History’s Vikings made its glorious return on Wednesday for the second half of season 5, and WiC is here to watch each of the final 10 episodes and review them as we go. Join us, won’t you?
Before we get started, a brief recap of the first half of season 5 is in order. In the midseason finale, “Moments of Vision,” the forces of Queen Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) and her son Bjorn (Alexander Ludwig) were defeated in a bloody battle by the combined armies of Ivar (Alex Høgh), King Harald (Peter Franzén), and the Frankish forces sent to bolster their numbers by Ivar’s uncle Rollo (Clive Standen), who returns to Kattegat as Ivar is crowning himself king.
As with most battles on Vikings, plenty of main characters died. Hvitserk killed Guthrum, Harald’s warriors killed King Svase and his daughter Snaefrid, and Lagertha killed her sometimes-lover Astrid, after Astrid begged her to do so. In her grief over killing Astrid, Lagertha’s hair turned completely white.
The second part of season 8 will run through December 26. Let’s see what it has in store: