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Give or take a few ropey episodes in the post-Ragnar years, six season long historical opus Vikings has been an absolute blast. We’ve had blood – so much blood you could launch a longboat on all that gooey plasma. We’ve had sex – there has been an awful lot of animal rug-based rutting (sorry Ivar). And we’ve had an introduction to a particularly gruesome practice called ‘The Blood Eagle’ that will never, ever leave our brains, even if we were to loosen the tops of our skulls and bleach them. And yet at some point, as the show has undoubtedly taught us, all great things must join Odin in The Great Hall of Valhalla. Yes, the end of the year will see the climax of this great show.
And yet so many questions remain! Who will live and who will die? Will King Harald ever get a girlfriend who actually likes him? And what future atrocities will we see masquerading as Bjorn’s latest hairdo? With the Jorvik Viking Centre on indefinite lockdown thanks to the plague of COVID-19, we thought we’d ask The Seer what we should expect from Vikings season 6 part 2…
Just tell us, is Bjorn dead or what?
Unquestionably, the biggest plot twist from part one that needs resolving is whether Bjorn Ironside survived being skewered by half-brother and full time-bastard Ivar The Boneless. Our guess? It was all a dream. After all, the show has been getting increasingly confident segueing between reality and the imaginary in recent seasons. Vikings showrunner Michael Hirst and actor Alexander Ludwig have already confirmed that Bjorn will return “in some way”, but a now deleted Instagram picture on the latter’s account provides the strongest clue as to the King of Kattegat’s alive-or-dead status. In it, he has longer hair than we saw him sporting in 6A. A greyer beard too.
Is Lagertha really dead? Don’t rule out a comeback
As death’s go, it’s hard to think of many worse than being stabbed to death in the pissing rain by your PTSD-addled ex-husband’s son Hvitserk (Marco Ilsø). But that’s what happened to legendary warrior Lagertha.
It was an accident though, of sorts. At the time, Hvitserk was under the influence of magic mushrooms which made him think Lagertha was an evil snake God. To give this some context, trauma resulting from his lover Thora (Eve Connolly) and her entire family being burned alive on the orders of mega-bastard Ivar (Alex Hogh Andersen), has left Hvitserk a broken man. When we left him, he was bizarrely back aligned with Ivar. It would be surprising if he didn’t attempt to avenge Thora’s death at some point.
And what of Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick)? For so long she’s been the show’s most interesting character – certainly since Ragnar’s death (Travis Fimmel) – and a never aging master at braiding hair in weird shapes. She’s in Valhalla now – yes, but don’t bet against her turning up in some form in the next 10 episodes. Remember, this is a show in which death is far from final.
What’s going to happen to Floki?
Let’s be honest, the slapheaded, overbearingly spiritual boatmaker and his resettlement in Iceland made for a rubbish 6A story arc. In fact, some fans feel that Floki’s character might have been axed, but a dip in ratings after Ragnar’s death meant showrunner Michael Hirst didn’t want to discard another longstanding character.
But what has happened to Floki? The last batch of episodes saw Norway’s worst mascara-applier drop off the face of the uncharted world. Soon after, Ubbe (Jordan Patrick Smith) and Torvi (Georgia Hirst) arrive in Iceland, hoping to find him and bring him home. Instead, they met Othere (Ray Stevenson), an adventuring monk, introduced to us by WWE’s Edge (Adam Copeland as Ketill Flatnose). He claims to be Athelstan reborn! He’s also got Floki’s wedding ring. What gives? If Othere is Athelstan, on past form, it’s a good job that Floki isn’t around…
Incidentally, we’d bet a big jug of mead on Floki’s story continuing off the extremely chilly, volcanic island. According to SoundtrackTracklist.com, track 26 of Vikings‘ season 6 soundtrack album is entitled… ‘Floki Tells of Why He Left Iceland’.
Will King Harald ever find true love?
Weird guy is King Harald (Peter Frenzén). Dude is the king of all Norway – a status you’d imagine would entice a decent amount of interest if included on one’s Tinder profile – and yet he’s spent year upon year consistently pursuing women who are already romantically attached to other men (normally Bjorn Ironside). That said, the hour-long, mid-season finale ended with another dead-or-alive cliffhanger, with Harald lying prostrate on the battlefield, having seemingly been run through with a sword during his and Bjorn’s battle with Ivar, Prince Oleg (Danila Kozlovsky) and the marauding Rus Vikings.
“I think perhaps one of the unexpected things about that episode,” Michael Hirst recently told TV Guide, “the last episode of 6A, was how definitive it seemed to be that this is a wipeout for the Vikings that we’ve never really seen. We’ve seen the power of the Rus. I mean, those extraordinary scenes in episode nine, when we see the Rus army marching out and we realised just how formidable and huge that army is. It’s not a surprise that the Vikings can’t hold them. A lot of Vikings are killed, and Harald and Bjorn are certainly extremely seriously, seriously wounded and likely to die. But what happens after that is saved for [Episode 11].”
And who is that thieving Harald’s crown as he lies bleeding on the ground? That’ll be Erik the Red (Eric Johnson). Of course, as anyone who was paying attention in A Level history will know, Erik wasn’t a king – he was an Icelandic explorer who founded the first Norse settlement in Greenland. But since Michael Hirst treats real history as a stubborn obstacle he has to navigate in order to tell the story he wants to, we’d advise you not to pay too much heed to that.
Erik could end up king. He could end up being a fucking unicorn if Hirst damn well feels like making him one.
And will we see Alfred again?
We saw nothing of Alfred (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), King of Wessex and Mercia in 6A. We’ll double that bet of mead we made earlier that he’ll return in 6B. Vikings‘ six seasons have chronicled the marauders excursions in Britain in lascivious detail, while ample time has been spent in developing the character of Alfred. It’s unlikely that the series will conclude without a return.
Not for the first time has a Vikings actor’s Instagram account appeared to confirm suspicions as to what happens next. Earlier this year, Walsh-Peelo posted a photo on his Instagram account of himself as Alfred, covered in blood after a battle. He captioned the photo: “Vikings 6B hitting your screens later this year. Be prepared for the wrath of Alfred 2.0.”
But you know what? As long as this saga ends with Ivar having a horrible time – hopefully impaled by something sharp – that’s okay with us! Enjoy the ride fellow Norsemen. It’s bound to be a bloody blast.
‘Vikings’ is available to stream now on Amazon Prime. Season six concludes this winter
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