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The Last Kingdom Season 5 Trailer Reveals The Bloody Path To Uhtred's Destiny

On Netflix, as in life, all good things must come to an end, including epic tales about part-Dane, part-Saxon warriors with impossibly beautiful hair, and an unrelenting determination to seek out and conquer their destiny. Season 5 of "The Last Kingdom" will, sadly, be the series' last. But before you break out your mourning attire and prepare yourself for the emotional descent that inevitably accompanies the death of a beloved series, try and remember two things: one, that a whole 10 episodes still await, and two, that the recently released trailer for Season 5 contains more than enough mayhem and melodrama to subsist on for at least a few months (via YouTube). 

The Season 4 finale left viewers with a number of questions, including what will become of Uhtred's (Alexander Dreymon) long-held plan to take back Bebbanburg, particularly now that he's been placed in charge of King Edward's (Timothy Innes) bastard son, Æthelstan of Wessex. Fans are also eager to learn the fate of Millie Brady's Æthelflæd (aka The Lady of Mercia), Eliza Butterworth's Aelswith, and that of the Danish leader whose fierce devotion to her Viking beliefs makes her a kind of foil to Aelswith, Uhtred's former lover Brida (Emily Cox). Though the trailer implies a few answers to these questions, it wisely leaves viewers with several more, even as it reveals some of the bloody battles Uhtred must undertake in order to achieve his destiny.

Brida and Uhtred will come to blows

The trailer kicks off with a reminder that, for years, there was some semblance of peace between Dane and Saxon, but as Uhtred observes, "something has changed; the air is rotten." What's changed, we soon learn, is that Brida has amassed an army of devoted followers, in whom she's rekindled a fervent desire to conquer the whole of England and every Saxon in it. Brida's bloodlust seems to know no bounds, and whatever latent feelings of friendship or affection she once held for Uhtred are gone. "She's coming for my bloodline," Uhtred realizes aloud, after his bloodied and beaten son (also Uhtred, played by Finn Elliot) wanders into his camp. Although Young Uhtred's death at the hands of Brida is not confirmed, we see his sister Stiorra (Ruby Hartley) vow revenge. Of course, since she's now married to the Dane Sigtryggr Ivarsson (Eysteinn Sigurðarson) it's not entirely clear who she's decided must "pay for this." 

Amidst all this eye-for-eye avowing, we learn that King Edward has set his sights further north than any Saxon has dared to wander since the Vikings first managed a foothold in Northumbria, and that his (and his father's) dream of a united England "has never been closer." Uhtred prepares himself for battle, and though we don't initially see him challenge Brida, she is shown cradling his bloodied body in her arms, and saying "bring me, Uhtred." Whether she means to Bebbanburg or to Valhala, we can't yet know.

The Last Kingdom Season 5 trailer ends on a literal cliffhanger

The trailer then teases some answers to the questions Season 4 left in its wake — including what became of Aeswith. "You are strong enough," we see her tell her son Edward, "this is your destiny." Ahh, there's that word again. We catch a brief glimpse of Æthelflæd following the former queen consort's reveal but are immediately pulled back into the feud between Brida and Uhtred. 

Uhtred wonders — perhaps for the first time in his life — where the line is between a path of destiny and a path of arrogance, while Brida insists that Uhtred's "destiny" has brought her nothing but pain and grief. The two then come to blows in the woods, and although we don't see the outcome of the fated pair's struggle, Brida's later bit of dialogue suggests this might be a zero-sum game: "This is where the journey ends," she says. 

Importantly, the line isn't delivered during her battle with Uhtred, or over any of the trailer's battle scenes, but immediately following our hero's return to Bebbanburg. After Uhtred shouts the phrase fans have been waiting to hear since Season 4 ("To Bebbenburg!"), viewers get a dizzying flash of Uhtred, Finan (Mark Rowley), and Sihtric (Arnas Fedaravicius) scaling the deadly cliffs that make up part of the kingdom's fortress. "You always wanted to die at Bebbenburg," Finan says ominously. As to whether he'll do so at the hands of gravity, the hands of his cousin, the hands of Brida, or the hands of old age, only time will tell.