Vikings - Series 02 Episode 10 - “The Lord’s Prayer” - Review
Vikings - Series 02 Episode 10 - “The Lord’s Prayer” - Review
I delayed in writing this review for two reasons. The first is because I was hoping to make a little announcement to accompany it, which you will find at the end. The second is that I really wanted time to process the episode.In all honesty, after first watching the episode, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. A fellow reviewer tweeted me that night to ask me if I had loved it, and I waited almost a full day before I could get back to her. Where did my hesitation come from? In thinking about it, I realized that I did really love the episode, for a lot of reasons which I’ll discuss a bit later, but my hesitation came from feeling that it was just so short.Of course no shorter than any other episode of Vikings, but the only reason I was having mixed feelings about the whole thing was really that it was such a strong, intense episode that when it ended I wanted more.
The standout of this episode had to be Floki. As someone rightly pointed out in the comments last week, Floki never really betrayed Ragnar but was actually playing King Horik the whole time. It seems obvious now looking back on it, but the thought hadn’t occurred to me till it was suggested last week by the commenter. One of the reasons the betrayal worked, in a sense, is that it seemingly came out of nowhere. The thought that Floki could betray Ragnar was so jarring and upsetting, that I didn’t stop to think it was all a rouse. Now of course there are probably many others who disagree and saw the deception from the beginning, but it did not cross my mind at first.
The show certainly went a long way to prove this week that Floki was indeed betraying Ragnar. His reaction to seeing his daughter for the first time was unsettling, and of course his murder of Thorstein was another heart breaking moment. Even though it was revealed that all his actions were actually helping Ragnar, even if it had gone the other way, it would have made sense. Floki had reason to send Helga and his daughter away. He had reason to hate Rollo and attempt to get rid of him. And he’s show on more than one occasion how he feels about Athelstan. The storyline worked because either way it could have gone, for King Horik or for Ragnar, could have been justified on some level.
Of course, I am happy that Floki sided with Ragnar in the end, and we finally saw the end of King Horik. His death was one of the ones this season that impacted me the most, both emotionally and visually. It was a culminating moment, and extremely satisfying, knowing how he was planning on slaughtering everyone in Kattegat.Travis Fimmel deserves some serious praise for his work this season. Ragnar spoke only in one scene this episode, reciting the Lord’s Prayer with Athelstan, but his presence permeated the entire episode. All season long, Fimmel has told such a story with just his eyes and facial expressions alone. Each inflection of the voice, each awkward smile, and every carefully chose phrase have helped to move this season and this character along, in the most subtle of ways. It’s been fantastically done, and I’m incredibly eager to see if Ragnar will continue to rise in Season 3, or if that will be the season that sees him start to stumble. He is a King now, which will bring new complications.
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