is visiting Servilia’s house.  And Servilia more or less lets Atia know that Atia is next, no matter what she does.  Atia?  Yeah, she could be screwed.

But Octavian?  That weasel?  Hey, he saw all this, and even if his mom isn’t that dangerous in the grand scheme of things…Octavian sure as hell is!

Was there any good news here?  Well, Pullo and Eirene end the episode walking away hand-in-hand, he forgiven for his crimes, her accepting him.

I told you Pullo was the luckiest son of a bitch in Rome.