Lugal

Probably not Trubel, she has too much spin-off potential.

So I'm not the only one who got a Rasputin vibe from the Wanderer. Real curious to see where this Real Housewives of Kattegat story goes. My uninformed wild guesses for the identity of the Wanderer: Eysteinn Beli or Bragi Bodasson. Maybe Harald Klak. I think Ecbert's genuinely interested in Lagertha because she's increabily beautiful, and she's a leader in the Viking community. Of course I think the pagan stuff really freaked him out. Turns out her gods are not like those old Roman frescos. I did notice during the sacrifice both Ecbert and Judith crossed themselves, but Athalstan did not. Sorry to see Torsten go, but he's on the way to Valhalla now. I have to agree with Ragnar, Bjorn should have kept Thorunn out of the battle, but I wonder if since she was a slave up until a year ago her reaction to everything now is "You're not the boss of me!" and she thinks she can do what she wants and gets herself greviously injured in battle. It left Thorunn, the baby and Bjorn vulnerable as well as anyone hurt because of them. I do have to say the music for the battle and the sacrifice were incredible.

I hope they don't kill anyone. I hate it when shows kill off characters to "go dark" or "shake things up" or whatever other excuse, because it usually leaves the show weaker with holes in the character interaction. That said, I figure Nick is safe as the lead. Rosalee is exposition queen, so she would be safe. Monroe is probably the biggest fan favorite on the show so I doubt they would kill him. Hank and Wu are probably safe because killing off your minority characters is bad publicity. Juliette is probably safe since she's got the whole hexenbiest storyline going, and given some of the promos, killing her would be way too obvious. That leaves Renard and Adelind. Renard is a connection to the royals and survived death once already, but he still doesn't have much to do. Adelind would be the easiest, she's been disconnected from the rest of the cast for much of the season, and it feels like the character has overstayed her welcome. I would hate to lose Claire Coffee though. But they have established with the potions that someone else could end up looking like her permanantly, so Claire Coffee could remain in the cast, if Adelind is killed. That's actually an interesting idea. Wu is promoted to detective and becomes Nick's new partner.

I mentioned it before on another thread, but I want to see a model challenge where the models pick the artist and the artists have to execute the model's ideas.

It was a statue of Thor like the Eyrarland Statue

I've heard of this theory and even some of the Norse sagas mention a time when English and Norse were intelligible. I think it comes down to when North and West Germanic split, which would proabbaly be three to five hundred years before the show is set. I think most of the differences would have been phonetic. Which would explain how Ragnar was able to learn Old English so quickly. Plus, with all the Norse loanwords that flooded into English, they may have become more intelligible over time. I agree that having everyone be able to understand each other would come off as unbelievable. Reality is unrealistic. Plus we language geeks would not have the fun of hearing Old English and Old Norse being spoken.

Heimdall is the god who guards the Bifrost (the rainbow bridge between Asgard and Midgard) and is always keeping an eye out for attacks of the giants on Asgard. He carried the Gjallarhorn which he will sound at Ragnarök. There is a legend that Heimdall went out amongs humans and slept with various women and created various social classes in Norse society. He did cliam one of the boys as his son who became a great warrior.

Old English and Old Norse were separate branches of Germanic and had been growing apart for several hundred years. That said, it would have been easier for a speaker of one to learn the other than it would have been for one to learn Latin or Old French. In the coming centuries, Norse settlement in England would have a huge influence on the language. It is sort of funny to be able to pick out a word here or there that hasn't changed since Old English. I thought Ecbert mentioned about the Saxons being pagans at some point last season.

I would agree with what you said. I would also be more interested in a spinoff with Truble and/or Josh. Some Past Grimm Dude might make for a good web series or something. Another solution would be some sort of immortal character (something non-Wesen like La Llorona or the Vulcanalis) with flashbacks to their lives over the centuries. There are all sorts of immortal characters in folklore they could use (the Wandering Jew, the Ewich Yeeger, the Chiranjivi, Nicholas Flamel, etc.)

Like everyone else I loved the severed heads and Ragnar grinning. Best image of the ep. Have to give credit to Amy Bailey on this ep, for playing it so raw and really giving an insight into Kwenthrith and why she is the way she is, from being happy and drunk one minute to stabbing the severed head of the uncle the next. Ragnar may be the first man to treat her with anything like respect. Sorry to see Torstein lose his arm, he doesn't seem to be doing well. It looked like he took an arrow in the arm during the battle and snapped it off. I don't know if he ever pulled the point out. Pretty much. He not only gets a beautiful shield-maiden, but also influence among the Norsemen. Nice use of language to show the points of view between Ecbert and Lagertha, the POV of which one was speaking modern English. Athalstan being trapped between the two cultures is interesting, and I'm curious what Lagertha will make of the stigmata bleeding in front of her. Mildly curious about the relationship between Judith and Athalstan due to historical spoilers. Interesting about Aslaug, Siggy and Helga having the same dreams. Wondering who the Wanderer is. The wound in his hand makes me wonder if there's a connection to Tyr.

I was glad to see a body painting challenge again, as good painting is a skill I think a makeup artists would need. But it seems like in the past few years since the last body painting challenges on Face Off, body paint has gone its own separate way (The only one of the coaches who did one before was Rayce) My inner cynic says they only brought it back now due to the popularity, with Skin Wars and Syfy's own Naked Vegas (which I noticed that they said nothing about when Nix was there). But it was still good to see Nix again. Eventhough they said the companion could blend into the background I was surprised that anyone really attempted it because the changing sun angle would have made it impossible. I thought that they said the artists were not there when the pictures were taken, but they did get to consult with the photographers. Probably a scheduling thing. I noticed they had a different crop of models this time because of nudity in the wilderness, and getting models who are used to those conditions. The show obviously went all out for this one I can't fault the winners, but I think I would have given it to the Queen and Drone. All in all, I was sorry to see Rob go, because he had some really cool ideas, but he never seemed to be able to develop them well enough.

Models tend to be creative people as well, so I think they could come up with some really cool ideas. Plus they know their bodies better than anyone and could think of a makeup that could work for them. Like a few seasons back when House was lucky enough to put the belly-mouth on a model who happened to be a belly dancer. That is a cool idea. But I still like the idea of the model picking the artist, that way we get hear the models speak about their choices and reasons, especially if they work with the artists on the initial designs.

I've always thought that Ve is the one you want to impress on this show. She's the one that can get some of the bigger jobs. Anthony used his winnings to start up a makeup school (which former winner Dina attended) which is actually pretty smart and would be more solid than trying to make it as an artist. I agree. I think must of the bread-and-butter work would be doing injuries like on all the cop shows out there. I seem to recall they did an injury challenge as a foundation challenge in the first season, but they haven't done any since. The only other contestant I remember was Nix who ended up on that show Naked Vegas.

I always thought they should do a model's challenge. The models pick the artist and the artist have to execute the model's idea.

Welcome back, show! Glad to see it's still got it. Lagertha, Rollo, Ragnar and Athalstan contnue to be awesome. Just remember Kalf, if you betray Lagertha, there's some guys out there who may have some issues with you (and I'm not just talking about those of us in the audience). I have to wonder what's gone on between Rollo and Siggy. Nice touch with princess Judith curious about Athalstan's "stigmata" and I wonder what's going on there. Historical Note Floki being angry at being so happy, and Helga being understanding was awesome. I wonder, if out of frustration if he'll just sail off and discover some new land? Speaking of new lands, after seeing the look on the faces of the pregnant ladies, Torstein, you may want to look into some of that English farmland. I'm glad they dialed back Kwenthrith a bit, although she seems a bit in over her head sailing with the Vikings. Ragnar seems to have her number pretty good. It was stupid, but I think she will be more likely to get herself killed. Bjorn has to stick around (and in my mind, take the spinoff Vikings: Four Year Summer) The language geek in my loved the use of Old Norse and Old English (and hoping for the use of Old French in future episodes.) Especially after Ecbert's long praise of Lagertha, Athalstan's translation: "He likes you." Not that I blame him in any way. "Why are they just attacking my uncle?" Best line ever

First of all Doug Jones is awesome. I also loved that he complemented the models by name. Also can't believe he's 54. Jamie was the best, doing the wood texture and bringing an in Eastern feel to her troll worked the best. I think Jamie got the win over Ben because she put a lot more work into hers. Ben mainly did the head and belly on his, and I think it worked since at first glance you think she's another kid or something and when you look closer, she's a troll. All the rest kind of blended together. It was time for Anthony to go, since he's been in the bottom every time, hasn't he? he needed some LEDs or something to tie his troll into the bridge more. I also have to give credit to Rayce for admitting he gave his team some terrible advice.

This was the best episode of the season so far. I have to agree with millenium that the palace characters are dead weight. This ep was basically a Western (even the music sounded more like a Western) but it gave us a week without Rochefort, so I'm happy.

Does Robert E. Howard get a writing credit on this one? Because Solomon Kent bears a very close resemblance to Solomon Kane

I loved the Big Damn Hero moment, which my non-HD TV ruthlessly cropped. I saw Renard, half of Nick, and part of Juliette.

Isabella "You should be with someone small and cute and ethnically hard to pin down." Galavant, on discovering the doors were unlocked "Did none of you check?" The Jester on Madelena "Not a fan."

I loved the king's joke on Isabella and how her parents went along with it. Anyone else notice Madelena's wardrobe has gotten more classic evil queen tonight?

I liked this one. As someone who has to listen to the classic rock station at work, I can appreciate Apu's situation, maintaining his sanity.

They were laying it on rather thick that Bobbi could be compromised which is what makes me think it will probably be Simmons. I wondered about that. Why bring Dichen Lachman on just to give her a minimum of lines and vivisect her. We'll probably see her again.

Not really. I still find Girl in the Fireplace and Blink to be some of the best episodes in the series. Moffat's problem is as a showrunner. He should have someone to reign him in. I don't like the lack of consistency and constant repeating of Moffat's favorite themes, like the whole Impossible Girl arc was kind of "Girl in the Fireplace" writ large.

There's a difference between having a fan at the helm and a fanboy (or fangirl) at the helm. A fan, someone who knows and likes the original, running things is usually a good thing. They know the show and enough of the history to make it good. A fanboy is trapped at a certain point in time and will reject anything that doesn't fit their version of what they think it should be. There's been a lot of bad writing lately (and not just Doctor Who) that doesn't know the difference between an idea and a story. It's funny, I always saw the Borg as representing materialism in general. They were developed as a villain to replace the capitalist Ferengi. The Borg were described as the "ultimate user" as they assimilate anything useful to them. I also think they foreshadow the expansion of technology and computer revolution in the late 90s, and the cyberpunk fears that they would be used to control us.