Vikings: Valhalla “Pieces Of The Gods”

Wait, I misspelled “Valhalla” in the banner image I use for these?  And I only just noticed a couple episodes into season two?  Man, I knew my spelling was bad, but this is a new low…

As it is, my spelling may be the least of my problems here:  I am not sure what to say about this episode.

I mean, it’s a good episode and all.  Leif and Harald are going on an expedition while Freydis tries to be all things to all Vikings spiritually, but her hosts have some other ideas.  And that’s not getting into the drama in England featuring characters I like that I have had very little to say about.

Perhaps in the case of Emma and Godwin, that is simply because they were more interesting when they were opposing the Vikings.  As something of an ally, and set far from the main action, there’s a lot to like going on there, but very little I feel like commenting on.  Sure, Godwin stopped an assassin, but it turns out Godwin is smitten with one of Emma’s ladies-in-waiting, and said lady freaked out when she saw the assassin’s mangled corpse hung out for all the town to see as a warning.  Godwin was already a shaky ally to Emma, but there’s no indication that he’s plotting against her, and the woman just claimed the assassin was a brother she hadn’t seen in a while.  It’s all just Emma’s suspicions.

Wait, I did have something to say about Godwin and Emma.  My mistake.

I have a lot less to say about Freydis, but that’s mostly because the spiritual lives of the Vikings is not something I care much about, and Freydis seems like a warmed-over rehash of a lot of other, more interesting characters from the previous show.  She spends a lot of time running her hands over her belly as her pregnancy presumably advances and figures the holy places are open to all.  Sometimes she has to kill a wild boar.  It’s…stuff that’s there.

No, it’s clear to me the best plot involves Harald and Leif putting together an oddball crew to cross a frozen river to get goods to Constantinople.  He’s got a slaver, a rich man and his “servant,” one of those pitfighters and his shifty manager, Leif, Leif’s dying astronomer girlfriend (Leif’s girlfriends don’t seem to live very long), and a blind guy for the navigator.  Also some slaves, but they seem to count more as cargo than anything else.

One of those slaves freezes to death before they get too far.

Something tells me this won’t be an easy trip.  Also, something tells me this will be the plotline I am most interested in for the foreseeable future.