While Bjorn tests his survival skills ice fishing, his kid brothers lead a man hunt in the same wilderness that brings Floki back to suffer Ragnar's deadly revenge, sort of a Chinese water torture, in a cave. Wessex king Ecbert decides against his nobles to rescue deposed and tower-captive Mercian queen-stooge Kwentrith, dispatching crown prince Aethelwulf, while offering his wife Judith a distraction of a her choice: a manuscript illumination teacher like Aethelstan, but Frankish monk Prudentius, whom only the bishop can make confide into a female, isn't what she expected. Rollo tries hard to become a Frankish noble, sparing princess bride Gisla, but the Paris count, his SM volunteer and her imperial guard lover plot to bid for the throne, all despising the coward emperor.
—KGF Vissers