WiC Watches: Vikings season 6
By Corey Smith
Episode 6×05: “The Key”
Well, congratulations Vikings: you finally found a way to move things forward. The only problem is, the train has jumped off the tracks and plummeted down a ravine. Overall, it’s not that “The Key” is a bad episode — in fact, in terms of pacing and plot, it’s one of the season’s better episodes — but it’s hard to overlook the episode’s biggest moment as anything other than the train wreck that it is.
But before we get to the bad, let’s take a look at the good, shall we? It’s a new year after all!
Bjorn, Harald and Olaf begin to receive the kings and earls of Norway for the election, and we quickly realize things won’t go smoothly for Bjorn. Naturally, some of the other earls and kings have their eye on the throne as well, and in the case of Harald, it’s been his life’s ambition. So the scheming begins and reaches a crescendo as the nobles begin to vote at the world’s coolest polling station.
We don’t actually see the conclusion of the voting, mind you; the first three votes from Bjorn, Olaf and Harald are all for Ragnar’s eldest son. Harald’s vote for Bjorn is a surprise at first glance, but not when you consider Harald likely has a majority of votes lined up among the other kings and earls. By not voting for himself, Harald can claim ignorance when he reluctantly wins the election without losing Bjorn or Olaf’s support. At least that’s what it looks like will go down next episode.
Elsewhere, Gunnhild arrives at Lagertha’s camp and we’re back into the land of character decisions that make no sense. Gunnhild receives the news of last week’s “shocking” moment, the death of Hali, with as much emotion as the lady who took my drive-thru order this morning. Sure, Gunnhild is only Hali’s stepmother, but you can’t expect the audience to get too upset when your characters don’t. At any rate, rather than once again fleeing to the protection of Kattegat, or even sending word that help is needed, Lagertha doubles down on defending her grain in the face of another bandit attack.
It’s all baffling for a once mighty character. Lagertha was once the show’s lone female titan, battling alongside the men with equal if not stronger ferocity. Lagertha admits that she’s not the same, but we’re meant to take that as an indictment of her will, not her intelligence. Lagertha’s continued decision to risk not only the lives of her villagers but her grandchildren over a farm reeks of plot necessity. Send for help or flee to Kattegat, and rebuild the farm later. Lagertha’s son is king, so we’re guessing her losses could be replaced overnight, and yet she still clings to the farm like it’s her only chance to survive in this world. Also, what’s up the one shield maiden who just hoots like a bird?
Checking in with Hvitserk, things continue to go from worse to worser, if that’s even possible. Hvitserk builds himself an iron hut to keep out the ghosts of Thora and Ivar, but ghosts can bend iron like paper, everyone knows that. The visions of Thora and Ivar do not cease, and Thora makes the grand reveal that, get this, in order for her death to be avenged, Hvitserk has to kill Ivar. What a surprise. Hvitserk has visions of the long dead Seer, but unlike Bjorn’s conversation with the Seer that started the season, at least these are explained by Hvitserk’s consumption of mushrooms.
All of which brings us to one of the show’s biggest mistakes. Back in Kiev, Ivar continues his attempt to overthrow Oleg, and his relationship with Prince Igor, the nominal ruler, has never been stronger. Ivar enlists Igor in his plan to free Dir, which the pair successfully accomplish. It feels like something is afoot, even if Dir’s escape can only logically be attributed to Ivar and Igor. Oleg could hardly be called “the prophet” if he couldn’t guess that it was Ivar and Igor that freed Dir after all.
Still, rather that outright confronting the pair, Oleg chooses to play mind games instead, and it’s here that the trains leaves the track. After presenting Ivar with the heads of Dir’s jailers, Oleg reveals he’s to be married to a woman named Princess Katia. Katia is played by actor Alicia Agneson, who also played Ivar’s murdered wife Freydis just last season. That’s right, the show brought back the same actress to play a different character just six episodes after she died. What is this, Days of Our Lives?
If Lagertha’s plot choices are baffling, this one is downright mind blowing. How can you explain Alicia Agneson’s presence? If it’s a plot by Oleg to unsettle Ivar, how would he know what Freydis looked like? No one has Facebook, and even if Ivar described Freydis to Oleg, it’s still not possible for him to get the likeness exactly right. Why not simply have Oleg find a woman who looked similar enough to throw Ivar off balance instead?
Even Ivar’s admission to Katia/Freydis that the two were married in the past makes absolutely no sense because the past was only six episodes ago! This can hardly be the case of some sort of strange reincarnation as Katia is old enough to have been alive six. Episodes. Ago. There’s literally no logical explanation short of Katia being a long lost evil twin of Freydis, and gods help us if that ends up being the case.
Vikings has long played with mysticism, but never to the point that they didn’t have some sort of real world explanation. But between Katia/Freydis and Bjorn’s magical talk with the dead seer, season 6 appears to have to completely abandoned reason whenever needed. And while parts of the show continue to occasionally entertain, these absences of logic are holes in a ship that should have sunk a long time ago.