The Best Vikings Episodes According To IMDb

Being a leader in the "Vikings" world comes with plenty of perks, but there's always someone who wants what you've got, and for Ragnar Lothbrok in "Brother's War," the green-eyed monster is his brother Rollo (Clive Standen). Despite Rollo's treachery (he joined Jarl Borg's army and fought against his own people), Ragnar just can't go through with killing him. When Borg and King Horik (to whom Ragnar is loyal at this point in time) agree on peace terms, Ragnar returns to Kattegat with Rollo as his prisoner. A lawgiver is called upon to decide the traitor's fate, and — despite the prevailing sentiment in Kattegat — he frees Rollo. What Ragnar's people don't know is that he has secretly bribed the lawgiver, securing his brother's release.

"Brother's War" also sees Ragnar grieving for his daughter Gyda (who succumbed to the plague) and dealing with the arrival of Princess Aslaug (Alyssa Sutherland), who is carrying his child. Ragnar floats the idea of taking Aslaug as his second wife, which doesn't go down well with his first wife, Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick). It's the final straw for Lagertha, who leaves Kattegat with Bjorn (Ragnar's firstborn son) at her side. Nerdophiles praised the scene, calling it "poignant" and noting that it was "satisfying to see Lagertha take her life in her own hands and not tolerate Ragnar's bulls***." The episode is an emotional one for Ragnar, with Travis Fimmel giving a touching performance as he mourns his daughter.

"Answers in Blood" brings Lagertha, Bjorn (now played by Alexander Ludwig following the first big time jump), and Ragnar back together. Lagertha decides to help her ex regain control of Kattegat, mobilizing troops without the knowledge of her abusive husband. They don't have enough warriors to take on Jarl Borg in a fair fight, so the former lovers decide to hit him where it hurts and burn his winter food supply. It's a psychological blow for Borg, and it works wonders — when the two sides meet in battle, the usurper retreats, abandoning Kattegat to its rightful ruler.

High on victory, Ragnar pitches the whole polygamy idea to Lagertha once more. While it's clear that she still has feelings for her blue-eyed ex, she takes another hard pass. Bjorn opts to stay with Ragnar, however, having forgiven him. "Answers in Blood" is the first episode in which Bjorn and Ragnar fight alongside one another as grown men, an echo of Bjorn's childhood pleas to raid with his father. It was great to see father and son on the same page, but it's mom who steals the show here. "This is very much Lagertha's episode," the AV Club said in its review. "In the final scene — leaving Ragnar and Bjorn for the second time and riding off in command of her troop of warriors (after just having helped her former husband regain his lands) — Lagertha triumphs."

Season 2 episode "Blood Eagle" is about exactly that: Jarl Borg getting blood eagled. It's a gruesome punishment that involves detaching the ribs from the spine to form makeshift wings on the victim's back, though the scene was shot in a way that spares us most of the gory details. Worried that they still need Borg's men and boats to take on Wessex, Horik asks Ragnar to wait until they've found another ally before completing the dirty deed. Luckily, Lagertha has just become an earl in her own right after overthrowing her awful husband, and she agrees to join the raid.

A lot goes down as we await Borg's execution. Ragnar learns that Athelstan is still alive via the Seer, Floki (Gustaf Skarsgård) gets married without inviting Ragnar to the party, and back in Wessex, King Aelle of Northumbria (Ivan Kaye) allies with Ecbert, making England a more formidable foe. The final scene sees Ragnar, true to his word, blood eagling Borg in a disturbing public spectacle. "It is a totally extraordinary TV event, I think," Michael Hirst told the Chicago Tribune. "And one of the things I'm proudest of." What makes it all the more disturbing is that Borg endures the ordeal in silence, guaranteeing his place in Valhalla. The episode will always be remembered for this moment, but it also does a good job of showing how tenuous Ragnar's grip on everything is.

It's party time in Season 2's "The Lord's Prayer." Having cemented a deal with the Saxons, Ragnar returns to Kattegat with his fleet. Convening ahead of the agreed-upon attack on Mercia, Horik and Lagertha arrive with their entourages in tow. Horik brings his remaining kids and his wife, the legendary shieldmaiden Gunnhild (Elizabeth Moynihan). Everyone is seemingly getting ready to party hearty, but there's treachery afoot: Horik wasn't behind Ragnar's deal with Ecbert, and he plans to wipe out the whole Lothbrok family.

For weeks Horik had been trying to get inside Floki's head in an attempt to turn the boat builder against Ragnar. For a while, it appears as though he's succeeded. This episode does a great job of making it look like Ragnar is going to be ambushed in his own home, only to reveal that he was ahead of the game. It turns out that Floki has been playing Horik, who gets brutally killed by an incensed Ragnar. With the king now dead, the former farmer takes the crown for himself.

The episode is named after the touching scene in which Athelstan helps Ragnar recite the Lord's Prayer, a meditation on how important the blending of their two cultures has been for both men. The spiritual moment seems fittingly placed as it almost immediately precedes Ragnar's ascension to king, a moment that's marked by a beautiful ending scene with King Ragnar surveying his lands from on high.

Season 3's "Born Again" is one of the most emotional episodes of "Vikings." The title refers to the rebirth of Athelstan, whose years of religious turmoil come to an abrupt end. The former monk has a vision and embraces his Christian faith once more, considering himself to be born again. He takes off the arm ring that Ragnar gave him, but Athelstan is still fully committed to his dear friend, and he's willing to follow King Ragnar wherever he goes.

The episode also includes two new arrivals: Bjorn and Þórunn (Gaia Weiss) welcome baby Siggy, and we also witness the birth of Judith's (Jennie Jacques) child Alfred, destined to be known as Alfred the Great. Drama surrounds Alfred's birth, as he's not the son of Judith's husband, Prince Aethelwulf (Moe Dunford). When she reveals that Athelstan is the father, King Ecbert sees it as divine intervention and ends her interrogation — but not before she loses an ear. Sadly, Athelstan never gets to meet his child.

Having grown even more suspicious of Athelstan now that he's openly Christian again, Floki decides to kill him. A serene Athelstan doesn't try to stop him, welcoming martyrdom like a sacrificial lamb. There's a beautiful scene in which Ragnar carries his friend's body up a mountain to be buried, talking to him all the while. He fashions a wooden cross for his grave before shaving his head and placing Athelstan's gold cross around his neck.

"Breaking Point" picks up where "To the Gates!" left off, with the Vikings launching a second assault on Paris. Ragnar, badly injured from the first attack, is stuck watching the festivities from afar. The Viking forces flood one of the bridges that leads into the city, but just when the invaders think they're about to get inside, the Franks break out a horrifically effective weapon — a massive spiked wheel on tracks straight out of an Indiana Jones film.

The Vikings turn to flee, but several are impaled on the spikes as it cuts through them like grass. It makes for a delightfully gruesome scene, though the tables are turned when Rollo figures out they can jam the death wheel in place with weapons. And yet, while the Norsemen make a valiant effort, it ultimately fails. Once again, they return to their camp, frustrated and disappointed.

The tide is only turned when a sudden illness hits Paris. Residents start dropping like flies, and the Franks are forced to offer Ragnar some riches to go away. To their surprise, a payoff isn't his priority — Ragnar wants to be baptized so he can see Athelstan again in heaven. This also comes as a shock to Ragnar's fellow Vikings, who can't quite believe what they're witnessing. The Franks, believing they're getting off easy, happily oblige.

Season 4 opener "A Good Treason" set a darker tone for the show, which was quite a feat considering everything that went down before it. Still suffering from the injuries he sustained in Paris, Ragnar is forced to deal with Floki when he learns that Bjorn has had the boat builder arrested for Athelstan's murder. Over in Hedeby, Kalf tells the people that he and Lagertha will now rule jointly, despite her declaration that she plans to kill him someday. For good measure, he executes the mustachioed schemer Einar (who just can't let his hatred for Lagertah go) along with the rest of the anti-Lagertha party.

The most shocking part of this episode happens back across the sea in Frankia. Rollo and Princess Gisla appeared to have a moment when they locked eyes during the siege of Paris, and when the king of the Franks offers his daughter's hand in marriage in exchange for Rollo joining their ranks, he accepts. To prove his loyalty to Paris, he murders the rest of the Norsemen that Ragnar left behind. It's a brutal betrayal, one that nobody back home has any idea about it. Seeing Rollo turn heel again is both disturbing and satisfying all at once. It's exactly the kind of writing that makes "Vikings" so fun to watch.

Lagertha takes her sweet revenge against Aslaug in the Season 4 episode "In the Uncertain Hour Before Morning," and it kickstarts a series of events that changes the Viking world. With Ragnar no longer the man he was, Bjorn is doing most of the heavy lifting in terms of running Kattegat. Aslaug is still queen in name, but that's about to change — Lagertha's forces storm the city and she takes the throne for herself. Powerless to stop her, Aslaug asks only that she be allowed to leave in peace. Lagertha agrees, only to put an arrow in her back as she walks away. She did steal her husband, after all.

Meanwhile, the unawares Ragnar arrives in Wessex with Ivar (Alex Høgh Andersen) at his side. The small fleet they took with them got wrecked in a storm, and they're pretty much helpless. Ragnar is at the mercy of his longtime frenemy Ecbert, who cannot bring himself to kill him. Ragnar urges Ecbert to hand him over to Aelle and let Ivar leave, convincing him that his sons will seek revenge on the Northumbrian king rather than him. It's one last stroke of genius from Ragnar, and it was a brilliant piece of writing. IGN called "In the Uncertain Hour Before Morning" one of the "best and most poignant episodes to date" in its glowing review.

"Crossings" finds the Scandinavian and English worlds grappling with the consequences of Ragnar's death. If it was ever in doubt, this episode makes it clear that Lagertha never stopped loving Ragnar. "Likely a day doesn't go by that she regrets her decision to leave him," as Den of Geek said in its review. "And now, faced with the stark reality that her ex-husband's sons have vowed to kill her, she must decide how to proceed." There's something beautifully tragic about watching her accept this reality while still feeling so close to the man whose heart she owned.

Concerned about a possible invasion (and after learning from the Seer that she is fated to be killed by one of Ragnar's sons), Lagertha has her people get to work fortifying Kattegat. Meanwhile, Bjorn and a Viking force that includes Floki, King Harald of Norway (Peter Franzén), and his brother Halfdan the Black (Jasper Pääkkönen) set out to raid new lands to the south. They reach the city of Algeciras in Spain, where they encounter Muslims for the first time. They storm a mosque, and Floki is awestruck when the worshippers inside refuse to break from their prayers, even after one of them is killed. Their dedication to their god appears to have a deep impact on him, and it's a sign of a coming crisis for the staunchly pagan character.

The attack that Lagertha has been anticipating finally comes to pass in Season 4's "On the Eve," though her prep work pays off. The defenses she put in place hold steady, and the assault on Kattegat is thwarted. Lagertha presses the captured Egil (Charlie Kelly) to admit that he was sent by King Harald, who has long held ambitions of ruling over all of Norway. Things aren't going much better for Harald in Mercia. The Danish princess he's been pining for tries to pull a fast one, seducing him with a knife behind her back. His brother Halfdan kills her just in time, saving his life.

Aethelwulf's army finally arrives to confront the Vikings, but — despite all the bickering amongst the brothers — the Norsemen get the upper hand. They pull off a clever battle maneuver, tricking the Saxons into making for the Viking ships and then ambushing them. It's one of the more strategic battles in the series, and the win only serves to empower Ivar, who is getting more and more full of himself. IGN was full of praise for the "action-packed" fight scenes, saying: "Separate battles in both Kattegat and Wessex showcased our main characters thinking on their feet, employing out-of-the-box tricks, and dismantling their enemies."

Season 5's "Homeland" sees Floki begin his exploration of Iceland, which he found completely by accident. A place of great natural beauty, he believes that the island is in fact Asgard, the land of the gods. Like much of this season, the episode dances almost dizzyingly from one stunning geographic location to another. After taking the advice of Halfdan, Bjorn decides to send most of his fleet home and pose as a tradesman in the Mediterranean. The two men receive a strange reception upon their arrival in Sicily, where Norsemen look almost alien to the locals.

Over in England, the Vikings that opted to remain behind with Ivar launch their assault on York. Ivar is truly terrifying in this episode as he screams maniacally during the battle that ensues, surrounded by blood and clanging metal. We witness the beginning of his god complex when a slave woman he frees tells him that he's been chosen. With Ivar now seen as the leader of the Great Heathen Army, a jaded Ubbe (Jordan Patrick Smith) heads home to Kattegat. In Norway, Astrid (Josefin Asplund) and Harald come to an agreement, despite her conflicted loyalties. It's delightfully difficult to tell what her true motivations are at this point.

One of the best episodes from "Vikings" Season 5's second half, "Hell" sees the murderous Ivar at his darkest and most disturbed, which really is saying something. Perhaps the high point of the episode is the death of Bishop Heahmund (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), which took its cues from the historical figure's real death at the Battle of Meretun in 871. The onscreen version of Heahmund died as he lived — a hot mess riddled with guilt from years of religious zealotry.

It's exciting to finally see Alfred looking every bit a king as he becomes the man his grandfather wanted him to be, and Judith's cold focus as she tortures a conspirator is another highlight of the episode. But it's the distinctly apocalyptic feel to the scorched-earth battle scene — which is shown through flashes of metal, fire, and mud after the action ends — that made this episode a real fan favorite.

The midseason premiere of "Vikings" Season 6, "King of Kings" sees Bjorn Ironside get an epic send-off worthy of Ragnar's legendary son. Not one to narrowly escape death only to languish alongside his wives, Bjorn musters enough strength to face the Rus army head-on in a scene that fans praised as "beautiful" and "chilling" on IMDb. The critics were also moved by what they saw. "I've watched ['King of Kings'] multiple times to pick up on all of the nuances of what is probably my favorite episode of the entire series," said Paul Dailly of TV Fanatic.

Bjorn's death is without a doubt one of the standout "Vikings" moments. It's powerful to see this legendary character rouse his army while on the brink of death (he was stabbed by Ivar and presumed dead in the previous episode), proving once more that he's worthy of the name Ironside. The episode also sees a poetic return to an earlier theme as Ubbe ponders the similarities between the Christian God and the Allfather, just as Ragnar and Athelstan once did.