'Norsemen' Season 3 Ending Explained: Vikings venture West and bring Rufus of Rome back home, a perfect end
Major spoilers for 'Norsemen' Season 3
This is what one calls the perfect ending.
Season 3 of Netflix's hit Norwegian show 'Norsemen' dropped earlier today after more than a year away and safe to say that it has delivered a satisfying installment. The period comedy is set in 8th century Norway and follows a dysfunctional group of Vikings as they make their way around everyday life. At the end of Season 2, a fan-favorite character, Frøya (Silje Torp), was killed off. And while that had left fans grieving, there was some consolation found in her coming back in Season 3. How?
Season 3, which is actually Season 0, a prequel to Season 1, chronicling the events leading up to the debut season, brings Frøya back. We finally get an insight into her backstory that answers a lot of questions, most pressing one being why she would marry someone as inept as Orm (Kåre Conradi) tying herself in an incompatible union. The answer was simple, as we should have guessed it - marrying Orm was her ticket to be a warrior and going to Viking raids. When Chieftain Olav (Henrik Mestad) proposes his brother Orm to her, she makes this condition and it's granted.
There are other eccentric characters who impressed us throughout the first two seasons and whose backstories are explored. Like Kark (Øystein Martinsen), Liv (Kristine Riis) and the great Jarl Varg (Jon Øigarden), complete with a cameo FROM Sturla Bonecrusher (Richard Skog). It is ultimately the war that he begins - over Jarl Bjørn's (Thorbjørn Harr) own comment over him balding - that leads the narrative in Season 3. Along with that is Orm and Frøya's wedding. It is at the wedding ceremony that Jarl Varg finally decides to avenge that one remark Jarl Bjørn had made that he believes jinxed his hair and made him go all bald.
While he emerges victorious in the war capturing Bjørn as a prisoner, thanks to Orm, he flees from captivity. Following this, Orm is supposed to die by blood eagle (throwback to the previous seasons) in order to be punished for his treason. But when Orm was being held in Varg's prisons, he meets a man from the Middle East who was from England. He tells of Orm about the land to the west and the vast riches that it holds. Later when Olav, Frøya and Hildur (Marian Saastad Ottensen) visit him to bid their final farewells, he tells them of about the land on the other side. So far, the Vikings were venturing towards the east to loot, pillage and rape. No doubt they had exhausted all resources. This new revelation means there are a lot more riches available. All that is great, but literally no one thought that all they had to do was to just go west (as is concluded in Season 2).
Anyway, Olav makes a deal with Varg for the map to spare Orm's life. But he is given a punishment - 'Scrotum Whipping' as the episode is titled. It's surprising that Orm doesn't learn a lesson even after this and continues to be his way.
Once the Vikings set foot in Lindisfarne, England, we finally meet Rufus of Rome (Trond Fausa) who is on tour. It is barely a few minutes till the Vikings knock him out cold. And that is it. The conclusion of Season 3 is the beginning of Season 1 - tied perfectly in accordance with each other. The only loose thread now is Bjørn who manages to escape. We expect him to return in Season 4, should there be one. But that season won't have Frøya.
All three seasons of 'Norsemen' are currently streaming on Netflix.