User Reviews

This episode was the best yet and just good tv. The action scenes were well coordinated, they didn't hold back on casualties, and that twist worked really well.

I watched and (largely) enjoyed the series "Vikings". I thought perhaps it never matched the level of some of TV's all-time classics, but I was happy to learn that this spin off was coming and overall, enjoyed this first season.

Decades after Ragnar Lothbrok and Ivar The Boneless have passed into legend, Christianity has taken a firm foothold in the Norse world and those converts look to purge the pagans from their historic communities. The forces though reunite to launch a revenge offensive against the English crown following the St Brice's Day Massacre - where communities of Danish settlers are slaughtered in an organised revenge attack. As they prepare for battle, an Icelandic warrior Leif Eriksson (Sam Corlett) suggests a daring plan to attack London.

Essentially, the key thing to say is that the show does feel like more "Vikings" - despite a largely different creative team. Indeed, Michael Hirst's credit is little more than a nominal "based on the series" one. Like the later seasons of the lead show, the plot is spent mixed between the Christian/Pagan story - which is largely centred on Kattegat and the machinations of the English Crown, which falls quickly into the hands of young Edmund - played by Louis Davison, but whose step mother, Emma of Normandy, played by Laura Berlin, is the skilled political operator.

Performances are good, again a number of English and Australians are pretending to be Scandinavian, including Sam Corlett and Leo Suter, who are probably the shows lead characters. Quite a number I recognised, though not from anything specific. The most high-profile actor is probably Pollyanna McIntosh, who appears as the season runs on.

As with the original series, the show is a mixture of real events and people with composite characters and a fictional timeline and builds to a dramatic series of conclusions to some storylines and twists in others. I enjoyed it, overall, and look forward to the two further seasons that Netflix have confirmed.

There were some good parts to this episode, especially the deceptions and twists. It left off with a lot of potential for a next season and got rid of some deadwood but I didn't find this final episode as exciting as expected. Something felt flat throughout.

You'll love this series, and particularly this episode, if you think an imaginary world of Viking feminists sounds interesting. Otherwise, laugh. If you try to take it seriously, it will be one cringe after another. This episode in particular is essentially an hour of little girls battling and defeating seasoned male warriors two or three times their size, a platoon of so-called shield maidens who are portrayed and Viking special forces, and of course, we can't forget...even for a moment...that the Christians are the bad guys, while the pagans are noble and virtuous. Cause, you know...nothing is more noble than human sacrifice.