This week, Spartacus: House of Ashur introduces two brand-new characters: Caesar (Jackson Gallagher) and his girlfriend Cornelia (Jaime Slater).
Not only is that bad news for new Dominus Ashur (Nick E. Tarabay), but it's not amazing news for us either. As school history lessons have taught us, Caesar has arrived to scout out Ashur's domain as a potential base for his Roman takeover.
As we've already seen on the hit Starz show, Romans didn't have the best behavior. From the epically gruesome maiming in episode 2 (though I think this was completely justified) to the tyrannical takeover at the end of episode 4, life was rough back then.
However, there's one Caesar scene in Spartacus: House of Ashur episode 5 that I think should come with a guidance warning... and even for the cast, it was incredibly 'dark' to film.
Caesar's brutal assault scene was as disturbing for the cast as it is for us
Warning: themes of sexual assault in Spartacus: House of Ashur episode 5.
As Caesar gets himself, ahem, familiarized with Ashur's home, he decides Ashur's own bed is the only place suitable for him to rest. Cornelia is already making out with one of Ashur's girlfriends in the room, but Caesar decides that's not enough entertainment and brutally assaults Hilara (Jamaica Vaughan).
It's shocking, and we're just as helpless as Ashur watching on, with Hilara's face letting it be known that this is the way things need to be. Nobody wants to upset the elite.
"First and foremost, we all were very comfortable with each other, and there were a lot of conversations and rehearsals," Slater tells me about filming the scene. "We also had an intimacy coordinator, who was great at guiding us through everything.
"But this was very much a scene about Caesar and Cornelia colonizing Ashur's villa. So it had to be dark."
And dark it is. It's a stark contrast to the rambunctious party we see just a few scenes later.
"The party scenes were really fun. It's floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall opulence. It's just a whole vibe and environment unto itself," Slater adds.
Both scenes make a startling contrast, and honestly, it's unsettled me more than any of the grisly violence we've seen so far.
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