Episode 7 begins with a fine scene of Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus cutting up the map of Rome and its many possessions - Antony gets the affluent East, Octavian the politically important city of Rome and the West, and hapless Lepidus what's left in Africa.
But territory was by no means the most significant treasure cut up in tonight's story.
Antony, as blind to basic human psychology as he is gifted in relating to his soldiers and the people, antagonizes Posca over a bribe received from Herod (Antony refuses to share even a token part of it with Caesar's former slave, now free). And worse, Antony in not reporting this bribe to Octavian violates what little confidence survives between the two. Octavian of course finds out anyway from Posca.
But that's not all. Atia thinks she has finally arranged for Antony to marry her. But Octavian and the force of history decree otherwise. Antony marries Octavia, in one of the most spectacular scenes in the two-year series - much to the dismay and heartbreak of not only Atia, but Agrippa.
As for Octavia, who loves Agrippa, she is beyond this - consigned, as she was from almost the very beginning with Pompey, to giving her posterior to a man not for passion but politics.
And what will become of Atia? She realizes she is indeed cursed now, by Servilia's dying breath, played to suicidal perfection by Lindsay Duncan.... Although I couldn't feel too sorry for the character - hey, next time, don't engineer the murder of Julius Caesar - Duncan's performance tonight was easily worthy of an Emmy.
And all's not well on the other side of town, either, as Pullo sleeps with Gaia rather rather than beat her as his wife requested, and Gaia plans a suitable revenge.
And look for even greater trouble ahead, as Antony moves ever closer to Cleopatra...
to dinner with the family over at Octavian's.
And it's indeed a dinner you wouldn't want to miss, culminating in a confrontation between Octavian and Antony - that Antony loses. A nobler Roman than Octavian, Antony is nonetheless no match for Octavian in political maneuvering. He retreats to Alexandria, rather than risk being made a fool of, over his wife Octavia's affair with Agrippa.
"Attendance is compulsory" - and you wouldn't want to miss what happened in the Aventine tonight, either. Pullo's wife is poisoned by Gaia, and laid to rest. Vorenus is robbed of the shipment of gold entrusted to his protection - betrayed by his oldest daughter. He will repair to Aegypt with Antony, as Pullo gives Memmio what he has coming. These scenes were among the very best in the entire two year series.
Octavian takes a wife, and Antony reaches Alexandria and Cleopatra, at last looking as utterly captivating as we expected and hoped.
Command performances all around tonight ... especially Kevin McKidd as Vorenus, James Purefoy as Antony, Simon Woods as Octavian, and Lyndsey Marshal even briefly as Cleopatra.
There will be more of this to come next week ... attendance is compulsory.
3-minute podcast of this review
another blog post from me: Good Sex on HBO's Rome, Bad FCC
Rome - The Complete First Season
Rome: Music From the HBO Series
I, Claudius 1977 BBC-HBO series
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