SPARTACUS! SPARTACUS! SPARTACUS! SPARTACUS!

Wow, tell me you weren't cheering "SPARTACUS!! SPARTACUS!!" after that last episode of Spartacus:  Blood and Sand!!  :)

If you haven't seen Spartacus yet, or you haven't seen the latest episode, then I would stop reading right now... (But go watch it and come back!!)

So, were you like me, and you knew that that seemed to be too easy a victory over that monster dude, Theokoles, “The Shadow of Death”?  When he got back up, you can't tell me you weren't worried for Spartacus and Crixus... My girl was actually yelling at that point for them to run away!!  It was awesome!

Anyway, I wonder if Crixus will actually survive this... He looked like he had organs that were all cut up, so I would think that back then, there was no hope for someone in that state... Anyway, we shall see.  And I love how even though he was pretty much dead, he still saved Spartacus from getting killed with that light reflection manoeuvre...

Dag... That Theokoles had fought over 1000 fights, once defeating over 100 men at one time... They really built him up big time... And when we found out that there was only 1 man who had fought him and survived, of course it was the trainer dude, Doctore!  I didn't realize how much of an allstar that guy was...  I guess he would have to be to get the respect, but, I think this was the first time that we really found out who he truly was..  I actually wish that they would have gone deeper into Doctore's fight with Theokoles, you know, replacing the naked guys rolling around with their parts touching scene.... Yikes!!  (Not that there's anything wrong with that, just that I'd rather of heard more about Doctore...).  And I thought it was priceless how Doctore handled both Crixus and Spartacus at the same time like he was bullying a couple of children!!  That was awesome!  You couldn't help but find that funny...  And a hero till the end, he wanted to fight Theokoles still instead of Spartacus and Crixus!!  You gotta respect him for that!

Anyway, overall, that was probably the best episode I've seen so far!!  I'm just dying to know what's going to happen next.  Is Crixus going to survive?  It was mentioned that defeating Theokoles would be worth finding Spartacus' wife 10 times over, so I guess we'll see what happens with that.  Maybe this is when "Dominus" (in case you're wondering like I was, Dominus means Lord in Latin...  So Dominus for Batiatus, and Domina for Xena -oops I mean Lucretia) starts to screw around with Spartacus, leading to the inevitable rising up of the slaves...  Again, we shall see.

Last thoughts...  In that final scene, when Spartacus finally slayed Theokoles and ended his life, the way the darkness started to reappear before the rain, almost seemed like a passing on of the previous super-gladiator-championship-belt on to the new champion... And then the rain, it was just the perfect ending to the episode.

These guys are artists, I swear!  That fight was done just so beautifully...  They're changing TV, people.  Remember, you heard it here first!  (I don't know if that's true or not... But dammit, I'm watching this as it's being shown, I didn't get any advanced screening...)

--jackandcokewithalime