Posted in: Movies, TV | Tagged: History Channel, recap, Review, tv, Vikings

It's Raiding Time Again In History Channel's Vikings' Midseason Premiere: The Outsider

For fans of History Channel's scripted drama Vikings, it has been six full months of waiting since we went into the midseason hiatus with the episode, The Last Ship. Over the last several episodes things had been going from bad to worse for our Nordic heroes, culminating with a disastrous river battle against Rollo (Clive Standen) and the Franks. With Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) gravely wounded, Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) injured as well as devastated at the loss and feeling that the gods had abandoned him. Suddenly we have a six year time jump into the future with a quarter of the episode left to go. Ragnar's younger sons – Ivar (Alex Høgh Andersen), Ubbe (Jordan Smith), Hvitserk (Marco Ilsø), and Sigurd (David Lindström) have suddenly become grown men. There's no sign of Lagertha and it becomes clear that Ragnar had left into seclusion in the mountains. The episode ended with Ragnar returning to Kattegat to find himself hated by his sons and subjects alike. And then the credits rolled; amongst the Vikings' fandom there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and we all had to wait – until now.

It was a hard time jump because the characters and storylines we'd been following are effectively dropped with the six year gap, effectively dropping many of the ongoing storylines on the floor. Yes, there had been a four year time jump back between the first two episodes of season 2, but in that instance it felt like more of a natural break; the main story arcs were at a pause, and it worked. This time however, it almost felt like it was more of a writer's crutch to use that jump. In the midst of fallout of the failure at Paris, and the loss of the colony in Wessex, the injuries to the characters – then suddenly we safely jump to the far side of it all.

So it was with some trepidation that I settled into viewing the evening's episode. The series has been one of my steady favorites since it premiered back in April of '13, and I hoped it would do something to ease my mind around there being a plan, and to do some backfilling about what had happened.

The episode picks back up with Ragnar in the town square facing off against his sons in a tense moment as he waits to see if the sons will welcome him back or try to kill him. He reminds them that he's still king, but if they want it, they're free to kill him. While they may want to draw a sword and do that very thing, they can't bring themselves to kill their father and they relent.

Before long they're talking amongst themselves, and Ragnar says that he has come back because he wanted to see what had become of his sons, and because he wants to return to England and asks if they will join him on the campaign. Bjorn (Alexander Ludwig) reveals that while he had been in Francia he had acquired a map showing the Mediterranean and that he is preparing to launch his own campaign with Floki (Gustaf Skarsgård) already working on the fleet.

Lagertha is still going strong as it turns out, healed and as strong as ever. We first encounter her again on a hillside doing some combat sparring with the long teaser new romantic interest, Astrid (played by Josefin Asplund). She's decided to swear of men for now, which is hardly a shock given her experiences with them thus far. When Ragnar arrives to talk about his plan for England with Lagertha, Astrid all but fangirls at him. Both Ragnar and Lagertha carry the weight of their long relationship, their successes, and their failures with them, but Astrid seems to inspire in both of them a certain recharging energy. Ragnar apologies for all of his failings and faults, but Lagertha declines his request to join him she tells him how much pain and suffering they have both brought on their people. She's not sure if she can bring herself to inflict that on them once again.

Ragnar, weary, and deep in sorry both because most of his sons have rejected him and because of what Lagertha has told him, he tries to commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree. He struggles and chokes, but the rope finally breaks; it would seem that the gods aren't quite done with him yet (or they're not done letting him suffer for his sins).

Ivar "the boneless" has some anger issues, he's stuck in a body that doesn't fully work (the show's interpretation of his "boneless" moniker is that he's basically paralyzed from the waist down) in a society that's based around martial prowess. There's some scenes where the brothers are sparring and it's clear that he's not entirely defenseless as he's a crack shot with a bow, and able to hold his own relatively well one on one with a sword. It actually reads that beyond some general banter between the brothers, it's really Ivar that is most bothered by his handicap. To the others, he's just another one of their brothers. His anger keeps people at a distance, and when he tries to make advances on one of the household servants, she rebuffs him. He sees her, however, entertaining all of his brothers. He complains to them and they decide to do the supporting thing and arrange for Ivar to spend a night with her. Things unfortunately do not go as planned, and he is unable to have sex with her and he rages and starts to strangle her in the self-imposed shame of his failure. He stops before killing her, and she tells him, "Having sex is easy. Having children is easy. Being the son of Ragnar; having to live under his shadow and still strive for your own greatness; that is hard." He breaks down and cries, realizing that what she says is true, and that it will be his greatest challenge in life is to be Ivan, and not just "Ragnar's son number 4".

For longtime viewers there are two scenes that are the most emotionally impactful. The first is when Ragnar and Lagertha are reunited in her council hall. In a recent interview with AggressiveComix, Winnick said:

It was a very intense scene. I as Katheryn haven't worked with Travis (Fimmel) in a long time, so it's great to be reunited again, face to face. And you don't full know how its going to be until you shoot it, and when you're up against someone like Travis, when you're there in the moment emotions rise and it is what it is. Here is someone she shared her childhood with, they've made children together, to see him now after so many years, and still have love for him, but she's in a different place. It's a passionate scene, there is so much more outside than the words, everything is between the lines. They share a kiss, a beautiful kiss, that we added into the scene.

So knowing that and watching the scene gave it an additional kick. The other scene is between Ragnar and Floki – at one point Floki tells Ragnar that he loves him. It isn't until later when Ragnar is leaving and he tells Floki to watch over his family for him. He pauses and turns to Floki and tells him that he loves him. For longtime watchers of the show, we know that the one thing Floki has always wanted was for Ragnar to be kind to him, to respect him, and to care for him in the same way that Floki has for him all along. In the moment after Ragnar says it, Floki's face is flush with the emotions and happiness for hearing the one thing he's always wanted to hear. Ragnar walks away as Floki begins to softly cry.

Yes, there's plenty of historically incorrect aspects of the show, from anachronisms to things that are outright flights of fancy. Before anyone races for the comments section, go watch 10 minutes of the Tudors or 30 seconds of Reign. It does continue to be a strong show, and on the History Channel of all places. We will be here week after week, giving the recaps and our thoughts. We should be getting back to Rollo in Francia within a few episodes, and there needs to be some payback to King Ecbert (Linus Roache) for having slaughtered the entire farming outpost after making a treaty guaranteeing their safety. Given the show and the characters there'll be some comeuppance, but then there's always what happened in history to make us feel uneasy at what will eventually happen.

It would have been nice to have some bridging flashbacks to help fill in some of the gaps, but after watching tonight's episode I'm at least at peace with what they've done. At least Vikings' creator Michael Hirst knew that it was a risky move in a conversation from April with Variety:

Everyone discussed this jump forward because it was dangerous and kind of problematic, but I wanted to do it very much. And I think that it works tremendously well when I watch it now. I'm enormously moved when Ragnar reappears in Kattegat and Kattegat has changed completely

Now we get to see how everything gets moving again now that King Ragnar is back, and Bjorn is getting his own fleet together. I just hope they don't have a 4+ branch story thread going with Ragnar chasing Ecbert all over Wessex, Rollo feeling sorry for himself in Francia, Bjorn cruising the Med, and the rest of the brothers doing Oden knows what. Because then they could rapidly find them selves into the same kind of narrative sharding that The Walking Dead is facing this season.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!