Lagertha suffers a major loss; Bjorn finally gets his revenge; and Young Alfred arrives in Rome. Photo stills and recap of “Death All ‘Round”, which aired Thursday, April 14 at 10:00pm ET|PT on HISTORY.
***SPOILER ALERT***
“Death All ‘Round” began with the Vikings continuing the arduous work of transporting their ships across the mountains. Everyone worked on the project, even Lagertha, who seemed to be experiencing some pain with her pregnancy. Yet she continued.
As the Vikings worked, some local Franks (a man and his son), hid in the forest and watched. The father realized that these were Northmen, like those who attacked Paris. The two of them snuck away and hoped the the Vikings would bypass their home. Unfortunately Finehair, Halfdan, and their men were already on the way. They came upon the farm, slaughtered the inhabitants (the man, wife, son, and two daughters), took the food and animals, then set the buildings on fire.
When they returned to camp, Finehair bragged about the exploit. When Bjorn asked if he killed the farmer and his family, Harald replied, “Of course we killed them. They could have ridden off and told the Franks all about us. You would have done the same.” Bjorn agreed and said he wasn’t blaming them.
Elsewhere, Lagertha (very unfortunately) had a miscarriage. She knew the Seer told her she would never have another child, but she still hoped. Ragnar comforted Lagertha as she cried. She asked them to go away and leave her alone. Instead Ragnar and Bjorn sat back and let Lagertha mourn.
Meanwhile, Floki was having visions of Aslaug in Kattegat. She was devastated that Harbard had left and was walking outside in the rain, crying out…
In Kattegat, while outside playing, Sigurd came upon a dead body in the river. It turned out that it was Little Siggy. (*CRIES*)
Sigurd came to tell his mother, who was playing a game with Ivar and clearly drunk. Apparently, Ivar wasn’t happy with his mother because he called her play a stupid one, to which Aslaug replied:
“Don’t call me stupid… because I’m the only reason you’re alive.”
When Sigurd said that Siggy was dead, Aslaug didn’t seem concerned. Ivar outrightly said: “Who cares?”
Sigurd ran from the room as Aslaug smiled and kept drinking and Ivar continued his game.
In Paris, Rollo and Gisla arrived at Court and Charles announced that Gisla was pregnant. Rollo also assured Charles that the Vikings had left their camp and were likely raiding the city Rouen on their way home. But Rollo sent word to the lords of that city to prepare their defenses. Afterwards, Charles announced that he was making Roland a Count and defender of Paris. Gisla was clearly suspicious. She didn’t like that her father was giving preference to Roland and Therese, two people of humble birth. But Rollo wasn’t worried. Charles had granted him a title, lands, and responsibility to defend the realm. However, it didn’t matter to Gisla. Roland was given actual command of the city and was now the person closest to the emperor. He would have to be removed before his appetite for power became too pronounced. Rollo tried to distract Gisla with sex, but she refused.
“I told you, this is Frankia, we do things differently here. You have to respect me in my sacred condition.” (No sexy times for Count Rollo!)
Elsewhere, Charles asked for Roland to stay behind. He wanted Roland’s permission to take Therese as his mistress. Unsurprisingly, Roland agreed. But Charles had another request too…
…and the next morning, we saw Charles in bed with a very naked Roland (OOLALA).
Alfred, Aethelwulf, and Father Prudentius finally arrived in Rome to see the Pope. Pope Leo welcomed them enthusiastically and asked to speak with Aethelwulf and Prudentius first. The Pope expressed his care for English Christians, especially as they were being attacked by pagan armies (the Vikings). It was important for Christians to repent and do penance for their sins before an even greater disaster came upon them. Aethelwulf agreed, citing England and Frankia as examples. Then Pope Leo asked Alfred to step forward. He showed Alfred a piece of the crown of thorns placed on Jesus Christ’s head during this trudge to Golgotha. Aethelwulf and Prudentius knelt down, in awe. (Yet, it looked like all Alfred wanted was to go play!)
Later Alfred was brought before the Pope and other clergy. Pope Leo blessed Alfred and bestowed upon him a sword to resist and cast out all of his enemies. The Pope named Alfred a Consul of Rome (like Caesar) and placed a golden wreath upon his head. Aethelwulf (and Prudentius) looked on with pride.
In Wessex, Ecbert had the official ceremony crowning him as King of Wessex and Mercia. King Aelle attended the celebrations, but was not happy at all. Aelle felt betrayed… if they were really allies, shouldn’t they have split Mercia’s riches equally between them? And with Mercia in his control, Wessex was much closer to Northumbria’s border. According to Ecbert, he and Aelle were still allies, but things had changed. The two of them were no longer equals. The nature of their alliance might change, but Aelle had to get used to it.
Finally, the Vikings reached the river on the other side, and Paris was insight. They hailed Ragnar and sang songs in celebration.
That evening, after sexy times, Bjorn asked Torvi what he could give her. He told her how much he loved her wildness, “only just contained”, how the fact that he was Ragnar’s son didn’t mean anything to her. Bjorn believed he was right to choose her as his companion.
As they talked, Erlendur hid in the bushes with his crossbow. When he took aim to fire at Bjorn, he saw that Torvi had shifted positions, so she now blocked Bjorn’s side. (Did Torvi know Erlendur was there and moved around to save Bjorn?)
The next day, while Erlendur made a sacrifice to Odin and Thor, Torvi came to see him. She promised to come back to Erlendur if he gave up on his quest for revenge. But he refused: “A Viking never gives up on his revenge.”
Erlendur forced Torvi to drink the blood from the sacrificed animal and told her it was time to kill Bjorn. He taught Torvi how to fire his crossbow and sent her on her way.
Torvi walked towards Bjorn who was doing some metalwork, and Erlendur followed close by. When Bjorn saw Torvi with with crossbow, he stopped and walked towards her.
Torvi: “Erlendur has told me to kill you. To avenge the death of his father.”
Bjorn: “What are you waiting for?”
Then Torvi picked up the crossbow…
…then turned around and shot Erlendur, who was standing directly behind her, in the chest. (*SCREAMING*)
Bjorn hugged Torvi and told her she was now safe. Then he went to stand over Erlendur as he died. Bjorn took Horik’s ring and rung it off the arrow in his chest. Then Ragnar and Bjorn made eye contact and nodded at each other.
When Bjorn went to see Ragnar, who was dealing with some serious withdrawal. He was coughing badly, vomiting, and even hallucinated that he was coughing up spiders! Bjorn told Ragnar to just take the Chinese medicine. But he wanted to save it to fight Rollo. Bjorn needed his father to get better because Paris couldn’t be taken without him. But Ragnar didn’t care about Paris; he came for Rollo. Bjorn helped Ragnar put on his armor and the Vikings set sail for Paris (in boats that had been heavily fortified by one of Floki’s designs).
“I have to kill you. I must kill you. I must kill you. I have to kill you. I will kill you.” (Watch out Rollo!)
If you missed Thursday’s episode, you can watch “Death All ‘Round” online HERE, OnDemand, or on the HISTORY app.
Watch the preview for next week’s episode, the Mid-season finale, “The Last Ship”. Ragnar, Bjorn, and Floki and coming straight for Duke Rollo!