Barbarians Season 1 Episode 5 Recap – Treason

[00:01:00] Thusnelda agrees with Arminius’ plan despite Folkwin’s disapproval. He tells Folkwin he was marrying Thusnelda for strategic reasons. Then, after defeating the Romans, they could be together again. Segestes must not know he was still alive, so Arminius tells Folkwin he cannot attend their wedding. Folkwin tells Arminius to take care of Thusnelda and rides off.

[00:02:00] Thusnelda returns home with Arminius. She tells her parents she’s marrying Arminius instead of Hadgan. Thusnelda speaks with the oracle on the day of her wedding. She tells her about her dream, but the oracle doesn’t believe her. She knows Thusnelda isn’t a seer, but she doesn’t care. The oracle warns Thusnelda the gods punish hubris more than anything else. Folkwin watches from afar as Thusnelda marries Arminius. Segestes disapproved of their marriage, but he didn’t have any choice. Folkwin felt sadness seeing the love of his life getting married to another man.

[00:06:00] Somehow, their wedding unites the tribes, although most of the reiks still didn’t trust Arminius. Rurik doesn’t want to fight with Arminius. He doesn’t trust him and points out they don’t have enough men to win against the Roman Legions. He left the wedding dinner. Hadgan sent his regards through a bowl of horse shit, which everyone laughed at.

[00:08:30] Arminius is hopeful even though they couldn’t convince all the reiks at once. They gained two thousand men and will gain more once everyone is on board. Thusnelda worries about Folkwin, but Arminius assures her by sending Talio and his men to look for him. Folkwin reminisces his time with Thusnelda. The oracle blesses their hut while the rest of the village looks onward, expecting them to consummate their marriage. As everyone left, Arminius chose not to bed Thusnelda. He knew her heart belonged to Folkwin, and he didn’t want to change that. Meanwhile, Folkwin is found by some Roman guards while he’s camping out in the forest. He was too drunk to defend himself and succumbs to the guards.

[00:13:00] Arminius admires Thusnelda’s beauty as he sleeps beside her. He tries to reach out and caress her, but he changes his mind. Segestes shows fealty to Arminius and Thusnelda. Arminius leaves the welfare of their village over to Segestes as they set out to find Folkwin. Talio returns to the village and shows them Folkwin’s necklace. Thusnelda and Arminius immediately head over to where Talio found the necklace. They saw a burnt body in the middle of the forest. She blames herself for getting married to Arminius, so he tells Thusnelda, “If we give up now, he died for nothing.” Thusnelda demands to see Varus after seeing Folkwin’s dead body.

[00:17:30] Folkwin is still alive. The burnt body in the forest was a slave who tried to escape. The guards killed him and burned his body. Folkwin told one of the prisoners that he’s Folkwin Wolfspeer, but the slave girl points over to Eigil’s head on a spear, telling him, “That’s Folkwin Wolfspeer there.” Folkwin saw Thusnelda and Arminius inside the Roman fort. He tries to call out to them, but they can’t hear him. The couple meets with Varus’ Roman generals. He gives Arminius his new Roman sword, care of the emperor—he is now a certified Roman Knight. Then, Varus told him about their latest problem: the Roman caravans keep getting ambushed by barbarians. He wants to control the other reiks, so he suggests Arminius helps him.

[00:22:30] Varus wants to take the sons of all the other reiks as a hostage so they won’t ambush the Roman caravans. Thusnelda starts doubting Arminius’ allegiance because she saw firsthand how the Romans adore him. Arminius tells Thusnelda he will tell her his plans on their way home. The Romans start to take the prisoners one by one. Folkwin tries to stop them, but he suffers the consequences as the Romans lashes him with whips.

[00:25:00] Arminius and Thusnelda went to Rurik’s village to take his son. The reik couldn’t do anything as the Roman guards pointed spears at him and his wife. Arminius took his son as Thusnelda invited Rurik to the reik meeting on the full moon. Weeks later, Arminius and Thusnelda have successfully taken the sons of all the reiks. On the night of the meeting, everyone wants to kill Arminius, but he finally tells them his plan. He pointed out that no one could stop them when they took their sons. No one stood up to fight for their sons because they were helpless against the Romans. Arminius tells everyone now is their time to fight and come together as one people against the Romans. “All your sons are well,” Arminius tells them. He gave them their sons back and told them to fight with him against the Romans.

[00:32:30] Segestes and Hadgan weren’t convinced by Arminius, but all the other reiks were already rallying under his banner. Now comes the hard part of his plan: he needs to return to Varus and convince him to take the Roman Legions with him and lead them into his trap. Thusnelda encourages Arminius he could convince Varus. “Or he’ll see through me and nail me to a cross,” Arminius answers. Thusnelda knew Arminius might not come back to her, so she allowed Arminius to have sex with her.

[00:34:30] Folkwin asks a hide trader to go to the Cheruscan village and find Thusnelda. He gave her a coded message and told the trader that Thusnelda would reward her if she brought her the message. The trader agrees and leaves immediately. But the trader didn’t go to Thusneld—she went to Segestes and Irmina instead. They knew the man who gave Thusnelda a message was none other than Folkwin. Segestes thought Folkwin was dead, but Irmina knew otherwise. “It could only have been Arminius,” Irmina told Segestes. With his information, he could bring Arminius down, his wife added.

[00:37:00] Arminius attends the meeting with all the other generals of the Roman army. They call Arminius out because he’s unable to bring them the sons of the other reiks. He tells Varus the reiks refused to give up their sons; hence, he couldn’t do anything. Arminius suggests the Roman Legions make a detour on their way back to teach the barbarians a lesson. Quintus didn’t like Arminius’ plan, but Varus trusts him completely, so he agrees to take the Roman Legions on a detour to kill some barbarians. During the meeting, Segestes arrives and demands to speak with Varus. “He will betray you,” he tells Varus, referring to Arminius.

[00:41:30] Arminius got out of the tent and saw Segestes speaking with Varus. He couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but he knew it was about him as Varus coldly looked at him.