WiC Watches: Vikings Season 5, Part 2
Episode 520: Ragnarok
Vikings season 5 goes out on a decent note with “Ragnarok.” We mainly stay in one central location: Kattegat, as Bjorn and Hvitserk face their brother Ivar in a winner-takes-all battle.
This episode had some oddities we should address right out of the gate before getting to the good stuff:
- Floki didn’t appear at all. That’s not necessarily a bad thing since his storyline has been terrible all season, but I did wonder if he died in that cave collapse.
- Lagertha, Ubbe and Torvi set sail for Kattegat, leaving the good and fertile lands King Alfred gave them…so their story in season 5 was pointless.
Okay, back to the recap: Bjorn and Hvitserk, along with the combined forces of King Olaf and King Harald, arrive at Kattegat and prepare to attack. However, Ivar sent out scouts because he knew they were coming, and when he gets confirmation, he starts to fortify the walls around Kattegat and devise a couple of ingenious traps.
On the day of the battle, Bjorn takes half the army and hits Kattegat from one side, while Hvitserk attacks from the other. War horns are blown, many glares are thrown around, and the battle is joined.
Bjorn’s forces have a battering ram. He’s trying to knock down the city’s main gate while being taunted by Ivar, who is standing above and having his men drop boiling oil on the invaders. Once everyone is lubed up, Ivar blows fire on the oil-soaked soldiers with a huge bellows he had a blacksmith install in the front gate.
Meanwhile, Hvtiserk and Harald wait for the right time to attack. They gain the wall, but they are quickly overrun and have to retreat. Magnus, Ragnar’s bastard son, sees the carnage all around him and decides he wants to be a Christian again, so he hides under a cart and cries.
Back with Bjorn, he’s finally rammed the front gate open, and just as he and about 30 warriors enter, Ivar has his men drop a counterbalance that violently shuts the gate again, cutting off Bjorn and his warriors from the larger force that didn’t make it in. Ivar might be evil, but dude can hatch a plan.
Ivar gives his archers command to fire and Bjorn’s forces die, before his new wife Gunnhild comes to the rescue. Bjorn and Gunnhild make it to the top of the wall and jump off to safety.
Bjorn then orders her to retreat and turns to the defenders on the wall and tells them he’s only there for Ivar and doesn’t want to hurt them. Ivar looks around and notices Bjorn’s words are starting to sink in.
During the retreat, Magnus decides he wants to be a Viking again, but takes an arrow to the chest. I guess he shoulda stayed in Wessex.
That night, Ivar’s wife sneaks out and enters Bjorn and Hvitserk’s camp, and tells them about a secret escape tunnel in the wall that she will open in the morning. When they ask why she’s telling them, she reveals how much evil Ivar has done, and since he killed their baby, she wants to see him swinging from a tree. Yikes.
The next day, Bjorn and Hvitserk’s army sneak into the tunnel and easily take Kattegat. Bjorn tells the people to stay in their houses because he has no wish to hurt them. When he approaches Ivar’s men, they each come at him one at a time, because that’s always a smart plan, and Hvitserk and Harald jump in to help.
Ivar retreats into his long hall and confronts his wife, who confesses she did it because he killed their baby. He then chokes her to death and escapes into the crowd, somehow. Bjorn and Hvitserk give chase, but they don’t find him. When the two brothers emerge, they see Ubbe and Torvi have arrived, and they’ve brought Lagertha with them. Bjorn is overcome with joy because he thought his mother was dead.
Recognizing his authority, Lagertha hands Bjorn the Sword of Kings, and everyone hails him as King Bjorn Ironside, King of Kattegat. As he holds up the sword, Bjorn has a vision of everyone he loves lying dead around him. Then he sees himself sitting above Kattegat, in a recreation of a scene from an earlier season, when Ragnar told Bjorn about true power.
Then, because we weren’t trippy enough, the dead seer appears and gives some kind of dire prophecy. “Is this real?” Bjorn asks. The creepy old dude puts a finger to his mouth and disappears.
All in all, “Ragnarok” was an okay episode. The action was very good, but there are blanks. Why did Bjorn have that vision? Why did Ubbe, Torvi, and Lagertha give up a peaceful life in Wessex? And just where in the hell did Ivar get a hat that would cover his face so no one would recognize him as he left town?
Episode Grade: B+
Season Grade: C
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