Yeah I think Erlendur is toast.

The writer says Kalf is a main stay. Not sure how he survives; he either changes course or Ragnar long-cons him the way Kalf long-conned Lagertha.

Totally agree. Judith & Athelstan went from longing glances to jumping in the sack and saying "i love you's". It was just too much too fast.

Oh I didn't think of it that way. Hopefully yes, Lagertha was just thinking 'Dude is having a moment' and not 'WTF, you are bleeding from your palms'?!.
The US butcher hour is a continuous issue for this series. Not that the Judith/Athelstan arc deserved artistic spotlight, but their 'love' was mad rushed for US…

I'm glad Lagertha is being Lagertha, even without her title.
And yeah, Ragnar doesn't care about titles. He wouldn't want to be King if he was able to raid wherever and whenever he wants without the title.

I hear ya. The first half of season 2 was slow for me because I'm a Lagertha fan, and to me Rag & Lag are like peanut butter & jelly. Better together ;)

Was thinking the same. Could've been atrocious acting.

But what about the blood pouring from Athelstan's hands. Witnessed by Lagertha?

I don't mind the mysticism too much either.
But then there's that scene of the blood spewing out of Athelstan's palms in front of Lagertha, who also saw it.
I still don't understand the point of that.

But what would've have been the point of Athestan's character if Ragnar reverts back to straight up butchery? Didn't he learn discipline and tolerance from him?

I love chatting about old episodes.
I can assure you Ragnar is not hot for Siggy.

In that moment, the reason Ragnar took blame was to protect Athelstan. Floki started in on his usual blame-the-preist tirade, and Ragnar could see Floki's wheels turning to malice. By stressing "Me!" 3x's to Floki, Ragnar was attempting to put a stop to an attack on Athelstan.

I can agree to that. I have a similar gripe about the randomness of Athelstan's "vision" that led him to renounce the gods. It would've been more organic if he'd become disenchanted with paganism while in Wessex this last time. All that time he spent with Ecbert— I think there was one scene of him rediscovering the…

My peeve isn't so much that characters are motivated by supernatural / random occurrences. It's that once they've already acted out, they absolve themselves of responsibly because "the gods told me to do it".
So it was relieving for me when Ragnar said to Floki that what happened to the settlement was his own fault.…

Agree. He will be good.

Enemies, loved ones…Ragnar plays mind games of varying degrees of severity.
Sometimes being an asshole and sometimes it's lethal.

I watch Bates Motel and it is awesome.

I can believe his behavior because as much as Floki hates Christianity, he truly loves Ragnar. Everything he's feeling this season, he felt last season— but was able to temper it because Ragnar's plans needed to take precedence.

The first three episodes of this season worried me, but for me it's been on the upturn since 304. Very slow start, and I agree with many of your points.

There is history supporting a rouse of some kind that allows the Vikings to walk right into the city of Paris. You could be right.