It's been about a month and a half since Vinland dropped anything less than a 9/10 in my eyes. And it show no sign of stopping.
This episode is composed perfectly. It starts with rage, then to upset and calm, then to rage once more, and by the end we see something building for the next episode. The episode came back to the same words we've heard before in past episodes, and it continued the one theme of calm in both seasons. That message is one echoed in every part of the story. And this is why we love the show, because every episode links.
The next episode I'd predict exceeds even this, and this episode made me cry a lot again. As a dude, I would never have felt comfortable to admit that, but this show reminds us we're human, we have pain, and we have no enemies. We learn to grow and endure, but express our words along with the characters.
The music and use of pathetic fallacy in this episode really enhanced the composition and impact once again. Anime has that over manga and those details are crucial to any good adaptation of a show. And Vinland Saga today showed why it's a great adaptation.
We're seeing something build in long and short term and yet the present is great too. Yukimura's story planning is probably one of the best things here. It's not all over the place, it's streamlined, and unlike high energy shonen, it progresses at the pace it needs to.
Overall, this episode once more was basically without significant flaws. I feel like we neglect just how difficult it is to map these episodes out, and yet MAPPA's employees make it seem so easy. It's not easy being perfect.
Einar and Thorfinn seem very real, and next episode, we'll no doubt be seeing Thorfinn in the most detail since S1, and probably an interaction between him and Canute (which everyone should've seen coming.)
Watch the show, and learn from it.