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Category Archives: The Last Kingdom

The Last Kingdom 5.10: Destiny is All

The final episode of this season takes place at Bebbanburg, where the show and the novels have been leading from the beginning. How that return to Bebbanburg plays out in this series bears little resemblance to what happens in the … Read More

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The Last Kingdom 5.9: The Best Laid Plans…

  TLK Episode 9 begins with Uhtred’s men and the Mercian Guard preparing to ride out from the burh at York to make for Bebbanburg under Uhtred’s command. Uhtred has plenty of reasons for leading a force against Bebbanburg: the … Read More

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The Last Kingdom 5.8: Daughters and Sons

  In the previous episode (Ep. 7), while I was totally fixated on Brida, the other story threads inched forward. Aethelhelm approached the Scots king with the offer of a Mercian bride (Aelswith) in return for putting his grandson on … Read More

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The Last Kingdom 5.7: Brida

The scripts for The Last Kingdom are based on the novels of Bernard Cornwell, on the history of 10th century England, and on what emerges from the creative minds of the showrunners. This final season has four previous seasons of … Read More

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The Last Kingdom 5.6: The Herepath

Most of this episode takes place in Mercia, somewhere between York and Aylesbury. Mind you, there are 200 miles between York and Aylesbury if one follows the ancient Roman roads that the Anglo-Saxons called herepaths. These were the roads that … Read More

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The Last Kingdom 5.5: Things Fall apart

In the middle of the previous Episode (4), Alfred’s widow says, as she mourns her daughter, “There has already been so much death, Uhtred, I could not bear more of it.” I’m with her. And so this 5th episode was … Read More

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The Last Kingdom 5.4: Fade to Black

Anyone who has read Bernard Cornwell’s novels Warriors of the Storm and The Flame Bearer must know by now that the series is straying significantly from the story lines of the books. Nevertheless, the series has embraced Cornwell’s characters, his … Read More

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The Last Kingdom 5.3: The Road to Aylesbury

At the end of the last episode we were holding our collective breath as Stiorra left hiding to face Brida. Thankfully, this third episode did not keep us in suspense for too long. Uhtred’s daughter has learned how to taunt, … Read More

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The Last Kingdom 5.2: Death, Danger and Heartbreak

Every single episode of The Last Kingdom has elements of tenderness, threat, heartbreak, tension and fear. The show pulls us into the lives of its characters and enfolds us in the history into which they’re mired; makes us care about … Read More

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The Last Kingdom 5.1 Old Friends

This 5th Season of The Last Kingdom, if it follows the pattern we’ve seen in the past, will be based loosely on two of Bernard Cornwell’s novels: Warriors of the Storm and The Flame Bearer. Episode 1 opens with Uhtred … Read More

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