'Vikings': We have the doppelganger's sacrifice to thank for real Lagertha's long life
In episode 14 of 'Vikings' season 5B, Ivar the Boneless decided to make a major sacrifice to establish his self-proclaimed godhood. At first, it was hinted that it would be his brother Hvitserk, and when that became too obvious, the trailer hinted that the sacrifice would be Kattegat's soothsayer, the Seer. The trailer also caused fans to panic as Ivar announced that it was Lagertha who was to be sacrificed.
The episode that concluded with a hooded figure dragged on stage, assured that it definitely wasn't who we thought it was. The following episode revealed that Ivar, who loves to scheme and fool people, sacrificed a lookalike of Lagertha. When one of the spectators point out that the blonde woman dragged to be sacrificed isn't the leading shieldmaiden of the show, Ivar quickly commands his men to get rid of the protester.
With the ultimate sacrifice of the lookalike of Lagertha, the Seer's prophecy on Lagertha being killed by one of Ragnar's son may have been fulfilled in the most relieving and twisted way. As of now, Lagertha has been missing ever since she saw her ex-lover Bishop Heahmund killed on the battlefield against King Harald. Even though she's missing, there's an assurance that we may not need to worry as she will return as the Valkyrie, the goddess of death, that she has been likened to in many cases, and that she will definitely be back in the final season of Vikings airing later this year.
So if the Seer's prophecy has been fulfilled, we need to address who this lookalike of Lagertha is? Viewers know that the real Lagertha was in Wessex at the time her doppelganger was killed. Who was this faux Lagertha? Where did Ivar find her? Do we need to thank her for fulfilling the Seer's prophecy? We do, but there isn't any name or credit mentioned anywhere on faux Lagertha. So maybe she was just a random nobody as the fans on Facebook had pointed out.
"Look, it isn’t the seer as in the same scene we saw the seer screaming in agony in HIS room in his bed, and it isn’t Hvitserk as we saw in the trailer that he’ll join Bjorn later, I believe it’s just another ordinary person and he made it up thinking it was Lagertha. So that people will believe it," a user pointed out.
Another user wrote that it the idea behind "proxy" Lagertha was to "keep people far enough away from it and they won’t know the difference. Then when he says it’s Lagertha they give up hope of her coming back and fully submit to Ivar as king."
As we saw in 'The Lost Moment', underneath the hood was a young blonde woman whom Ivar identified as Lagertha in front of the people of Kattegat, to instill fear and establish his reign by faking to kill their former queen. With a public sacrifice to fool everyone, including his brother Hvitserk, who stayed away from the ritual, Ivar declared that he had avenged his mother Aslaug's death. He can fool everyone, but not himself.
However, we have the faux Lagertha to thank for the long life of real Lagertha as we are speculating to see her in season 6, since actress Katheryn Winnick said that she underwent three-hours of prosthetic to look different in the upcoming final season; which means she will definitely live till age and appear as the old lady. This would not be possible without the sacrifice of an unknown, unnamed, and forgotten Lagertha, would it?
According to a YouTube user, this fake Lagertha is, in fact, a woman who keeps dying on the show. Waterford1992 writes that "this Viking woman has been killed soo many times on this show, I dunno how she keeps coming back to life... For example, she was one of the Vikings out hunting for food outside York in Season 5 episode 4 and she was shot by an arrow then kicked in the face by a Saxon soldier."