After Cicero leaves, Posca is about to tell Antony about his next appointment. But Antony's had enough state business for one day, so he's going to bounce. Posca quickly tries to raise the issue of his own payment, and gets blown off a lot more rudely than Octavian did. Antony calls poor Posca a "wretched Greek thief," complaining that he's "surrounded by money grubbers." And then it gets worse. As he leaves the room, Antony is beset by petitioners shouting his name and waving scrolls at him. He resolutely ignores every one of them, except for Titus Pullo, whom he actually seems glad to see. He asks what Pullo's doing there, and Pullo says that he's there to ask Antony's advice on what to do about Vorenus. I don't buy for a second that Pullo would bother a Consul about his friend's depression, but Antony looks intrigued at this precious opportunity to deal with something unimportant for once.

Next thing you know, Antony is standing over Vorenus's filthy bed, regarding him with visible disgust. Pullo tries to make excuses for Vorenus, but Antony isn't hearing it, even going so far as to blame Vorenus for Caesar's death. "Stand at attention when I'm talking to you!" he snaps. Vorenus manages to wobble to his feet, which is tricky considering he probably hasn't walked farther than the chamber pot in weeks, if even that far. Antony asks, given Vorenus's irrevocable disgrace, "Why then are you still alive? Why have you not done your damned duty and opened your stomach?" Great idea, Pullo, bringing Antony by to cheer him up. Good thinking. Vorenus stoically says he'd love that, "but Dis is my master. He will take me when he chooses. My present duty shall be to suffer here on this earth." Antony reminds Vorenus that he, not Dis, is Vorenus's master, in keeping with the oath Vorenus swore under the standards of the 13th Legion back in the day. "Sir," Vorenus acknowledges. Antony walks over and picks up Fulmen's head, now looking downright greenish and surrounded by a cloud of buzzing flies. "This, I take it, was Erastes Fulmen," Antony presumes. "It calms him to look at the thing," Pullo excuses. I heard they tried to case Wilson from Cast Away in this role, but he's in rehab. Holding the rotting noggin up near his own face so he can benefit from the comparison, Antony accuses Vorenus, "Not content to let our great father die, you start a war on the Aventine that threatens to engulf the whole fucking city!" He turns and hurls the head out the front door, Pullo barely dodging it as it bounces off the balcony and into the courtyard below on a classic Niobean trajectory. Vorenus barely manages to restrain himself from going after it like a dog with a tennis ball. Wiping his hands, Antony offers Vorenus a chance at redemption. Vorenus doesn't think that's an option for him, but Antony's now in "good cop" mode, laying one hand affectionately on the back of Vorenus's neck. Good cinematography here; somehow, Antony's face is lit by a healthy, sunny glow, while Vorenus's grungy mug looks as if the only light reaching it had to travel through a dirty fish tank, even though the two men are facing each other only inches apart. Meanwhile, Fulmen's poor desiccated melon still lies in the courtyard. The camera lingers on it for a moment, just so we can be sure it's not going anywhere on its own. Even though that would be AWESOME.