Treachery abounds in the show’s return
Ragnar Lothbrok lies abed, not dead, not quite alive.
In his dreams, he rides on a distant mountain.
Great golden doors open in the sky.
Credit: Jonathan Hession/History
He can hear the great warriors, singing happily as only dead men truly can.
He walks toward the light.
The doors close before him.
Shall this be his fate?
Locked out of Valhalla, despite all his great deeds?
He is Viking and he is Christian.
The seer offers a prophecy: Yes.
I have seen it.
A woman will one day rule in Kattegat.
Power gets passed around frequently here in the land ofVikings.
While Ragnar slumbers, his sons have grown up.
Little Ivar the Boneless is talking, if not precisely walking.
Bjorn Ironside mourns the loss of his beloved, Thorunn, who departed Kattegat for parts unknown.
She left behind a daughter.
Bjorn cant even look at her, his progeny.
Dont worry, says Aslaug, stern and resigned, We will take care of her.
Perhaps Aslaug prefers it this way.
While the men of one generation kill each other, the next generation arises from her household.
Public statements are made.
Why punish Floki now?
You also feared his influence on your father, the shipbuilder declares, unrepentant.
Lagertha and I will share the Earldom, and rule as equals.
Some citizens of Hedeby arent too happy about that.
Example one: Einar Pornstache, who killed his own uncle for Lagertha before betraying her for Kalf.
All Einars gambits have left him apparently powerless.
He plots a counterattack.
At last: Ragnar awakes from his slumber.
He joins his people in the great hall of Kattegat.
A happy man, to be surrounded by so many loving sons.
But things are rotten in this state that will eventually be Denmark.
Aslaug is raising her sons with the tales of her own father, the great hero Sigurd.
(The implication: Her husband doesnt quite measure up.)
NEXT: Count on Count Rollo
Ragnar isnt happy with Bjorn.
If I wanted Floki arrested, I would have done it a long time ago, he explains.
Now, Bjorn has made Flokis crime public and left Ragnar with no options.
And while were on the topic: Whos stupid idea was it to leave behind Rollo in Paris?
In Paris, Count Rollo is settling in to his new life of Frankish nobility.
Dont touch me, monster!
Youre tickling me, he jokes, taunting her by falling asleep.
Perhaps Rollo recognizes that Gisla can be a powerful ally in this foreign land.
In Hedeby, Kalf calls a town meeting.
He knows that Earl Lagertha is a, shall we say, controversial figure.
Those of you who desire her banishment, mark this post, Kalf demands.
Einar and his loyalists move to the post, slashing it with their daggers.
Which puts them all together in one place easy targets for Kalfs archers.
To add injurious insult to injury, Lagertha grabs Einars knife and castrates him.
A fitting death for a coward.
Lagertha regards Kalf, with a smile and with tears.
Happy to have a true ally?
Or frustrated to depend on a traitor?
Bjorn declares his intentions to take a long trip.
Ragnars opinion is blunt:
But Ragnar is also proud of his son for trying to prove himself.
And frightened for him, perhaps.
You feel that maybe he loves his first son more than any of his other children.
Bjorn remembers when his father was just a man not a king, not a hero.
And Ragnar is losing his connections to those old days.
He goes to talk to his old friend Floki, chained and tormented in the public square.
One old friend killed another old friend; is there any end to this cycle?
Are you going to kill me or not?
Ragnar has no answer, not yet.
In Paris, Count Rollo receives a visitor.
A Viking, from the encampment, with ill news.
Rollo learns that half his men are against him.
We shall be revenged!
declares one fallen Viking, blood and breath all abandoning him.
Ragnar will revenge us!
Count Rollo considers these words.
