For a series that had lost most of its central characters by the end of its run, these final 10 episodes deserve a place in Valhalla.
The death of Bjorn Ironside was creatively done. Instead of letting a legendary Viking warrior languish on his deathbed, they saddled him up one more time to spook the invading Rus into believing he had risen from the dead to lead the defending forces – all without the aid of duct tape. It was heroic trick worthy of Ragnar himself.
Gunnhild was another class exit. Faced with being forced to be one of King Harald's bride queens, she opted to swim out to Valhalla and join her now officially dead husband, Bjorn. She managed to make suicide look sadly beautiful.
That left Harald with bride number two, Ingrid, the witch. I laughed when Harald later noted that he has never had much luck with women.
Neither did his appointed representative, Erik, whom she blinded and arranged to meet the business end of a pitchfork. She really wasn't into sharing power – not with the man who had enslaved her, anyway.
Character deaths were so prevalent throughout these last episodes that Ivar's blue-eyed, bone-breaking demise in the big battle was something of an anti-climax. He had seemed to be undergoing a maturing transformation during his time with the Rus and befriending of young Prince Igor. Even Hvitserk thought that his crazy, wife-killing brother had changed.
No so much. Once a Viking, it would seem, always a Viking.
That made me wonder how well Hvitserk integrated into Saxon society once he had converted to Christianity. Beats beheading, I guess.
On the hopeful side of the dying Viking way of life was Ubbe's quest to find the fabled land to the west. His Greenland stay was bizarre but brief, before his nearly dead boatload of refugees finally washed up on North American shores.
I feared that things would end just as badly in the New World after the brain-dead member of Ubbe's band, Naad, contracted a case murderous gold fever. I thought: “What the hell does he plan to do with gold? Sail back home with it?” He was clearly unable to adapt to his new circumstances.
Ubbe made a wise decision to simply slash Naad's throat instead of following through with the ceremonial blood eagle path to Valhalla. He was obviously undeserving.
It was great to see Floki again, although his explanation of how he got to North America by finding a boat was a stretch As I remember, he was trapped in an Iceland cave with a collection of Christian artifacts when last seen.
It seemed that the real reason to bring Floki back was to represent the old, with Ubbe representing the new, as both sat on a New World beach in the final scene – watching the sun set on the Golden Age of the Vikings.
It will be interesting to see how much of this epic series is incorporated into Vikings: Vahalla when it comes to Netflix late this year.
For a series that had lost most of its central characters by the end of its run, these final 10 episodes deserve a place in Valhalla.
The death of Bjorn Ironside was creatively done. Instead of letting a legendary Viking warrior languish on his deathbed, they saddled him up one more time to spook the invading Rus into believing he had risen from the dead to lead the defending forces – all without the aid of duct tape. It was heroic trick worthy of Ragnar himself.
Gunnhild was another class exit. Faced with being forced to be one of King Harald's bride queens, she opted to swim out to Valhalla and join her now officially dead husband, Bjorn. She managed to make suicide look sadly beautiful.
That left Harald with bride number two, Ingrid, the witch. I laughed when Harald later noted that he has never had much luck with women.
Neither did his appointed representative, Erik, whom she blinded and arranged to meet the business end of a pitchfork. She really wasn't into sharing power – not with the man who had enslaved her, anyway.
Character deaths were so prevalent throughout these last episodes that Ivar's blue-eyed, bone-breaking demise in the big battle was something of an anti-climax. He had seemed to be undergoing a maturing transformation during his time with the Rus and befriending of young Prince Igor. Even Hvitserk thought that his crazy, wife-killing brother had changed.
No so much. Once a Viking, it would seem, always a Viking.
That made me wonder how well Hvitserk integrated into Saxon society once he had converted to Christianity. Beats beheading, I guess.
On the hopeful side of the dying Viking way of life was Ubbe's quest to find the fabled land to the west. His Greenland stay was bizarre but brief, before his nearly dead boatload of refugees finally washed up on North American shores.
I feared that things would end just as badly in the New World after the brain-dead member of Ubbe's band, Naad, contracted a case murderous gold fever. I thought: “What the hell does he plan to do with gold? Sail back home with it?” He was clearly unable to adapt to his new circumstances.
Ubbe made a wise decision to simply slash Naad's throat instead of following through with the ceremonial blood eagle path to Valhalla. He was obviously undeserving.
It was great to see Floki again, although his explanation of how he got to North America by finding a boat was a stretch As I remember, he was trapped in an Iceland cave with a collection of Christian artifacts when last seen.
It seemed that the real reason to bring Floki back was to represent the old, with Ubbe representing the new, as both sat on a New World beach in the final scene – watching the sun set on the Golden Age of the Vikings.
It will be interesting to see how much of this epic series is incorporated into Vikings: Vahalla when it comes to Netflix late this year. (
Netflix's 'Vikings: Valhalla' Season 1: Everything We Know So Far - What's on Netflix) /