Vikings 5×07 Review: Full Moon

Last week we saw that Bjorn was returning to Kattegat, and I’ll be honest, it was great to see him and Lagertha back together in “Full Moon”.

Other than Bjorn and Lagertha’s reunion, though, I’m torn about how I feel regarding the Kattegat story line in “Full Moon”. Part of this is definitely because I’ve really enjoyed Bjorn these past couple seasons – I feel like as a character he really came into his own, and I love that they gave him this sense of adventure that has led him to travel so much of the world. And listen, I totally understand that he has outgrown his love for Torvi – that’s also a really normal thing, and I love that Vikings is portraying this change in a far better manner than Ragnar and Lagertha’s split.

What I didn’t like about the Bjorn/Torvi situation is that while he was honest with her, she wasn’t really honest with him – she’s obviously a lot more upset about it than she admitted. On top of that, Bjorn immediately wanting to hook up with King Svase’s daughter and then suddenly wanting to *marry* her, too, is just a bit much for me.

This is even more frustrating because Bjorn has been acting more and more like Ragnar, to the point of even talking like him. During the feast he was clearly delighting in each piece of information he revealed, parceling those pieces out slowly (from least to most ridiculous), and savoring everyone’s reactions. It begs the question, are they now going to attempt to put Torvi in Lagertha’s shoes while Bjorn runs off with a princess just like his father did? I really hope not, especially as I’m already side-eying the similarities between Ragnar’s relationship with Athelstan and Ivar’s with Bishop Heahmund Crazy Eyes.

That said, even more odd was the sudden Torvi/Ubbe makeout session. While both of them are dealing with crappy relationship situations, until their random moment together in “Full Moon” (when Ubbe found her crying and tried to comfort her), I’m not sure I’ve ever seen them exchange more than a few words (shoot, I’m not even sure I’ve seen them exchange that much, but feel free to correct me if I’m wrong).

Still, I can’t really begrudge them taking a bit of pleasure; while I’ve never been a huge Torvi fan, the writers are doing a great job of garnering sympathy for her, and let’s be honest, Margrethe is The Worst. Even after Lagertha threatening to cut out her tongue, Margrethe is still running her mouth, and while Ubbe seems to be the only one who knows what she said in “Full Moon”, part of me almost hopes that Torvi was hiding somewhere nearby or that Ubbe actually knows his wife is more trouble than she’s worth. Even if he has no love for Lagertha, maybe he feels strongly enough for Bjorn as his brother or Torvi as his friend/possible future lover to not listen to Margrethe’s nonsense about killing everyone so that he can be king.

Most of the forward-moving plot in “Full Moon” took place in Kattegat, but of course there were some developments elsewhere. For instance, Astrid is pretty sure she’s pregnant, and Ivar isn’t too happy about that. Needless to say, any time they’re on screen together in the near future I’m going to be stressed about the possibility of him killing her…or having Bishop Crazy Eyes kill her, as Ivar spent a good amount of time buttering him up with talk of trusting Heahmund to help him think of a strategy. Sure, later Ivar was giving not-so-veiled threats as he talked about fickleness, but even then he truly seemed to just want Heahmund to reassure him. Which good ol’ Crazy Eyes did – he insisted that Ivar can believe in him and then they were all up in each others’ faces, yet again giving me Ragnar/Athelstan flashbacks. I get it, Vikings! I get it!

While we did get glimpses of Floki’s current situation, they were really just that – glimpses. People are still questioning him (one guy in particular) but hey, they witnessed a geyser, so some of them are actually starting to believe in him. Plus one of the women is pregnant with what will be the first child of the new world. Unfortunately I have a bad feeling that the one complainer is going to be the focus of a lot of what happens there, at least for a while. The only way he wouldn’t be is if Floki keeps his word about allowing the people to rule themselves, and while I don’t believe Floki meant to bring people there in order to rule over them, if other things keep going well the majority could ‘vote’ for him to do so.

Alfred also appeared in “Full Moon”, visiting the monastery where his father was originally captured by the Vikings. I’m not sure I understand how in so short a time they forgot Athelstan’s name (despite remembering the monk who had become a pagan and later been crucified), but it was still fun to see Alfred school the priest (or was he just the head monk?). It was also interesting that Alfred outright admitted that while he knows his father was humble, he doesn’t aim to be…and while I still find the Athelstan vision/voiceover stuff that Vikings has been doing off and on for years a bit cheesy, it was still neat that they brought it back.

By the end of the episode both Harald and Lagertha had gathered even more forces, and “Full Moon” closed with Lagertha and Bjorn looking up at an actual full moon while Lagertha lamented that the end of their world had arrived. With quite a few episodes left this season, there’s still a lot that could happen…but I highly doubt all of these characters will make it through (and beyond to season six).

Who do you think is most in danger of not surviving this season of Vikings? Let us know in the comments!

Author: Tara Lynne

Tara Lynne is an author, fandom and geek culture expert, and public speaker. She founded Ice & Fire Con, the first ever Game of Thrones convention in the US, and now runs its parent company Saga Event Planning.

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