Lock Up Your Women
Updated 2007-03-16 17:00:00
Octavian taps Vorenus to oversee the transfer of Herod's bribe from the docks to Rome, and if it had gone smoothly, we really wouldn't have much of an episode this week. First of all, Gaia ends up killing not only the baby but Eirene as well. Nobody suspects, but obviously Pullo's in no shape to accompany the gold shipment, so Mascius goes instead. Maecenas and Posca are plotting to steal a cut for themselves, and when Mascius gets the shipment ambushed out from under him, fingers are pointing in every direction. The members of the Triumvirate suspect one another, but not as much as Maecenas suspects Posca and Mark Antony of double-crossing him. He takes his scattershot revenge by spilling a double handful of beans: Antony's still screwing Julii Cooper, and Agrippa's been screwing Octavia all along. Prig that he is, Octavian puts his mom and sister under house arrest, exiles Antony to Egypt, and cuts Agrippa a break. Agrippa dumps Octavia just before learning that she's pregnant (by whom, we don't yet know). Also, Octavian is about to marry a young woman named Livia, who is already almost as scary as he is. We still haven't found the gold, though, have we? That's because Memmio stole it. Vorenus knows this; now he just has to find the leak in his organization. They think it's Mascius at first, but when one of Vorena's little wicker totems pops up at an opportune moment, Vorenus realizes that his daughter has betrayed him. They have a wicked fight, and Vorenus ends up inviting himself along to Egypt with Antony rather than trying to fix things at home. He leaves Pullo behind in charge of both the family and the Collegium. Memmio buys off the other captains to get them to join him against Pullo and the Aventine, and in a climactic battle scene, Pullo ensures that Memmio's smooth-talking days are over, as is Omnipor's weaving career. But we won't know until next week how everything else turns out on that front. Finally, Antony arrives in Egypt, and it looks like he and Cleopatra will be together again for the first time.