Doctor Who-and-Torchwood-athon; "The Place Beyond the Pines; Mad Men; Vikings. "The Place Beyond the Pines" was loooooong and predictable.

Agree. He was being a jerk to Lagertha in this episode. Unfortunately, his reaction seems to be pretty typical for high-ranking, ambitious men in these sorts of societies, where your long-term success and fame depends on having many sons.

Let us know what you think. I've been holding off on seeing his other work because I'd hate to have my little Ragnar crush ruined by seeing Travis Fimmel be a horrible actor in other stuff, when he's so good in Vikings.

One disease they probably didn't have to worry about was syphilis. There's a lot of debate about whether or not it came from the Americas. It's not settled yet, but I think the consensus among scientists is shifting toward the "it came from the New World" side.

True, but on the other hand, it looks like there's no shortage of experienced Viking girls to show him the ropes.

That made me love Floki even more, which I didn't think was possible. There needs to be a mostly-Floki episode at some point.

This episode was almost ruined for me by those ridiculous priests. Viking religion had ritual specialists that were more shaman-like than creepy faced, eyeliner-wearing, scarified bald headed freaks. Also, in reality, many of them were women.They seem to be the exact pagan counterparts to the Christian monks and…

According to Wikipedia, in the original saga, Ragnar divorced Lagertha very early on and had all his sons with a Swedish princess he married after her. So be prepared for some drama on the marital front.

That single line made everything in the episode a million times better. It's a great line delivered by Travis Fimmel with complete mastery of Ragnar's essence.

Well said!

Aethelwulf sat there and prayed while his men were fighting the Vikings. He deserved what he got.

This is supposed to be more of a reply to the comment below, by Murray—Present: The show has already put one anachronistic act of feminist solidarity into Lagertha's hands when she intervened in the rape of that Saxon (Northumbrian? Angle?) woman by the jarl's brother. It put me in this odd position of being a little…

Yes, Torstein is Ragnar's friend, who had the threesome with Floki and Helga. And I am pretty sure he survived the last battle in this episode. 

More binge-watching of Torchwood. Thanks, Netflix! And, of course, Mad Men and Vikings on Sunday.

I also like the way you see Bjorn learning to navigate his gender role in a society that rewards aggressive men, and encourages a certain amount of male bragging and vanity, yet also values honesty and fairness. In other episodes he was getting the "aggressive and trash-talking" part, but now we see him learning that…

If Athelstan does go full Viking, I hope it's because he wants to shed his Christian morality so he can finally take Ragnar up on that threesome offer.

I love this show, and this was the best episode yet. I love the way Travis Fimmel plays Ragnar, totally agree you never know what's going on in his head. That sly smile and what he does with his eyes are unique. And Gustaf Skarsgard's Floki is delightful. I've never been a fan of battle scenes, or violence in movies…

Speaking of the shield maidens, does anyone know how common it really was for women to fight, on a regular (as opposed to emergency) basis, as warriors in Viking society? I know that there is evidence that there were some women warriors, but I have a feeling it wasn't nearly as common as this show makes it out to be.…