Vikings season 5 episode 15 review: Heahmund’s choice between Lagertha and God
Death of the Seer
After killing the Seer, Ivar has his men take the body out in the woods and burn him in a shallow grave, but he didn’t burn the evidence that he was murdered. Hvitserk sees the Seer’s bloodied hood left in his shelter and confronts Ivar about the whereabouts of the Seer – not everyone knows that he’s actually dead. Ivar says that he will look into it and Hvitserk cryptically tells Ivar that “he knows” leaving Ivar feeling uneasy. Ivar lies to his people saying that the Seer has been taken from them and that he is doing everything he can to find out who took him and what happened to him.
The battle approaches
Alfred has promised Lagertha, Bjorn, Torvi and Ubbe that if they help to defeat Harald, that their reward will be the lands promised to them. Ubbe’s been training Alfred and with him gaining confidence in his fighting ability he’s decided to lead the attack on Harald. Ubbe and Alfred’s friendship has been a joy to watch this season and it’s shown him to be more like Ragnar then probably any of his sons (also we just love Torvi and anyone that’s smart enough to pick Torvi as their partner is a winner in our eyes). Alfred’s relationship with Ubbe has helped him grow confidence in other ways as well as he has one of the men conspiring against him arrested and tortured into giving up the other names – including that his brother Aethelred was leading the conspiracy.
Lagertha and Heahmund’s relationship has reached an end after he had a vision from god of what hell would be like for him if he didn’t renounce his sinful ways and end his relationship with Lagertha. Honestly, we aren’t really that broken up about this. When Heahmund first came on board the show we liked the idea of them together, but during the second half of this season he’s become so over the top intense all the time that he’s become almost a caricature that we are having a hard time believing is a real person. The chemistry that was there for these two has been long gone for us and we’d rather see Lagertha untied from the bounds of love and finding herself once again.
Ubbe’s plan
Ubbe rides ahead to meet with Harald, and he learns of Harald’s plan to plunder England then return to Kattegat and overthrow Ivar. He tells Ivar of Alfred’s word to deliver the lands promised to Ragnar all those years ago and that Alfred’s army is going to be impossible to beat, so he is there to make a compromise. What’s the compromise? He wants to know what it will cost in gold for Harald to turn around and leave. Harald asks for a day to consider the offer, but when Ubbe doesn’t return Harald realizes that Ubbe bought Alfred a day to move his army into the position they want.
Tonight we lost another big character as Heahmund fell in battle, but his last cries before he fell were for Lagertha. The pain on her face seeing yet another one of her loves dying before her was heart wrenching and another reminder that Katheryn Winnick has been seriously over looked for her performance as Lagertha by the Emmys for too many years. Although we lost Heahmund in battle it was not for nothing as Alfred won the battle and Harald eventually forced his army to retreat. After the battle, Lagertha disappeared – but where did she go?
Related – Check out a preview for episode 16 of Vikings season 5.
CarterMatt Verdict
It’s been a while since we’ve had a really good Vikings battle and no one does a great battle scene like this show does! The fight between Alfred and Harald’s army was intense and it was weird for us to be rooting for the Saxons since we never have before on this show, but with them having our favorite vikings fighting along side them it was an easy side to root for. As much as we like Jonathan Rhys Meyers it makes a lot of sense for his death to happen. His journey has come to a natural end and we can imagine him in Heaven, by god as he wanted. This is one of the many things that we love so much about this show – when the natural end of a character is up they will move on from them without fear.
What did you think of Vikings season 5 episode 15? Leave us your thoughts in the comment section below. (Photo: History)