The Last Kingdom Recap: Servants of Mercia
- Cherish
- May 12
- 6 min read
Updated: Jun 7
Season 5 Episode 3 Recap and Review
It has been three years since I wrote my last recap of The Last Kingdom, three years since I last saw an episode of one of my favourite shows ever. I thought I had lost many if not most of the carefully woven threads of this brilliant show. Yet the moment I started watching this third episode of its final season, it felt like coming home. And now, I’d like to start this recap, my first in so long, on a character I disliked when I first saw him, but who grew on me as this show grew too, as it expanded its narrative and introduced more characters and showed more battles and gave us victories and broke our hearts again and again. Aldhelm, servant of Mercia, loyalist to Aethelflaed, you are seen.
This wasn’t always the case. Aldhelm begun as the poison in the ears of Aethelflaed’s abusive husband Aethelred. Yet Aldhelm not only shifted his loyalties to Aethelflaed, he fell in love with her. He loved her so much that he helped her keep secret her trysts with Uhtred. When Aethelflaed rose to rule Mercia as its Lady, Aldhelm remained at her side. He was her closest advisor, and the person who watched as her illness slowly weakened her body.
As he always had, Aldhelm remained calm, competent, the most loyal of servants. It was when boy crazy young Aelfwynn was speaking snidely of her mother that Aldhelm snapped, slightly. “Your mother has given everything she has for Mercia! To protect her people, to protect you, her only child.” His voice barely rose, but there was force behind his words. Aldhelm’s grief was palpable in every scene in this episode. Kudos to James Northcote!
Aelswith, too, grieved in her own way. As she was wont to do, she clung to her faith. She believed, she had to believe, that the God she prayed to, the God she had been loyal to all her life, would save her daughter. Eadith with her years of learning and experience was there with her potions to help ease Aethelflaed’s suffering, yet Aelswith dismissed her. For Aelswith, there was only God’s healing, even if it was coursed through a corrupt priest like Father Benedict.
As Christians clung to faith, so did Brida, who in her madness killed her daughter Vibeke. With her people dying, Stiorra came out of hiding and demanded that Brida make the square. The daughter of a famed warrior, Stiorra herself was not one. Yet she comported herself well enough in her fight against Brida, at least, she held on long enough for Uhtred and his men to get through the Roman tunnels and enter the city.
Why did Stiorra demand to fight Brida? Surely she knew there was no way she could win. I thought it was because Stiorra wanted to keep Brida’s eyes focused on her, to prevent more of her people getting killed to satisfy Brida’s bloodlust. Stiorra had faith, which was later rewarded, that her father would come for her. Her effort was not enough to save her servant Hella, but it was enough of a distraction so that Uhtred and his band of fighters were able to get into position, and even free Brida’s prisoners, before Brida and his men were made aware of their presence via Sigtryggr's well timed arrow.
Through the years we’ve seen many great fight scenes in The Last Kingdom, so that something like this, that was done well though without anything especially brilliant, was just par for course in a show this good. I did wonder why, after it was heavily emphasised that Stiorra was no warrior, after we saw Brida almost toy with her during their one on one, was she shown to fight this well during battle. Sigtryggr and Stiorra found each other, and they had each other’s backs as the fight went on.
Did Uhtred even try to kill Brida here? It did not look like it, and when Brida’s child climbed to the roof in the confusion of the battle, Uhtred immediately followed to save her. Uhred was much closer to Vibeke. In her madness, Brida instructed her daughter to jump toward her. She obeyed, and fell to her death.
Could anything get through Brida’s veil of hate? Not even her daughter’s death could. Yes, she cried. Yes, she gathered the child in her arms and fled to the woods. Yes, she tenderly wrapped the child’s body in cloth. But the hands that did so were bloody with the massacre she unleashed outside Eoferwich.
During the battle, Father Pyrlig led civilians out of the city walls and into the woods, to hide for their safety until the battle was over. When Uhtred’s forces defeated her own, Brida retreated as well, and came upon the unarmed villagers with only one priest as their protector. She left a trail of bodies as she fled, leaving only Father Pyrlig alive because, according to Brida, the gods gave her him and she needed to figure out why. She just killed her own daughter and she continued to hide behind the gods. I’ve written this before and I will write again, I may be over Brida’s bull, but the character work here is outstanding. Props to the writers and Emily Cox!
Stiorra told her father what Uhtred did not want to hear, that he needed to kill Brida. That was his childhood friend, the woman he loved at one point, the mother of his child who never got to live, one third of the triumvirate that was Uhtred, Young Ragnar, and Brida, the only link he had left to a childhood that had shattering moments of trauma, but also, a childhood spent with people who loved him with their whole hearts and their whole lives. Uhtred did go after her, he forced himself to search for her, and as his heart was not on it, he punished his body for it. Yet eventually, Finan had to tell him the secret he had been keeping, that Aetheflaed was dying. Stiorra did not even try to stop Uhtred from leaving. Of course he needed to go, to say goodbye to the woman he loved.
The news of Aethelflaed’s condition was spreading. His daughter may have lost the king’s love, but Aethelhelm had another path to power via his grandson Aelfweard. Aethelhelm sent his man with a rather heavy-looking bag of coins so he could buy the lordship of Mercia for his grandson. Edward knew what he was up to. Still, Edward agreed that both he and Aelfweard accompany him to Mercia. Let the political games begin.
Strays
⚔️Stiorra to Brida: “The gods will not forget what you’ve done in their name.” Yes! Call. Her. Out.
⚔️Wolland was yelling begging Stiorra not to fight Brida. Later, he got to execute Brida’s men who were captured.
⚔️Sigtryggr's traitorous brother Rognvaldr saved his life once he saw that the battled had turned. Sigtryggr could not execute him. Stiorra gave him an out – let the gods decide. A large metal bar was placed on boiling water. Rognvaldr was to take the bar with his hands and take nine steps. If he succeeded, that meant the gods have favoured him and he would be pardoned. If he failed, he would be executed.
⚔️Sigtryggr was feeling quite betrayed by the Christians, understandably. He also pointed out to Uhtred how many battles he had won for them, yet when her daughter’s life was in danger, they did not come to his aid. Sigtryggr thought that Edward had turned against him. Uhtred pointed out that according to Father Pyrlig, Edward sent men to Mercia.
⚔️Uhted must be so tired by now of kings asking him to swear his loyalty to them. When Sigtryggr asked, Uhtred said his place was at Rumcofa.
⚔️Stiorra told Uhtred there was a shadow in Sigtryggr and asked Uhtred to remain and guide him. It looked like Uhtred agreed at first, but of course he needed to leave once he learned of Aethelflaed’s condition.
⚔️Aelflaed could not do anything about Edward sleeping with Eadgifu. When a girl named Aalys had a vision about St. Cuthbert, Aelflaed tasked the women at court, including Eadgifu, to create a grand tapestry that would be taken to the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne. Edward privately berated her for this. The pilgrimage could be seen as Wessex laying claim to the Holy Isle, which incidentally King Constantin also wanted for Scotland.
⚔️Aethelflaed to Aldhelm: “No one has served Mercia more faithfully.” Yes! Also, Aldhelm agreed to become an advisor to Aelfwynn.
⚔️Aethelflaed wanted Aelfwynn on the throne of Mercia not because she would be a capable ruler, but for her safety. To her credit, Aelfwynn knew she was not ready, but she accepted the burden Aethelflaed placed on her.
⚔️ This was young Aethelstan's first battle.
Writer: Laura Grace
Director: Andy Hay
Original Air Date: March 9, 2022