‘Vikings” season 4, episode 2 review: Floki escapes, Ragnar and Aslaug’s marriage worsens

Well, the premiere of “Vikings” season 4 did not pull any punches last week as we saw Rollo slaughter his people, Lagertha cut off a certain part of the male body, and Ragnar deal with Floki’s betrayal. That’s what we love about this show, they aren’t afraid to make big moves and we are hoping that there is a lot more  of that tonight.

Floki and Ragnar: Floki has escaped (and of course no one is surprised), so the hunt for him begins, and it starts with Ragnar asking Helga if she helped him. She doesn’t confirm or deny it, but with Floki gone and Helga alone with their sick child, Ragnar gives them food to help them survive the winter. After a massive hunt they find him hiding in the water, Ragnar decides to make him suffer in a way that he has made him suffer. When he is alone with Aslaug he reveals how upset he is that Floki won’t just admit what he did was wrong, so there is no way for Ragnar to absolve him of this without punishment. When Aslaug stands up for what Floki did, he hits her to the floor – this marriage is clearly at an end and it’s only a matter of time before these two go their separate ways. Helga and Floki’s daughter dies of a sickness and while Ragnar helps Helga bury her, Floki remains tied in a cave being tortured.

Ecbert: We haven’t seen much of Ecbert yet this season, but he’s sent a team to help Queen Kwenthrith (who has been overthrown) and has sent Judith’s husband off into battle to save her and her child. Ecbert stayed back to continue his advances on Judith even though she doesn’t want to go to bed with him anymore. He offers her complete “freedom” and asks her what she would do if she was free to do anything she wanted. She reveals that she would like to be a painter like Athlestan and he tells her that he will find her a great teacher to study even though no woman has ever been allowed to study before. A new monk named Prudentius is brought in to teach Judith to write the sacred texts and although he is against it at first, he is later convinced to teach her.

Paris: Rollo is still deep into his betrayal of Ragnar and is helping Paris plan the defense against Ragnar’s next attack and in return they are cleaning him up with a bath, hair cut and new fancy robes. Gisla is still not impressed and actually finds his efforts laughable. Will she ever give him a chance?

For an episode about vikings there wasn’t nearly enough actual vikings for us.  We like Egbert all right, but what we really care about is Ragnar, Lagertha (who wasn’t in the episode at all) and Bjorn (who we barely saw, but he seems to be doing ok out on his own). Next week there will be a lot more of Lagertha, so we have a lot to look forward to. Episode grade: B-

What did you think of this week’s episode of “Vikings”? Leave us a comment below and share you thoughts on the season so far.