Vikings (TV Series) Blood Eagle (2014) User Reviews

The Fate of Jarl Borg

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 1 October 2017]

King Horit convince Ragnar to execute Jarl Borg later, after they find a new allied. Floki learns that Helga is pregnant and has a strange attitude. Meanwhile King Ecbert and King Aella has a meeting to deal the attack to Mercia and to share the kingdom between them. Ecbert proposes the wedding of her son with King Aelle's daughter to seal their alliance. Ragnar receives a mysterious emissary of an unknown Earl that wants to join forces with him. King Horit lures Jarl Borg that goes in public to be painfully murdered by Ragnar using the Blood Eagle style.

"Blood Eagle" is an intriguing episode of "Vikings". King Horit's attitude toward Jarl Borg was real or he was only luring Ragnar's enemy? Lagertha is an amazing character that surprises the viewers every episode. Ragnar's friendship with Athelstan is sincere and something special. The cruel fate of Jarl Borg shows that the man really deserves to go to the Valhalla. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Blood Eagle"

Finally it reaches some of the heights of the first season

[tpolakov-2 · 9/10 · 4 November 2014]

Yes, the second season has been OK. But being "OK" is too weak for the continuation of what I felt was the best TV history series, period.

Season 2 almost seemed lifeless compared to the pretty much flawless hypnotic complex imagery/sound/thought-scape of the second half of season 1. For example, in Sacrifice S1/Ep8 we end up with a masterful gut wrenching blend of beauty, gore, clash of religions, as if the ancient gods had risen and came back to guide or haunt ;-) the living. Yet there is plenty of human plots too with just the right mix of thought, action, nudity.

So what do we get in Season 2? A run of the mill fight for powers. Yes, there is gore, there are killings, but somehow, the magic got lost in the process. No signs of Valhalla anymore, just people wanting to kill other people. Remember the enigmatic/menacing King Horik of the first season? Every time he appeared on screen, I got a feeling he knew more of the inner workings of this world and how to manipulate people into his own plans. Can't see much of that in season 2 - the charisma is gone.

Anyway, I just kept watching - and finally, in "Blood Eagle" I got some of the magic spell handed over again. There is some beautiful cinematography of times good and bad, some new aspects of Viking life that have not been covered before and of course violence to match. The Vikings are back - not surpassing season 1, but at least rising above average and providing some much needed surprise.

Worst punishment...

[elo-equipamentos · 8/10 · 21 June 2017]

One of best episode from season two, Blood Eagle explores ancient custom of this old people, Ragnar imposes to Jarl Borg the Viking's worst punishment, even against King Horik's agreement who already seen Ragnar as menace to your kingdom, meanwhile in England an alliance is established between two neighbors now sealed by Christian matrimony to join forces against primarily a near enemy to later to face the Viking's invasion, back in Viking's village the night comes and the execution is near although some rumors noticed in previous days, fantastic episode!!

Resume:

First watch: 2017 / How many: 1 / Source: Blu-ray / Rating: 8,75

Shaky Alliances

[amongpixels · 8/10 · 11 January 2021]

"Blood Eagle" features some intriguing developments with its various characters and their relationships. I enjoyed watching King Ecbert and King Aelle's new alliance unfold, and of course seeing Lagertha take the mantel of Earl! Despite this, Bjorn's little storyline of being interested in a girl still hasn't gone anywhere particularly interesting, and some of the scheming with King Horik and Siggy is running its course, seeming to go in circles.

Blood Eagle and no screaming

[marius-bancila · 9/10 · 25 July 2019]

The blood eagle ritual killing is recorded in Norse stories, but the procedure seen in this episode has probably nothing to do with reality. Jarl Borg doesn't let a single scream so that he can enter Valhalla. Seriously, who can go trough that and not scream in agony? Compare this to a few episodes later when they cut Torstein's left arm and he scream and screams. Or even earlier, when a woman fixes Rollo's leg bones and he screams in pain. No, you cannot suffer the blood eagle like Jarl Borg did.

And they call themselves HISTORY!?

[nemesis-88 · 1/10 · 5 May 2021]

It must've been unbelievably difficult for Mr. Kari Skogland, the director, to cinematographize one line in the script: "Ragnar performs Blood Eagle". It's very difficult to shoot something that not only you've never seen, not only you can't imagine, but what actually never happened. The sheer audacity of this channel to call themselves HISTORY is truly amazing.

The episode that turnes us off the whole show

[anfromme · 1/10 · 23 February 2023]

So. Basically a single episode that does very little else but build up to Ragnar doing the - alleged - Viking execution method blood eagle.

He also describes it quite vividly. And then the last probably 10 minutes of the episode... Are spent on Ragner performing said execution method. With closeups of Borg's face, the audience's reactions, lots of blood, droning music...

When I say "probably 10 minutes" it's because I'm not sure. It felt like ages despite the fact I fast forwarded because about 1 minute in, I'd really had enough. Really, really.

So combine this with season 2 having been a bit... Meh up to this point, plus on trying to find out how long that blood eagle scene was (way shorter than it felt) I found series 4 features another blood eagle with the same enthusiasm to depicting it... That's what it took to turn us off the whole show for good.