I’m still having trouble processing that History’s famous series Vikings pulled a 180 and dropped all of its final episodes on Amazon streaming in one fell swoop, though the binge was a nice change up. Now, here we are and hopefully you’ve already caught Season 6B of the well-liked series, as we are about to get into one particularly major spoiler.
Of course, I am talking about Floki’s return on the series. The mystery of what happened to Floki after he left Kattegat was a moment that had been teased for some time on the show, particularly once Kjetill showed back up in Kattegat. Lots of Vikings during both parts of Season 6, including Bjorn, Ubbe and later Othere all seemed to think Floki had been killed at the hands of Kjetill, though many seemed determined to get to the bottom of this mystery.
As it turns out, however, that was a misdirect from Vikings creator Michael Hirst. The prolific writer on the show instead gave Floki a more poignant ending and one that reconnected him with a son of Ragnar, Ubbe. Both were men who lived somewhat outside the expectations of their societies, so it’s fitting that in the end both ended up in a New World. Michael Hirst recently even revealed that Floki’s return ahead of Vikings’ official end was a moment he knew would work for the series.
I knew that Ubbe would reconnect with him, and I knew that the audience would love that, because I loved it. I knew that I would love to see Gustaf [Skarsgard] back and that would feel absolutely right, absolutely proper. Then it was, what kind of a person was he? Had he found some peace? Had he been damaged in his experiences? And so on. Those were all questions I had to wrestle with and answer.
Speaking with ET, Michael Hirst spoke out about not wanting to leave him “forgotten in the bottom of a volcano” or giving Floki a death storyline like many, many of the other characters during the show’s final season. Instead, Vikings ends -- and again more specific spoilers -- with Ubbe and Floki sitting on a beach and reminiscing about how Ubbe even looks like Ragnar. (Real talk though: Signing Jordan Patrick Smith to play the offspring of Travis Fimmel’s character was great casting.) It was a peaceful moment in an otherwise violent ending and I liked it very much.
As Michael Hirst was writing and coming up with the America storyline, he told the outlet the rest fell into place. Ultimately, however, there is more to Floki’s story than we saw onscreen between Vikings’ penultimate episode and its series finale.
By the way, I think he has found some peace, but I think he knows he's dying. I couldn't have finished the show without him coming back into it. Obviously for me, I knew that they were the last 10 episodes. I knew that it was the end of my saga, and so it was really important to end these various storylines properly and satisfactorily and not cheat either the characters or the audience.
Obviously, mileage may vary for those who have seen Vikings’ final set of episodes already, but do you think, much like Michael Hirst, that Floki’s return works? If you’ve already watched all the episodes on Amazon Prime, we discuss the ending in more detail here. Or, you can always wait to catch them on linear TV. They’ll be heading to History at some point soon.
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