Season 5 started with the funeral for Sigurd Snake-In-The-Eye. The boys had conquered Wessex and Northumbria and sent King Aethelwulf running to the swamps with his sons. Yes, that was twenty episodes ago! Much has happened since then. Love and empires were won and lost, and the body count was high. Here’s a picturesque synopsis for Season 5.
Bjorn and Halfdan travelled to the Mediterranean again. Bjorn had no desire to rule Kattegat or raid anymore. After their welcome runs out, they run back to Kattegat.
Floki leaves Ivar for Iceland and thinks he found the gods.
Ivar, Hvitserk and Ubbe conquer York.
Ubbe wants nothing to do with Ivar’s growing megalomania. He goes back to Kattegat to try his luck with Lagertha. While there, he officially dumps Margrethe for Torvi.
Harald, on his quest to be “King of All Norway”, asks Lagertha to marry him. He’s taken captive and later escapes. He kidnaps Astrid and ultimately marries her.
A hubristic Bishop Heahmund arrives on scene and “secures” an already abandoned Wessex. He finds the King Aethelwulf and tries to recapture York.
Ragnar’s sons defeat Aethelwulf at York and take Heahmund prisoner.
Ivar leaves York to invade Kattegat and kill Lagertha. Despite being treated horribly, Hvitserk follows Ivar. They end up in Harald’s court.
Floki returns to Kattegat to recruit settlers for Iceland. Lagertha tries to stop him. She doesn’t want anyone among her people to leave her.
Ivar and Hviterk lose the first battle for Kattegat. Lagertha captures and falls in love with Bishop Heahmund in the process.
Hvitserk has the brilliant idea to bring in Uncle Rollo for help win the war.
At some point Bjorn gets freaky with a Laplander princess, marries her. She dies in battle.
Harald kills his own brother Halfdan in battle because he said he would. And they’re Vikings, so he had no choice.
A pregnant Astrid is killed by Lagertha on the battlefield. Astrid asked Lagertha to do it. She didn’t want anymore of her life or the baby she is carrying. Lagertha loses the battle for Kattegat and finally ages.
Rollo demands a a hefty trade deal for Normandy, in exchange for what ends up being outdated information on Lagertha’s whereabouts.
Rollo offers Lagertha’s group safe passage to Normandy, and reveals he may be Bjorns father. Bjorn doesn’t care. And Lagertha declines his offer.
Floki’s settlers never resolve their patterns of revenge. Floki goes seeking the gods. He is trapped in a cave with a Christian cross, after a volcanic quake.
Back in Wessex, King Aethelwulf dies of a bee sting.
Judith convinces Aethelred to give the throne to his younger, bastard brother, Alfred.
Lagertha and Bjorn run to England under Heahmund’s protection. Lagertha is jealous of Heahmund’s devotion to God.
Judith poisons her son Aethelred. She knows he’ll never stop plotting against his brother.
King Alfred agrees to honor King Ecbert’s land deed with the Vikings, if Ubbe and Bjorn help defeat Harald’s forces and continued Vikings incursions. While Ubbe forges an alliance with King Alfred, Bjorn gets busy with King Alfred’s future wife.
After defeating King Harald, Bjorn gets busy with the woman Harald has his eye on. Bjorn and Harald create a tenuous alliance to retake Kattegat.
Meanwhile, Ivar has pulled Kattagat back into fear and darkness. He’s worse than Haraldson had been. But he finds love with Freydis.
Freya convinces Ivar that he’s a god and that she is having his child. After denying Ivar’s deification, Ivar kills the Seer.
When Freydis’s baby is born deformed, Ivar leaves the baby to die of exposure.
Ivar kills Margrethe, despite Hvitserk liking her.
Ivar makes Hvitserk play diplomat with Jarl Olaf. Instead, Hvisterk asks Olaf to help defeat Ivar.
In Hvitserk’s absence, Ivar burns Hvitserk’s girlfriend and many innocent villagers alive.
Bjorn, Hvitserk and Harald arrive to take back Kattegat. They lose the first battle. Then Freya betrays Ivar.
Ivar kills Freya and leaves as Kattegat is returned to Bjorn.
Will Bjorn continue to rule? Find out on December 4th at 9pm, on the premier of Vikings Season 6!
Picture source: History Channel, Vikings, & Jonathan Hession
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