WiC Watches: Vikings season 6

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Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) from HISTORY’s “Vikings.” Two-hour season six premiere airs Wed. December 4 at 9PM ET/PT.. Photo by Jonathan Hession.. Copyright 2019

Episode 6×03: “Ghosts, Gods, and Running Dogs”

If last week’s episode felt like we were grinding to a halt, “Ghosts, Gods and Running Dogs” feels we’re just spinning our wheels. Things haven’t stopped moving, but we aren’t getting anywhere either. Sure, there’s some action, some talking, and of course, plenty of bloodshed, but really, it would just be nice if it felt like we were heading towards a series finale as opposed to just more of the previous two seasons.

Take Lagertha, for example. Once a highly intriguing character, Lagertha is now as interesting as a class on the soil composition of the farm she is temporarily devoted to tilling. I say temporarily, because her peace only lasts one episode before she’s drawn back into the fighting. We’ve seen Lagertha profess a desire to give up violence for multiple seasons now, and yet here she is digging up the sword she just buried last episode. Sure, it’s to rescue a group of widows being harassed by outlaws, but it just fees like more of the same.

Lagertha’s journey is emblematic of the series at this point, in that it just resets and we watch essentially the same plot reenact itself without any consequences for our main characters. Side characters die all the time on this show, but the main characters just rinse and repeat. And despite this being the final season, it feels more like a mid-series season. Hopefully the series can manage to right the ship before it ends, but it has a lot of work to do.

At any rate, we check in on King Harald, a captive of King Olaf. I’m pretty certain he’s gone mad. During their chat, Olaf confesses he doesn’t know why he took Harald’s kingdom, which again  reminds me of the show as a whole. If your characters don’t know why they’re doing things, then neither does the audience.

Ivar and Oleg official image. Vikings season 6

Pretty shortly, Bjorn shows up to rescue Harald, even though Harald harbors desires on being the king of all Norway and is therefore Bjorn’s rival. But before Bjorn departs Kattegat, he manages to find time to cheat on his pregnant wife, which is perhaps why his initial attack on Olaf fails. That, or there’s a spy in his camp, as Olaf is sitting on the beach waiting for Bjorn when he arrives. Ola slaughtering Bjorn’s men with fire and arrows is probably the highlight of the season so far, even if it’s just a temporary setback for Bjorn.

Elsewhere, we see the seeds of what could be the season’s biggest shock being sown, as the completely unhinged Hvitserk is nominated for a trade mission along the Silk Road, the same Silk Road Ivar travelled down to meet Oleg. Hvitserk is downing ale as quickly as he can, and having visions of both a burned-to-a-crisp Thora and a leering Ivar. It’s painful to watch.

Speaking of Ivar, he remains at Oleg’s side as the latter consolidates his power. We also start to see a bit of tension between the two. Oleg, it seems, is so cruel even Ivar is uncomfortable with it — the maiming of Oleg’s brother Dir is particularly gruesome — which is hard to believe about a man who left his own infant son to die in the woods. Still, it might prove interesting down the line as the two try to out crazy each other. Personally, I would have loved to see the two psychopaths gleefully run amok together, but this’ll work, too.

Three episodes in and I’m not a fan of the direction the show is taking but hopefully it can turn things around. We’ve still yet to see Floki this season; perhaps his return could jumpstart something.

Episode Grade: D+