No Fury Like Lagertha Scorned – Megan Applegate recaps the first episode of Vikings season 2…
Well, not so much fury as agonizing heartbreak, but we’ll get to that in a moment.
So Long, One Eye
The eye-patched Viking rides across the battle field, reminding Rollo (Clive Standen) how they’ve fought bravely many times together, and would he just reconsider this whole “kill your brother” thing so we can all shake hands and get back to poking sticks at Northumberland’s King Aelle? That was so much more fun.
Rollo won’t be swayed to give up his support of Jarl Borg and in short time, the battle between Borg’s supporters and King Horik’s Ragnar-led troops begin. It isn’t long before Rollo does his best to dispatch Floki (Gustaf Skarsgard). Thankfully he fails, but it isn’t without a lot of damage and a few bitten-down fingernails on this side of the screen.
With Floki down, Rangar (Travis Fimmel) (and the rest of us) watch Rollo run a spear through One Eye’s mid-section and hoist him overhead as some sort of morbid battle standard. Bloody stuff.
It’s not long before the brothers are facing one another and in a show of post-rampage remorse, Rollo stands down and states that he cannot fight his brother.
Can’t We All Get Along?
Borg refuses King Horik’s attempt to make a deal (one third of the disputed property’s income) and it looks like we’re all headed back to the battlefield when Ragnar stands up and tells everyone to go to their corners. In actuality, he tells the politicians that there’s more than enough farmland and gold in the west that every fighting man could profit instead of killing one another. Logic prevails and cooler heads win.
Look Homeward, Viking
Arriving back home, things have changed. Remember last season’s awful plague that killed Ragnar’s daughter, Gyda?
Bjorn, disgusted at his father’s philandering, drops the name Aslaug (that gorgeous princess he tangled with a time or two while at war, played by Alyssa Sutherland) and Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) confronts her husband. Ragnar swears it was a one-time thing and placates his angry wife.
Rollo stands trial for betraying his kinsmen and as all the warriors around him are calling for his head on a platter, the village law man grants him a pardon. The scene closes with the man flipping a very large, very gold coin through his fingers and we realize Ragnar has bribed the man in exchange for his brother’s life.
The chief takes time to properly mourn his daughter in a touching scene, inviting the ghost of his child to come and speak with him if she’s able. Instead of Gyda, however, a boat bearing a very, very pregnant Aslaug arrives and life as Lagertha knew it appears to be over.
Everyone Else Is Doing It…
We’re subjected to a few awkward dinners with Ragnar flanked by his two leading ladies. Poor Lagertha does her best to be civil (not what I expected from our fierce shield maiden) but when Ragnar has the gall to suggest they make some sort of sister wives “arrangement” (with Aslaug nodding in approval), it’s all she can do not to rip her husband’s lips off her shoulders and toss them into the sea.
Lagertha’s mind is made up and in the next scene, Siggy’s helping her pack a few trunks onto the donkey cart. Bjorn has a choice to make and chooses his father. In a tear-jerking scene, Lagertha kisses her boy goodbye and rides off into the sunset.
Ragnar plays the jilted lover scene and rides after his wife, wondering why she’d ever think of leaving.
“You have humiliated and insulted me,” Largertha tells him. “You leave me no choice but to leave and divorce you.”
Boom. Just like that, Lagertha has chosen her path. It’s not long before Bjorn comes running into the scene, announcing his changed his mind—he’s going with his mother.
Ragnar watches his family leave him and returns to the village where Aslaug and her big ol’ belly wait to comfort him.
Megan Applegate
Originally published March 2, 2014. Updated March 21, 2022.
