Whether Bjorn proves even more iron-sided than we thought and survives the injury, or wakes up from a no-good-very-bad-dream during the very first frame of Vikings‘ midseason premiere, regular viewers are going to be eager for confirmation of his fate. That said, there’s another question just as big and arguably more important than the resolution of episode 10’s cliffhanger. This question lingers in the longest line of dramatic tension that’s moved through Vikings since season 1, a question that remains at the highest narrative level, even though it’s been supplanted on recent episodes by the more pressing threat of Ivar and his savage Rus. This question relates to narrative seeds that were planted back in the series’ earliest days, when Ragnar led the first raiding party across the ocean to a strange land called Wessex: What will be the fate of England?
Vikings has played fast and loose with the historical record (which is a little fast and loose in its own right), changing timelines and fudging the details of true events, but despite all the creative leeway taken by the writers, the series has always returned to key moments from its source material.
Written by: Looper