Spartacus: Blood and Sand - Shadow Games, S01E05

Again, despite the violence and sex that permeates the entire concept of Spartacus: Blood and Sand, relevant and emotionally poignant subject matters are addressed with sadness and irony.

Yes, as I watched Shadow Games, I had to wonder how these gladiators kept their beautiful smiles when at least once a week Spartacus (Andy Whitfield) gets hit in the face, spraying blood and teeth. How many teeth can these gladiators have? And how do the manage, with so many shots to the head, to retain any sense of intelligence. Or perhaps it is this jogging of Spartacus's memory that has helped him keep his sanity after the trials of the pit.

But hits to the face were hardly the focus of the episode. Instead, love and children dominated the forefront.

Spartacus, as is quite obvious, does everything he does for the sake of his wife. That he holds on to her love so strongly may well be what saves him, though what is in fact happening to her has yet to be revealed to us. Crixus (Manu Bennett), perhaps impressed by this devotion, or perhaps confused by his recent development of affection for Naevia (Lesley-Ann Brandt), has begun to take after Spartacus. Rather a dangerous course of action for either to take. Yet Crixus becomes more and more likable despite his continued rivalry with Spartacus.

And while their love for their women kept them focused and alive in this episode, Batiatus (John Hannah) was consumed by the threat to his own life, and neglected his wife.

Poor Lucretia (Lucy Lawless). In many ways, she is flawed. Beyond flawed, one might even say, but her desire to have a child and her self-loathing for her failure are truly palatable. The tragedy for her that her husband is not at home for the hour when the priestess's medicines should help her quicken is made worse for us by the knowledge that he is out on a bloody business. As he kills an entire family, including a young boy, his chance for an heir slowly disappears.

How anyone can't feel for a woman trying so desperately to conceive is hard to imagine, but to watch her choose to let the moment pass so that Crixus might be strong, so that he might survive the battle ahead, that she is willing to make such a sacrifice for a man already alive...that is powerful. The question, though, is why she made this choice. Does she love Crixus so much that she would choose him over a child? Or was the idea that the child would not be her husband's enough to dissuade her when Crixus did not immediately rise to the occasion? Or perhaps Lucretia does not feel that she deserves children?

I eagerly anticipate seeing where the choices that were made will lead these characters as the series continues.