Batiatus

: What would you do to hold your wife again, to feel the warmth of her skin, to taste her lips, would you kill?

The Look

The Language

The Lust

: Whoever stood between us.: How many men? A hundred, A thousand?: I would kill them all.This Friday, Spartacus's legendary, harried journey comes to an end with the War of the Damned episode, "Victory" - written by creator Steven S. DeKnight and directed by Rick Jacobson (the man behind the arena carnage in "Libertus").It's been a brilliant and tragic journey for both character and show, having lost original star Andy Whitfield to cancer back in September of 2011. In an attempt to keep the story moving during Whitfield's recovery, we were given a prequel series, Gods of the Arena, which introduced us to a younger Batiatus and Lucretia - the villains from Blood and Sand - as well as a cocksure two-sworded champion of the arena named Gannicus.Liam McIntyre would replace Whitfield in the lead role of Spartacus for the first official sequel season, Vengeance, amidst global cries of Whitfield being irreplaceable. But McIntyre kept his sword up and his head down and won the world over with his tender fury as Spartacus forged a small army of slaves and cleverly defeated Gaius Claudius Glaber at a memorable, fiery battle on the steps of Mount Vesuvius.In War of the Damned, Spartacus continued to thrive and survive, even when hunted by the iron will, and unrivaled fortune, of Marcus Licinius Crassus. But the weight of all who have fallen in the name of freedom ("For Varro and Mira. For Sura") has become too much to carry and the time has come for Spartacus, Gannicus and all who remain to either win their freedom or die gloriously in battle.Four cable seasons might not seem like much time to tell a tale such at this one, and it certainly came as a blow last June when DeKnight announced that War of the Damned would mark the official end of of the rebellion, but within the 39 episodes lives all you could ever want in a TV series. We would now have you turn thought from uncertain future and embrace fleeting moment. Here's why Spartacus will be missed:The first two items on this love letter-y list seemed as though, at the outset of the series, they'd be this show's Achilles Heel, to throw a Greek mythology metaphor into the Roman mix. The excessive CGI backdrops were criticized back at the beginnings of Blood and Sand for giving the show a cheap and schlocky feeling, with some critics writing that Spartacus was merely trying to capitalize on the stylized graphic novel-look of 300.But notice how soon all of this became a non-issue. In fact, looking back at reviews and articles written about the show reads like a story of haters being won over by a great, non-traditional series which presented them with a visual style that they unfortunately associated with a shoddy product. The CGI blood and the green-screen backdrops, used for budgetary reasons primarily, have come to simply be the world of this show, inviting us into a story that's both harsh and warm - and unlike anything else on TV.Admittedly, I was one of those viewers who wasn't sucked right into the series on day one. I'd say it took me a good four episodes - at "The Thing in the Pit" mark, I think - before I was fully invested. And, yes, some of it had to do with the visuals, but I'd have to say that most of it had to do with the language.Not that I'm prudish about the words "c***" and/or "c***" (I'll let you decide which is which), but the way the characters spoke on Spartacus felt like a combination of Shakespeare, Bukowski and Andrew Dice Clay. And it took a while to absorb. Not just the beautiful profanity of it, but the heart and intelligence behind it. It took time to notice that there was an actual language here and that a phrase like "Once again the gods spread the cheeks and ram c*** in f***ing ass!" deserved to be crocheted on a pillow. And I'll say this too: I think John Hannah, as Batiatus, was a big part in getting us to appreciate the awesome vulgarity of it all. It was the summer right after Blood and Sand that I was asking him, at Comic-Con, to bellow "Jupiter's C***!" for me.So yes, the language of Spartacus, while obsessively obscene, had an addictive quality to it. It had it's own lexicon, idioms and structure. And I would soon sever c*** from body than tolerate anyone disparaging it.Ahem. Spartacus features a lot of naked people. A lot of beautiful naked people. And since there was no HBO GO back in 70 BC, the denizens of Rome and its surrounding burgs did the next best thing - they had sexy sex.So here was this show that had massive amounts of swearing, violence and sex and it somehow wanted to convince us that it was more than just T & A & E (the "E" stands for evisceration). In fact, I remember thinking how funny it was that Spartacus, back in the pilot episode, essentially got to have "goodbye sex" with his wife twice before tragedy struck.But it wasn't long before we all realized that there was more to the sex than just the thrusting. There was often meaning behind the copulation, be it love or deception. And it wasn't always a glorious affair and we quickly learned that when two people (or more) got together there was a 50/50 chance that it could turn out either sensually rewarding or horrifically traumatizing. In fact, I did up a small humor piece, after Gods of the Arena, about Spartacus' Most Disturbing Sex Scenes , showcasing all the ways sex had gone wrong up to that point.Hate sex, degrading sex, forced sex, murder sex...yeah, this wasn't Emmanuelle in Paradise.Years later, the sex and the violence of Spartacus are afterthoughts and it's the story that resonates the loudest.

Spartacus would do anything for love (even that), plus some amazing evil-doers, on page 2...