Caesar (Ciaran Hinds) had to die, and at the hands of his friends, but he was far too clever for it to be an easy thing. And Rome showed that he did not lack in cleverness or foresight, but that his enemies were more determined and had better advantages than he could have imagined.
The decent of Brutus (Tobias Menzies) from loyal friend of Caesar to his killer was as careful as it had to be for such a thing to have taken place. Between his mother's horrid plots, which portrayed him as Caesar's enemies, and Caesar's inability to simply ignore those plots, Brutus could only go in one direction. His friend's inability to have faith in his against all the signs forced Brutus to side against Caesar, while he did not want to. And when Caesar was brutally cut down, Brutus could by watch, terrified to move. Only in the end, when Caesar was well on his way to death anyway, did Brutus give him one final jab, before bursting into tears and sobs that he was forced to kill such a great man and friend.
And with Servilia (Lindsay Duncan) so jealously incensed against him, how could Caesar not be brought low. Still, how could I have foreseen that the murder would have come about thanks to the most bizarre set of circumstances revealed to us throughout the season. I had almost forgotten that Niobe (Indira Varma) had had an affair, she and Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) had been so happy of late. And I had definitely forgotten that Octavian (Max Pirkis) had told his sister, who had told Servilia, that he and Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson) had murdered her lover. When Servilia remembered where she had heard the name Vorenus before, I could not remember it.
Caesar had been careful. I absolutely loved the scene where he told Vorenus that he could not punish him for saving Pullo because it would upset the people, but since he could not do nothing, as that would make him appear weak, he must reward him instead, and, therefore, he gave him a place in the Senate. That maneuver was excellently done, and it also gave Caesar a terrific body guard. None of his enemies would have reached him with Vorenus by his side, or they would have had to kill the soldier as well, and that would have worked against the nobility of the act they were committing.
So, on their way to Senate, Vorenus is told of his wife's betrayal, and he goes to confront her, leaving Caesar alone. Mark Anthony (James Purefoy) is distracted by some petitioners, and so Caesar is undefended and killed. A sad occurrence, but one that did happen. It could not be avoided.
What we do wish could have been avoided, though, was the death of Niobe. Not at the hands of her husband, thankfully. As we feared that might be the case, the shock of her throwing her self off the balcony instead was so much the worse.
How will, how did Rome emerge from this blackness? I'm sure Season 2 will do a perfect job of showing how Brutus lost the city to Mark Anthony, and what happened next.
No comments:
Post a Comment