All 5 seasons of The Last Kingdom (and the movie), ranked worst to best
Fourth place: The Last Kingdom season 5
With Brida now leading the Dane invasion, Uhtred prepares to battle her army and then make his final assault on his family fortress at Bebbanburg.
It’s hard to finish off a great show, but The Last Kingdom proved more or less up to the task. We still miss the Uhtred/King Alfred dynamic, but season 5 delivers the emotional sense of completion the series needs.
Taking place about a decade after the end of season 4, season 5 opens in Brida’s Viking camp in Iceland where she and her cult-icon daughter have accumulated a large following ready to invade Britain and ultimately kill every Christian in the land (and Uhtred). Brida’s true to her word; as soon as she arrives, she castrates Young Uhtred and takes Stiorra hostage in York.
We find Uhtred at his estate in Rumcofa, raising Edward’s teenage son Aethelstan. Learning of Brida’s capture of York, Uhtred assembles his gang but, as usual, he can’t find much support from his allies; Aethelflaed is dying of cancer and needs her army to ensure a peaceful succession. Teaming up with Sigtryggr, Uhtred and his men attack York and retake it.
Season 5 tires hard to keep its narrative punchy, but there are some big moments that lack emotional impact; Uhtred’s swordfight with Brida at York feels anticlimactic, as does the weird, stagy death of Brida’s daughter. Aethelhelm, tasked with being the main ‘insider’ bad guy since the demise of Aethelwold, is rarely given much space to develop beyond the ‘evil counselor’ trope. His best moment comes when he realizes he killed his own daughter by accident.
Highlights of season 5? There are plenty: the final scenes between Uhtred and Aethelflaed are truly intense and sad; Osferth’s death tugs at the heart strings; King Edward is compellingly complicated; and the big, final battle at Bebbanburg (with the rain quenching the fire) is terrific.
The last three episodes of season 5 focus on Uhtred’s quest to finally retake Bebbanburg. It’s exciting, but Aethelhelm’s meddling needlessly muddies things, as does the late addition of the Scottish forces led by King Constantin. Yet the final battle at Bebbanburg, with Edward and the Scots outside and Uhtred and his buddies trapped inside, is big and brutal and layered, and provides a great ending for the show.
Unfortunately, there are moments of lazy narrative logic in season 5, which is surprising given how generally tightly written the first four seasons were. The season excuses plot holes related to Aethelhelm’s so it can get to the bigger set pieces.