Vikings recap: 'Two Journeys' 

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Ragnar Lothbrok’s great army of revenge feeds the fish at the bottom of the sea. His boats sink into darkness, never to be seen again by human eyes. Yet Ragnar and Ivar endure. Father and son wash ashore. Some of his men survive, too: A motley crew, not the great warriors of yesteryear, some few desperate Vikings. They know the locals will arrive soon. They must move — but Ivar, little Ivar, cannot walk with his father. “I’m not going to stand around all watching you try to be normal,” says the King. “You never will be. Once you realize that, that is when greatness will happen. Now

Ragnar’s first son, Bjorn, isn’t normal, either. Alone among his brothers, he remembers a time when his father was a farmer. Alone among his brothers, he remembers the brighter days of Uncle Rollo, the familiar friend, not the eternal traitor. Bjorn sails southward on his journey to the Mediterranean. The ships pass the Normandy coast, which will host unimaginable bloodshed centuries hence when all the dreams of the Vikings are dust and memory.

This land is overseen by a strange man. He came from the North but can never return. Raised with the old gods, he was baptized into Christianity as a joke. See Rollo, the great warrior, now a Frankish noble. He sees his nephew’s arrival and smiles. There is gray in his beard. He has three children with his trusting wife, Gisla. He welcomes his old friends and old enemies. “I have to sail along your coastline,” says Bjorn. “I need safe passage for my fleet.” Rollo has them held captive. “We have 60 ships outside your port,” says Floki. “Don’t you think they will come knocking soon, if we don’t return?”

Every journey these Vikings take, they know there is the possibility they will never return. But it seems the once-great King Ragnar has a unique plan for his current journey. “I didn’t come here to go back,” he tells Ivar as they cower in the woods, hiding from Prince Aethelwulf and his searchers. “We can no longer travel with our friends. It can only be you and me.”

And so, in the night, the great King Ragnar and his last loyal son sneak about like thieves or serpents, slicing the throats of the warriors. They paid the warriors and now the warriors are paying for it. There is no mercy; a shieldmaiden offers herself to Ivar and he kills her. Is the great Lothbrok family a coalition of traitors? How many more people will trust Ragnar, and how much longer can he betray that trust?

One of the first people Ragnar betrayed was Lagertha, once his wife, then his ally. Lagertha has her own plans. She watches as her warriors prepare for battle; her warriors appear to be mostly or entirely shieldmaidens, strong women supporting one of the strongest. What are they preparing for? “I’m taking Kattegat back,” Lagertha says, a dream given voice at last. “Aslaug isn’t fit to be Queen.”

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