You left your home in search of glory, and you found it in Vikings: Valhalla Season 2.
The second chapter of the Vikings sequel series continues the epic, action-packed story of Leif Eriksson (Sam Corlett), Freydís Eiríksdóttir (Frida Gustavsson), and Harald Sigurdsson (Leo Suter) as they seek their fates in 11th-century Europe about 100 years after the events of Vikings.
Before the historical drama’s third and final season rows its way onto Netflix July 11, now’s your chance to get caught up on what happened in Vikings: Valhalla Season 2. Here’s what happened to our bearskin-clad warriors.
The action picks up shortly after Season 1 left off. Sweyn Forkbeard (Søren Pilmark) has taken Kattegat back from Olaf Haraldsson (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson). He installs his teenage grandson Svein (Charlie O’Connor) as king and orders Olaf to serve as the boy’s protector.
Freydís and Harald are living blissfully alone in the countryside, but it cannot last. Harald is set on becoming king, and pagan leader Freydís would never allow her children to be Christians, so they break up. Freydís doesn’t tell Harald that she’s pregnant, but she does tell her brother Leif when he finds them.
Olaf learns where they are and heads in their direction, intending to kill Harald and Freydís, but they escape with the help of Jorundr (Stanislav Callas) and the Jomsviking pirates. Jorundr takes Freydís to Jomsborg, a secret haven for followers of the old ways across the sea, while Harald and Leif set off to Novgorod, in the Rus, to ask Harald’s uncle Prince Yaroslav (Marcin Dorociński) for help in securing Harald’s claim.
Yaroslav can’t provide an army or money, but he introduces Harald and Leif to Lord Vitomir (Steven Brand), who hires them to transport him, his daughter Elena (Sofya Lebedeva), and some mysterious precious cargo to Constantinople, where Harald plans to raise funds for an army. The Dnieper River is blocked by Pecheneg invaders who will kill them if they catch them, but the Vikings assemble a crew and set off down the river.
Leif falls in love with Mariam (Hayat Kamille), an educated woman who’s going back home to Constantinople. She teaches Leif how to read and write and helps him understand that the world is bigger than he could have ever imagined. Unfortunately, she’s terminally ill. Before she dies, she gives Leif a key to her home.
The crew (mostly) survives all the obstacles they encounter along the way: the elements, Varangian raiders, crashing over a waterfall, and getting captured by Pechenegs. Eventually they end up near Constantinople, where the emperor (Nikolai Kinski) comes to greet them. It is revealed that Elena is the precious cargo and that she’s betrothed to the emperor. Harald is disappointed — he’s fallen for her, but at least he’s now in the emperor’s lucrative employ, which means he can stay close to her. Meanwhile, Leif told him that Freydís is pregnant, and Harald wants to marry her, but he’s too far away to do anything about that now.
Freydís is welcomed to Jomsborg with open arms. Community leaders Harekr (Bradley James) and Gudrid (Yngvild Støen Grotmol) appoint her gudija, or high priestess, with the goal of creating a new Uppsala. But she quickly finds out Jomsborg is not the utopia she was promised it would be: Some residents are treated as second-class citizens, and the refugees who come to the community fleeing Christian persecution are forced into labor outside Jomsborg’s gates.
Freydís’ insistence that all worshippers of the Old Ones are equal puts her in conflict with Harekr. Freydís gives birth to a son, Harald. Jorundr tries to help them leave Jomsburg, but Harekr catches them, takes the baby, imprisons Freydís, and banishes Jorundr. Freydís manages to get free and fights Harekr — and Gudrid, along with the other people of Jomsburg who are fed up with his cruelty, rises up to help her kill him. Jomsborg becomes a place of equality after all.
Olaf comes to Jomsborg to kill Freydís and the baby, but he’s no match for Freydís, who lances him through the heart. She returns to Kattegat, more certain of her destiny as the Keeper of the Faith than ever.
King Canute (Bradley Freegard) is still away. Godwin of Essex (David Oakes) is in a secret relationship with Ælfwynn (Maria Guiver), one of Queen Emma’s (Laura Berlin) ladies-in-waiting. An assassin tries to kill Emma, and she suspects the ruthlessly ambitious Godwin is behind it. When she finds out that the assassin is Ælfwynn’s estranged brother and Godwin has proposed to her, she has the innocent girl tortured for information about Godwin so viciously that she dies.
Emma feels bad about this, but then she finds out that Godwin paid a large sum of money to a man named “The Bear” days before the assassination attempt. When she finds The Bear, he’s already dead, and he has a ring that belonged to Godwin’s disgraced father on his necklace. It turns out The Bear raised Godwin and was Godwin’s only connection to his painful past.
Canute returns, but he doesn’t believe that Godwin was behind the attempt on Emma’s life. As a show of support, he betroths his niece Gytha (Henessi Schmidt) to Godwin. Because Gytha has royal blood, their child will have a claim to the throne, which is Godwin’s deepest desire. By the end of Season 2, it’s still a mystery whether or not Godwin orchestrated the assassination attempt and his subsequent good fortune. But either way, Emma suspects him and gifts Gytha the ring to send him a message that she will continue digging for the truth.
And with that, you’re all set for Vikings: Valhalla Season 3. Skol!
