Vikings: Valhalla season 3 episode 3 opens with the victorious army returning to Constantinople. Maniakes (Florian Munteanu) rides at the head of the army with the Varangians led by Harald (Leo Suter) bringing up the rear. The whole city is in the streets cheering, dropping flower petals and celebrating the return of the heroes.
Harald has some very fancy new armor and is enjoying his glory. But Leif (Sam Corlett), still upset his science was corrupted by Maniakes to kill the Saracens, slips away from the parade and heads to his house on the edge of the city.
The parade winds to the square in front of the palace, where Romanos (Nikolai Kinski) speaks about the bravery of Maniakes and Harald and their soldiers. Both Maniakes and Harald are gifted with the title of "Spatharokandidatos," which is the highest achievement an Imperial Warrior can win.
Normandy
The scene shifts to Bayeux Castle in Normandy, the castle of the Queen's brother Richard (Jack Hickey). Emma (Laura Berlin) and Canute (Bradley Freegard) stop there before heading home to England. At the castle they greet Young William (Ely Solan), the future Duke of Normandy, as well as the Queen's children from her first marriage, Edward (Cal O'Driscoll) and Alfred (Henry Proctor). Canute and Emma's son Harthacanute (Huey O’Meara) is also there.
William's guardian, Walter (Keith McErlean), who is the acting Duke until William is old enough to take on the role, inserts himself into the greetings and Canut and Emma instantly mistrust him.
Over dinner, Canute mentions he wants to expand England's wool trade and the Normans can help. Walter shuts down any idea of trade, so Canute addresses William. William defers to his uncle, but Canute can see that William is very observant and intelligent and is just keeping quiet to bide his time.
While the King and Queen rest in Normandy, Godwin (David Oakes) arrives at his wife's village in Denmark. He arrives during the pagan Midsomar festival and the village is celebrating. He finds his wife, Gytha (Henessi Schmidt) dancing with the other women of the village. Gytha is thrilled to see him.
She introduces him to Harald Harefoot (Pyry Kähkönen), the bastard son of King Canute. who wants to join the line of people fighting for the throne of England and wants Godwin to help him.
The festival is attacked by Wends. They fight back bravely, but Gytha is kidnapped when she fights a Wend trying to steal one of the women. The man hits Gytha and throws her over his saddle.
Godwin sees the man ride off and goes after him. Godwin kills Gytha's captor, while she wakes in time to kill a Wend trying to kill Godwin. After seeing Harefoot fight the Wends, Godwin agrees to help him become king.
A treasure for a hero
In Constantinople there is a feast for the heroes in the Imperial Palace. Empress Zoe (Sofia Lebedeva) and Harald flirting, with Maniakes and Romanos both watching them. The Emperor's guards beckon to Harald and lead him deep underground, where he's not sure if they're going to kill him. Instead, they lead him to a vault where the Emperor and Zoe wait. As his reward he gets to choose whatever he wants from a room filled with gold and treasure. Zoe slips a gold key into his hand, indicating he can have more than treasure.
Harald goes to find Leif, who no one has seen since they returned to the city. Harald finds him burning all his scrolls and drawings and books he's collected. Leif is deeply troubled by his ideas being used to hurt people. He's questioning his purpose.
Harald has enough money now to raise a huge army and take the throne of Norway. But he's lingering in Constantinople, and he may be getting too comfortable living off the glory of his exploits.
The last daughter of Uppsala
In Jomsborg, the people who lived are still weak, including Freydis (Frida Gustavsson). In a fevered state, she has another vision of the land with the golden trees and the seer (John Kavanagh) calling her the last daughter of Uppsala.
Freydis and her advisors have a meeting to figure out what to do. They don't know who poisoned the village, but they know that whoever did will be coming soon to see if their plan worked.
With half the village gone and the others still recovering they can't win a fight. Freydis mulls whether they should leave Jomsborg before the killer arrives or stay and try to fight. She talks about her vision with Stigr (Leander Vyvey) and struggles to know what to do.
Changes on the horizon
While Freydis tries to decide her next move, in Constantinople Harald and Leif part ways. The one thing Leif keeps is the strange map he got from the citadel in Syracuse. He decides to sail for Corfu to find the mapmaker. He gives Harald his compass and tells Harald it will always tell him the truth so he should follow it.
In Normandy, Alfred, Edward and William make a pact to help each other as they try to navigate tricky family relationships and power structures. Canute takes Edward for a ride alone to try and convince Edward to make up with Emma and stop giving her such a hard time. Edward agrees to lighten up on his mother and stop blaming her for leaving him in Normandy.
In Jomsborg, Freydis sees Magnus (Set Sjöstrand) sailing towards Jomsborg flying Olaf's colors on his sails. She hatches a daring plan to take the survivors and leave Jomsborg.
Harald also takes a daring step in Constantinople when he uses the key Empress Zoe gave him. It opens a gate, which leads to a series of secret passages. At the end is a secluded cove on the beach where a tent and bed are set up. Harald starts an affair with Zoe, risking both their lives.
All episodes of Vikings: Valhalla season 3 are available to stream exclusively on Netflix.
