I've just watched the episode for the second time, which was well worth it. The look on Varinius's face when it all goes terribly wrong for him is priceless.

I didn't think they'd manage it, even with the standard of the season to date, I though that when it came to depicting pitched battles that the show would start to feel the effects of the limits of a TV budget. That it wouldn't be able to move away from the gladitorial combat scenes in the earlier seasons.

I don't think there's any need to flesh out Nasirs character, I think he's just intended as a minor character that they've just fleshed out to be Agrons love interest.

Is anyone else thinking that impressive as the action scenes are they're pretty small scale… I mean Glaba is a Roman Praetor supposedly leading an army, but it looks to consist of 20 guys. The rebelling slaves the same, how are Starz going to work it later on with pitched battles between armies of tens of thousands.