Witcher Season 2 – Episodes 7 & 8 - Review

When I got to see the first six episodes of Season 2 of The Witcher, where it ended off was such a rough point, that these past few weeks, waiting to see what happened next reminded me of old school tv, where shows would have mid-season breaks and sometimes be off the air for months, leaving viewers. Now that the entire season is public, I had the chance to watch those final two episodes and see what happens to Geralt, Ciri and the rest of the gang.

Spoilers Ahead

Episode six left off with Geralt in combat with the chaos mage, Ciri had just opened a portal to somewhere random, under the direction of Yennifer and while Geralt was able to defeat his foe and reach the ladies, Yennifer still forced Ciri through the portal, kidnapping her. Geralt wasn’t one to waste time, heading right out into the hunt to recover his missing child-of-surprise and for some reason he opted to do it with the help of Jaskier. Nothing wrong with the character, the pair of them have wonderful chemistry this season, where it was very much one side in season one, but if you are going to go and track down someone, I don’t think a bard would be the best person to have along side you. That being said, again their dynamic was great and while they managed to get to Ciri in time, the events that the first six episodes were building to, finally came to a conclusion as the witch in the woods, the undying witch, was released from her prison cell and then possessed Ciri.

The final episode, well I won’t say much, but I will say that things were not as straight forward as one might imagine, given how episode seven ended, but there were some nice moments in it. The season, being that it was finally on the straight and narrow, timeline wise, was able to keep character growth moving forward and while there were many balls in the air, things did move apace for all of them. My only concern was that the dreamesque sequence with Ciri, just felt disjointed and really didn’t gel well with the rest of the final episode, not to say those types of events don’t have merit, but when everyone in the scene is dead, having a character decide they are all real, just becomes pointless.

How the episode ends as well, was also frustrating, not only did we get a lot of hype about that character, when we finally get to see them, its like oh yeah, them. There is of course nothing wrong with the reveal, as someone who has read the books and played the games, the story went in the exact place I expected it too, but I don’t know it didn’t feel satisfying to me. This could be due to their actions regarding the elves, or their decision to arrest Cahir and Frangilla, whatever it was, the series just felt like it ended the season with a splat, instead of a bang. Something else that felt a little weird, was the how the relationship between Geralt and Yennifer was left off, sure he said he didn’t trust her and given her actions, he was right to say so, but even though he states that, he has no issues inviting her on their quest, seems like a little weird.

The fight sequences in the two episodes were good, well the final episode more than the penultimate, given that the one there was done in a few shots. The small scale war that erupted within the halls of Kaer Morhen, with new beasties for the Witcher crew to face off was great, though there was one small issue. When the third and slightly larger basilisk/newt hybrid thing comes through, it sends both Geralt and Vesemir flying, with Vesemir landing near a pilar in the room. Somehow though, Geralt gets blasted all the length of the hall, out a series of closed doors and into the cold and skids on his knees, like he was just pushed back. The moment that I saw it, I had to stop and rewatch the scene again and yeah, it happens, there is no actual connecting moment between Geralt getting hit and then landing outside, managing to move through closed doors and avoid all the other fighting going on in the hall.

Across the board though, the two episodes are full on great acting, the scene with the brotherhood though was a little cliché, but it was still an example of another player in the game. Henry Cavil and Joey Batey had some wonderful scenes together and thankfully, the entire, you told me to ‘f*** off on the side of a mountain’ moment is brief, it still highlights the dynamic between the two and if them exploring the world became its own series, I would be ok with that. Anya Chalotra does a lot of growth in the two episodes as well, we see her struggling with her lack of magic for the first six episodes and while she tries to adapt, she knows she never will, so seeing Anya bring forth that acceptance, in the final moments of the seventh episode was great.

The second season of The Witcher got a lot right, keeping a singular timeline for one, is a great relief to many, but it gave the characters room to grow, while also developing richer and deadlier stories. There was a lot of talk about a convergence, that really didn’t manifest into anything this season, so that felt a little cheap, but at least we did get a sense of how it plays into the larger world and the powers that Ciri has. While the ending wasn’t strong for me, it does leave potential for a third season to really start to push things forward, now having set up all the main players and that is good enough for me, I just hope we don’t have to wait two years for the next season.

The Score

8.5

The Pros

+A great battle, of both sword and soul across the final episode

+Having Geralt and Jaskier re-unite and seeing them be playful with each other

The Cons

-The ending of the final episode didn’t really land for me

-The dream sequence felt cheap