Vikings recap: 'Kill the Queen' 

'Vikings' premiere recap: 'A Good Treason'

Somewhere far from Kattegat, the sun shines cold upon Bjorn Ironside, who’s crossing a lake of ice. And somewhere far from Kattegat, the men of Frankia plot with the women of Frankia against the other men of Frankia. And somewhere far from Kattegat, a prince of Wessex endeavors to save a captured Queen of Mercia. But perhaps none of that matters. For here, in Kattegat, a man has escaped. Floki is gone, gone, gone: The old friend, the traitor, now on the run from his own people. “Well?” says Ragnar Lothbrok, his breakfast disrupted. “Go find him.”

While Floki runs away — up the mountain, through the rapids, over the river and through the woods — the lord of Wessex receives troubling news from Mercia. The nobles have risen in revolt against Queen Kwenthrith. The kin-killing queen is a captive now, with her son Magnus, in some faraway tower. (You’ll recall that Magnus is the son of Ragnar Lothbrok —​ or so Kwenthrith claims.)

For Ecbert, everything is an opportunity. Mercia is in revolt? What better time to institute a new security protocol: A standing army, ready at a moment’s notice to march? His nobles complain. To maintain a professional army is an “expensive luxury.” Ecbert plays upon their fear of Ragnar Lothbrok. (The Vikings were helpful allies, but they’re even more helpful as boogeymen.)

Will Ragnar return to Ecbert’s shores? Vengeance calls the Northman King in many directions: West to Wessex, south to Frankia. For now, he deals with problems closer to home. While his children hunt Floki, he finds Floki’s wife and daughter. Ragnar knows Helge freed her husband, and doesn’t blame her. “Floki loves you,” she insists. “He only loves himself,” Ragnar responds. “You know that better than anyone.” Ragnar has dark words for Helge. “Winter is coming,” he says, seemingly quoting another series about lords and warriors. “You and your child will need to eat. Soon.” 

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Ragnar’s army hunts his old friend. Ecbert’s army prepares for war. The scouts he sent to Wessex mostly return in pieces: heads and hands removed from missing bodies. But Aethelwulf and Ecbert find one scout yet alive, with important information. One Mercian nobleman passed along news: The location of Kwenthrith and her son, Magnus.

Aethelwulf sets off on a rescue mission, once again leaving his wife, Judith, home alone. “Farewell, wife,” he says nonchalantly. “Now I trust you again, parting feels less sorrowful.” Judith hears him, with her one remaining ear. Poor Judith, to find herself here, in this rotten life, with a husband who hates her and a father-in-law who lusts for her. But Ecbert surprises her. “I want you to be free,” he says. “To be yourself. I can imagine you have never been free, not since you were born.”

What does Judith truly want? Ecbert is a monster, but he’s a uniquely progressive monster. Alone among the

 cast, Ecbert strikes us as a man with a modern perspective. He is curious about the world and its possibilities; he is not held back by belief in anything, save perhaps his own grand destiny. What does Judith want? “I’d like to be a painter,” she says. “Like Athelstan.” Then, Ecbert promises, they must find her a teacher.

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