I thought I'd conclude my reviews for 2020 with Vikings Season 6, Part 2 (episodes 11-20) -- the end of the saga -- which I was able to binge on Amazon Prime Video the past two nights. I thought it was wonderful, with one truly outstanding interlude.
This second half of the final season actually comes in two parts. The first focuses on the Rus, with Ivar and Hvitserk in major play. And in the West, Ubbe gets to Iceland and points west with Torve. The second focuses on Wessex, again with Ivar and Hvitserk on centerstage for the Norse. And in the West, Ubbe and his crew make it all the way to America.
That last part had my favorite interlude: the way that Ubbe's group gets along so well with the indigenous people who live in America. As a counterpart and antidote to all the fighting and death we've seen all these years on this powerhouse historical series, there was one scene in which the Vikings and the people who already lived in this lush new world exchange gifts and get to know each other, at least a little. I have no idea if anything like that really happened. But it was good to see on the screen, good for the soul to see.
I've been predicting all along the Floki made it to America, and Ubbe's meeting with the master boat-builder was good to see, too. Ubbe was always the most like Ragnar -- at least, the son who was most like Ragnar when Ragnar was the most rational -- and when Floki and Ubbe are together, especially in that final scene, it was indeed like Floki and Ragnar were back together.
There were lots of fine realizations in this finale, too. For some reason, my favorite was that the old sage who knows everyone's future but never quite spits it out is actually in everyone's imaginations. That is, each of the Vikings who seek counsel with him are really seeking council in each of their own selves.
Back to America: you thought Leif Erikson was the first to make it America, right? Well, in terms of oral and then recorded history, he was -- a bit later than Floki and Ubbe. And we'll see his and related stories when Valhalla, the sequel to Vikings, gets back on the screen. And I'll be back here on the screen when it does.
See also Vikings 6.1-2: Russia! ... Vikings 6.9: Othere = ? ... Vikings 6.10: The Conversations
And see also Vikings 5.1-2: Floki in Iceland ... Vikings 5.3: Laughing Ivar ...Vikings 5.4: Four of More Good Stories ... Vikings 5.5: Meet Lawrence of Arabia ... Vikings 5.6: Meanwhile, Back Home ... Vikings 5.7: A Looming Trojan-War Battle, Vikings Style, and Two Beautiful Stories ...Vikings 5.8: Only Heahmund? ... Vikings 5.9: Rollo ... Vikings 5.10: New and Old Worlds ... Vikings 5.11: Rollo's Son ... Vikings 5.12: "The Beast with Two Backs" ... Vikings 5.13: The Sacrifice ... Vikings 5.14: Fake News in Kattegat ... Vikings 5.15: Battle ... Vikings 5.16: Peace and War ... Vikings 5.17: No Harmony in Iceland ... Vikings 5.18: Demented Ivar ... Vikings 5.19-20: Endings and Beginnings
And see also Vikings 4.1: I'll Still Take Paris ... Vikings 4.2: Sacred Texts ...Vikings 4.4: Speaking the Language ... Vikings 4.5: Knives ... Vikings 4.8: Ships Up Cliff ... Vikings 4.10: "God Bless Paris" ... Vikings 4.11: Ragnar's Sons ... Vikings 4.12: Two Expeditions ... Vikings 4.13: Family ... Vikings 4.14: Penultimate Ragnar? ... Vikings 4.15: Close of an Era ... Vikings 1.16: Musselman ... Vikings 1.17: Ivar's Wheels ...Vikings 1.18: The Beginning of Revenge ... Vikings 4.19: On the Verge of History ... Vikings 4.20: Ends and Starts
And see also Vikings 3.1. Fighting and Farming ... Vikings 3.2: Leonard Nimoy ...Vikings 3.3: We'll Always Have Paris ... Vikings 3.4: They Call Me the Wanderer ... Vikings 3.5: Massacre ... Vikings 3.6: Athelstan and Floki ...Vikings 3.7: At the Gates ... Vikings 3.8: Battle for Paris ... Vikings 3.9: The Conquered ... Vikings Season 3 Finale: Normandy
And see also Vikings ... Vikings 1.2: Lindisfarne ... Vikings 1.3: The Priest ... Vikings 1.4: Twist and Testudo ... Vikings 1.5: Freud and Family ... Vikings 1.7: Religion and Battle ... Vikings 1.8: Sacrifice
... Vikings Season 1 Finale: Below the Ash
historical science fiction - a little further back in time
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