Vikings Season 4 (2016)

Twenty episodes. There is a reason Vikings poured its longest single-season runtime into Season 4. This season had to send off an era named Ragnar Lothbrok while at the same time bringing the next era — his sons — onto the stage. Released in 2016, this long season holds in one breath the final journey of an old, weary hero and the rise of sons who each grow their ambitions under their father’s shadow. The fact that one man’s death becomes the starting point of a new story unfolds in a long, weighty rhythm. The sheer weight of closing out an age alone makes ★4.5 persuasive.

What it’s about — One Hero’s Last Voyage, the Rise of His Sons

Season 4 gets fully under way as Ragnar (Travis Fimmel), his authority shaken after the Paris expedition, returns to Kattegat following a long absence. He is old and weary now, and must face sons who no longer follow him. Björn (Alexander Ludwig) dreams of an adventure toward the Mediterranean, and the other sons too grow ambitions of their own. In the latter half of the season, Ragnar sets out on a last voyage to England and accepts his fate, and his death becomes a vast fuse that triggers his sons’ revenge. It is the fork at which a story that followed one hero splinters into the stories of many figures.

Direction — Twenty Episodes in Two Currents, Exit and Rise

Michael Hirst runs the long, twenty-episode span across two currents: Ragnar’s exit and the sons’ rise. The first half focuses on the interior of the old Ragnar and the fractures within the house, while the back half shifts its weight to the new war the sons lead. The episodes dealing with Ragnar’s end are the most static and yet the most intense in the series; the direction that follows a man walking calmly toward death in a restrained frame leaves a deep resonance. That said, owing to the lengthened runtime, some mid-season episodes feel a touch slack in their rhythm, exposing alongside it the challenge the series faces as it grows in scale.

Acting and characters — A Perfect Full Stop to Ragnar

Travis Fimmel puts the perfect full stop on the figure of Ragnar in Season 4. He plays the end of a hero, old and ill yet sharp-witted to the last, with weight and no exaggeration. The lines he gives his son before death and the expression with which he accepts his fate are among the most lasting moments in the entire series. After his exit, the son generation, led by Alexander Ludwig’s Björn, quickly fills the vacant seat. They do not yet possess their father’s depth, but each foreshadows the next age with a distinct character and ambition. Katheryn Winnick’s Lagertha, too, anchors the centre of the generational shift with her unwavering presence.

What the series says — The Legacy Left Where a Hero Departed

Vikings Season 4 takes on the theme of legacy head-on. The name and dream Ragnar built over a lifetime do not vanish with his death but pass to the next generation in the form of his sons. Yet that succession is by no means smooth. The father’s shadow is too vast, and the sons each try to surpass it in their own way. The drama shows how one hero’s death newly binds the fates of many figures, and asks what remains in the place a great man leaves behind. This question becomes the central theme running through all the seasons that follow.

Ratings & reception

Vikings holds an IMDb rating of 8. Season 4 won great praise as the episodes dealing with Ragnar’s end are counted among the finest moments in the series. That said, some held that the density of the first half blurred somewhat under the expanded twenty-episode structure, so it is rated as the point where the series began to wrestle with the balance between scale and density. Even so, the weight of closing out an age is unmistakable.

Verdict

Vikings Season 4 is the series’ greatest turning point. It pulls off the far-from-easy task of sending off Ragnar as its anchor while raising a new generation onto the stage, and does so with relative success. The final performance Travis Fimmel leaves takes charge of the emotional weight of the whole series and clearly points the direction the story will take from here. It is a long, winding season, but the resonance of a hero’s exit alone makes it well worth watching. The rating is ★4.5.

Recommended for

• Those who want to watch the end of Ragnar’s arc all the way through
• Those drawn to the themes of generational change and legacy
• Those who enjoy a long-breathed historical epic