Vikings: Mercy

March 4, 2016 8:20 AM - Season 4, Episode 3

A vision leads Ragnar to release Floki. Rollo has troubles fitting in with the Franks. Bjorn continues his sojourn in the wilderness. Meanwhile in Wessex, King Ecbert and Judith re-start their affair.
posted by dnash (9 comments total)

...And Bjorn stars in a remake of "The Revenant."
posted by dnash at 8:21 AM on March 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

Every time I see Bjorn out in the wilderness I get this Frankie Boyle gag stuck in my head - ICE FISHING.
posted by Happy Dave at 12:02 PM on March 4, 2016

I didn't really grok why Bjorn took a dip in the freezing water. Was that somehow supposed to help his wounds from the bear fight? Or was it just something the writers thought up to make for some symbolism.

(Honestly, it was kind of late last night when I watched this. I will probably give it a more awake viewing sometime this weekend.)
posted by dnash at 3:48 PM on March 4, 2016

The way I read it was that becoming a "bearkiller" includes a bunch of rituals (that were probably parts of [exaggerated] badassed stories of what previous bearkillers had done during their bearkillings).

Like, there was probably a story of some other previous bearkiller who'd gotten smashed the night before, so he goes and gets smashed. Maybe another previous bearkiller fell into a frozen-over river after killing their bear, so Bjorn feels the need to go for a dunk afterwards, too.

Huh, a short writeup in IGN (no, does not explain the in-show ritualism, but does touch on the actors/crew's ritualism, oddly).
posted by porpoise at 8:19 AM on March 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

I used to like the Ragnar character as written, but hitting Aslaug earned a tremendous amount of ill will.
posted by porpoise at 8:21 AM on March 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

Jesus show, can we just skip the Wessex and paris bits ? They are boring. I still think season 1 was the best.
posted by Pendragon at 11:25 AM on March 5, 2016

I'm ok with the Paris bits, in so far as I think we're heading to a Ragnar v. Rollo showdown, so Rollo's story is background for that. The Wessex bits, I have no idea, other than the Wikipedia entry for "Ragnar Lodbrok" says there are two versions of the possibly-historical Ragnar's death: one is death from complications from wounds after invading Paris, the other is the King of Northumbria throws him into a pit of snakes. An early episode showed King Aelle having just such a snake pit. So I guess they're leaving both options open as possible deaths for Ragnar?
posted by dnash at 5:53 PM on March 5, 2016

The simultaneous Athelstan visions was pretty interesting. I'm interested to see where they're going with that.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 11:23 PM on March 8, 2016

Also Lagertha will murder your face if she finds out you're trying to kill Bjorn, this is a dangerous game you're playing asshole.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 11:38 PM on March 8, 2016