I CAN’T. I CAN’T. Y’all, this shit is getting so disturbing and intense, and I am trying to be prepared for it by brushing up on Roman history, AND IT’S NOT HELPING. DAMN IT.
First things first! You can download the video file for “Some Justice” right here, and all Mark Watches videos are now indexed in my Dropbox folder.
Now, allow me to flail:
- BEST EPISODE SO FAR. OH MY GOD. This is just relentless from beginning to an end. It’s a fascinating portrait of the Roman justice system; it’s an unsettling tale of political intrigue and betrayal; and it finally introduces us to the downright terror that is Caligula, which I am going to predict right now is going to make me wince in fear in the future.Â
- The Tiberious/Sejanus combo is PURE AWFUL for Rome, and the delusion Tiberious operates under is frightening to me. He genuinely doesn’t understand why people hate him so much, and of course he blames it all on Livia. Yeah, it’s totally her fault, dude. Granted, I don’t want to give off the appearance that Livia is without blame here. She wanted Tiberious as emperor, and now she’s got what she wanted. Not what you expected, is it, Livia?
- It’s so weird to see Patrick Stewart with hair. Let me just get that out of my system.
- My god, Claudius’s grief over the death of Germanicus is so utterly heartbreaking to me. The man just lost his best friend ever. While he does have a few friends and allies in people like Herod and Agrippina, I don’t think he’ll ever have someone as close as Germanicus was.
- This is really the first time for us to see the Roman court, and it’s fascinating to me that a charge of poison, murder, and treason is finally put out in the open. Everything we’ve seen in the previous five episodes has been all behind-the-scenes, whispered in confidence and hidden from public view. Now, it’s a spectacle in the streets and in the court.
- Not only that, but this is the first time that Livia’s horrific manipulations and murders come close to being exposed in public as well. Piso thinks it’s a good idea to blackmail Livia and Tiberius. I called it accurately as soon as he brought it up: DUDE, YOU WILL COME TO REGRET THIS. You are seriously going to go after Livia after all she’s done? I hate to say it, but there’s no way you can win. What I didn’t expect was how involved Plancina would become. She’s instrumental in not only getting Piso to accept their fate, but taking matters into her own hands once Piso wants to continue disobeying the queen.
- This really is a portrayal of how ruthless people will be in the name of power. So many people die just so that others can maintain the status quo, and it’s done without a blink of the eye.
- I still can’t get over Robert Morgan’s portrayal of a young Caligula. It’s chilling and haunting. It got me thinking about how perfectly cast Joffrey is on Game of Thrones. Like, it takes talent to portray someone as horrifying as Caligula. I’m curious to see if the adult version will be just as unnerving.
- Oh god, we’re entering the most depraved period of Roman history. I’M SCARED, Y’ALL.
