‘Vikings’ Season 3 Spoilers: Details About The Shocking Episode 4 Character Death

We’ve seen our fair share of characters die on the History Channel’s hit series “Vikings,” with the fatalities ranging from Jarl Borg’s (Thorbjorn Harr) disturbing Blood Eagle death to King Horik’s (Donal Logue) getting head-butted to hell by Ragnar (Travis Fimmel). However, it was the demise of a main character during episode 4 of Season 3 that left us with our mouths agape.

Warning: Spoilers Below! Do Not Continue Reading If You Have Not Yet Watched Episode 4 Of Season 3 Of “Vikings.”

On Thursday night’s installment, titled “Scarred,” viewers were forced to say goodbye to the beloved character Siggy, portrayed by the talented Jessalyn Gilsig. Siggy met her fate after saving the lives of Ragnar’s children who had fallen through ice and into frozen water.

Without hesitation, Siggy dove in after the two boys, retrieving them both from the icy death that awaited them. “When she first goes after the children, it just speaks to who Siggy is,” Gilsig told the Hollywood Reporter about her character’s human instinct. “She just does what anybody would do. The children are falling through the ice, and she knows that unless she goes in and gets them, they're going to die.”

While retrieving the children from the frigid waters, Siggy, who was succumbing to the cold herself, saw an apparition of her daughter Thyri (Elinor Crawley), who died of the plague in Season 1 of “Vikings.” Her vision is what ultimately persuaded Siggy to surrender and “let the Gods take her” so she could reunite with her family in Valhalla. “It’s so unexpected and such a great honoring of the backstory that Michael [Hirst] created,” Gilsig said.

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly in the wake of the shocking episode, Gilsig revealed she was the one who suggested Siggy’s death. “I went to Michael,” she admitted, explaining that “family issues” bolstered her decision. “Living overseas in Ireland just wasn’t conducive to me feeling like I could do what I needed to do on behalf of my family.” Hirst, being an “incredibly compassionate man,” understood Gilsig’s dilemma, she said, despite being disappointed he would have to conclude Siggy’s storyline. “We talked about how he said that we wanted to resolve the character. So he came up with this storyline, and I thought it was so poetic, so beautiful, and showed you who Siggy really was,” she said.

But just because Siggy is dead doesn’t mean her spirit won’t be felt throughout the remainder of the series. “There’s a baby coming, and there’s a way that [Hirst] ensures Siggy lives on through this child,” Gilsig teased, leaving us to believe the baby about to come to Porunn (Gaia Weiss) and Bjorn (Alexander Ludwig) may be named in honor of the woman who saved Ragnar’s children. After all, the king does owe her a great debt.

What did you think of Siggy’s death on “Vikings”? Sound off in the comments section below, and don’t forget to tune in for episode 5, “The Usurper,” on History Channel Thursday, March 19, at 10 p.m. EDT.