The Message

Writers and directors are going down, down down this season. Floki in Iceland and it's always raining, snowing and cold? When the vikings settled Iceland, Greenland and USA it was during a global warming period. Hence the overpopulation of all the nordic regions because of increased food production, better weather, and limited agricultural land. With the eldest son inheriting all, all the new born young males had to go "a viking" to find new land. Sort of what is happening all over the world right now, leading to much more conflict.

Iceland was covered in trees at the time.

It's pretty sickening how this show constantly tries to push certain agendas and ideologies as they are natural and true.

Plot twist: no, they're not.

This episode is a slow burn, but a solid one. It's all about setting the chessboard. Messages are being sent, alliances are shifting, and every character is positioning themselves for what's coming. Ivar keeps showing that he's thinking long-term - patient, calculated, always two steps ahead.

Even though there isn't much action, the tension is always present. You can feel war coming, and this episode is the silence before the storm. The dialogue is sharp, the acting is strong, and the tone remains heavy, even without big battles.

It may not be flashy, but it's important - and it does its job well. A well-crafted episode that reminds you: when Vikings takes its time, it's for a reason.

The previous episode was hilariously cringey, but this episode begins the unbroken pain that Vikings became from here until the end. There are zero redeeming qualities of the show now, it's just nothing but pain.

Every previously decent/tolerable character from the first 4 seasons are all awful now, and every new character is the same.

The only plank of wood left in the decimated scrap pile that was once a great sailing vessel is Floki, as every other character without fail is horrible. And even Floki is a shadow of his former self.

The absolute worst of them is Margaret, whose only expression ever is permanent piggy face. Every time she's on screen I want to slap her out of the way, as looking at a rotting poo is more worthwhile.

The show from here on has no direction, no meaning, no purpose.

And last episode the Bjorn Brigade were in Arabia. Somehow they left Arabia and arrived back in Kattegat, half way across the world, inexplicably as the previous time were saw them was riding on camels in the desert away from a storm. Sinric just disappeared without explanation also.

I loved the first season, it's by far the best season with the least cringe, and minus the god awful Wessex and Paris court drama scenes that have zero payoff or reason for existing, the show remains decent until Ragnar dies. But from S5 E6, I legit hate the show now. I remember now why I just gave up before Season 5 ended back when I was still keeping up with it in 2017.

The acting, writing, and direction of this episode has me rubbing my eyes to make sure it's the same people who made season 1, as truly I cannot believe it is. Nothing redeemable whatsoever. I have to pause each episode now every few minutes to take a break due to the sheer pain of how terrible it has become.

I could go into details but I think I'd be typing forever. Out of the 44 minutes of this, I think only 30 seconds wasn't painful cringe, which is when Floki talks.

I used to think Game of Thrones died a worse death than Vikings, but at least it was funny bad, whereas Vikings is now just nothing but anger inducing pain.