Honestly, the Vikings season 5 era was a mess. But it was a glorious, bloody, and necessary mess. When Travis Fimmel’s Ragnar Lothbrok took that final plunge into the snake pit in season 4, fans panicked. People legitimately thought the show would die with him. How do you replace that blue-eyed gaze and that weirdly charming, psychopathic shrug? You don't. You can't. Showrunner Michael Hirst didn't even try, which was probably the smartest move he ever made for the History Channel’s flagship drama.
Instead, he gave us a civil war.
It was ugly. It was sprawling. It took us from the frozen wastes of Norway to the scorching deserts of North Africa. If you look back at the 20 episodes that make up Vikings season 5, you’ll see a show desperately trying to find its new identity while its lead characters were busy trying to murder their own brothers. It’s chaotic.
The Ivar Problem and the Rise of the Anti-Hero
Alex Høgh Andersen’s Ivar the Boneless became the sun that the rest of the cast orbited. He's terrifying. He's also deeply vulnerable, which is a tricky balance to pull off when you’re literally screaming for your brother’s head on a pike. In the first half of the season, we see the Great Heathen Army basically fragmenting because nobody can agree on who gets to be the boss.
Ivar wants York. Ubbe wants to farm. Hvitserk... well, Hvitserk just wants to be told what to do, which becomes his tragic character arc for the rest of the series.
Remember the Battle of York? The cinematography there was peak television. Watching Ivar sit in the mud, covered in blood, laughing while Saxon soldiers are too terrified to kill him—that defined the season. It wasn't about strategy anymore. It was about pure, unadulterated ego. Ivar isn't just a strategist; he’s a cult leader in the making. By the time we get to the second half of Vikings season 5, he’s convinced himself he’s a literal god. That’s a long way from the kid Ragnar carried on his back into the woods.
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Lagertha’s Descent and the Kattegat Power Vacuum
While Ivar was playing god, Lagertha was losing her grip.
Katheryn Winnick has always been the heart of the show, but season 5 puts her through the absolute ringer. She’s aging, she’s tired, and she’s haunted by the ghost of Astrid. Her relationship with Heahmund (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) was... polarizing, to say the least. Some fans loved the "warrior-bishop meets shield-maiden" chemistry, while others felt it was a distraction from the Northmen politics.
Heahmund was an odd addition. A Christian fundamentalist who’s also a stone-cold killer and a bit of a sex addict? It sounds like a character from a different show. Yet, in the context of the Vikings season 5 clash of cultures, he served as a mirror for the Norsemen. He showed that the Saxons could be just as fanatical and brutal as the "pagans" they despised.
When Lagertha finally loses Kattegat to Ivar’s forces, her hair turns white—literally overnight. It’s a bit of a dramatic trope, sure (it's called Marie Antoinette Syndrome), but it visually signaled the end of the Golden Age. The Ragnar era was officially dead. The world was now colder and much meaner.
The Floki Subplot: Why Iceland Bored Everyone (At First)
We have to talk about the volcano.
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Floki’s journey to the "Land of the Gods" (Iceland) is often cited as the slowest part of the season. It’s a jarring shift. One minute you’re watching a massive shield wall in England, and the next, you’re looking at Gustaf Skarsgård crying at a waterfall. It felt detached. But if you rewatch it now, the Iceland arc is actually a brilliant, localized version of the show's bigger themes.
Floki wanted to build a utopia. He wanted a place free from the revenge cycles and the greed of the "Old World." But humans are humans. Kjetill Flatnose—played by the massive Adam Copeland (Edge from WWE)—is a ticking time bomb of a character. He brings the same old violence to the new land. It’s a cynical take on human nature. You can change the scenery, but you can’t change the heart. By the time that cave collapses on Floki, you realize his dream didn't just fail; it was crushed by the very people he tried to save.
Rollo’s Return and the Question of Fatherhood
One of the biggest shocks in Vikings season 5 was Rollo coming back. He’s a Duke of Normandy now, looking all French and sophisticated, but he still has that Viking itch. His revelation to Bjorn—that he might be Bjorn's biological father—flipped the script on the entire Lothbrok legacy.
Bjorn’s reaction was perfect. "You may be my father, but you are not my daddy," basically. Okay, he didn't say that, but he did tell Rollo that he looks like Ragnar, thinks like Ragnar, and fights like Ragnar. That’s what matters in this world. Blood is one thing, but the spirit of the wolf is another. This confrontation cemented Bjorn Ironside as the rightful heir to the throne, even if he didn't have the crown yet.
The Siege of Kattegat: A Finale of Fire
The season ends with the "Battle for Kattegat," and it’s one of the most technical achievements in the series. Ivar’s defense of the city was brilliant. He used the terrain, the walls, and psychological warfare to break his brothers.
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But Ivar’s downfall wasn't a sword; it was his wife, Freydis.
After he murdered their child (due to the child being born with a deformity, which Ivar saw as a reflection of his own "weakness"), Freydis turned. She showed Bjorn the secret way into the city. It was a Shakespearean betrayal. Ivar escaping in the back of a wagon, disguised as a commoner, felt like a deserved humiliation for someone who claimed to be a deity.
Key Takeaways for Your Rewatch
- Watch the background details in York. The production design team spent a fortune making the English city feel lived-in and claustrophobic.
- Pay attention to Alfred the Great. Season 5 does a lot of heavy lifting to set up Alfred as the ultimate foil to the Vikings. His evolution from a sickly kid to a king who actually understands Norse tactics is vital for the series finale.
- The soundtrack. Einar Selvik (Wardruna) continues to elevate the atmosphere. The music during the funeral scenes is hauntingly accurate to what we know of Old Norse oral traditions.
How to Digest the Chaos
To truly appreciate what happened in this season, you have to stop comparing it to the early years. The show shifted from a "discovery" narrative to a "succession" drama. It’s basically Succession with axes.
If you're looking for the best way to experience the saga's turning point, focus on the Ubbe and Alfred alliance in the latter half. It’s the most "Ragnar-like" moment of the season—two enemies realizing that trade and land are more valuable than blood and glory. Ubbe becomes the true spiritual successor to Ragnar’s curiosity, while Bjorn inherits the martial prowess.
The next step for any fan is to look into the real-life history of the Great Heathen Army. While the show takes massive liberties with timelines (Alfred and Ivar weren't exactly contemporaries in this specific way), the tension between the different Viking factions is rooted in historical fact. You can explore the real "Hingwar" and "Hubba" in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to see where the writers pulled their inspiration. This season isn't just a TV show; it's a distorted, loud, and violent echo of a history that shaped the modern world.