FINAL BATTLE: Spartacus (played by Liam McIntyre) prepares for what history and the Starz channel tell us is the last crack at Caesar. (A Starz Original Series)
Even in real life the man who led upwards of 70,000 Roman slaves in rebellion had to die sometime.
And on Friday night, the always gory, often glorious series “Spartacus: War of the Damned” dies as well.
But it goes out with probably the bloodiest, most extravagant, best battle scene you’ve ever seen on series TV.
The finale opens with Spartacus (Liam McIntyre) and his generals, Crixus (Manu Bennett), Gannicus (Dustin Clare) and Agron (Dan Feuerriegel) in camp among the thousands of rebels as they prepare for full-on battle with the legions of Rome.
Based very loosely on the final battle that took place, here Spartacus faces off with Rome’s chosen leader against the rebellion, the politician Marcus Crassus (Simon Merrells), who is seconded by young Julius Caesar (Todd Lasance).
As both sides shore up (OK, sure it’s CGI — but man! — it looks like a cast of 100,000), the rebels, knowing they are greatly outnumbered by the Roman Legions, pay their gratitude one last time to Spartacus.
Before all-out war, Crassus requests a last meeting with Spartacus to see if they will surrender before thousands are slain.
Are you kidding me? This is Spartacus. Much olde English is exchanged between the two leaders, so you know it’s serious.
“Better to fall by the sword than the master’s lash!” Spartacus intones, to which Crassus says, “When again we meet I will kill you.”
“No. You will try,” Spartacus answers. “It’s all a free man can do.”
Back in Crassus’ tent, beautiful slave girl (in full chain necklace, by the way) Kore (Jenna Lind) is having a crisis of her own and finally comes clean to her master/lover, Crassus, that she killed his son. “It was my hand that moved against Tiberius.”
But before Crassus can smite her down, Caesar delivers the line of the finale:“Your noble f- – -king son forced himself inside her!” Oh, that changes things.
But anyway, there’s a battle to be waged and decisions about the fate of the lover/slave girl will have to wait.
The two sides meet and although Spartacus is way outnumbered, he still has some fantastic shocks in store for the Romans as they come charging.
The series comes to an end in an epic battle of troops and a personal mano-a-mano bloody, bloody sword fight between Spartacus and Crassus.
Although 6,000 rebel slaves were crucified in real life, it is believed that Spartacus fell in battle — although he was crucified in the movie. I’m not giving away what happens to him here.
Suffice to say that many of your favorites get pinned up on those crosses in a scene that will have you gasping.
Beautifully filmed, engagingly good and filled with the most gorgeous men on TV, we would have liked Spartacus & Co. to have lived on to fight another few seasons at least.