SPOILER ALERT: The following review contains details and spoilers from Netflix's The Witcher Season 1.
In a rather bold move, the season finale of The Witcher is mostly the Yennefer show, while Geralt and Ciri take separate naps in the background. This is great since Yennefer is the third-best character - with Geralt being number one, Jaskier in second place, and Ciri currently out of contention - so it's exciting to see her play field general to a small force of mages.
This is your standard Game Of Thrones-esque end of the season giant battle episode, and The Witcher's magical take on it is incredibly fun. As we build towards Season 2, "Much More" sets up several story threads that could lead to some interesting places. It's a shame we'll have to wait until 2021 to see where they go.
The Mages Go Marching One By One
Yennefer accompanies Tissaia and Vilgefortz on a mission to protect the north from invading Nilfgaard forces. They've enlisted a small number of mages - including Triss - who have volunteered their services to the war efforts in spite of Aretuza voting against entering into the conflict.
Every large-scale fantasy or medieval show eventually has one of these huge action set-pieces, but The Witcher's version is quite inventive and unique. Considering magic is incredibly important in this world, we get an awesome demonstration of its applications when it comes to war. Yennefer telepathically gives orders from a tower, Triss summons exploding mushrooms that work like landmines, Fringilla creates a portal on the ground that teleports arrows inside the mages' stronghold, and so on. There are so many cool little moments in this fight that are way more interesting than your usual big sword clash with the odd explosion thrown in (although Vilgefortz does have a fun disappearing/reappearing swordfight with Cahir).
While many fantasy worlds have such a wondrous affinity for magic, this show treats it the same way as nuclear weapons. It should be terrifying instead of whimsical. We see mages turn to dust, soldiers scream as they're poisoned and burned, and mind-controlling worms take over children and turn them into suicide bombers. I really love this take on such a standard fairytale staple, and I hope this show can continue to surprise us with new ways for magic to be used for bloodshed and mayhem.
In this episode, we see Yennefer go from cynical, reluctant volunteer to full-on war commander leading her troops and possibly even sacrificing herself for the greater good. She previously had nothing to live for, but after seeing the damage that Nilfgaard can do, this will be the purpose she was looking for. We needed to see her at her orgy-having, djinn-summoning lowest so we could root for her to become an unlikely war hero. I'm not sure it entirely worked, as she came off as pretty unlikable for most of the season. Still, this seems like the culmination of her character development, and come next season, she'll be on the path to becoming the heroic battle-mage we all know and love.
Sleepy Time Geralt
When I said earlier that Geralt mostly takes a nap for most of this episode, that wasn't an exaggeration. After escaping from the ruins of Cintra, he stumbles across the corpse-ridden remains of the refugee camp from episode 2. A kindly merchant is trying to cover the bodies so they won't get eaten, but it's too late for that, as the stench of death has drawn some hungry underground zombie things. A big deal is made out of the fact that one bite from these monsters can kill you, which, as you might have guessed, leads to Geralt getting bitten.
Thus, Geralt spends about 90% of "Much More" lying in the back of the merchant's cart, delirious from zombie poison. The most notable thing about this sequence is that Geralt's hallucinatory state brings out some repressed childhood memories, revealing this mother not only handed him over to Vesemir so he could become a witcher, but also that she appears to have been some kind of sorcerer. This could be a preview of where Season 2 might go, delving into Geralt's troubled past and possibly leading to a hunt for his long lost mother.
Welcome To The Plot Ciri
Meanwhile, Ciri wakes up from her destructive outburst from the previous episode surrounded by the corpses of the men who tried to take her. The woman whose horse she stole in the last episode arrives to take her to her farm. This nice red-haired lady is surprisingly fine with the fact that Ciri stole her horse, and also seems like she's not particularly perturbed by the various dismembered bodies strewn about. I was 100% positive that this lady was going to be evil, possibly even being the Doppler in disguise. She turns out to be just a nice woman, which is somehow more unexpected than her being crazy.
In a moment that's so convenient that it's practically hilarious, the kindly merchant who saved Geralt is this woman's husband, meaning he just drove Geralt right to Ciri. The advantage of The Witcher always harping on about "destiny" is that when contrived things like this happen, the show can wave its hands and say, "It's all because of destiny," and get away with it. That's a nice narrative crutch to be able to lean on.
The entirety of this season was spent building up to the moment where Geralt and Ciri finally embrace, but it didn't have the emotional resonance the writers were hoping it would. It should be incredibly impactful, but instead, I'm just relieved that we're possibly moving past solo Ciri plots. If Ciri's side of this season had been spent really developing her character and having her get into interesting situations then this probably would have meant a lot more to me. But hey, at least now Geralt has a chance to make Ciri interesting. On the flip side, Ciri also now has a chance to make Geralt boring.
See You Next Year
Season 1 of The Witcher left me feeling conflicted. On one hand, Henry Cavill's portrayal of Geralt has been a complete success. He elevated what could have been a one-note character, and without him, this series would have been a complete drag to watch. There have also been some solid performances from the rest of the cast, mainly Joey Batey and Anya Chalotra who have done some fantastic work as Jaskier and Yennefer, respectively. The use of magic and monsters have also been some of the best examples of high fantasy I've seen in a TV show, and if we get more monster-hunting episodes like "Betrayer Moon" next season, then Season 2 might be when The Witcher really kicks into high gear.
On the other hand, while the characters and lore of The Witcher are easy to get invested in, I'm not quite sold on the overarching plot. The White Flame are generic bad guys, and Ciri has come across as a prize to be won rather than a character. This isn't necessarily Freya Allan's fault, as she's done well with what she's been given. I need this show to give us more time with Nilfgaard, Cahir, and Fringilla so we can better understand their motivations. A show like this requires a good antagonist to root against. Right now, they're just an evil cult that wants to kidnap a little girl, which is about as cliched as a villain can get.
Even though I thought this season was somewhat of a mixed bag, I did enjoy much of it and I hope some of the kinks in the writing can be ironed out. Sadly, Season 2 is not likely to premiere any time before 2021. Until then, I think I'm going to replay through The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on my Switch to hold me over until Henry Cavill is ready to growl through his teeth for another batch of episodes.