Vikings season 5 episode 3 review: Can Ivar the Boneless learn to love?

There was a long hiatus while we waited for Vikings season 5 to come out and the History channel rewarded our patience with a two hour premiere last week! This week we are back to our regularly scheduled programming with just one hour and it’s going to be a good one. There are a lot of rich storylines set up from the premiere with Ragnar’s sons taking over the town of York, Heahmund and Aethelwulf planning their attack and Harald abducting Astrid in hopes of using her to bring down Lagertha’s reign over Kattegat.

Harald’s proposal

Harald has brought Astrid back to his kingdom and thinks that he will have a better opportunity to lock this union down. She’s not impressed when she sees the state of the lands he owns, but as we know with Harald, nothing dissuades him from trying to land a wife. He knows that if he can turn Astrid that not only will he have a powerful viking wife, but he will also have access to everything she knows about Lagertha – which is a lot! Astrid has already walked the line with Lagertha in some ways already by sleeping with her son Bjorn, but if she agrees to wed Harald and become the “Queen of Norway” as promised, then this would be a full out betrayal. She may not like Harald, but seeing how much his subjects love and adore him is mesmerizing and when they start cheering for her as well we can see how this could get inside her head. While she is still battling her feelings of being taken prisoner, she decides to play nice with Harald after seeing that there is no escape. Is she really going to marry him or is this a way to gain his trust and find escape? When he tries to sleep with her, he gets a bloody nose – Harald still has some work to do.

Can Ivar learn to love?

Ivar knows that the Saxons are outside the walls of York and that it’s only a matter of time before they attack. He has people reinforcing the walls and is planning his next move, but he also wants the luck of the gods on his side. He asks one of the slaves to offer herself as a human sacrifice to the gods, to which she says she would give him anything he wants. He sees that she is unafraid of him, which is one of the first times he’s ever encountered this and it throws him off guard… especially when she kisses him with passion. She tells him that the condition with his legs means that he was chosen by the gods as a very special person and that he is destined for great things. After seeing the chemistry between them it’s not surprising that he doesn’t want to use her as a sacrifice to the gods anymore. Not only that, but he also decides to free her, making her no longer a slave. One of the first selfless acts we’ve seen Ivar do. We know that he is angry and ruthless, but we’ve always thought that there is something more to him then youthful angst against the world – there’s a part of Ragnar’s charm and want to do the right thing in him as well. Without the human sacrifice will the gods still smile upon Ivar, or will this be his first loss against the Saxons?

The fight for York

Ivar and his brothers are still relatively new to war and so we expect there to be a lot of stumbles regardless of their recent victories. Bright and early in the morning, the Saxons break through the weakest part of the wall with King Aethelwulf and Bishop Heahmund leading the charge, but Ivar was ready for them, using smoke as a shield and pelting them with arrows. That is not the only well thought out plan that Ivar has as they find other ways to box in the Saxon soldiers and whittle away their forces at an alarming rate. While the Saxons have brought in all ground troops, the vikings are using the high ground to take them down with arrows, fire and hidden spike traps.

Once the numbers for the Saxons have been weakened, the vikings come to the battle ground. Even though Ivar worked this plan out to perfection, he just can’t stay in the tower watching from afar and decides to get into the action with his chariot. This goes fairly badly for him as he is knocked off his chariot and is surrounded bu Saxons. His crazy screaming is enough to distract the Saxons long enough for Ubbe to bring the viking army in and get control of the situation starting with a shield wall around Ivar. Eventually this leads to the Saxons retreating, but not before Ivar and Heahmund see each other for the first time and have a chance to really understand who they are each up against.

Ubbe and Hvitsek try to negotiate

Now that the brothers have defeated the Saxons in this battle, Ubbe wants to make claim to the land that Ecbert left them, negotiate and make peace, but Ivar has no interest in peace (as you probably assumed) and thinks that Ubbe is wrong in thinking this way, because he feels the Saxons aren’t defeated yet. With the brothers not seeing eye to eye, Ubbe and Hvitserk decide to steal away in the middle of the night, go to the Saxon camp and work out a deal. While Aethelwulf thinks that this is something to consider, Heahmund doesn’t. He beats Ubbe and sends them back to Ivar with this message – there will be no peaceful resolution to this. All this really accomplished is that Ivar is now the brother with all the power within the viking clan, making Ubbe and Hvitserk look weak. Ubbe tells Ivar that they are going back home with their forces in the morning, but once the dawn breaks, it’s clear that pretty much the entire army wants to stay and fight and it gives Hvitserk enough pause to decide to leave Ubbe and stay with Ivar.

CarterMatt’s over all thoughts

The battle scenes in this episode were as epic as they always are, but seeing Ivar becoming more of a strategist is something that we are really enjoying. We know that he’s ruthless and angry, but this side of him is what keeps us coming back for more. He is smart, creative and thinks in a way that his father did. Ragnar may be gone from the show, but he really lives on inside of Ivar more so then any of his sons.

What did you think of the Vikings season 5 episode 2 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 4.

Also, for all the Vikings fans out there that want to show your support for the show, our 6th annual CarterMatt Awards have just kicked off and Alex Hogh Andersen has been nominated in our Underrated Actor category (here) and Katheryn Winnick is nominated for Best Actress (here). Make sure you click on the links and give them your votes!

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