Kite

Did she give him this info? I'm looking at the closed captions here: DOCTOR: I mean, talk about an identity crisis. You despise who you are. That anger and hatred that's driving you... those are human emotions. But real Cybermen... they don't do emotions. So, you loathe your own being because of what's driving you. Now, that's what I call an inner conflict. ASHAD: Yes. You are correct. DOCTOR: Oh. Am I? Didn't expect you to take it that well. I'll have to bill you for therapy, at this rate. ASHAD: The Cyberium has given me understanding. It has distilled my purpose. I am the perfect vessel. Everything is in me for the ascension of the Cybermen... and beyond.

Nothing in casting actors is by accident, or at least isn’t considered for visual significance. Ginger is relatively unusual, and a hair colour particularly remarked on, and already has a show reference attached to it. I'm sure they're happy to tease fans along with all the other multi-directional clues. But yeah I don’t think Brendan literally exists. Also, talking of clues, visions and associations, the fact that it’s Ireland makes me think

Thought the episode was fun and zipped along and set things up well for next week - let's see if this sticks the landing. The trailers promise SO MUCH. I'm just really really nervous about the seeming "humanity is the origins of Gallifrey" retcon they seem to be promising. I hope it's an elaborate misdirection, eeeeeee. I thought the reason many fans are finding it significant is because of the possibility that Ruth!Doctor is a pre-Hartnell incarnation? In which case maybe there's some tangly police station / police box connection. Ruth's home had some interestingly shaped windows and mirrors, so I think hyperactive fans are on the alert. The Doctor specifically mentioned a retained memory/skill of their youth in this episode. Commonwealther here who got their streamed episode fresh off the BBC after it aired in the UK. Closed captions would be the BBC's and have lower case "doctor". Not that mentioning a doctor might not be significant! I just assumed it was to keep the Cybermen from it / a DW plot convenience trope, but while "Just Go With It Okay?" often works with this show I feel a line or two really could have been added here. I've seen a lot of analysis of the Brendan scene (hyper fan here too) and it seems like there's a lot of deliberately ambiguous misdirections added, which is fun. Something I noticed hiding in a few frames in the next time trailer for the last episode could be another one. (Speculation also below.) .

If Gallifrey was back in that future, Gat and supposedly future Doctor would know about its destructive past. But they were astonished & horrified. I don't understand what you mean by his regeneration? I can't see how it would be interpreted as anything but a faked death? On Gallifrey regeneration is like a bad flu, you're still you.

I actually really enjoyed Tech Boy 1.0. Or at least the bratty visage with the hilariously bleeding-edge fashion. I didn't pay too much attention to the babble. I agree with the general sentiment here about this episode and this season. Sadly.

Was Donar's dialogue, especially in the last scene with Mr Wednesday, MEANT to be so cheesy and over-the-top? Mr Wednesday was pretty cheesy in that scene too. "NOOOO-OOO-OOOOO!!!!!!!" Yes, that coat is gonna get recognised straight away unless there's some kind of cloaking device, I guess once Gungnir got all glowy I thought that must be the case right? But I didn't like that the show made me do this mental work to explain it. I enjoyed the burlesque show. I didn't really get Donar's motivations regarding the Nazi competition. I assume Mr Wednesday was down with using the Nazis because they were simply a means to an end. I don't think he really knew or cared what they were or would become. That said, the use of Germanic mythology (for patriotic homeland purposes) had an intrinsic role to play in the rise of Nazi Germany - it's a very interesting history to read about. I don't think it's why Mr Wednesday is down with them here though. Yes, Thor is getting a lot of MCU worship these days, but honestly, there's a lot of actual worship of the Germanic pantheon these days. Heathenism is a recognised religion in the US military now, one can be buried according to the rituals. There are a lot of decent heathens, but it's chilling how much of it is driven by white supremacy, particularly in Europe but all across the West. Wotan / Odin worship is particularly strong amongst that lot (and if they don't worship they still use the symbolism as a code, just as the Nazis did in their initial rise to power). Gaiman is on the money with how dark Odin is as a figure. His was essentially a death-cult. Sacrifice, war, glorious death with hundreds of virgins awaiting etc.

I'm left pretty confused by this season too, so I do appreciate the analysis in this forum. I have to say, I am feeling rather uneasy by the race politics in this episode, but I'm not sure exactly. I'm not Black and American (is anyone in this thread?). I feel there was a lot of focus on Black hate and inaction (as well as graphically detailed suffering), but ahh... really? Who wrote this episode again? Who directed it? Because that matters. Come on, let's get that hot homo sex onscreen again. Turn off a few new viewers, turn on a few more. I agree that Laura's waifishness was visually exploited in a male-gazey way. Her and Sweeney are pretty fantastic together though, and I continue to be mesmerised by Anansi. I find the individual scenes pretty entertaining, the actors and setpieces and effects are really good. I just have trouble with it as a whole.

I was quite lost in this episode. Not really understanding it, I don't know if what I was supposed to understand was good. Sam was a little too studied for me, seemed like some cis person's idea. The padlock chain necklace, oh dear. I did understand the dialogue here, it seemed fake-profound. New Media was ...interesting. I liked her latex dress. And her sass. Dialogue wasn't that flash though. Not sure what to think about the tentacle porn, it was, surprisingly, just ...there. I really like Laura.

I only caught references to immigrants getting a hard time? Not news. I enjoyed this episode quite a bit, I liked it all culminating in the train. Laura and Sweeney were bloody good together, they made the episode. Not enough Mr Nancy's snark. I found it hard to connect Shadow-present with Shadow-past. I missed what was what with the train. So that's Gungnir the spear? Or the galloping horse? What's the car mean to Wednesday again?

It's been forever since the last season and I don't remember much, same goes for the book, so mea culpa for not understanding quite a bit of this episode. It did seem this episode whenever it could take the "edgy" option, it did on cue. Yes, life sucks and is mean and tough and then you die you'll learn kid etc. I tend to avoid a lot of books written by men. But importantly, it was leavened with humour and beauty. I nerdily love alternate retellings with Norse mythology (like, reading Scandi language novels nerdy), so here I am despite the show not being quite up my alley. I LOVED the dream Asgard sequence with the emptiness and grandeur and cold and skulls rolling around on the beach, and the reality-bending scene of all the gods in full aspect with flaming eyes. Gods are not usually shown or written very well as gods, as avatars of power and belief, I liked how this was done, 8/10. I LOVE Mr Nancy, I could watch him all day. Just, so great. Favourite character. Come on Shadow, I know you're meant to be the audience avatar, but the bemusement is getting to me. You're not THAT much of a babe in the woods, especially by now. I don't feel much affinity for US culture, I feel it would really help if I did, it's a homage. The brains looked just like the defrosted mixed berries on my breakfast. In general I really like the surrealism, like a free drug trip, I just half-arsedly couldn't figure out what was going on half the time.

I feel that didn't work for me. She seemed more driven by grief and anger at Ivar by the end, and seemed surprised when he strangled her. I've seen the same beautiful sexualised passivity for ~drama played out with female characters way too many times, it just didn't seem to jive with her other actions in the episode, imho.

Lol I missed that!!! My favourite reverse anachronism was the use of brass plumbers chain as a fancy chainmail mantle for the King of Mercia.

Enjoyed the last ep, after a season I didn't enjoy very much. Good battle. Epic ending (I like the mystic and myth cultural stuff and wish there was more) though I don't really remember the show's backstories that much. I've always liked Bjorn. (Only thing that took me out of the story was Freydis being really super-dumb, c'mon, if she's that determined and brave as to betray Ivar, is she just going to meekly roll over and beautifully let him kill her? No, except in some writer's plot logic. Also, Norse folk exposed babies all the damn time.)

That was a fabulous fight between Ubbe and Frodo. Really well done, visceral, very tense, animalistic. Bye Judith, that was quick. So Alfred's wife already knew she murdered her other son, or? I just can't with the shieldmaiden stuff in this show... the pre-Christian Norse had such an intensely macho culture, it's possible there were some women who were warriors (controversial), but they would have not been happily back and forth between kids, pretty dresses and fighting. I wish the show would show more realistic gender politics, rather than idealising it as a modern wish-fulfilment fantasy, but *shrug* common fantasy trope. The bro slap after Bjorn and Harald's fight was the funniest thing ever. Lol I really hope Floki is dead, the end of that storyline. If he isn't he's not human, that cave's gotta be full of tiny glass particles and sulphur. I knew Christian monks were supposed to have found Iceland first, but I wasn't expecting his find, it was a great scene. The death of the old ways. Ummm okay so everyone wants a piece of Kattegat, but surely Ivar the Boneless has gotta go back to England and do some serious raiding first? Or? I don't mind that Ivar's not dead, crappy powerful people stay alive and in power all the time, and hey, next to the Game of Thrones baddies we love to hate, he's a saint. Alfred acknowledging the heathen gods was interesting, especially as he was the hallowed pilgrim. Not sure if Christian rulers would have ever realistically done that for diplomacy, I'd love to know. Their ideas of faith as being beyond one's culture were very different from the heathens. Hvitserk seems slightly more mature here, rather than a hopeless manboy. Sending such a violent, strong and resolute character weak and crazy because two of their ex-lovers died is such a boring cliched thing to do to a female character, and very unusual for a male character. I hope Lagertha gets something interesting and proactive to do soon. Oh, and Torvi's chainmail headband was hilarious Viking chic. So fashionable.

Ehhhh I'm a week behind with this episode, I discovered The Last Kingdom, though I wandered back after I got annoyed at that main character being all kind of modern self-inserty. Anyway, this season of Vikings is still sucking, and I rolled my eyes a lot. Yep, I'm nearly into hate-watch territory. (My sis enthusiastically told me this week that it's her favourite show.) I guess it's not terrible, it's just... not what it used to be. I'm really pissed off at Lagertha's story, it's ticking so many boxes for a sexist handling of a "strong female character". Floki made a really cool not-threat. That was about the most interesting thing that's happened in Iceland for me. Not saying much. Actually, showing how Norse men routinely raped their male captives (plus, heaps of consensual or semi-consensual homosex) would have been an interesting window into pre-Christian Norse culture, but it's been relentlessly heterosexual except for the tedious "I killed my lesbian lover" trope. The birth scene was handled quite well I thought. Although maybe I'm projecting cos I had a birth that went wrong. The scenes with Hvitserk were just weird. He's unrealistically goofy. Still, at least something interesting plot-wise is happening with that. Why would Bjorn and his new wife bait Harald? Is the script just putting in some good put-downs and ignoring the apparent lack of wisdom in it? Hmm. I closed my eyes through the burning the family thing. NOPE. It was interesting seeing some Saxon witchcraft. Oh well, bye Judith. Really super uninterested by the conversation between the three women at the end, felt like some dude's idea of how women talk to each other about women things. For some reason I really don't care about Ubbe's story, though the actor is great. Perhaps something unexpected will happen next week.