If he had wanted to kill Floki, he would have at least done something in anger before making the trek up a mountain to bury Athelstan.

I agree, the Harbard episode seemed really out of place but then Ragnar brought everything down in just a gesture when Floki tells him it was Odin and he just dismounts from the ship's mast he was sitting in and rolls his eyes. It was great, it was elegant and it reeled everything in.

the implication, it seems quite logical to me, is that he was away for long enough that she couldn't keep the fact that she was pregnant from Athelwulf anymore.

sort of, in the case of Athelstan yes, he did spend some time as a slave albeit one who was meant to live only for a short while. Thorunn is different in that she was a servant, but we almost ever see that, the show hasn't shown any "conflict" in that regard, it's in fact the most overlooked opportunity in it so far.

he was himself a member of the band of murderers, thieves and rapists, so why would he have any qualms?

sshhhhh, we can't talk about the slaves

wut, ur srsly buying that?

that's why the punishment in the show is absurd, it could never have happened.

adultery is following your heart

that's not confirmed, but his intonation was a clue. Or maybe that kid is a shitty actor. We don't know yet.

"I don't think the torture was under the guise of Christian charity"

also there was no torture…

I think Bjorn was historically known to have a huge hatred for Christianity, so it makes sense.

Alfred being a bastard isn't an issue because Ecbert made England believe either he was miraculously conceived or that Athelstan's cum is magical and Alfred is holy for it

Muslims are never going to appear on the show. They were the main buyer of Viking captured slaves and the show is not about to present any of them that way.

"I don't even know why people like Flooki. He's virtually a Southern Baptist/evangelical preacher in viking disguise."

it informs his motivation to a point, but not enough to be believable, I would like it if the show explored some of the settlers in Wessex (some had stayed for some time in England already) started to convert to Christianity or that Floki noticed people making the sign of the cross before eating, missing a holiday,…

"The show never bothered to explore the fact that Thorunn used to be a slave and what this means for her."

that is also well known.

the whole torture scene is a mess, it looked like taken out of a different series.