‘Spartacus: House of Ashur’ Episode 7 Recap – Revenge Is Sweet (And Messy)

Well, that felt good, didn’t it? Personally, I thought Achillia would get the privilege of sorting out the Brothers Ferox, but given the events of the previous episode, Korris getting his hands on them felt right. And that’s kind of the point. Ever since Achillia’s glory in the arena, Spartacus: House of Ashur has kept the core plot in stasis to make room for a lot of political maneuvering and character development. And that’s stuff’s good, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that sometimes what you really need from a show like this is for a giant man to swing a much smaller man around by his ankles with such force that he pulps half his head on a nearby wall. And that’s exactly what Episode 7, “Deepest Wound”, provides.

In so doing, it also gets things back on track, mending some fractured alliances and making the ultimate objective — Ashur elevating his status through success in the arena — clear and attainable. These last two episodes were a reasonable price to pay to develop as much setup as possible that will underscore those gladiatorial games, but with only three episodes remaining, I imagine we’ll be returning to the sands sooner rather than later, and probably remain there.

Picking up from last week’s episode, by the way, I’m not sure I necessarily buy the extent of the grief Korris and, oddly, Cossutia, feel about Opiter’s demise. Korris, I can understand, since he had pinned all of his hopes for a peaceful future on him, but Cossutia doesn’t seem to like anyone, so unless she’s — as Gaibinius hilariously suggests — more upset about no longer having a steady stream of gladiators to pleasure her than she is about Opiter himself, I’m not convinced. Then again, later developments suggest otherwise. But more on that in a minute.

There was a fun theory in the comments last week that Ashur might have deliberately bragged to Proculus, knowing he’d make a move on Opiter, allowing him to retain his Doctore and secure all of Opiter’s holdings as promised. I would have liked this to be true, but it doesn’t seem to be. Opiter’s holdings are going to auction, and the Cilician markings daubed in blood on his villa walls make Ashur suspect that Caesar and Cornelia were behind his death.

This puts Ashur on the back foot once again. Achillia is alive and on her feet, but her hand is still a mess, and her newfound taste for glory in the arena means she’s rushing back to training. Ashur is keen on this, since her recovery has taken long enough that she’s not quite the hot topic she once was, and the sooner he can get her back in the public eye, the better. But while Achillia receives a relatively warm ovation from most of the gladiators, Tarchon, true to form, uses sparring with her as an excuse to damage her injured hand even further and secure his own position, however temporary, as champion.

But Ashur needs notoriety because he now needs money to purchase Opiter’s holdings at auction. For this, he turns to Cornelia, who is still grooming Messia as an obedient little pet and also flooding the villa with opium sent by Pompey. In this one, rare instance, though, she’s innocent of the accusation that Ashur levels at her. She and Caesar didn’t arrange Opiter’s death, which causes Ashur to realise it was his own boasting to Proculus that brought about the event.

This means that Ashur has to tell Korris the truth. After the latter tries to fight his way into the villa, Ashur fesses up and pitches an alliance to figure out what really went down. He petitions Cornelia again, this time offering to grease the wheels of Viridia’s planned marriage to Quintus Thermus, despite having already dissuaded Gabinius from this idea in the previous episode. He even sups a laced jug of wine and sleeps with Hilara while imagining she’s Viridia, just to be seen to play ball. Cornelia agrees to front the money for the holdings, as long as it’ll benefit Crassus (and thus Caesar).

You can feel this is going to go wrong, and indeed it does. But Spartacus: House of Ashur Episode 7 provides a rare turnaround moment for Ashur, who is still able to flip recent events in his favour. Sure, he makes a complete fool of himself bidding directly against Proculus for Opiter’s holdings, since Cossutia lets slip to Cornelia that Ashur already nixed the Quintus Thermus union, so she withdraws funding just as Ashur has made the highest bid. But he also sees an unlikely ally in Cossutia, who seems more torn up about Opiter’s death than first imagined. When Ashur floats his theory that Proculus was responsible for it, Cossutia helps him arrange an ambush under the guise of having Ashur himself killed.

Proculus falls for it and sends the Brothers Ferox and a few goons to take Ashur out. But Ashur came with plenty of his own men, not that they end up being needed, since Korris arrives and volunteers to singlehandedly fight all of Proculus’s men to avenge Opiter. And he demolishes the lot of them pretty easily, in a flurry of demented — though undeniably fun — practical effects. He only leaves Saturys alive to send a message to Proculus that the House of Ashur is coming for him on the sands of the arena. Oh, and he wants his old job back. He and Ashur shake hands on their aligned purpose, since this is a pretty big moment for the pair of them.

It does, however, free Celadus from his Doctore duties, which worries me. He spends “Deepest Wound” convincing Achillia — whom he’s still very fond of — to fight with a spear and small shield to offset her new disadvantage, and it turns out to be a pretty good idea. This is obviously Achillia’s favoured weapon, but she’s reluctant to use it because of her past, in which she seems to have skewered her own daughter (I think this is what the flashbacks are implying, but they’re deliberately a little hazy). She whoops Tarchon pretty easily in their second sparring session, but her hesitation, thanks to the flashbacks, ultimately causes her to lose again. So, that’s something she’s going to have to get over.

But this isn’t my worry. My worry is that with Korris’s reinstatement, Celadus will return to being a gladiator, and he’s an easy shoo-in for a stake-raising death. And I’d much rather Tarchon met that end. He has his own goals — giving the Roman who abused his lover a violent spectacle in the arena, and then earning enough coin to buy her freedom — but I just can’t stand him. Maybe that won’t go quite the way I’m expecting, but I wouldn’t put any money on that. Time will tell.