Vikings “The Outsider”

So who is…the Outsider?!

I think it’s Ragnar.  Unless it’s Ivar.  Maybe both of them.

Picking up where the last episode left off, Ragnar is taunting three of his four sons by Aslaug in front of a crowd to come and kill him.  Ivar gets ignored.  Sigurd, who turns out to be kind of a jackass, he’s taunted.  Hvitserk, who has a name I wouldn’t want to type too often, he gets a slap or two.  Ubbe actually steps forward a wee bit hesitantly, but Ragnar’s response is to give his son a big hug.

Then Bjorn shows up.  Bjorn won’t kill his father.  He has his own plans.  He also wants to know why Ragnar is back now.

It seems Ragnar wants revenge against Wessex for the death of the viking settlement many years before.  He’s looking for companions.  He asks his able-bodied sons.  Bjorn says he can’t.  He’s going on that trip to the Mediterranean.  That Asshole Floki is building the ships.  Hvitserk is going too.  Or it was Ubbe.  One of those two.  Ubbe is the nice one.  I know that much.  The other two sons are staying behind to protect Kattegat and their mother.  Finehair is also going with Bjorn.

Ragnar tries Helga and That Asshole Floki next.  They’re happy to see him, but both are committed to Bjorn’s trip.  These might be the only people unreservedly happy to see Ragnar.  And Floki, not much of an asshole this episode, admits that the reason he never spilled the beans about the settlement, as the only other person who knew, was out of love for Ragnar.  Ragnar feels the same way.  That’s almost sweet.

Ragnar tries Lagertha next.  She asks the same question as Floki, namely what took so long.  But she has a kingdom of her own to run.  Plus, she seems to have given up men and now has a girlfriend.  She and Ragnar have a moment before the old king departs.

I can’t blame her for going for a girl.  Every guy she’s been with just ended up disappointing her.

Who doesn’t Ragnar see during the course of the episode?  Aslaug.

He doesn’t see Eyeless Seer Dude either.  Bjorn does.  Seer says there’s a lot of bad times coming with Ragnar back.  That man is a peach.

By the by, Bjorn is still with Torvi.  They have kids now.  Good for them both.

But then there’s Ivar.  He has the hots for a slave named Margarethe.  I’m thinking of her as Too Pretty the Sequel.  Ivar manages to see all three of his full-brothers gettin’ their groove on with her.  After showing the other three he may be the best fighter of the bunch with sword, bow, and tossed axe, they arrange a bit o’ fun with her.  And…he can’t perform.  Before he can kill her, she promises not to tell and manages to make some statements about whose son he is and stuff that appeases him.  Though I must say, after spying on her with the others, you’d think he’d have known if his equipment functioned right or not.

But when Ragnar finally takes his seat in his old throne, long since unused since he disappeared, he has a chat with Ivar.  And Ivar will go on the raid to England.  All Ragnar had to do was ask him.

This may be the bloodiest father-son bonding trip ever.  The only question is whose blood will it be.