Vikings Review 4×07: “The Profit and the Loss”

Turmoil on the waves and a bloody defeat is the highlight of this week’s Vikings. What will be the next step for Ragnar and his crew?

On this week’s Vikings, Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) and his men finally make it back to Paris with the intent on raiding it’s walls again for fame, spoils and renown. However, on last week’s episode they discovered it was not going to be so simple as they had imagined with the assumed men they had left behind to ease their way back into the gates. Rollo’s (Clive Standen) betrayal was revealed along with the new watch towers stationed at each side of the river to thwart their ships from coming closer to the city walls. With a battle at hand and strategic maneuvering to get their ships into the harbor of Paris, there is plenty of blood on the horizon for both sides of the war.

With turmoil staged in the land of Frankia, we see a different sort of turmoil set in the works back in Kattegat as well as Wessex. As far as Kattegat is concerned, the returned arrival of the stranger, Harbard (Kevin Durand), has all the women atwitter and Queen Aslaug (Alyssa Sutherland) once again eager to spend time with him. In Wessex, King Ecbert (Linus Roache) sets out on his journey to Mercia for a meeting that may change his fate and start his own war brewing in his lands amongst his family and those he currently shelters. Let’s take a closer look at the inner workings of this episode together.

The battle lost.

When Ragnar and his men saw Rollo on the hilltop dressed as a noble on horseback, they knew the entrance into Paris was not going to be as easy as they hoped. Bjorn (Alexander Ludwig) quickly addresses his new hatred for his uncle and makes more or a less a silent vow to kill him. That vow is most likely shared amongst all of his former kinsmen, especially once the battle begins to get their ships down the river and closer to Paris’ gates. Despite a plan of attack and distraction on land led by Lagertha (Kathryn Winnick) to draw the attention away from the archers on the river, the loss is suffered greatly on the river and more than half of Ragnar’s fleet is destroyed. King Finehair (Peter Franzen) and his brother Halfdan (Jasper Paakkonen) also suffer a great loss at the hands of the Frankian archers by tower. Not only do the ships suffer heavy attack, the groups on land as well as they camp of mostly women and children left to wait for the results of the battle fall under attack.

“The space between life and death. That’s where we are the most alive.” – Floki

Many are lost and many are injured, most notably Helga (Maude Hirst) who is found unconscious and badly burnt within in the camp by Floki (Gustaf Skarsgard) who begs her not to die. Floki himself may have drowned if it had not been to the aid of Ragnar jumping ship and retrieving his sinking his body from the depths of the river. Thoughts of conquering the Frankish troops by the northmen will have to be put on hold this time as Ragnar plans to order them to retreat. Who knows what this will mean for Ragnar himself and the state of this held kingdom. Many are already cautious of his health and now his staggering and waning mental stability.

Trust and Betrayal.

There really hasn’t been the greatest track record for Ragnar with his relationships current or in the past. He broke Lagertha’s heart by taking another woman, Aslaug, while they were still married. Now Aslaug seems to not care so much for him as she willingly doffed off her slave girl, Yidu (Dianne Doan) to him to do with as he pleased. With the attack set into Paris, he even expressed affection and concern for his previous wife, Lagertha, to which he was quickly snapped at set back a few places. It feels as if he is grasping at straws to attain some sort of semblance of the past to regain balance or at least some sort of trust and affection with a female confidant. Though his current relationship with Yidu seems mostly held together by the store of drugs she has at hand. With those drugs being depleted and the strange effects they’ve had upon him, it will be interesting to see just how long he keeps Yidu around to aid him.

“He’s punishing me because of what happened last time.” – Queen Aslaug

Back in Kattegat, Queen Aslaug is greeted by the return of the stranger and wanderer, Harbard. From the get go, she is all too eager to restore their friendship and informs him of Ragnar understanding the nature of it, resulting in her punishment by taking her two eldest boys away from her to Paris. This is most likely not a problem to Harbard, who is just as eager to restore his former friendship with her as well as half of the village from the looks of it. If the vision that Floki was shown while sitting by the riverbed of Aslaug and Harbard making love in the fields of Kattegat, it may be that she will bear another child quite soon and one that is not of Ragnar’s blood.

A new journey and a tempting offer.

Wessex has enjoyed it’s share of peace, minus the uproar over Queen Kwenthrith (Amy Bailey) and those that had risen to overthrow her. King Ecbert may be on the path to further disturbing that peace by his very journey back into Mercia on his own. The plan to send Alfred to Rome with the monk was a clever one to keep his son Aethelwulf (Moe Dunford) away from his lover and distract him while he dealt with other matters. These matters being those that would maybe not be so profitable for the self appointed Queen.

“This was once the ancestral crown of Mercia. Now it will be your crown, King Ecbert.” – Prince Wigstan

Ecbert meets with Prince Wigstan (Declan Conlon), a man who has rightful claim to the throne of Mercia but chooses not to challenge it, being that he sees the battle as senseless and that of a mad person’s endeavor. He says as much to King Ecbert but also offers the proposal that he would give up his claim to go travel in peace, to lighten his heart before his death and absolve himself of the corruption his family had put him through his entire life, but would only do so by claiming his support and endorsement for Ecbert to be King. This would expand his kingdom to a great measure and it would give him allies to further defeat those that would overthrow him and give him more strength to keep the viking threat away as he had once hoped for in the past. Being a slippery fish, Ecbert will most likely accept this offer and leave the dirty work of being rid of Kwenthrith to someone else’s hands.

Conclusion: Things are not so simple.

Everything is tumbling down in fire and blood. Ragnar has suffered a great loss, not only of men but a great lost to his reputation. Without the aid of Yidu’s herbal medicines he is slowly losing himself to his health and is losing his grip on reality. Hopefully, after this battle, his return home will be spent recovering and actually restoring himself to a sane stronger version of what he has become. Bjorn may have to step up and take more control as a leader sooner than expected, before King Finehair and his brother have a mind to claim the lands for themselves while Ragnar is ailing.

Director Ken Girotti, again wows us with the spectacle of viking ships in battle. The effects and care taken to showing a great attacking fleet along with it’s losses, the flames, blood, and drawing bodies, were believable and breath taking even for a casual watcher of the show. The difficulties of coordinating and filming a piece of that nature to make it believable must have been quite a feat. Michael Hirst also brings to the table a great script  filled with emotional dialogue and intricacies of past relationships and new. The intermix of romance and friendship with the plans for battle and take over always intersect one another nicely, making the show not only about bloody battle but also one about human relationships, family, and the need to survive.

Questions, Comments & Concerns

• Ragnar got his rear end handed to him in this battle. Will he actually retreat as he had said or will he regroup in attempt to get back at his brother?
• Will this great loss be a deterrent to King Finehair and Halfdan in their want of taking over Ragnar’s kingdom?
• If Yidu is out of her special herbs, how long will Ragnar keep her around and consider her to be useful?
• Why is Queen Aslaug so determined to be with Halfdan? Does she think he’s a god as well as half of the women in Kattegat?
• Is Harbard a god or just a horny wanderer?
• Will Ragnar and Lagertha ever be together again? There’s love there on both their parts, though it’s buried deep.
• Will Lagertha actually give birth to another child or will the prophecy of her never having another child again hold true?
• Will Bjorn soon step up to be the leader and king of Kattegat?
• How will Aethelwulf deal with his father’s slimy dealings in the kingdom of Mercia?