Vikings: Crossings
January 5, 2017 8:32 AM - Season 4, Episode 16 - Subscribe
Bjorn and his fleet launch an attack in Moorish Spain. Meanwhile in Kattegat, Lagertha takes up the throne in the face of threats from Ivar.
Light on plot, per se, but lots of powerful moments. The Ivar/Lagertha confrontation in particular.
Something about Floki in the Mosque bothered me, though. Like, I get that Floki the mystic would be deeply fascinated by this new form of religion. But I have a very hard time buying that a mosque full of men would be able to ignore the presence of a wild, armed man, (and booted, too - doesn't one remove shoes in a mosque?), the likes of which they had presumably never seen before, and simply keep praying. Even more when he's followed by a handful of other wild, armed, booted men, one of whom executes the imam mid-prayer.
posted by dnash at 8:57 AM on January 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Something about Floki in the Mosque bothered me, though. Like, I get that Floki the mystic would be deeply fascinated by this new form of religion. But I have a very hard time buying that a mosque full of men would be able to ignore the presence of a wild, armed man, (and booted, too - doesn't one remove shoes in a mosque?), the likes of which they had presumably never seen before, and simply keep praying. Even more when he's followed by a handful of other wild, armed, booted men, one of whom executes the imam mid-prayer.
posted by dnash at 8:57 AM on January 5, 2017 [2 favorites]
Light on plot, per se, but lots of powerful moments.
That's a pretty good summation.
I was a fan of the closing Odin Spreads the Word montage.
I was excited for the Vikings landing in Spain from a clash of the civilizations perspective, but felt it was a little under powered for such a big deal I think it would've, should've been. Floki and the Mosque was kind of weird, but Floki is kind of weird at times. I do think that if you believe praying to one's god is the only way you're going to live through an attack from strange barbians, then you keep on praying. I think there's stories of Vikings killing Christians in churches in the midst of prayer, too., or at least clergy.
I was completely baffled why the guard of the harem would commit suicide and leave the key on his person. What was that about? (I assume that was a harem?)
Probably the saddest part was Helga grabbing the girl as a pseudo replacement for her daughter who died. We all know that ain't going to end well. I'm also on alert for a bad end for Floki, what with the exchange of glances by the man who would be king and his brother. Also, why have that pair talk about taking out Bjorn because he's cursed to have it followed by a successful raid? Are things going to go bad later and this is foreshadowing?
Rollo wins the award for man happiest to be back to killing and raiding people.
Ivar has quickly become my favorite son of Ragnar and Aslaug. His actor has a wonderful intensity which helps make him seem more dangerous than folks with working legs.
posted by Atreides at 2:49 PM on January 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
That's a pretty good summation.
I was a fan of the closing Odin Spreads the Word montage.
I was excited for the Vikings landing in Spain from a clash of the civilizations perspective, but felt it was a little under powered for such a big deal I think it would've, should've been. Floki and the Mosque was kind of weird, but Floki is kind of weird at times. I do think that if you believe praying to one's god is the only way you're going to live through an attack from strange barbians, then you keep on praying. I think there's stories of Vikings killing Christians in churches in the midst of prayer, too., or at least clergy.
I was completely baffled why the guard of the harem would commit suicide and leave the key on his person. What was that about? (I assume that was a harem?)
Probably the saddest part was Helga grabbing the girl as a pseudo replacement for her daughter who died. We all know that ain't going to end well. I'm also on alert for a bad end for Floki, what with the exchange of glances by the man who would be king and his brother. Also, why have that pair talk about taking out Bjorn because he's cursed to have it followed by a successful raid? Are things going to go bad later and this is foreshadowing?
Rollo wins the award for man happiest to be back to killing and raiding people.
Ivar has quickly become my favorite son of Ragnar and Aslaug. His actor has a wonderful intensity which helps make him seem more dangerous than folks with working legs.
posted by Atreides at 2:49 PM on January 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Agreed wholeheartedly about Alex Høgh Andersen/Ivar.
Vikings has been really good about set design quality, but the raid on the Spanish bazaar looked relatively cheap - but was still a ton of work for what might(?) only be for a single episode.
The mosque scene might have troweled on a little too much "othering" of Islamic practices (religion of peace and tolerance, trust in god). Or more charitably, "what else are you going to do against armed and armoured attackers." Or Floki might just be a grade A devout-whisperer.
Either way, I'm not too worried about Floki - the man who would be king and his brother might be a dick to Floki, or give him crap, but probably not lead to blood.
I can't believe that I had not known until now that Gustaf Skarsgård/Floki is the son of Stellan Skarsgård.AND I thought that Alexander Skarsgård/Eric Northman was unrelated to Stellan, but him and Gustaf are brothers.
The guard ... probably a eunuch guard? The phenotype is right except for facial hair. "He killed himself..." then pans to something the size of a hatpin - poison? More cack handed allegory about having testes/foreigners? (cowardice of a painful death, when death is assured anyway and ultimately futile - that and his boss was probably a huge dick to him too, and the many hazards of being a harem guard are well known such that they're a niche market worth selling suicide hatpins to) I really want to give the show the benefit of the doubt, but
posted by porpoise at 7:39 PM on January 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
Vikings has been really good about set design quality, but the raid on the Spanish bazaar looked relatively cheap - but was still a ton of work for what might(?) only be for a single episode.
The mosque scene might have troweled on a little too much "othering" of Islamic practices (religion of peace and tolerance, trust in god). Or more charitably, "what else are you going to do against armed and armoured attackers." Or Floki might just be a grade A devout-whisperer.
Either way, I'm not too worried about Floki - the man who would be king and his brother might be a dick to Floki, or give him crap, but probably not lead to blood.
I can't believe that I had not known until now that Gustaf Skarsgård/Floki is the son of Stellan Skarsgård.
The guard ... probably a eunuch guard? The phenotype is right except for facial hair. "He killed himself..." then pans to something the size of a hatpin - poison? More cack handed allegory about having testes/foreigners? (cowardice of a painful death, when death is assured anyway and ultimately futile - that and his boss was probably a huge dick to him too, and the many hazards of being a harem guard are well known such that they're a niche market worth selling suicide hatpins to) I really want to give the show the benefit of the doubt, but
posted by porpoise at 7:39 PM on January 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
I loved the sequence of Floki looking for the idol and finding nothing. Very interested to see how they follow up on that.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 3:41 AM on January 8, 2017
posted by vibratory manner of working at 3:41 AM on January 8, 2017
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posted by dnash at 8:36 AM on January 5, 2017