Another week, another Vikings review. This week in episode 6, entitled ‘The Message’, Ivar makes a plan with King Harald Finehair, Astrid undergoes horrific circumstances in order to warn Lagertha, Floki’s group has a mole and Björn’s fate in the desert is revealed. Starting from the last point, despite the dire situation Björn and Halfdan were in at the end of last week, theirs is actually the most simple and disappointing part of this week’s episode. They simply block the swinging swords and escape under the cover of the sandstorm. They’re later seen sailing for Kattegat, reducing this storyline to naught. Hopefully, after this war with Harald and Ivar, Björn will return to the Mediterranean, similar to how Ragnar returned to England and Paris. For Vikings to set up this location and these characters with their relationships, it would be underwhelming if this wound up being a one and done excursion that ended in failure.
Instead, much of the run time was devoted to Astrid this week. Astrid is an odd character and one that I’ve never fully connected or engaged with. She showed up last season as a lover of Lagertha while also acting as something of a bodyguard. Largely though her function seemed to be to bolster the ranks of Lagertha’s all female council. Despite generally being loyal, she has shown some shades of rebellion, namely when she was upset at Lagertha for not trusting her and slept with Björn as a means of revenge. But as the story has shifted further and further away from Kattegat, Astrid’s role hasn’t felt important.
This season suddenly thrust the shieldmaiden into the forefront of the looming war between Harald and Lagertha. Her kidnapping by Harald was unexpected but it also seemed like Harald was able to offer her something that she wanted. Though she was Lagertha’s lover, she would never be queen, but she could be with Harald. Again, she’d disagreed with Lagertha previously, and this seemed like an opportunity for her realise some of her ambition. And she really seemed to be coming around to the idea, frolicking and flirting with Harald at the beginning of this episode. By the episode’s end though, it was all revealed to be an act, and Astrid was being gang-raped by some fishermen to ensure a warning got to Lagertha.
Astrid, just before the scene in question.
It was a horrible situation for Astrid to be in and seems to underline her loyalty to Lagertha. Worse still is that in the next scene, Lagertha is praising the fisherman for being an ally of Astrid’s. It was more surprising that they delivered the message since they run a lot less risk of just taking what they wanted from Astrid and then just saying they delivered the message without actually doing so. Hopefully, Astrid finds some way of exacting revenge on these men before the season’s end, but that’s only if Harald doesn’t discover Astrid’s treachery before they attack. There was a child just outside during that rape scene.
One of the consistently enjoyable scenes of this season is the interaction of Ivar and Heahmund, first from a far on the battlefield and now in their jail discussions. Ivar connects with Heahmund and reveals details of his life that he wouldn’t with anyone else. Though it’s not as friendly as Ragnar and Æthelstan, Ivar does seem to trust Heahmund, confiding in him in the way one might to a Bishop or Priest. It’s interesting how Ivar is engaging with the religious figure despite not following the religion himself.
It’s also notable that Ivar knows not to make this about religion. Heahmund states that he will gladly die for his faith, but Ivar points out that he’s a prisoner of war. If he isn’t going to be killed because of his faith, he can’t be considered a martyr. Ivar takes the steam out of Heahmund’s argument, leaving Heahmund only with the choice of fight and live or refuse and die. Ivar is trusting in Heahmund’s desire to live, of the weakness of the flesh and his love of fighting. And by the episode’s end, Heahmund is on board with killing more ‘heathens’.
He’s crazy but at least he’s on our side.
The rest of the episode is devoted to the young Prince Alfred and Floki’s people arriving in Iceland. In Iceland, they find it doesn’t quite live up to Floki’s hype but they’ve set to go inland and find the hot springs and fertile volcanic ground. Alfred, on the other hand, makes a promise to his grandfather, King Ecbert, to drive out the pagans and restore the kingdom. Part one of this plan is to visit Lindisfarne to connect with the memory of his birth father. While the intention of this quest is interesting, what can Lindisfarne really teach Alfred? Much of Æthelstan’s personal understanding and revelation of God came after his abduction in places such as Kattegat and Wessex. This is likely just a narrative opportunity to underline Alfred’s piety and possibly provide another vision.
Perhaps it’s all the turkey I’ve consumed in the past week, but this episode was rather detached. There were a couple bright spots, however, ‘The Message’ is very evidently gearing up for a battle so much of this episode is just posturing and moving the pieces into place. Though given the whole ‘two moons’ deadline it’s unlikely that the battle will even come next week. Hopefully episode 7, ‘Full Moon’ will feature more Ivar and Heahmund and less rape.
As always, thanks for reading. If you’d like to read my previous reviews of this season of Vikings, you can find them here. While you’re there you might also one to check out my film reviews such as my recent review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. To keep up to date with content posted to this blog, hit the subscribe button or follow me on social media. I’m on most of them. Finally, while you polish off the last of the mince pies, you can read my own novel, Carrion Youth, for free online over at Swoonreads.com. Until next week.
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