HBO's Rome ep 7

-Pullo and Vorenus washed up on shore.
-Octavia feeding a cute Amazon (bird)!
-Niobe and her sister make up. aww.
-Octavia sent by Atia to beg Servilia for help.
-Servilia sends men to help guard their door. Octavia cries from gratitude. Octavia hurries out, but Servilia seems to want her to stay...
-Pompey and Caesar prepare for battle.
-Caesar wins--Cato, Brutus et al argue about whether or not to continue. They decide to make their separate ways to Egypt.
-Pullo talks about the afterlife much more in the way we envision it than would be proper for Romans.
-Pullo and Vorenus build a raft with dead bodies???
-They wash up to shore and run into Pompey!
-Servilia invites Octavia back to her house for weaving. Atia makes Octavia go. WOW. In the previous scene, I thought Servilia looked like she was making moves on Octavia, but then I thought it MUST just be in my head. I was SO WRONG. A servant tells them that Caesar's men have won. Servilia starts crying. Octavia tries to comfort her, and then they kiss...
-Cicero gets snarky to a soldier who stops him as he comes to surrender to Caesar. Caesar is glad to see Cicero and Brutus and embraces them both. He won't let them surrender and tells them they have only quarrelled and are friends again. They tell him Pompey, Cato, and Scipio have fled to Africa.
-Pompey tells his children stories around a campfire.
-Pompey's guide offers to split the reward with Pullo and Vorenus if they help him take Pompey and his men. Vorenus tells him to walk away. The guide tries to attack him, and Vorenus kills him.
-Vorenus takes Pompey prisoner. They talk privately. Pompey talks about the battle and explains how he lost. "Here I am. That's how Pompey Magnus was defeated. That's how the Republic dies." He begs Vorenus to consider his wife and children and wants to take them to Egypt.
-Servilia and Octavia sleeping together.
-Vorenus and Pullo leave Pompey. Pullo complains about the lost reward, and Vorenus tells him, "Pompey Magnus is no slave to be sold for money."
-Vorenus tells Caesar about their encounter with Pompey. He explains that Pompey is broken, and he didn't see the need to apprehend him. Caesar is angry but only says, "In future you will remember that it is I who offers mercy, and no one else." Mark Antony thinks Caesar has been "far too lenient with him." Caesar explains that he would've made an example of any other man, but Pullo and Vorenus have been so lucky that they must have powerful gods on their side, "and I will not kill any man with friends of that sort."
-Pompey meets Lucius Septimius in Egypt. Septimius kills him while his wife and children watch. His wife covers the kids' eyes. Septimius apologizes as he stabs Pompey and then chops off his head. Ew.

Overall thoughts: Another good episode, but I'm a little disappointed (though not surprised) by the abridgement of Pompey in Egypt. I liked the demonstration of Caesar's clementia and how it worked differently for Brutus/Cicero and for Vorenus/Pullo (i.e. the former were greeted as friends and the later, being lower class, were verbally whipped, even if he let them off). The Servilia/Octavia relationship was ESPECIALLY interesting to me, in light of the paper I wrote last semester (and am considering using for my grad app). It's interesting, though, that they choose to explore this before exploring male same-sex relationships. In fact, female same-sex relationships were not very well regarded by most Romans. It certainly happened often enough to be written about, but the sources I've seen aren't very positive about it. I, however, am VERY excited to see this explored in Rome after my own exploration of the topic last semester.