All the Gannicus goodness you can handle in Spartacus: Vengeance's sixth episode, "Chosen Path." Full review behind the cut. SPOILERS!
Until about ten minutes before the end of "Chosen Path," I was thinking "Well, of course they'd take a bit of a breather after last week. No biggie." And I would have been fine with that! After that crazy-ass action scene at the end of "Libertus," the arena burning to fucking ground, and the deaths of Rhaskos, Mercato, Cossutius, and Albinius in a five-minute span, a chill episode for the characters to take stock of things, discuss, and plan wouldn't have been objectionable in the slightest.
But this is Spartacus, and Steven DeKnight has no time or patience for such nonsense (except back in the first season, but those days seem long past – perhaps in this sense this season being ten episodes instead of thirteen has actually helped keep the pacing thrumming). So in the final ten minutes we get that Spartacus vs. Gannicus fight we've all been waiting a year to see, followed immediately by the death of a treacherous Chadara, followed immediately by Ashur leading his Posse of Egyptian Evil in a massacre against the house of Seppius and Glaber straight murdering Seppius' ass via the old boot-to-the-throat method. I said god damn!
It's not that I had any strong expectations for Chadara and/or Seppius to make it to the end of the series – on the contrary, I tend to assume pretty much any fictional characters in this (vaguely) historical narrative are gonna die sooner rather than later – but I was expecting this shit to go down in or around the season finale or maybe even next year. I didn't see either coming at the end of this episode at all. I'm certainly not going to mourn Seppius' prick smirk, but I definitely wasn't expecting it to be silenced so soon. And that electric unpredictability is one aspect of why I applaud the hell out of this show.
But even before the final ten minutes there was loads of stuff going on, the most gripping of which, even over getting to see Spartacus and Gannicus finally butt heads, words, and swords, was Ashur's little journey. I was expecting another act in Ashur Humiliation Theater when Glaber unleashed his men upon the former gladiator, but the writers pleased me by zigging when I expected them to zag and having Ashur kick their asses ("And I was considered lowest among the brotherhood."). Then Ashur gathering the Egyptian and the rest of his evil posse in a miniature 80s-style "putting together a team" sequence was a pure delight, ending the episode with Ashur having risen in an hour from lowly slave to basically being in command of a special ops unit.
There was an interesting contrast at work this week between the women of both camps, one which of course spoke to which side is truly free. On the Roman side, we saw Ilithyia, her agency and power removed by a sneering, gloating Glaber fresh off of murdering her father, joining Lucretia in a similar position of subserviency (and, although we didn't actually see Seppia reach this point as well, it is implied in the fall of her house and death of her brother at episode's end). Meanwhile, as the Roman women lose their agency, the escaped slave women grab theirs, with Naevia asking Crixus to teach her to defend herself and Mira taking the first steps toward mastering the bow and arrow. Chadara alone attempts to find a way around this, and she pays the ultimate price as a result.
Already more than capable of defending himself but lacking the spirit for the fight is Gannicus. Of course this seems reminiscent of a character arc we've already dealt with this season with Oenomaus, but the former Doctore approached his distaste for the rebellion in more of a mopey, depressive, muttering-about-lost-honor way, whereas Gannicus approaches it more with a sneer and a laugh as befits the former rock star gladiator. I was of course delighted in a base, cheering-for-blood way to have things come to blows between him and Spartacus, and although I'm sure he'll be back to the rebellion at some point, I like that he's set on his own path for the time being.
If there's one major character who is left without much in the way of a meaty arc or substantial internal conflict at the moment, it's Spartacus himself. Yes, he has a singleminded focus on killing Glaber, but this isn't necessarily something that is threatening to tear the group asunder at this point, or even making anyone particularly upset with him. Since Aurelia's death, Spartacus is pretty much a straight heroic good guy with pure good vs. evil objectives and a mostly united force behind him, and I do hope the writers grab hold of his clear purpose and tug at some point in the next four episodes.
With Agron's raid on Neapolis, the formation of Mount Vesuvius into a proper home base, Glaber sweeping Seppius' mercenaries into his own ranks and marching on Spartacus, and of course a showdown between the Egyptian and one of the major rebel slaves presumably (hopefully?) set for the near future, I can't wait to see what happens next. After the explosive ending of "Libertus" then following it up with an episode as eventful as this one, I suspect DeKnight and company won't let us down.
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