Vikings “All Change”

Season One of Vikings ends with the brothers Lothbrok both basically being awful people.  You know, for vikings.

So, Ragnar had pledged allegiance to King Horik to settle a land dispute with a fellow named Jarl Borg.  As far as Jarl Borg was concerned, the land and its biological and technological distinctiveness had been added to his own.  Resistance was futile.

So, Ragnar rides off with his posse of Floki, Rollo, Bjorn, some other guys one of whom I think is named One-Eyed Joe, and meet with Jarl Borg.  Borg greets them warmly once he finds out who the hell they are, and by they I mean he finds out who Ragnar is, which sets Rollo to frowning some more.  Ragnar arranges to send Floki back to see Horik with Borg’s offer, and Ragnar and his guys can have free reign to look around and see, like, a giant tree–no, seriously, that was the big tourist attraction–while leaving one guy behind as a hostage.  Ragnar picked Rollo to stay behind.

Now, you can see why Ragnar may have made a choice like this.  He shows good faith by leaving the brother he (probably) cares about behind as a sign of faith.  But, really, Rollo is the worst guy to leave with Borg, since Borg can talk about his Borg’s own brother tried to kill him and how Rollo isn’t getting any recognition from Ragnar’s deeds and, well, it doesn’t take much to get Rollo to change sides after that.

Oh, and Floki was the messenger?  Yeah, he and Horik seem to be too peas from the same pod, but I wonder why no one’s decapitated that guy yet.

But as much as Rollo is being a backstabber to his brother, Ragnar is no better when it comes to his wife.  Yeah, seriously, he’d tempt fate with a woman who’s already smacked him around onscreen a few times.  Ragnar’s boys spot one Princess Aslaug bathing, and she responds by coming to see Ragnar personally for an apology.  And so, Ragnar starts snuggling with a woman who is not his wife.  Bjorn doesn’t approve, and for once, I’m on that snot-nosed punk’s side.  But Aslaug is apparently pregnant now.  Oops.

I suppose it could be worse.  What’s Lagertha up to back in town?  Oh yeah, she and Siggy are watching their respective daughters die from a plague that came in.  And no amount of goat sacrifices seem to be fixing that.  And it isn’t exactly this:

So, basically, Ragnar is just as big a backstabbing bastard as Rollo.  Stupid Vikings.