It’s been a long wait, but the Season 6 premiere of History Channel’s Vikings is finally here. And, viewers also get blessed with a double episode. So, settle down, grab a horn of mead and find out everything that went down in Episodes 1 and 2 of Vikings!
Episode 1: “New Beginnings”
Vikings Season 6, Episode 1 opens with Ivar the Boneless’ (Alex Hogh Andersen) Contiki tour of the Silk Road. While he may have left in a hurry, he managed to amass quite the gathering by the time he gets stopped in Kievan.
This fact merely means there are more people to murder and torture under instruction from Prince Oleg (Danila Kozlovsky). If you believe the rumors — and you should — Oleg is even worse than Ivar when it comes to being a dictator and is, well, just horrible in general.
After torturing one of Ivar’s men, surprising Ivar with a balloon ride, then revealing how much he hated — and loved — his wife before he murdered her for adultery, the two become besties. However, it becomes apparent that Ivar is playing the long game. As to what he hopes to achieve in the long run remains to be seen. But, for the moment, he is merely trying to stay alive after Oleg doesn’t believe that he was just touring the area and not wanting something from the prince.
Of course, when Oleg declares that he wants to conquer Scandinavia with the help of Ivar, I am pretty sure the cogs are already ticking regarding Ivar’s plan to get back Kattegat once more.
Meanwhile, in Kattegat, Bjorn Ironside (Alexander Ludwig) is feeling on top of the world about being the new king. Already, he is swanning around and asking the people to come to him whenever they have a problem because he is fair and just, which is the complete opposite of Ivar.
So, when a group of Ivar’s followers is bought before King Bjorn, he decides to brand them and cast them aside as outcasts. The main dude looks totally p*ssed about being branded, and I am pretty sure that is not the last to be seen of this group.
Then, a new boat arrives and, on it, are some Vikings that have news of King Harald Finehair (Peter Franzen). For those that need a refresher, it appeared that Harald fell at the battle for Kattegat.
While he appeared to be mortally wounded, apparently King Olaf found him, tended to his wounds, and then stole his kingdom out from underneath him. Now, Harald is looking for help from Bjorn to assist him in his freedom once more.
And so Bjorn realizes that being a king is hard.
On the one hand, Harald helped him out when it came to reclaiming Kattegat. On the other hand, Harald has also done some pretty sh*tty stuff in the past. And so, Bjorn instructs the messengers that he will get back to them with his response.
As for Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick), she has decided that she has had enough of fighting and wants to settle down on a farm somewhere in the hope that the ghost of Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) will turn up to keep her company. After traveling with Torvi (Georgia Hurst) and Ubbe (Jordan Patrick Smith), she finally finds that perfect piece, and viewers get a montage of happier times to prove this point.
Lagertha then takes a quiet moment to bury her sword and to vow to the gods that she will never use it again. However, what are the chances of that happening, eh? According to People, Lagertha will have at least one more battle ahead of her in the final season of Vikings. Although, this may be an emotional one rather than a physical battle.
Episode 2: The Prophet
Episode 2 of Vikings sees Bjorn struggling with what he should do regarding King Harald. As Lagertha points out, Harald abducted her girlfriend and was a general douche. Bjorn points out that he, personally, has an obligation to Harald after he helped with him in previous battles.
Ubbe merely tells Bjorn that he’s glad he’s not the king and doesn’t have to decide one way or another. Hvitserk (Marco Ilso) is a hot drunken mess in the background and knows it so has little to offer other than wanting to know where Ivar is now that he has fled the region.
This doesn’t stop Bjorn from asking absolutely everyone what he should do regarding Harald. And, once he runs out of options, he finally realizes that it is him alone that can make the decision. This is when he decides he will help Harald.
For those wondering if Floki (Gustaf Skarsgard) survived that avalanche in Season 5 of Vikings, it appears an answer is imminent when his boat turns up at Kattegat. However, Ubbe soon discovers that Kjetill Flatnose (Adam Copeland) is at the helm, and, according to his version of events, Floki cracked the sh*ts one day and voted himself off the island.
Ubbe is not totally convinced of this story and vows to travel to Iceland and search for him. He also discusses a strange story he heard about a wanderer that traveled that way, and Kjetill reveals that he has totally heard of the dude and that he lives in Iceland now.
This seals it for Ubbe, who wants to set sail immediately. However, Bjorn needs him to look after Kattegat for a while so that he can sort out this mess with Harald. Bjorn would have Hvitserk do it except his is a total drunkard now thanks to Ivar having his girlfriend murdered in Season 5 of Vikings. While Torvi agrees it would be nice to be a stand-in queen for a while, Ubbe doesn’t look impressed at all, even if he does agree to it. Bjorn also inlists Kjetill’s help by basically implying that Kjetill knows more to Floki’s disappearance than he is letting on.
While all of this is going on, Bjorn’s wife’s servant, Ingrid (Lucy Martin), is totally crushing on Bjorn. Gunnhild (Ragga Ragnars) calls her on it, and Bjorn warns her away, but I am totally betting that Bjorn returns to his manw***e ways sooner rather than later in the final season of Vikings.
Meanwhile, in Russia, now that Oleg has decided Ivar is his new plaything, it’s off to Novgorod to meet with Oleg’s brother. Prince Askold (Blake Kubena) is the legit heir, but Oleg has a plan to fix that.
Along the way, Ivar asks about why Oleg is called the prophet. Oleg tells a story about how he was saved from being poisoned by having a prophetic dream about the incident before the event.
Oleg then goes on to poison his brother as soon as he meets with him, and I am pretty sure Ivar is regretting every decision he has ever made that has led him to this point in time.
Once his brother is dispatched, Oleg takes claim to Askold’s son, who is the new heir.
Oleg then makes an announcement that he has another brother, Dir (Lenn Kudrjawizki). Dir is mightily p*ssed when he finds out that Oleg has poisoned their brother, and now he is giving Oleg the ultimatum — hand over Askold’s son, Igor (Oran Glynn O’Donovan), or die.
Oleg responds by proclaiming that he is the prophet, and he knows that Dir will suffer immensely if free passage is not given. Dir calls his bluff and gives Oleg two hours to hand over Igor.
After the two hours is up, Oleg refuses to hand over Igor, and Dir asks Oleg to prove that he is a prophet. Apparently, Dir got married in secret, and hardly anyone knows, so he asks Oleg to reveal the name of his new bride.
Oleg totally does this, and Dir has no option but to let Oleg free and take Igor with him. He stipulates that he wants nothing more to do with Oleg — especially mentioning that family dinners are now a thing fo the past.
Vikings returns to History Channel with Episode 3, titled “Ghosts, Gods, and Running Dogs,” on Wednesday, December 11 at 10/9c.