‘It’s for anybody who’s ever been wronged’ — Spartacus: House of Ashur star on excruciating death in episode 2

Warning: spoilers for Spartacus: House of Ashur episode 2 ahead.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. It’s a saying as old as time itself, but Spartacus: House of Ashur episode 2 took the ethos to new heights.

In episode 1, we were introduced to Achillia (Tenika Davis), a young woman on the run from a mysterious past. She’s captured while showing off some serious combat moves, with Dominus Ashur (Nick E. Tarabay) immediately having a plan in mind for her.

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After Achillia tries to escape and kill Ashur in the Starz show, the price is her freedom. What does she have to do to earn it? Become a gladiator in Ashur’s flock of muscular men.

Of course, this goes down like a lead balloon with the other gladiators, who immediately berate and assault her at every chance. However, she spectacularly gets her own revenge at the end of episode 2, and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever seen committed to television history.

If you’re squeamish, this definitely isn’t one for you, but I couldn’t resist asking Davis about the excruciating maiming in Spartacus: House of Ashur episode 2 while I had the chance.

‘Totorous’ Spartacus: House of Ashur episode 2 scene is everything I needed it to be

Achillia slow gains her fellow gladiators’ respect. (Image credit: Starz)

In short, one gladiator tries to sexually assault Achillia at the very end of episode 2, and she’s able to physically fight him off. Not content with stopping there, she makes an example of him for her peers by cutting his testicles off, leaving him to bleed to death. I told you it was brutal.

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“I think it’s just where Achilla was in that journey,” Davis tells me. “It’s something for anybody that’s ever been wronged in a terrible way. Maybe your fantasy in your mind would be to do this, you know, and it would be intense.

“So it’s great having a character in which we can play out some of that revenge. Some of those feelings that we sometimes don’t allow ourselves to be able to express because it just would be terrible and torturous. We would never do that to a human being. So Achillia definitely has a moment where she snaps and just does whatever she needs to do to be able to survive. And in that situation, the maiming, I feel like that is the epitome of that moment for her.”

If this is where Achillia is at after just two episodes, I dread to think where we go from here. With Spartacus: House of Ashur episode 3 dropping this week, the sparring (physically and mentally) is only going to get worse.

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Personally speaking, I’m rooting for her to take them all down. It’s incredible that we have two strong female characters in such a male-dominated environment (Achillia and Claudia Black’s Cossutia), and I know their presence is only going to get stronger as episodes continue.

Burn it all down, I say.

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