Vikings: The Reckoning
February 2, 2017 8:54 AM - Season 4, Episode 20 - Subscribe
The Brothers Lothbrok fulfill their vow to revenge Rangar's death, but can anything hold them together in victory?
Meanwhile, in an epilogue set elsewhere in England, we briefly meet a new character - part bishop, part warrior.
Meanwhile, in an epilogue set elsewhere in England, we briefly meet a new character - part bishop, part warrior.
Well I guess they had to give Judith an outlet for her sexy monk fetish...
I think they should have swapped last episode with this finale. Resolve the stuff with the sons, and then give us a big battle in Katekat with Lagartha. It was a really tepid ending with Ragnar's sons.
posted by Catblack at 3:00 PM on February 2, 2017
I think they should have swapped last episode with this finale. Resolve the stuff with the sons, and then give us a big battle in Katekat with Lagartha. It was a really tepid ending with Ragnar's sons.
posted by Catblack at 3:00 PM on February 2, 2017
Thanks for pointing that out, dnash; Linus Roche has been under-rated/overshadowed by the many other effective performers for me.
In retrospect, he has served a complex character (asshole, scholar of Roman learnings, a cynical ruler, sensual god, doting grandfather, drunk BFF, and now a man sacrificing himself to save his people [at the expense of land/kingdom]) exceedingly well.
Respect for Ecby for knowing to go down the highway and not just across the street. Interesting that Bjorn provided him an option of a shorter blade to facilitate bloodletting (easier to control; once you dig it in, it's much easier to pull the blade up - if it's a long bladed knife, it's much harder to keep it pressed in deep enough: newtonian physics) and a longer, chisel-ground blade for presumably a self-stabbing (probably through the heart, angled up entering in the spaces between the lower ribs, to deny the brain oxygen - is it much harder to stab oneself in the neck/down-clavicle with reliability?). nb Sepuku (gutting oneself ceremonially) is explicitly about suffering before succumbing. iirc, in many/most circumstances, it's the willingness to do it that matters - there's a "second" who kills you from behind/cleanly/quickly (which kind of goes around the willingness to do it in order to terminally suffer for someone else's pleasure).
The vikings burning Ecbert's library (what the heck Floki?) and Helga's involuntary adoptee scene were both pretty brutal.
I'm kind of ok with e19/e20 order. Could have gone either way. With next season's focus on the settlement (?)/Ivar's ambitions and Bjorn's Mediterranean vacation, it makes sense to wrap up Kattegat then prepare the viewer for the next season. I wouldn't be surprised if there are much fewer Kattegat episodes next season, which would be a pity.
Sigurd Snake-eye and Ivar Boneless (oh, ha.ha. I just now only got the double entendre, despite recalling the attempted sex scene vs modern day descendant tracing condition back to him) were obviously quarreling evenly, so... manslaughter rather than murder? Ivar's pretty damned popular right now, so a lot is forgivable.
Depends on how much his brothers liked Sigurd (and disliked Ivar). Read somewhere that Boneless could/maybe be a mis-translation of exosus (hated) and ex os (negative bone).
It's a bit strange: of the historical Ragnar's acknowledged 5 sons (4 with Aslaug), 2 had phenotype-producing genetic 'defects' - Sigurd's eye/iris defect and Ivar's osteogenesis imperfecta.
posted by porpoise at 8:30 PM on February 2, 2017
In retrospect, he has served a complex character (asshole, scholar of Roman learnings, a cynical ruler, sensual god, doting grandfather, drunk BFF, and now a man sacrificing himself to save his people [at the expense of land/kingdom]) exceedingly well.
Respect for Ecby for knowing to go down the highway and not just across the street. Interesting that Bjorn provided him an option of a shorter blade to facilitate bloodletting (easier to control; once you dig it in, it's much easier to pull the blade up - if it's a long bladed knife, it's much harder to keep it pressed in deep enough: newtonian physics) and a longer, chisel-ground blade for presumably a self-stabbing (probably through the heart, angled up entering in the spaces between the lower ribs, to deny the brain oxygen - is it much harder to stab oneself in the neck/down-clavicle with reliability?). nb Sepuku (gutting oneself ceremonially) is explicitly about suffering before succumbing. iirc, in many/most circumstances, it's the willingness to do it that matters - there's a "second" who kills you from behind/cleanly/quickly (which kind of goes around the willingness to do it in order to terminally suffer for someone else's pleasure).
The vikings burning Ecbert's library (what the heck Floki?) and Helga's involuntary adoptee scene were both pretty brutal.
I'm kind of ok with e19/e20 order. Could have gone either way. With next season's focus on the settlement (?)/Ivar's ambitions and Bjorn's Mediterranean vacation, it makes sense to wrap up Kattegat then prepare the viewer for the next season. I wouldn't be surprised if there are much fewer Kattegat episodes next season, which would be a pity.
Sigurd Snake-eye and Ivar Boneless (oh, ha.ha. I just now only got the double entendre, despite recalling the attempted sex scene vs modern day descendant tracing condition back to him) were obviously quarreling evenly, so... manslaughter rather than murder? Ivar's pretty damned popular right now, so a lot is forgivable.
Depends on how much his brothers liked Sigurd (and disliked Ivar). Read somewhere that Boneless could/maybe be a mis-translation of exosus (hated) and ex os (negative bone).
It's a bit strange: of the historical Ragnar's acknowledged 5 sons (4 with Aslaug), 2 had phenotype-producing genetic 'defects' - Sigurd's eye/iris defect and Ivar's osteogenesis imperfecta.
posted by porpoise at 8:30 PM on February 2, 2017
Jonathan Rhys Meyers character
Vikings is nowhere near the earner as GoT, but... I wonder if the producers are getting ambitious? Hopefully they won't compromise sets and choreography and costuming.
Viewer is first introduced to JRM's character that could be characterized by potential watching market as some kind of 'pansy dude' (priest, religious ceremony that isn't prosperity gospel mega church) who then gets to have The Sex in a sanitized cis het male dictated situation to show that he's not 'pansy' then light brigantine armour and a sword = he's gonna protect teh Wessex by spilling foreigner blood (but... but... they're even paler than us and have better hair!).
posted by porpoise at 8:31 PM on February 2, 2017
Vikings is nowhere near the earner as GoT, but... I wonder if the producers are getting ambitious? Hopefully they won't compromise sets and choreography and costuming.
Viewer is first introduced to JRM's character that could be characterized by potential watching market as some kind of 'pansy dude' (priest, religious ceremony that isn't prosperity gospel mega church) who then gets to have The Sex in a sanitized cis het male dictated situation to show that he's not 'pansy' then light brigantine armour and a sword = he's gonna protect teh Wessex by spilling foreigner blood (but... but... they're even paler than us and have better hair!).
posted by porpoise at 8:31 PM on February 2, 2017
I'm hoping for good things from JRM, however a few years ago I had to quit watching The Tudors because I couldn't stand his whiny temper tantrums as Henry VIII.
posted by dnash at 7:52 AM on February 3, 2017
posted by dnash at 7:52 AM on February 3, 2017
I enjoyed the finale and Ecbert was totally screwing over the Vikings, his last final play as a pretty wily king of Wessex. Single handily, he blunted the Great Heathen Army, distracting a portion with an offer of land and giving satisfaction to another that proper revenge had been taken. The result is an army lead by Ivar which is much smaller in size for the surviving Wessexians/Saxons to deal with.
I was surprised by the decision to drop "England" as they did, which I suppose represents the start of the final unification of saxons against the Viking threat. The introduction to Bishop Heahmund was a nice touch by pretty much summing up the character in about sixty seconds. Fighting Bishops continue on for a century or two beyond this point, so it's fun to see one pop up. (Incidentally, a famous one is Bishop Odo, a half-brother of William the Conqueror, a descendant of Vikings who helped defeat the Saxon resistance in 1066). I never finished The Tudors, but JRM definitely brings a certain level of intensity to his roles. The sex scene, while illustrative, kind of felt like it was inserted to hit a quota ("Wait, wait, we need one more!").
The fallout from the fratricide will probably be front loaded in next season's premiere or first couple episodes. I know almost nothing about how the Danes/Norwegians/Swedes felt about honor and what not, but Ivar's honor was being affronted pretty badly up until that throwing ax. I don't have time now, but did Ivar throw an ax at Sigourd during their training scene earlier this season?
The episode's big winners for scenes were definitely Floki, Helga, and Ecbert. Those three made the episode rise above just being a "big battle" episode.
On another hand I felt like the show has changed its sympathies from the Vikings to the Saxons. What I was always interested in with this show was the attempt to give a more fully rounded picture of the Viking world, making them into real complex people not just brutish robbers. With this episode it feels like the show has fully gone over to the side where only the Saxons are good guys, and the Vikings are just a barbarian horde reveling in death and destruction.
This is how the show began with a Viking attack on a monastery, which was pretty much nothing but death and destruction. But, I think whenever the Vikings have been depicted raiding, they have always had a large dose of this. In this episode, I think the stereotype is carried in part by Ivar and fought against by Bjorn. Bjorn is the rationale actor, "We came to do what we said we'd do, avenge our father, but we don't need to burn the world. In fact, I want to go explore it! (And raid, pillage, and burn what I find)."
You also have the perspective of JRM's bishop. In our own society, it's been ingrained by a thousand years of Catholic practice that priests don't engage in sex or violence. In a brief moment, we get a Saxon specifically labeled as English, who definitely does one and appears to do the other. So to our modern sense, the Saxon is something of either a hypocrite or blasphemer. I don't think the show is going to shift so much broaden the umbrella of those it humanizes.
posted by Atreides at 11:41 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
I was surprised by the decision to drop "England" as they did, which I suppose represents the start of the final unification of saxons against the Viking threat. The introduction to Bishop Heahmund was a nice touch by pretty much summing up the character in about sixty seconds. Fighting Bishops continue on for a century or two beyond this point, so it's fun to see one pop up. (Incidentally, a famous one is Bishop Odo, a half-brother of William the Conqueror, a descendant of Vikings who helped defeat the Saxon resistance in 1066). I never finished The Tudors, but JRM definitely brings a certain level of intensity to his roles. The sex scene, while illustrative, kind of felt like it was inserted to hit a quota ("Wait, wait, we need one more!").
The fallout from the fratricide will probably be front loaded in next season's premiere or first couple episodes. I know almost nothing about how the Danes/Norwegians/Swedes felt about honor and what not, but Ivar's honor was being affronted pretty badly up until that throwing ax. I don't have time now, but did Ivar throw an ax at Sigourd during their training scene earlier this season?
The episode's big winners for scenes were definitely Floki, Helga, and Ecbert. Those three made the episode rise above just being a "big battle" episode.
On another hand I felt like the show has changed its sympathies from the Vikings to the Saxons. What I was always interested in with this show was the attempt to give a more fully rounded picture of the Viking world, making them into real complex people not just brutish robbers. With this episode it feels like the show has fully gone over to the side where only the Saxons are good guys, and the Vikings are just a barbarian horde reveling in death and destruction.
This is how the show began with a Viking attack on a monastery, which was pretty much nothing but death and destruction. But, I think whenever the Vikings have been depicted raiding, they have always had a large dose of this. In this episode, I think the stereotype is carried in part by Ivar and fought against by Bjorn. Bjorn is the rationale actor, "We came to do what we said we'd do, avenge our father, but we don't need to burn the world. In fact, I want to go explore it! (And raid, pillage, and burn what I find)."
You also have the perspective of JRM's bishop. In our own society, it's been ingrained by a thousand years of Catholic practice that priests don't engage in sex or violence. In a brief moment, we get a Saxon specifically labeled as English, who definitely does one and appears to do the other. So to our modern sense, the Saxon is something of either a hypocrite or blasphemer. I don't think the show is going to shift so much broaden the umbrella of those it humanizes.
posted by Atreides at 11:41 AM on February 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
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Linus Roche was great in this. I loved his disheveled looks, and slightly mad/manic behavior. Sitting with the bishop indulging in the church wine while they still could was fun.
On another hand I felt like the show has changed its sympathies from the Vikings to the Saxons. What I was always interested in with this show was the attempt to give a more fully rounded picture of the Viking world, making them into real complex people not just brutish robbers. With this episode it feels like the show has fully gone over to the side where only the Saxons are good guys, and the Vikings are just a barbarian horde reveling in death and destruction. Only Floki's praying over the grave of Helga seemed to give them as a people any depth or feeling - and from the sounds of his last speech to Bjorn, it doesn't seem Floki will be around much longer, if at all.
As for the fratricide - you mean to tell me the Vikings had no laws or moral outrage against such a thing? They're all just gonna stand there and let Ivar get away with it?
I had to Google recaps to understand who the new Jonathan Rhys Meyers character is - that final shot of his sword leaning against the wall seemed like it was meant to be a clue but it didn't help me. AV Club says "Bishop Heahmund, a historical figure renowned for Viking-fighting." Sounds like he's being set up as the one to lead the fight against Ivar.
posted by dnash at 9:13 AM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]