We witnessed another time jump in the midseason finale of History Channel's Vikings and as expected, a lot has changed for all our characters. Vikings creator Michael Hirst has just revealed how the last few years have changed Lagertha specifically.
While a lot of Vikings characters feel “safe,” I never know what this show is going to pull and every time there's a jump forward in time I'm left wondering even more. Such was the Season 4 midseason finale which introduced us to Ragnar's grown children. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly Hirst was spilling quite a bit about the second half of Season 4 including some big, though perhaps not entirely unexpected, changes for Katheryn Winnick's Lagertha.
“She”s a ruler, she”s got lots of responsibility, she has ambitions beyond that, but in terms of her personal life, if she can help it, she”s not gonna get involved with another guy who”s gonna want immediately to take her earldom away from her. So she”s with a woman, who”s not going to want to do that – at least initially!” Hirst said, “She is the most wonderful, powerful, strong, independent, clever Viking woman, in a society that did allow women to rise, to have some authority. But even so, for a woman, there”s still barriers to get through, and the absolute ambition of men that would just trample you down.”
Though the creator stopped short of putting an exact label on the relationship.
That”s a new female character called Astrid [played by Josefin Asplund]. She”s become a part of Lagertha”s life. They are in a relationship. You can well imagine why Lagertha might now be in a relationship with a woman, because all the men she”s been involved with have betrayed her and let her down. And no one could really expect her to live totally alone, she”s not that kind of a woman. And I”m not saying that she”s suddenly discovered that she”s a lesbian, that”s not the point. The point is, she”s in a relationship with someone she feels more comfortable with, someone she feels she might be able to trust, and it”s a woman.
EW shared this image of the two.
The women of Vikings have always had really interesting and varied relationships on top of their own unique arcs so I'm very interested, if not a bit cautious, to see how this plays out. There was a storyline in the first half of the fourth season surrounding Dianne Doan's Yidu that had potential to add to that greatness (while also adding some diversity to the show) but it wound up striking me as very off towards the end. Especially considering an alternate scene Doan shared with EW.
But Hirst also touched on another important relationship on the show, that of Lagertha and Aslaug.
“There”s no point in me denying that this is a culmination of a storyline that goes back to season 1, that Lagertha has clearly never forgotten, or forgiven, Aslaug,” said Hirst. “And Aslaug has been, since Ragnar disappeared, has been sort of the ruler of Kattegat. But to Lagertha”s eyes, not an effective ruler, not a real ruler, not a proper ruler, for whatever reason. She hates her.”
Ok, officially worried about that now too.
The History Channel has already renewed Vikings for Season 5 (which is currently in production) but Season 4B will return in the Fall. Here's their Comic-Con trailer to tease what's coming up.