Yeah, I can’t find any real similarities between the two, but you better believe I got excited when I remembered that this shares a name with a GREATÂ Angel episode. Anyway, let’s get to it!
The video file for “Waiting in the Wings” is available for download here, and all Mark Watches videos are now indexed in my Dropbox folder.
- OH MY GOD THIS EPISODE WAS SO RIDICULOUS IN THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE. Like, this was easily the most fast-paced episode of the show so far, and LORD. LORD.Â
- The show is aging these characters surprisingly well, but now I’m just worried there will come a day when Livia is not around and I DON’T WANT TO REACH THAT DAY.
- That being said, we’ve gotten to a point where Claudius himself is part of the story. We get to see how horribly his whole family treated him. Even when Augustus is trying to be nice to him, it’s still condescending and dismissive. But then we witness how his brothers and sisters, his own mother, and Livia all act towards him: disgusted. They don’t trust him, they are repulsed by his disabilities, and it’s just acceptable to insult him to his face. So when the wolf cub is dropped into his arms, it’s a bizarre and striking omen. How can he be vital to the future of Rome? Livia refuses to accept it!
- But for all that Livia tries to manipulate and control the world around her, this is the first episode where it appears she’s actually gotten what she wants. Amidst the prediction of Claudius’s future, we watch in horror as she schemes to get HER OWN DAUGHTER OUT OF THE WAY. Like, what the HELL? It was certainly disturbing to watch. But we got a brown character with lines!!!!! THIS WAS EXCITING!
- This does make me wonder if Augustus will ever get to a point where he suspects that Livia has been behind all the drama during his rule. Postumous clearly figured out absolutely everything, and Julia had brought it up multiple times over the years, so it’s not like Livia is trying to be subtle here. Will she come to regret what she did? Nah, of course not. But I’m interested to see where this goes.
- Augustus sure does ban a lot of people from Rome. Tiberius came back in this episode, so does that mean we might see Julia again one day?
- How great (and kind of unsettling) is the sequence where Tiberius and his seer both laugh uncontrollably about Postumus’s death? (Oh god, I hope I got that name right. It’s been a few days since I saw this episode.) It’s really one of George Baker’s best moments.
- So, obviously, Claudius ends up caesar at the end of this, but I want to know how he does this. EXCITE!
Make sure to check the Master Schedule to see ALL the upcoming commission posts I’m doing.
