Spartacus Episode 11: Old Wounds

Spartacus is overwhelmed by Varro’s death and the wound he suffered in their fight, and his condition grows severe enough that he begins to drift in and out of feverish visions. He sees Varro and his dead wife, both urging him to “mind” or “tend” the wound, which he first interprets as the physical injury on his side.

While Spartacus is weakened, Batiatus shifts his attention to revenge and political advantage after being insulted by Magistrate Calavius. He has the magistrate abducted and hidden in the city sewers, intending to make him and his son suffer for the humiliation he caused.

At the ludus, the upcoming games continue without Spartacus at full strength. Because of Spartacus’s illness, Crixus is put forward to fight in his place against the visiting champion from Pompeii, and he seizes the chance to prove himself.

Spartacus’s fever deepens, and the episode uses his hallucinations to push him toward an old memory tied to the death of his wife. Mira helps care for him, and the visions eventually lead him to question the story he has been carrying about that death.

Batiatus’s plan takes a darker turn when Solonius is drawn into the magistrate’s disappearance. Through Ashur’s apparent betrayal, Solonius is led to the magistrate’s hiding place, only to find him dead; Batiatus then arranges for Solonius to be framed for the killing in front of witnesses, including the magistrate’s son.

By the end of the episode, Spartacus finally forces the truth out of the man who brought his wife back to him. The man confesses under pressure that the attack on the cart had been staged and that Spartacus’s wife’s death had been ordered by Batiatus, leaving Spartacus with the full cause of his rage at last.