The fifth and final season of The Last Kingdom is out on Netflix, and it’s a worthy sendoff for the story. Lead actor Alexander Dreymon, who plays the long-suffering Uhtred of Bebbanburg, talked to Variety about some of the key moments.
Fair warning: we’re going to get into SPOILERS for season 5 here, so you might wanna turn back now if you haven’t watched yet.
Uhtred vs Brida
One of the big conflicts in season 5 is the fight between Uhtred and Brida, who started out the show incredibly close but who drifted apart over the years, with deadly results.
“I just loved the concept of starting out the story where Uhtred and Brida are first brother and sister more or less,” Dreymon said. “Let’s not get into too many details, because then they become lovers. And they’re just so, so tight. And then within that first season, that first chasm starts and the seed is sown for what happens in Season 5. We see the progress of that relationship and how often Uhtred is trying to win her heart back, not as a lover but just as a friend because he truly cares for her and he considers her family. And through a series of mainly misunderstandings and misinterpretations of intentions, she just keeps slipping away from him further and further.”
"And there are moments when they find each other again, when it comes to making sure that Ragnar [Tobias Santelmann] is getting his access to Valhalla, for example, but then they never truly come together again. And despite these few moments, where we see them truly being vulnerable with each other, they never really make it and then it comes to a head in Season 5 and she grows more and more bitter as the years go on. She gets disappointed by mainly the men that she puts her trust in, and Uhtred kind of bears the brunt of that and represents all of these disappointments. She feels like he was the OG so she feels like he needs to take the revenge for all of that."
This all blows up in Episode 7, which might have been the most powerful scene of the season for me. There’s so much bad blood between between them by this point, and yet there’s love too. Their fight — at the site of their ruined home from season 1, no less — was inevitable and didn’t disappoint.
“Working with Emily has been just such a delight, because she is a an extremely spontaneous actor,” Dreymon said of Emily Cox, who plays Brida. “And it’s so easy to be in the moment with her, because she is open and willing to run with anything that you throw at her and she gives you so much back. And you know that when it comes to an emotional scene like that you’re in great hands working with somebody like Emily, because it is just so alive, it’s so flowing, and we kind of just bounce off of each other. She has such an easy access — well, I shouldn’t say easy, because I know that she goes to pretty dark places when she has to — but she’s so willing to go to those emotional, painful places. And so it’s a true delight. And it’s exhilarating to go on that journey with her.”
Uhtred executes his son-in-law
Another intense moment came when Uhtred was charged with Sigtryggr, a Viking warlord who had married his daughter Stiorra. As both a Saxon and a Dane, Uhtred isn’t prejudiced against Danes like some of the Saxons are, and actually had a lot of respect for Sigtryggr. But after Sigtryggr attacked the Saxons in Æthelhelm’s camp and refused to convert to Christianity, Uhtred recognized that he had to perform this execution in order to keep the peace.
“That was actually an idea that was added by our stunt coordinator, Levente Lezsák, that Uhtred was going to be the one to execute him and I thought it was so fitting,” Dreymon returned. “Doing that scene with was really heart-wrenching because, like pretty much every actor on the show, we’ve become very good friends. He’s also somebody that I just deeply trust as a friend and fellow actor, and when we were doing that scene, I had to put the sword onto his heart and then get ready to thrust and he puts his hand on my hand just before I do it.”
"And while we’re doing that scene, I just crumbled inside every time he did that, because it was such a loving act of somebody saying, “It’s OK. This is the way it should be.” So it was a scene that was difficult because what was happening in the story, but as an actor there are always several levels to what you’re doing. You’re going through the story that is heart-wrenching, but at the same time, your actor brain is going, “Oh my God, this is such good material.” And it feels so good to be able to go through these emotions with somebody that you respect and trust that much."
It was one of many excellent acting moments for Dreymon, although he may have saved the best for last.
The final scene of The Last Kingdom
In the final scene of the series, Uhtred ascends the ramparts of Bebbanburg — the ancestral home he’s been fighting literally the entire series to reclaim — and thinks back on everything that’s happened to lead him here. It’s basically the most emotional clip show in TV history.
“That scene was an idea by Jon East, who is the director of the final two episodes,” Dreymon said. “He worked with us several times before and he’s a very, very dear friend of mine. He had that idea of having like a little best of reel at the end.”
"But in order to get the right emotional tone for me during that time, basically what we did, it was just one take, and we set up the camera. And I went up to the battlements and he just talked me through all of the moments. We had sat down before and we looked at which moments we wanted to incorporate into it. And then he just talked to me throughout the take, and I relived all those moments that we went through and again, because he’s somebody that I feel so close to and that I feel so comfortable being vulnerable with, it was a very, very easy organic process. It was a wonderful experience. Actually. I was so exhausted at that point, because it was very close to the end of the shoot. It was kind of cathartic, actually, to relive those moments."
Uhtred will get another ending in the upcoming Last Kingdom movie Seven Kings Must Die, but that one outta do us for a good long while.
Will Uhtred meet his son Osbert?
Also in that last episode we get briefly introduced to Osbert, Uhtred’s son who we last saw in season 3 as an infant. Apparently he’s been staying with Hild this entire time, and will at long last be reunited with his father.
“So many times I thought ‘Where the hell is my son? I don’t know!’” Dreymon joked. “There’s two things we don’t talk about in TLK. It used to be Uhtred’s last son. Now we can. And the other is age. We don’t talk about age. That’s the first rule. Never mention age.”
Uhtred does seem kind of ageless, given that so many other characters have grown from childhood to adulthood while he’s stayed the same. Maybe he’ll get some old man makeup in Seven Kings Must Die.
Finally, before we go, I have to mention that Dreymon is as confused by all the hard-to-remember names on the show (Aelswith, Aethelflaed, Aethelhelm, Athelstan, Aelfwynn, etc) as the rest of us. “he names right now, they’re so confusing! There’s even more this season.”
Thank goodness it’s not just me. Destiny is all.
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