S06.E08: Valhalla Can Wait

[nodorothyparker]

Airdate 2020.01.22

Quote

Bjorn faces a difficult decision and Ubbe and Torvi leave Kattegat in search of new lands and perhaps old friends. Oleg's plans for the invasion of Scandinavia take shape as King Harald is baffled by the origin of a mysterious raiding party.

 

[PatsyandEddie]

I hope Bjorn discovers Flatnose’s deceit soon. 

Torvi and Ubbe leaving best be temporary. 

[wlk68]

Of all the characters left, Ubbe and Torvi are my favorites. We better be able to see their journey. If they sail off into the sunset never to be seen again I'll be extremely peeved.

Fun fact: this episode is directed by Katheryn Winnick. 

 

[Steph J]

I admittedly don't remember all that much about the Iceland storyline from last season, but weren't there way fewer people left in the settlement circa Floki's final appearance?

[LennieBriscoe]

I am done with Bjorn: his non-voice growl; his fugly face; his cheap adultery; his treatment of his mentally-ill brother (whom I can't abide, but still...). 

So what did the Cossacks accomplish, but murder?

Ivar is playing a dangerous game by cozying up to Damien Igor.

[magdalene]

I hope this isn't the way Ubbe and Torvi get phased out of the show.  This show is running out of characters I genuinely care about.  When they go I will be emotionally done with this show.

You know, Bjorn can take a hike for all I care. He's made a lousy king and his constant whoring around is so repellent.  Gunnhild deserved better and so has every woman Bjorn has screwed over. What a loser.

I figured Hvitserk would be saved at the last minute.  I think he is going to end up back with Ivar.  I think the only way he can heal is to face the monster haunting him.

[LittleIggy]

Ketill Flatnose better not hurt Ubbe and his family. We saw that Ketill wants to be king of Iceland so he obviously sees Ubbe as a threat. 
I got verklempt when they showed that flashback of Lagertha leaving Ragnar and Bjorn choosing to go with her. 😢

[patty1h]

Dang, I just recognized the actor playing Erik the Red was on Smallville back in the day -- he played Whitney, Lana Lang's first boyfriend.  Nice to see him.

[cathy7304]

Ok, is Bjorn the worst husband, father, and person ever? When he said he had lost his mother, son, and kingdom, did he forget about his daughter, little Siggy? (Not to mention his father, Ragnar) I don't think he has ever mentioned her at all. Does he even know she's dead? He seems to be a man of the moment doesn't he?

[thuganomics85]

With Lagertha gone and Floki either dead or absent, Alexander Ludwig gets top billing for what I believe is the first time.  Congrats!

I figured they weren't going to off Hvitserk since they just had a big death a few weeks ago, but Bjorn is probably going to regret sparing him in the end.  I don't know what will happen, but I have a feeling he'll somehow survive the cold.

Gunnhild finds out out Bjorn and Ingrid and... suggests he marries Ingrid as well?  Not sure what her game plan is, here.  Then again, Bjorn tends to get bored with his lovers once he ties the knot or gets serious, so maybe this is just going to end with Ingrid discovering how it feels to get tossed aside!

Ubbe and Torvi make it to Iceland finally, but Kjetill clearly has his eye on them.

Hope Erik starts factoring in more.

Harald is getting ready to find out that being King of Norway ain't going to be easy!

Looks like Ivar's attempt to pit Oleg and Igor against each other is starting to take shape.  He's still playing a dangerous game, but I've learn that if anyone can pull this off, it would be him.

Cool that Katheryn Winnick got direct this episode.

I must be getting soft, because I got a wee bit misty eyed over the Ragnar/Lagertha/Young Bjorn flashback.

 

[Lady Iris]

4 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

I must be getting soft, because I got a wee bit misty eyed over the Ragnar/Lagertha/Young Bjorn flashback.

That was a great scene. I remember thinking that Bjorn was going to choose to stay with Ragnar but he made the right choice then. Since then...not so much.

[mcjen]

6 hours ago, cathy7304 said:

Ok, is Bjorn the worst husband, father, and person ever? When he said he had lost his mother, son, and kingdom, did he forget about his daughter, little Siggy? (Not to mention his father, Ragnar) I don't think he has ever mentioned her at all. Does he even know she's dead? He seems to be a man of the moment doesn't he?

I'm no fan of Bjorn's and, basically, agree with your assessment of him as husband/father/person.  However, I  didn't think his reference to having "lost three things" was meant to include all losses he's ever suffered, but only reflected that these three recent losses have all come at the same time.  So I can forgive him not mentioning Ragnar or Siggy.  Less forgivable is the fact that he never seemed to care or notice that Siggy died back when it happened!  As you indicated.

[TV Anonymous]

11 hours ago, LennieBriscoe said:

I am done with Bjorn: his non-voice growl; his fugly face; his cheap adultery; his treatment of his mentally-ill brother (whom I can't abide, but still...). 

Sorry for nitpicking but substance abuse is not necessarily a mental illness.

[LittleIggy]

Gunnhild knows that once Bjorn is married to Ingrid he’ll get tired of her and move on. 😏

[Ohwell]

So Harald was thinking about conquering Kattegat and killing Bjorn, but now that the Rus's are attacking, he might actually want Bjorn as an ally to defeat them?   

[Tony Williams]

Modern norms cannot be applied to the viking era.  Kings and lords had multiple wives and concubines.  Extramarital affairs were common.  The norms of the era.

[Lamima]

Gunnhild might just want another carer for the baby she's about to have. So she can do her shield maiden stuff. Can't fault that. 

[Steph J]

9 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

Gunnhild knows that once Bjorn is married to Ingrid he’ll get tired of her and move on. 😏

He's such a damn fuckboi.  I'm pretty sure the only woman he was ever faithful to was the one he was married to after Torvi and that's only because she was killed pretty much immediately after they got together so he never had the chance to cheat.

 

18 hours ago, cathy7304 said:

Ok, is Bjorn the worst husband, father, and person ever? When he said he had lost his mother, son, and kingdom, did he forget about his daughter, little Siggy? (Not to mention his father, Ragnar) I don't think he has ever mentioned her at all. 

Wow.  I had completely forgotten about Siggy.

[dbell1]

How and when did Bjorn fall in love with nameless groupie (yes, I know it’s Ingrid)?

Gunnhild gave a speech that rallied Kattegat to Bjorn and he leaves to go to the hut of shame with what’s her name? I’d castrate the guy and walk.  I guess she got hit in the head during the battle for Lagertha’s village, because nothing else makes sense.

Glad Ubbe and Torvi noped out of Kattegat. Floki’s land of doom is probably a better place to be than home. Will Floki be popping out of the volcano as a changed man? Or will Viking Edge become king?

When Ivar is the nicest guy in the place, there’s something very wrong. I loved the visual of the broken king carrying the broken puppet king. 

They should stop giving us flashbacks to Ragnar. Travis just killed every scene he was in.
 

[PatsyandEddie]

On 1/22/2020 at 11:01 PM, Steph J said:

I admittedly don't remember all that much about the Iceland storyline from last season, but weren't there way fewer people left in the settlement circa Floki's final appearance?

That’s what I thought. I wondered who all of these people were. Flatnose killed a complete family and there wasn’t many to start with. 

 

[wlk68]

There's no way that Floki escaped having a whole volcanic mountain pretty much explode right on top of him. His body was either crushed or incinerated. Or crushed AND THEN incinerated. Ubbe is never going to find him and Flatnose is actually telling the truth when he says he doesn't know what happened to Floki.

But ... Ubbe might just find the other "village" that was inhabited by the people that Flatnose killed. Did Flatnose dispose of the bodies? There will most likely be questions. Ubbe and Torvi need to watch their backs.  

Edited January 24, 2020 by wlk68

[Lady Iris]

I couldn't keep track of the families and who was killing who on Misfit Island. They were all so dirty and it was dark and depressing. Be nice if we get some official closure about Floki.

[Captanne]

13 hours ago, dbell1 said:

They should stop giving us flashbacks to Ragnar. Travis just killed every scene he was in.

Fair enough but I want him in EVERY scene.  LOL  He was so amazing.

As for "Misfit Island" (lolololol) -- I don't remember any of it and I know we were supposed to have all conflicted and underlying feelings about Flatnose back with Bjorn but -- like everyone else -- I am totally flummoxed by whatever the hell happened on Misfit Island.  

I think.....some son dissed some daughter who was pregnant (?) and she jumped off a cliff and the family got pissed off and Flatnose was out of his mind and slaughtered the son's family.

Am I close?

PS:  I loathe Floki so I have no desire to see him again.

[Lady Iris]

It was all very unclear who was who in that zoo. They all looked dirty and hungry and just plain miserable. It was hard to give a crap about them nevermind when the killing started. Aside from Ragnar's dive into drug addiction, it was one of my least favorite storylines.

[iMonrey]

They must have taken a transporter to Iceland. Never mind how dangerous it would have been to make the journey across the sea in the middle of winter. I get that Ubbe wants to find out what happened to Floki but why take Torvi and Asa? Especially when Torvi is pregnant? Seems awfully reckless to me. 

I honestly don't know what the hell anyone is doing there. They followed Floki because he had some damn vision of the Gods but now he's gone and they're all living in squalor in the most desolate landscape imaginable. They should all have dropped to their knees when Ubbe and Torvi showed up and begged to be taken back to Kattegat. 

Gunnhild proposed a throuple and then reminded Bjorn that Ragnar had once proposed the same thing to Lagertha. How did she know that? Did Lagertha tell her that story at some point?

Igor looks so much like Macaulay Culkin it's driving me to distraction.

[wlk68]

On 1/24/2020 at 2:41 PM, iMonrey said:

They must have taken a transporter to Iceland. Never mind how dangerous it would have been to make the journey across the sea in the middle of winter. I get that Ubbe wants to find out what happened to Floki but why take Torvi and Asa? Especially when Torvi is pregnant? Seems awfully reckless to me. 

 

Earlier this season, Ubbe suggested that Torvi stay behind. She basically said "Fuck that shit, I'm going. I'm a shieldmaiden, I'd like to see you stop me," And like the excellent husband that he is, Ubbe said "Yes, Dear." 😁

Edited January 29, 2020 by wlk68

[MoldySpiceGirl]

Thoughts:

Gunhild isn't stupid. I think she knows this is a temporary bangfest for Bjorn, and if she said her or me, that thirsty girl would be hanging around forever, blaming the wife for keeping her from her OTP.

Inviting her in, making it her choice, and wifing her takes away all the illicit joy in the thing, and once reality sets in and Bjorn is thwapped with the disillusioned mistress-turned-leg-anchor, either he'll be the one to drop her like a hot snotrocket, or she'll get tired of not being the coveted mistress and go away.  Gunhild is freeing her from her servitude, so she can leave and not be hunted back down as property that way, too.

Gunhild is smart.  Way smarter than her husband.

I'm worried for Ubbe & co..  If for no other reason than the gaspingly! dramatic! camera angle! when Flatnose pretty much Scooby-Doo-Villained the whole why did you come here? line.  I'm surprised Hirst didn't have him twirl his mustache in two fingers.

The whole Lagertha/Ragnar breakup scene was allusional, I think, too.  He had a choice then: mama (his heart) or papa (the head), and picked Lagertha.  Put in that situation again, he leaned hard on the loyalty to his mother (and torturing her killer) over his father's lineage (his half-brothers).  He picked her again.  Vengeance vs. family loyalty.

Granted, MadEye's probably going to die in a forest, either from exposure or the DTs, but Bjorn didn't do it directly.  

I just wonder if it's going to bite him in that furry behind the way it did when he let the traitors go.

Also, gotta say, I kind of dug his monologue. Super melodramatic, there, Bjornie, but still...kinda dug it.

[Babalooie]

On 1/24/2020 at 9:27 AM, wlk68 said:

There's no way that Floki escaped having a whole volcanic mountain pretty much explode right on top of him. His body was either crushed or incinerated. Or crushed AND THEN incinerated. Ubbe is never going to find him and Flatnose is actually telling the truth when he says he doesn't know what happened to Floki.

 

Spoiler

In an interview with Gustaf Skarsgard ( I do not recall where), he said that he had not received any checks for Season Six.  I guess he could have been faking out the interviewer, but time will tell.

 

[Ohwell]

8 hours ago, MoldySpiceGirl said:

Gunhild isn't stupid. I think she knows this is a temporary bangfest for Bjorn, and if she said her or me, that thirsty girl would be hanging around forever, blaming the wife for keeping her from her OTP.

Inviting her in, making it her choice, and wifing her takes away all the illicit joy in the thing, and once reality sets in and Bjorn is thwapped with the disillusioned mistress-turned-leg-anchor, either he'll be the one to drop her like a hot snotrocket, or she'll get tired of not being the coveted mistress and go away.  Gunhild is freeing her from her servitude, so she can leave and not be hunted back down as property that way, too.

Gunhild is smart.  Way smarter than her husband.

I totally agree with this assessment of Gunhild's motives.  I noticed after Gunhild spoke, thirsty girl looked surprised and disappointed, like WTF?   I'm no longer the (in my mind) hot mistress?

[nodorothyparker]

Pretty interesting episode in that we saw Bjorn at his smallest and most impotent for all that he now seems likely to end up with two wives, but there was also a sense in his farewell speech to Ubbe and Torvi and crew that he was finally at a place where he's ready to step out of Ragnar's long shadow and own his own choices and be the king he believes himself destined to be.  The whole production of burning and then not burning poor addled Hvitserk, only to be greeted by uncomfortable silence when he made his big pitch as to why the residents of Kattegat should still want him as king before the always terrific Gunnhild basically shamed them into it, and then half assedly protesting that his wife deserved better even as poor sad Ingrid was on top of him all made Bjorn look so terribly small and weak.  Like, this is what the supposed great legacy of Ragnar and Lagertha has come to.  I agree that Gunnhild just baldly offering to make Ingrid part of the package is basically forcing them to make a choice out in the open for everybody to see and taking any of the illicit thrill out of it.  She already knows that she's fabulous and that everyone sees it.  Let poor sad Ingrid try to stack up against that and see how long it takes either Bjorn to tire of her or Ingrid to be just done always being the distant second-run wife. It's actually a fairly clever and elegant solution in a society that doesn't have any qualms about polygamy, especially for a king, anyway.  I loved how Gunnhild very casually threw the final dig in that Lagertha and Halli died because of the bandits that Bjorn set loose in the first place.

The Rus Viking raiders always make for great visuals coming out of the trees through the snow but I'm at the point of kind of wishing they weren't continually drawn as this big monolithic faceless evil.  Still, the show is signaling that all of Harald's finagling to win the kingship isn't going to do him any good if he doesn't develop a head for strategy for dealing with them.  My sense of Harald has always been that he's more one to align himself with whoever's usually better at planning these things than that he's any real strategizer himself and that maybe running off the Lothbroks who have consistently shown themselves to have some wit about them, especially after Bjorn went against everyone else's advice to come rescue him only to be thwarted for the crown, wasn't the smartest move.

Oleg losing it and smashing the puppet was gloriously terrifying, culminating as one reviewer said in the broken puppet king laying at the feet of another broken king in Ivar.  Igor was being a brat, which wasn't surprising considering what Ivar's been pumping his head full of, but I mostly wondered at the end of that scene how on earth did Ivar get up in the nest in the rafters with him?

Hopefully if Ubbe and Torvi are taking up residence in Iceland, the story there will finally amount to something of interest.

[tennisgurl]

Seeing that flashback of Ragnar/Lagertha/Baby Bjorn got me feeling all kinds of feels, not gonna lie. Those days feel like they were so long ago, and might have been one of the last good choices Bjorn ever made. It also worked really well in that scene, with Bjorn being driven by loyalty to his mother, who will always be the person he respects the most, even if it means executing his own brother. And, Bjorn is kind of running out of relatives. Or at least, relatives he actually wants to talk to. 

They better not be planning on doing something to Ubbe and Torvi, I would have to call someone out, Viking style! I dont want them to get phased out of the show or get hurt by whatever craziness is going on now, they're my favorite characters!

[benteen]

I wouldn't have minded if  Hvitserk had died.  His character is boring even when he's drunk and this addict storyline has been a drag.  It would have been nice for him to remind Bjorn that Lagertha killed his mother but that wouldn't have done anything.  The only thing that Bjorn cares about is Bjorn, he's a complete "ME ME ME" personality.  I don't think even Ragnar was as selfish as he was.  Bjorn is about Bjorn and who he sleeps with next.  This is a guy who literally forgot he ever had a daughter, gives lip service to his dead son and then goes to sleep with his mistress afterwards.  It's laughable that no one left Kattegatt when even the chance...Bjorn has been a terrible king who has made nothing but bad decisions.

It's interesting how the supporting cast has almost completely disappeared from Kattegatt.  Reminds me of the later episodes of I, Claudius.  

[foxfreakinmulder]

On ‎1‎/‎28‎/‎2020 at 10:23 PM, tennisgurl said:

Seeing that flashback of Ragnar/Lagertha/Baby Bjorn got me feeling all kinds of feels, not gonna lie. Those days feel like they were so long ago, and might have been one of the last good choices Bjorn ever made. It also worked really well in that scene, with Bjorn being driven by loyalty to his mother, who will always be the person he respects the most, even if it means executing his own brother. And, Bjorn is kind of running out of relatives. Or at least, relatives he actually wants to talk to. 

That scene made me realize how much I miss Ragnar and what he meant to this show.

It's a good thing Ubbe has great aim with that long handle axe. That's what you call waiting until the last minute to make a point, what if he had missed, which in my opinion no one could have it from that distance did he have a second or third axe with him just in case, lol.