Travis Fimmel as Ragnar still remains the most intense and visceral character I've ever seen in a TV show. His performance and presence was the heart of Vikings, and the show just fell off a cliff once he was out of the picture.
When Vikings and GoT were going head to head, there were many points when I genuinely felt Vikings surpassed GoT in quality, largely because of Travis.
All the plots and performances after Ragnar's death were subpar, laughable, and even just flat and boring. How can a show like Vikings go from searing excellence where I am excited for each new episode in the first four seasons, to eventually not even bothering to finish the series because it got so boring after Ragnar.
The emotional punch itself of this episode is heavy and tear inducing, as the filmmaking is firing on all cylinders here. Truly a masterful episode to cap off 4 brilliant seasons of build up.
