On Friday's Spartacus: Vengeance, we see the fugitives and the Romans actually interact more than usual, which means more talking and a (little) less violence. That's fine: We're still reeling from last week's slice-fest and bracing ourselves for the finale bloodbath coming in two weeks.
In Friday's episode, Gannicus takes his hostage Ilithyia to the rebels' camp. His thinking: If Spartacus kills Glaber's wife, then they'll be even for Glaber killing Sura. Then there would be no more need for vengeance! Ah, Gannicus, if only it worked that way. Ilithyia reveals that Spartacus is her baby-daddy — remember all those flashbacks to her having sex with the masked slave? — and thus he's convinced to keep her alive. (Also, killing innocents is bad.) He offers her back to Glaber in trade for a wagon full of armor and weapons, but as expected (by everybody), Glaber pulls a fast one and loads the wagon full of his own men. After the melee, Spartacus leaves Ilithyia alive but alone in the forest to fend for herself.
Meanwhile, Glaber and Seppia continue their cozy and twisted relationship, and Lucretia isn't thrilled since she believes they should all be concerned with saving Ilithyia? Lucretia finds Seppius' signature double-serpent armband among Ashur's spoils and comes to the right conclusion: That Glaber had Seppius killed in order to take his men. She shares this info with Seppia, who is thinking deep — and very likely vengeful — thoughts when she's bathing with Glaber. What is that little minx planning?
On to those "Ew!" moments:
The Bodies - Nothing too different from what we've seen before: A few prostitutes servicing clients, Seppia givng it up to her brother's murderer and poor Lucretia getting raped by Ashur yet again. He really is asking for it soon!
The Blood - A few highlights:
1. We don't see any blood, but it's still disturbing to see the drunk at the brothel get his neck turned 180 degrees.
2. The flashback montage of Ashur's men questioning the brothel patrons has an assortment of bloody bits: the upside-down guy who gets his head bashed into a beam, another man getting his arm snapped so we can see the bone protruding towards us and the one guy getting a knife pushed up his nose into his brain (although the camera cut away, the implication was bad enough).
3. It was Lucius' time, and like he said, "At least it's not a f---ing Roman" who's killing him. The Egyptian gave him a glorious end, beheading Lucius so that his head did a triple backflip off his neck.
Spartacus: Vengeance airs Fridays at 10/9c on Starz.
