Vikings season 5 episode 6 review: Will Ivar, Harald’s alliance be Lagertha’s undoing?

Things are starting to get very interesting for Lagertha on Vikings season 5. Floki has returned to Kattegat to recruit Lagertha’s army to go and live with him in the promised land even after her warning to him not to do it – we expect this to end quite badly for Floki when she finds out… and she’s going to find out. Not only that but Astrid has married King Harald and while we aren’t convinced that she’s going to betray Lagertha, we know that she’s married to a man with plans to dethrone her. Let’s also not forget that Ivar headed to Harald in hopes that he can use him and become the king of Kattegat himself. Needless to say – Lagertha has a lot on her plate.

The Ivar and Harald alliance

Ivar and his army shows up offering Harald an alliance. He is of course hiding his true intentions (to rule Kattegat as king) and is instead wrapping his offer of an alliance in a veil of revenge for Lagertha killing his mother. We didn’t expect Harald to accept this so easily since Ivar is the son of Ragnar, but Harald has been fooled before (mostly by women though). What is it that Ivar really wants? He wants to be the most famous viking that ever lived and to leave a bigger legacy behind than even his father.

Speaking of things Ivar wants he also wants Heahmund to fight along side of him, not to give up his faith or fight against his own people, but to instead kill more “heathens” when they move into Kattegat. Heahmund is having a hard time trying to understand why Ivar has not only spared him, but also wants him to fight along side him and Ivar explains that after watching him fight that he admires him and wishes he could be more like Heahmund. We suspect that some of what Ivar is saying is true, but that mostly Ivar is working Heahmund over to do what he wants. So did Heahmund decide to fight with Ivar? He will – at least for now.

Harald and Astrid are now married and it seems that Astrid is actually embracing her role as his wife as we see them smiling and fooling around with each other. We didn’t expect to see chemistry between these two, but it’s there. It’s going to suck when Astrid eventually betrays him and she of course does when she asks a whaling crew to deliver a message to Lagertha telling her about the upcoming attack. The captain of the ship agrees to deliver the message and in return wants gold and sex. She agrees to the terms, but doesn’t realize that this means that she has to have sex with his entire crew. He blackmails her, telling her that if she doesn’t submit to the entire crew that he will tell Harald about her betrayal. She submits and the captain keeps his word – he goes to Kattegat and tells Lagertha about the planned attack.

 

Is Lagertha playing the long game?

She has found out about Floki’s plans and while she of course wants her warriors to stay with her, she decides not to hold anyone against their will and allows them to go with Floki if that is their want. While Floki’s flock feels that Lagertha exercised great power by letting them go (because they think Lagertha is playing the long game to see if Floki is right), many of her people see this as a move of weakness and they begin to splinter from her further.

CarterMatt’s overall thoughts

We have never made it a secret that we are huge fans of Vikings (in fact it’s one of our favorite shows on television), but this season feels like it’s missing something that the first few seasons had. This season is all about the battle for the throne and in that way is starting to feel a bit more like Game of Thrones and less like the Vikings we know and love. The first few seasons focused more on viking lore, traditions and the building of unusual friendships. We had Ragnar and Athelstan learning about each other’s culture and religion and embracing each other in ways that we think even surprised them. There aren’t many vikings left on the show right now that would be that open to other cultures outside of Bjorn, but we are finding his Mediterranean adventure to be a complete dud. What we really want to see happen with the story this season is for them to bring in one really interesting friendship or one really passionate romance – just something that pulls us back in and gets us completely invested once again. The grand battles have always been amazing, but for us they were secondary to the friendships, love stories and family dynamics of Ragnar’s family. Speaking of family… we would also like to see Rollo back.

What did you think of Vikings season 5 episode 6 and what do you want to see happen this season? Leave us a comment in the box below and share your thoughts. If you want more scoop on what’s coming up on Vikings, just head on over to the link here to check out a preview for episode 7.

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