It all comes down to this.
What They Say:
Victory – Spartacus and his outnumbered rebels make on last attempt to win freedom in a final battle against the Romans led by Marcus Crassus.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As the series comes to its conclusion here, the show brings in some of those moments that you’ve long waited for. With Crixus lost and some bargaining tools lost with Tiberius dead, Spartacus and his remaining numbers have come up with a decent plan to sow confusion among the Romans with where he is. With so many smaller groups setting out to various villas in effort to free more slaves and spread more rebellion, they’re all making it clear that each of those leading the band is Spartacus himself. And that just makes him seem even more godlike to the Romans as he’s able to move to so many areas so quickly, even though he’s truly but one of many. It allows them all to lay claim to being Spartacus, which has always been a powerful moment.
The build-up towards the final battle that must come is well handled as it has to cover a good bit of ground with the surviving characters at this point. Bringing some closing of tensions between Agron and Nasir is important, especially since Agron finds a way to stand and fight after what was done to hime. Gannicus and Sybil have a beautiful moment where he does realize that she has saved him more than he realized before and is now on a better path. And even with the Roman’s, we see so much going on as Crassus is intent on making sure victory is achieved through his own training. There’s so much anger within him, tightly controlled, over the loss of his son that he’s pushing himself in intense ways ways that does rally others even more so.
Though there is a lot of buildup towards the battle that will come, the best of it comes down to the first face to face meeting between Crassus and Spartacus. Though it has others concerned over what could be done there, the two of them stand apart for a small bit of time and their dialogue is wonderful as they stake out their positions, their grief and that they will definitely meeting again upon field of battle. But it also serves to bring something else to surface for Crassus as he learns the truth behind the death of his son. And that sends him into a true spiral as he can’t see himself understanding those around him, but also coming to grapple with the idea that the son is but a reflection of the father, and what does that mean of him.
When the final battle does hit, with lead-up speech that’s expected and full of proper meaning, it all falls to the actual battle tiself. The series has long had excellent battles and managed to make them both big and personal, and for the finale here they go all out with the scale and design of it in a way that really works well. The brutality is there, the strategy works well and there’s death and concern among all sides when you get down to how it’s unfolding. The waves of soldiers and rebels going at it, the big moments and the smaller things as known characters fall to sword or fire is just brutal to watch unfold. The long shots in particular of the field of battle, though videogame like, makes it clear the scale of what’s going on and it’s just powerful to watch unfold.
The path of death and destruction is long and presonal and brutal to be sure as we see so many of them fight, so many of them fall. There’s also the intensity that comes from some of them, Spartacus included, such as when he makes a strong push at Crassus himself in a way that almost has him at an animalistic level. The same is even true of Gannicus at long last when he deals not only with Caesar, but also sees Saxa cut down before him. There are not many on Spartacus side that you expect to see live, and you know certain ones of the Roman side will, but it doesn’t diminish the way they fall and the violent beauty of it all as story and character arcs from so many seasons finally draw to a close.
In Summary:
The conclusion to Spartacus does have a few ways it could go, but in the end they do it right by giving it such meaning, having aspects open ended and making sure the emotional context is fully there with what Spartacus has gone through. The journey here at the end has the extra meaning to it since it draws on the very beginning of the series with its inclusion of Sura and what has really motivated him all this time, even if there were distractions along the way. This season has had a lot going on and the finale is definitely the big payoff moment, even if you do find yourself desperately wanting more of it after this to see how other aspects of it will play out. Spartacus as a whole was a show I was surprised that I got into in some ways, but it’s been one of the most engaging series of the last few years and I’ll continue to hope for some sort of spinoff down the line. But what we get here, with the conclusion of the Spartacus story itself, is powerful and definitely time very well spent in taking in.
Grade: A