Spartacus 3.10 Review, "Victory"
rating: 4.5
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Outdoing itself one final time, Spartacus delivers a completely satisfying series finale. Focusing mostly on the final battle between Spartacus and Crassus, Spartacus manages to make its fight scenes continually exciting and interesting and the few scenes in between hold enough drama as to not detract from the pacing of the largely action packed episode. After 500 of their soldiers were released from Crassus last episode, Spartacus and his army make one final stand against Crassus, leaving time for some of their number to escape over the mountains. Meanwhile, Kore, whose life was traded for the release of Spartacus men is dealing with the fallout with Crassus after leaving to join the rebel side. The scenes between Crassus and Kore were amazing; even more so when Caesar was added into the mix it was fascinating because you could really see the damage Crassuss beloved son did to the two most trusted people in his fathers life. Even after death Tiberius manages to be a huge, dramatic presence in the show and the damage he did left a lasting impact, a fitting tribute for a truly terrible character to have his actions resonate from beyond the grave. It was also brilliant to see that while Crassus may have won in his conflict with Spartacus on a personal level he lost absolutely everything. In the eleventh hour the writers managed to make the two newest love plots, Gannicus and Sibyl and Spartacus and Laetia have weight and plot resonance. Gannicus and Sibyl had their first and last great scene and in the last moment managed to convince me of their love for one another. Laetia and Spartacus relationship which originally seemed largely unimportant had weight and purpose as Laetia is a woman who will mourn the man, not the legend. The standout performances this episode were definitely Simon Merelles as Crassus and Liam Mcintyre as Spartacus. Every interaction they had was absolutely wonderful. Their first scene together was worth the full season of wait it took for it to happen and the fight scene between them was equally brilliant. Both actors excellently played two sides of the same coin and acted every scene together or apart fantastically. Unsurprisingly, the series finale of Spartacus outdid itself with main character death, beating its last record and killing seven characters this episode. Saxa was the only disappointing one. Since she stopped sleeping with Gannicus, Saxa had little to do despite being a great warrior. Her death showed this as well, her last moments not having her being a strong fabulous warrior but being happy to die so long as she was in Gannicus arms one last time. It was disappointing to see Saxa in her last moments not be the fabulous badass German who rivals any man but being reduced to her feelings for Gannicus. All the other character deaths were quite excellent. Naevias end was tragic, Lugos was rather fantasic and Gannicus was a wonderful mixture of beautiful and quite terrible, made even better by one last scene with Oenamaus. None of them beat the death of the man himself, Spartacus however. The writers have an excellent grasp of giving a character death according to how they lived and according to how important they were in the series. Spartacus had a death worthy of his role as main character and it felt like a fitting, beautiful end. The best thing about Spartacus death was that it brought the series full circle and made it feel complete. Things established early in season one like his wifes prophecies, the red serpent and he being the bringer of rain were all brought back as was Spartacus not being his actual name. The man dies but the legend lives on. Series finales are often some of the weakest episodes in a TV series because the writers do not know how to sum up story lines. Spartacus avoids this entirely, clearly having a strong, well thought out end game to their incredible series brining a fully satisfying, emotional and completely enjoyable last episode. Victory was a great mix of sadness from the defeat of Spartacus and hope from the small, surviving band of rebels. A bittersweet finale fully fitting to the boldest show on television. Agree or disagree? Like this article? Let us know in the comments section below.