WiC Watches: The Last Kingdom season 4
Image: The Last Kingdom/Netflix
Season 4: “Episode Nine”
The Danes under Brida and Sigtryggr sack Winchester, guided by the traitor Eardwulf. Haesten ambushes Uhtred’s party and seizes valuable captives.
Recap
The Dane army under Brida and Sigtryggr sack the undefended Winchester, taking Aethelhelm, Aelflaed and her son prisoner. Uhtred and his company accompany Aelswith and Aethelstan, but they are waylaid at Thatcham by Haesten and his Danes, who take Aelswith, Aethelstan and Stiorra to Winchester. Eadith manages to rescue Uhtred and his company from their predicament. Sygtryggr talks with Stiorra. Uhtred and company arrive at Winchester and Eadith sneaks in.
Father Pyrlig finds Edward and his army at Kingsclere, informing him of Winchester’s fall. Aelswith bonds with Aethelstan while imprisoned. Eardwulf threatens Stiorra and Sigtryggr has him executed. Edward wildly and repeatedly charges the gates of Winchester and loses many men in the effort.
Image: The Last Kingdom/Netflix
Our Take
“Episode Nine” was more character-driven an installment than I expected, considering the great battle looming on the horizon, but it all works. After getting a lot of screen time in previous episodes, Aethelflaed is off with her Mercian guardsmen to pacify the north, and her sibling co-ruler bond with Edward is strong. Having settled the rulership situation in Mercia, Edward seems to be on top of the world.
There were some fun moments with Uhtred and his company escorting Aelswith and Aethelstan, as Aelswith tries to mend fences with Uhtred and the Finan/Eadith flirt continues (and I swear if the producers kill Eadith before she and Finan can hook up I’m gonna be pissed). Haesten shows up (how the heck is he still alive, anyway?) and boom: Aelswith, Stiorra and Aethelstan are put in extreme danger at Winchester. At least Haesten makes the age-old villain mistake of not killing the heroes when he has the chance, instead leaving them to a torturous form of slow death from which they can escape.
Image: The Last Kingdom/Netflix
It sure looks like the Uhtred/Aethelflaed romance has been effectively snuffed, but the character wheels keep turning: Aelswith has a nice moment with Aethelstan as she tells all about King Alfred, who we miss as much as she does. Aethelhelm and Aelfwynn look like goners and Eardwulf gets his comeuppance in an appropriately bloody fashion. Haesten, once again in the middle of everything, grabs Eadith before she can make contact with the prisoners.
The most engaging element of “Episode Nine” is the Brida/Sigtryggr dynamic. After all of her traumas, the very pregnant Brida is vastly more violent and vicious than she was before, hell-bent on revenge like so many of her Dane predecessors. Sigtryggr, on the other hand, is essentially her opposite: he can be brutal, but he’s also cool headed, opportunistic and something of a thinker who has new ideas on how to achieve Dane conquest.
Image: The Last Kingdom/Netflix
Having studied the failures of his predecessors from the faraway battlefields of Ireland, Sigtryggr names them all victims of their own dishonors, naked ambitions and runaway rage: Ubba was a berserker, Bloodhair was obsessed with Skade, and Cnut tried to avenge his apparently dead son. Sigtryggr is rapidly emerging as in interesting nemesis for Uhtred, a Dane unifier who can both lead men in battle and is wise enough to potentially take and keep a throne—he’d probably have a lot to talk about with the long-absent Guthrum.
It’s also instructive to compare Sigtryggr and Edward: the frantic Edward wastes his cavalry in vain frontal attacks on fortified Winchester while Sigtryggr waits, calm and ready to strike when the opportunity presents itself. If rash emotionality is a one-way ticket to Heaven/Hell/Valhalla in The Last Kingdom, then Edward and Brida look the most likely candidates to join Sigtryggr’s list of the dead. Yikes.
Image: The Last Kingdom/Netflix
We’ve basically waited all season for the new Dane leader to emerge, and Sigtryggr has plenty of potential. It would stink if the showrunners kill him off at the end of the season. They’re also toying with the idea of a Sigtryggr/Stiorra relationship, or at least that’s the idea I’m getting. Sigtryggr should last. And we’ve got the nasty Wihtgar and the retaking of Bebbanburg still to contend with.
While not the most gripping installment of the season, the oddly sedate “Episode Nine” sets The Last Kingdom’s story boots firmly in place to make the great swing of the sword that will be “Episode Ten.”