For those who are fans of Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick), now is the time to sit down and brace yourself. You might need comfort snacks and definitely a horn of mead because this recap is going to be hard.
Voting is underway for the King of all Norway
Last week’s episode of Vikings saw the vote for the first King of Norway commence. Bjorn Ironside (Alexander Ludwig) was the hot favorite, according to Olaf the Stout (Steven Berkoff).
However, as suspected, Harald Finehair (Peter Franzen), who has always wanted the coveted title, has been sneaking around and telling everyone whatever the f*ck they want regarding their vote.
Now, it shows because Harald is king, and Bjorn is all Pouty McPoutFace about it.
Wanting to celebrate — and gloat — Harald invites Bjorn to the party to celebrate, but Bjorn stays in his tent to sulk some more. Kjetill Flatnose (Adam Copeland) decides to attend, though, and quickly returns to warn Bjorn that Harald intends to kill him.
He’s too late, and a battle breaks out.
Kjetill is almost killed, and Bjorn, knowing that he has only one supporter left, refuses to leave Flatnose behind when some random offers a boat.
It turns out that the random guy is called Eric, who is pretty much a bandit just like the group that Bjorn exiled from Kattegat earlier in Season 6 of Vikings.
And, just quietly, I am also betting that this guy is the father of Lief Erikson, who features in the Netflix spinoff series, Viking: Valhalla.
Eric, also known as Eric the Red, was also believed to be the first Viking to settle Greenland, so the potential is there that he and Bjorn will take a vacation soon and find a whole new country.
Lagertha goes head to head with White Hair
The head bandit, White Hair (Keiran O’Reilly), makes another attack on Lagertha and her new village. Lagertha expected it, and she and Gunnhild (Ragga Ragnars) had been preparing ahead of the attack.
The group created a fantastic maze system using giant mats of supple branches. Regardless, the bandits enter the maze and are quickly set upon by Lagertha and the shieldmaidens. Using various methods to confuse, they quickly dispatch many of the bandits.
Except for White Hair.
So, viewers knew already that it was going to be a one-on-one showdown between him and Lagertha.
Lagertha, who seems well and truly sick to death of ongoing battles, won’t let anyone else join in and help her to kill White Hair.
The battle is fierce and exhausting — for both the Vikings involved and for fans.
While Lagertha cops a massive gash from White Hair, she does eventually defeat the bandit, and the village is victorious.
Lagertha decides to head back to Kattegat to tell Ubbe (Jordan Patrick Smith) and Torvi (Georgia Hirst) what happened. Being stubborn, she insists on going alone and not tell anyone about her injuries.
So, by the time she reaches Kattegat, she falls off her horse with exhaustion and blood loss. She is determined, though, and starts crawling towards the town center.
Along the way, Hvitserk (Marco Ilso) decides, in a fit of delusion, to follow the monster he sees crawling through the township.
Convinced that it is Ivar (Alex Hogh Andersen), disguised as a serpent, poor confused Hvitserk repeatedly stabs it until he comes to his senses and realizes that he has just mortally wounded the most famous shieldmaiden in Norway.
As she dies, Lagertha tells Hvitserk that it is alright and that he couldn’t have fought against his fate, no matter how hard he tried, because she always knew that she was to die at the hand of a son of Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel).
Hvitserk is relieved at this but makes a hasty retreat once Lagertha finally succumbs to her injuries and dies in her beloved Kattegat.
Meanwhile, in Kiev, Ivar gets a threesome he wasn’t expecting…
Not that anyone cares about anything else after that devastating event, but, over in Kiev, Ivar is watching the wedding of Prince Oleg (Danila Kozlovsky) and Katia (Alicia Agneson).
He is still convinced that Katia is his dead wife, Freydis (Alicia Agneson), but keeps up a friendly composure while the wedding takes place.
Or, so he thinks.
When they are alone, Oleg lets Ivar know that Katia has told him all about how Ivar thinks she is Freydis.
While this is all good and well, Oleg also somehow knows about Ivar and Freydis’ baby, something of which Ivar had never mentioned to the prince.
So, viewers have three options here. They can believe that, somehow, Freydis miraculously survived strangulation, or Oleg managed to torture information out of Ivar’s group before killing them at the beginning of Season 6 of Vikings.
Or that Oleg really is a prophet…
To teach Ivar a lesson about staying away from his wife, Oleg and Kayta then have sex on the very table at which they were all seated, and Ivar has to watch.
Because, of course.
Vikings returns to History Channel with Episode 7, titled The Ice Maiden, on Wednesday, January 15 at 10/9c.