Summary: Porunn gives birth and the child is named Siggy. Ragnar learns what happened in Wessex from a single survivor but kills him to keep it secret. Athelstan rediscovers his faith and is reviled by everyone. Ragnar protects him. Floki receives a sign from the gods, and having had enough, murders Athelstan in secret. Ragnar buries his friend. Judith is punished for her infidelity but is forgiven by Ecbert because it was with Athelstan.
The Good: A lot happened in this episode. Ragnar learning of what happened in Wessex was fanatstic and his sudden murder of the man he was consoling mere minutes ago was a chilling and fascinating moment that embodied the brilliantly unpredictability that I've come to love about Ragnar. Athelstan's story was mostly well done. While the sudden rediscovery of his faith felt cheesy (see: The Bad), it was done in a very artistic scene, and the drama that followed was excellent. Ragnar tried to protect him but it was only a matter of time until somebody snapped, and of course it had to be Floki. The sequence where Floki murders Athelstan was masterfully executed with the intercutting between the Vikings ritual and Athelstan praying, and the soundtrack built beautifully to the moment where Floki lets out all of his pent up rage to kill Athelstan. I also appreciate Athelstan embracing death, showing that being a fearless Viking is still part of who he is. Even better was Ragnar burying Athelstan afterwards. While the show didn't quite nail this relationship (see: The Bad), I really felt for Ragnar and Travis Fimmel was outstanding. This was one of the best scenes of the show so far, and it marks a clear turning point for Ragnar. The Bad: The show is still really bad with these time skips. How is Porunn already giving birth? Athelstan rediscovering his faith happened unbelievably suddenly to the point where it didn't feel real. I could understand him choosing to go with his Christianity, but not this suddenly. This show continues to be poor at extracting good drama out of a character's choices. I thought that Athelstan's death didn't have the impact that it should have because we haven't seen enough of him and Ragnar together, and the show was too busy trying to push the plot along to really show us what made these two such close friends. Had this been shown to us better, Ragnar's emotional speech would have hit far harder. As it stands, Athelstan's death was impactful, but did not have the impact it should have had. I was disappointed that Bjorn's feelings for Athelstan were never really explored. The show has always ignored Bjorn as a character and it continues to disappoint. Judith's torture scene felt gratuitous and unnecessary. Aethelwulf even knew that she cheated with Athelstan! The scene only happened because the writers wanted violence. The Unknown: And another affair has happened with Bjorn hooking up with Torvi. Will this go somewhere? What will Ragnar do now? Does he plan to somewhat adopt Christianity for himself? What is he apologizing to Athelstan for? What is his plan? Will Floki spread word about the destruction of the Wessex settlement? He also heard the news. Best Moment: Ragnar's speech to Athelstan. Beautiful acting. Character of the Episode: Ragnar. Conclusion: The final 15 minutes of this episode were executed perfectly, but the emotional core hadn't been developed enough to make them as powerful as they could have been. The rest of the episode was solid and had its moments. This ends up being a good episode, but one that had potential to be great. Score: 64
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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