If you can’t remember what happened at the end of season 3 of the series, you can catch up via our reviews here.
They’re back. The Vikings have returned and we couldn’t be happier.
It has been a long six months or so since we last saw our favourite Vikings wielding swords, behaving treacherously, planning schemes – oh, and jumping out of coffins in order to get inside the walls of Paris. However, our wait is now over and it was certainly worth it as the first episode of season four of VIKINGS landed on Amazon Instant Video and now we can happily indulge once more into the fantastical past and relish every minute of it at present.
In the season three finale, we saw Ragnar played superbly by the diverse Travis Fimmel, suffering and in a near death situation, but at the start of the new season, he answers the question about whether or not the reluctant King survived after we see his nightmare of being turned away from Valhalla, whilst he was experiencing flashbacks of all of his wrong doings and battles in the past. Of course he survived – he’s Ragnar Lothbrook and it would be hard to imagine VIKINGS without him.
Whilst he was away in Paris, Ragnar’s wife Queen Astaug (Alyssa Sutherland) has clearly enjoyed the power as she visits The Seer (John Kavanagh) in a cold, wintery forest to find out if she will succeed the throne after the death of Ragnar. She has become a changed woman and is seeking power and the need to reign. Over the passing of time, we also find that her children with Ragnar have grown – and at least they were pleased to see their father had recovered.
Meanwhile, across the pond, Rollo (Clive Standen) is up to his usual deceitful tricks – having sacked Paris and remained behind to guard the vikings stranglehold on the city, Rollo breaks the arrangement and marries the French princess, Gisela. Needless to say, this does not please his fellow warriors and their displeasure does not please Rollo. So, how does he handle it? He kills them all and the final threat from one of his former friend’s rings through “Ragnar will avenge us…” We can’t wait for that!
This still remains unbeknown to Ragnar who is emotionally torn between his son Bjorn’s (Alexander Ludwig) decision to publicly arrest Floki (Gustaf Skarsgård) for the murder of his Christian friend, Athelstan and saying goodbye to his eldest son who has decided to set off into the wilderness to be alone and prove to his father that he can survive by himself.
It remains unknown how long the young warrior will be gone for, but we are guessing he will be coming back a different man – and will no doubt become all that Ragnar hopes he will be. Tough love is, well, tough, but it could be the making of him…
Bjorn’s mother, Lagertha, played by the wonderfully feisty Katheryn Winnick, found herself involved in another fight amongst her clan. She has joined Kalf’s side as he announced to his people that he would be ruling with Lagertha. It seemed some had a problem with that, so what does he do? Well he fills the traitors full of arrows and Lagertha decided to drop the leading complainer’s trousers and chop off his privates! Yes, she removed his man parts with a knife and proved to all who doubted her that she is in fact capable of doing anything.
Overall, it has been another intriguing first episode of a new season and it’s a solid set-up for Season 4 as VIKINGS has never really been the type of show to keep secrets from viewers and lets the audience predict exactly what will happen as we wait with baited breath to see it all unravel in front of our eyes.
There is still so much more to come and for Ragnar to find out over the next bunch of episodes: What will he do with Floki? Will he revert back to his religion or remain a Christian? What will happen with his traitorous brother? How will he cope without his restless son? Can he thwart his ambitious wife’s desires for power? Then there is a small case of the British ruler overthrowing his agreement in England and killing the Vikings that had settled there to farm. It looks like there are more battles than meet the eye for Ragnar.
The series, which has been created by Michael Hirst, has continued strongly for three seasons and no doubt after watching the first episode of the fourth season, it will continue to thrill and keep the audiences in its gruesome grasp. There is so much more it has to give and we can’t wait to join in on the ride.
Verdict
