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Vikings 4.13.
Aka the one with travelling, reunions and the wheel of fate spinning some more.
Excellent episode in all plot lines. I wasn't sure about whether or not the show was aware of one particular element, but then a line confirmed it was.
Ragnar and Ivar: clearly, Hirst deduced the way to make Ragnar sympathetic again before his death, after his apology tour, was to make him the underdog again. This is something other shows try as well, sometimes with hilarious results (most recent-to-me example: Versailles painting William of Orange and the Dutch as the dreaded menace constantly attacking endangered France under Louis XIV, which, boy, did they have that backwards), but here it's achieved by fair means. After establishing in the last episode that no one has faith in Ragnar anymore, this episode sees him shipwrecked, and the rag tag team that survived the wreck to make it on the English coast can be forgiven for concluding that yes, the Gods have turned against Ragnar, and not wanting to listen to him anymore. Which provides for the occasion for Ragnar, who managed to save his son from drowning as predicted, doing some more father-son bonding, this time not only via soul baring pep talks but also via shared murder. I sound sarcastic, but I am sincere, because this absolute ruthlessness is also what makes Ragnar's character, and Ivar didn't get his killing streak from Aslaug. So the two of them massacring their own men in the night before they can turn against Ragnar is just as much part of what forges this father-son relationship as Ragnar carrying Ivar on his lonesome while giving advice on how not to be normal, and Ivar getting to know the man behind the legend. Plus the actors play off each other really well. One of the few things I've learned about the Ragnar of myth via osmosis is that Ivar is the son who gets to avenge him, so it makes sense the two first are given the chance to establish a relationship. Even that Ivar gets to experience Ragnar in a way he never would have if King Ragnar had remained at Kattegut - both at his best (refusing to accept defeat, coming up with plans against impossible odds) and worst (what, they couldn't have just split ways with the rest of the group?).
Björn & Co. catch up with Rollo: having now established Normandy and sired the three kids from which all British royalty will descend, Rollo is technically speaking destiny free again and could be killed off this early, though I was certain he wouldn't be. He might by the end of the show, but given the Norman dynasty which will rule Sicily for some time - Norman, not directly Viking - , I had a feeling the show would let him join Björn on his raid when Björn asked for safe passage on the French coast. Again, I liked how ic everyone was. Björn always had a good relationship with Rollo, even as a child and even when Rollo was in disgrace the first time around, but otoh he certainly hasn't forgotten Rollo - whom he himself left in Paris with his trust - switching sides and killing other Vikings while he was at it. (Not that the rest of this family has any moral grounds to stand on on the "killing your own" part; see Ragnar above, see Lagertha below.) Meanwhile, Rollo finally has all he wanted - gotten out of his brother's shadow in a spectacular fashion while also defeating Ragnar, found a new family, an identity which had nothing to do with being Ragnar's brother, a realm of his own - but he's always had a self destructive streak, plus he's now been repressing his inner raider for however many years the time jump lasted, so when the lure of being a Viking one more time with Björn presents himself, he goes for it. (If it had been Ragnar, he probably wouldn't have. But Björn is a different matter.) Despite knowing that Gisla means it when she says it makes no sense, and she won't forgive him for this, and admitting she's right in all she says. Wanting to have it both ways - be a Viking and be the Duke of Normandy - is such a Rollo thing to do.
Lagertha: decides to "take back Kattegut". This storyline also reconciles me to the Margret story again when it turns out she did something about her continued threatened existence chez Casa Lothbrook and became Lagertha's spy. Now what I wasn't sure about until one particular line was how the narrative wanted me to see Lagertha's Reconquista plan and execution, whether or not it was aware that Lagertha essentially had become the early season 1 villain of this show with it. Raiding a Kattegut that's at peace, killing lots of people who aren't warriors but women and children? Check. Now the show had been good early on about making clear Viking raids weren't anything particular heroic, they were plunder expeditions (the raid that makes Athelstan a captive is a case in point), but later on our Viking antiheroes usually square off against people who can actually fight back. When Lagertha decides that Aslaug isn't fit to be Queen (again: why, based on what the show itself has shown us? Kattegut seems to be doing far better under Queen Aslaug in terms of wealth than it did when Ragnar was reigning) and needs to be removed, the one moral debate she has with Astrid is about whether or not she's willing to kill the two of Aslaug's sons still at Kattegut, Ubbe and Sigurd, at the same time (this is where Margret comes in), not whether or not making war on your own people is a way to prove you're so much more fit to be Queen. Again, I'm not complaining re: the mentality - "Viking" means Raider, and Lagertha is as much one as the male members of her family -, but I wasn't sure whether the show just meant us to see this as another "rawr, Lagertha, what a baddass!" moment. Otoh when the depiction of the Kattegutt attack made a point of showing screaming civilians and in particular one crying girl running, I became more sure Hirst knew what he was doing. Crying girls running from fired at buildings inevitably evoke one of the most famous images of the Vietnam war, after all, and what Lagertha was doing very much reminded me of the infamous "we had to destroy the village in order to save it" quote. And then she cried for a halt and said "enough - these are my people", and I was certain to be on the some page with the show.
Also, yay for Lagertha getting a storyline not about romance or disconnected moments of fighting prowess. Granted, facing that she's become exactly the type of person her early s1 self was defending her family and Kattegut from wasn't expected, but it works for me.
Excellent episode in all plot lines. I wasn't sure about whether or not the show was aware of one particular element, but then a line confirmed it was.
Ragnar and Ivar: clearly, Hirst deduced the way to make Ragnar sympathetic again before his death, after his apology tour, was to make him the underdog again. This is something other shows try as well, sometimes with hilarious results (most recent-to-me example: Versailles painting William of Orange and the Dutch as the dreaded menace constantly attacking endangered France under Louis XIV, which, boy, did they have that backwards), but here it's achieved by fair means. After establishing in the last episode that no one has faith in Ragnar anymore, this episode sees him shipwrecked, and the rag tag team that survived the wreck to make it on the English coast can be forgiven for concluding that yes, the Gods have turned against Ragnar, and not wanting to listen to him anymore. Which provides for the occasion for Ragnar, who managed to save his son from drowning as predicted, doing some more father-son bonding, this time not only via soul baring pep talks but also via shared murder. I sound sarcastic, but I am sincere, because this absolute ruthlessness is also what makes Ragnar's character, and Ivar didn't get his killing streak from Aslaug. So the two of them massacring their own men in the night before they can turn against Ragnar is just as much part of what forges this father-son relationship as Ragnar carrying Ivar on his lonesome while giving advice on how not to be normal, and Ivar getting to know the man behind the legend. Plus the actors play off each other really well. One of the few things I've learned about the Ragnar of myth via osmosis is that Ivar is the son who gets to avenge him, so it makes sense the two first are given the chance to establish a relationship. Even that Ivar gets to experience Ragnar in a way he never would have if King Ragnar had remained at Kattegut - both at his best (refusing to accept defeat, coming up with plans against impossible odds) and worst (what, they couldn't have just split ways with the rest of the group?).
Björn & Co. catch up with Rollo: having now established Normandy and sired the three kids from which all British royalty will descend, Rollo is technically speaking destiny free again and could be killed off this early, though I was certain he wouldn't be. He might by the end of the show, but given the Norman dynasty which will rule Sicily for some time - Norman, not directly Viking - , I had a feeling the show would let him join Björn on his raid when Björn asked for safe passage on the French coast. Again, I liked how ic everyone was. Björn always had a good relationship with Rollo, even as a child and even when Rollo was in disgrace the first time around, but otoh he certainly hasn't forgotten Rollo - whom he himself left in Paris with his trust - switching sides and killing other Vikings while he was at it. (Not that the rest of this family has any moral grounds to stand on on the "killing your own" part; see Ragnar above, see Lagertha below.) Meanwhile, Rollo finally has all he wanted - gotten out of his brother's shadow in a spectacular fashion while also defeating Ragnar, found a new family, an identity which had nothing to do with being Ragnar's brother, a realm of his own - but he's always had a self destructive streak, plus he's now been repressing his inner raider for however many years the time jump lasted, so when the lure of being a Viking one more time with Björn presents himself, he goes for it. (If it had been Ragnar, he probably wouldn't have. But Björn is a different matter.) Despite knowing that Gisla means it when she says it makes no sense, and she won't forgive him for this, and admitting she's right in all she says. Wanting to have it both ways - be a Viking and be the Duke of Normandy - is such a Rollo thing to do.
Lagertha: decides to "take back Kattegut". This storyline also reconciles me to the Margret story again when it turns out she did something about her continued threatened existence chez Casa Lothbrook and became Lagertha's spy. Now what I wasn't sure about until one particular line was how the narrative wanted me to see Lagertha's Reconquista plan and execution, whether or not it was aware that Lagertha essentially had become the early season 1 villain of this show with it. Raiding a Kattegut that's at peace, killing lots of people who aren't warriors but women and children? Check. Now the show had been good early on about making clear Viking raids weren't anything particular heroic, they were plunder expeditions (the raid that makes Athelstan a captive is a case in point), but later on our Viking antiheroes usually square off against people who can actually fight back. When Lagertha decides that Aslaug isn't fit to be Queen (again: why, based on what the show itself has shown us? Kattegut seems to be doing far better under Queen Aslaug in terms of wealth than it did when Ragnar was reigning) and needs to be removed, the one moral debate she has with Astrid is about whether or not she's willing to kill the two of Aslaug's sons still at Kattegut, Ubbe and Sigurd, at the same time (this is where Margret comes in), not whether or not making war on your own people is a way to prove you're so much more fit to be Queen. Again, I'm not complaining re: the mentality - "Viking" means Raider, and Lagertha is as much one as the male members of her family -, but I wasn't sure whether the show just meant us to see this as another "rawr, Lagertha, what a baddass!" moment. Otoh when the depiction of the Kattegutt attack made a point of showing screaming civilians and in particular one crying girl running, I became more sure Hirst knew what he was doing. Crying girls running from fired at buildings inevitably evoke one of the most famous images of the Vietnam war, after all, and what Lagertha was doing very much reminded me of the infamous "we had to destroy the village in order to save it" quote. And then she cried for a halt and said "enough - these are my people", and I was certain to be on the some page with the show.
Also, yay for Lagertha getting a storyline not about romance or disconnected moments of fighting prowess. Granted, facing that she's become exactly the type of person her early s1 self was defending her family and Kattegut from wasn't expected, but it works for me.
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The sudden "you took my husband and my world" to Aslaug was left field, I agree, and point about bringing up Ubbe's age. (At this point, Aslaug has been married longer to Ragnar than Lagertha ever had.) But Lagertha raiding and conquering another town would not have had the same visceral impact than Lagertha doing this to her own old home. And they explicitly did NOT frame it as "homecoming heroine liberates town from tyrannical oppressor", which they could have done to justify Lagertha's actions - instead, the show made a point of presenting a Kattegut that's doing well, with no one missing Ragnar's rule. So I'm curious to find out where they're going with this.