By With a few weeks still to go until Netflix releases Vol. 1 of the third season of The Witcher, we thought it would be a good idea to present a little preview of what to expect in each episode and what are Henry Cavill, Anya Chalotra, Freya Allan and Joey Batey are up to this time.
WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS MILD TO MODERATE SPOILERS FOR THE BOOKS AS WELL AS THE SHOW. DO NOT READ IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS. THIS IS ONLY FOR PEOPLE WHO LIKE TO KNOW WHAT’S COMING.
We won’t go too much into detail and spoil any major moments and deaths as we don’t want anyone’s experience ruined, but still be warned.
Episode 1: “Shaerrawedd”
Official synopsis: “On The Witcher Season 3 Episode 1, Geralt, Yennefer, & Ciri journey to the far reaches of the Continent. King Vizimir puts his charming younger brother to use.“
This is the one we have seen the most from in promotional materials and we’ll be seeing even more at the upcoming Netflix’s TUDUM event.
SFX Magazine reveals that a whole year has passed since the finale of The Witcher Season 2 and that year is covered with a montage of what Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer were doing all that time.
There are moments of happiness, but all is not well between Geralt and Yennefer after Season 2, so he gives her the silent treatment for a time.
We already covered how that goes along with the “Dear Friend” letters in a previous report, so go read that one.
READ MORE: How The Witcher Will Fix Geralt and Yennefer’s Relationship in Season 3
Aside from interpersonal tensions, there’s also lots of danger as a certain mage with a big scar pursues our family relentlessly and won’t stop until he gets them. We saw some of his work in the trailer.
Meanwhile at the Redanian court, our bard Jaskier is involved in political plots and schemes, which leads him to his fateful meeting with Prince Radovid of Redania. Despite that, he’ll join Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer later.
Back to our family, they attend the festival of fertility called Belleteyn, but their fun is interrupted by a shaelmaar. Geralt disposes of it in no time, of course, but this leads the events of the story into the episode’s big action sequence.
The episode has its climactic fight sequence at the ancient elven ruins of Shaerrawedd, after which the episode is titled.
The fight, choreographed by none other than Wolfgang Stegemann, is quite massive and involves a lot of the characters on three sides. Geralt, Ciri, Yennefer, Jaskier, Yarpen, Francesca, Filavandrel, Dara, Gage and Rience.
We’ll see the beginning of this action sequence soon at Netflix’s TUDUM.
The episode ends on Geralt finally trusting Yennefer with taking care of Ciri, after which they go on their separate missions.
Episode 2: “Unbound”
Official synopsis: “On The Witcher Season 3 Episode 2, Geralt is shocked by the information he learns about Rience. Ciri’s sense of justice causes problems. Jaskier performs for a royal fan.“
The second episode of Season 3 has Geralt of Rivia on a mission to find and eliminate Rience, who is relentlessly pursuing Ciri. The hunter now becomes the hunted. But it’s not easy, so Geralt has no other choice but to seek help from Codringher and Fenn.
During his quest, Geralt encounters something nightmarish: a monster created from body parts of young women and girls. The work of someone truly sick and twisted. Even more than Rience.
This eventually leads to a scene from the trailer involving a cat.
Meanwhile, Yennefer and Ciri are on the road to Aretuza and have an book-inspired encounter with a certain royal messenger.
In the same episode we are introduced to a fan-favorite sorceress called Keira Metz. In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Keira was posing as a local “village witch”. In the series, Keira has a surprising trade as well.
Back at the Redanian court, there’s still plotting, scheming and the development of Jaskier’s romance with Prince Radovid. The bard even sings a song to the prince.
Episode 3: “Reunion”
Official synopsis: “On The Witcher Season 3 Episode 3, Geralt seeks magical help from a family friend while Ciri & Yennefer clash. Philippa & Dijkstra scheme to get Vizimir in line.“
The third episode is where The Witcher Season 3 tries to get a bit closer to the books, to the extent that it can, considering how far from the books Season 2 got.
This episode covers a very exciting chapter in Time of Contempt, where Yennefer and Ciri are in Gors Velen. There’s the bathhouse with Yennefer, Margarita and more sorceresses, there’s Ciri touring the town with Fabio Sachs, there’s the wyvern, there’s the Wild Hunt, it’s all there.
One big difference, though, is that Ciri meets a certain Rat in Gors Velen. They’ll meet again much later in the season, but way down in Nilfgaard.
At the Redanian court things get a little heated and some heads roll.
During that time, Geralt takes a traumatized girl he rescued in the previous episode to a healer. We already covered what that entails and who the girl is a year ago, when an audition for this sequence came out.
READ MORE: The Witcher Season 3 May Expand On a Dark Storyline Hinted in the Books
When Geralt is done with that dark business, he rescues Ciri just in the nick of time from the spectral riders of the Wild Hunt as opposed to it being Yennefer in the books.
Episode 4: “The Invitation”
Official synopsis: “On The Witcher Season 3 Episode 4, Yennefer pitches an idea to the Brotherhood. Geralt strikes a deal with a ferryman. Triss investigates the missing novices.“
The fourth episode is where the Thanedd ball has its origins. Yennefer works hard to resolve a plotline left from Season 2 and preparations for the ball begin as she proposes to form a Conclave of Mages.
Meanwhile, Geralt, Ciri and Jaskier along with Valdo Marx take a boat to the Thanedd Isle, but we know from trailers that this won’t be smooth sailing.
A sea monster attacks the boat and our heroes defeat it with no sweat. The bards are also unharmed, thankfully. What would we do without them!
Upon reaching land, Geralt, Ciri and Jaskier reunite with Yennefer. We see a lovely scene inspired by the books where Geralt and Yennefer “apologize” to each other, while Ciri and Jaskier give their commentary of the scene.
READ MORE: The Witcher Season 3 To Include a Beloved Yennefer and Geralt Moment From the Books
Episode 5: “The Art of Illusion”
Official synopsis: “On The Witcher Season 3 Episode 5, Yennefer & Geralt step out arm in arm & dressed to kill at a lavish ball, but all is not as it seems during a night of revelry.“
And this episode is what the entire series has been building up to since the first episode of Season 1. This is the first half of a major two-parter, The Witcher‘s own Red Wedding: the Thanedd ball.
There isn’t much for us here to describe as there are plenty of little conversations, both from the books and new ones. Lots of scheming and plotting by various individuals and factions. And at the centre of all that, a witcher being most uncomfortable among all these fancy people.
One thing that stood out from what we’ve been told is that the episode has a very surprising way of narration and editing. It’s very much like episodes 101 and 107, where we gradually saw new scenes and context in the same events from different perspectives, except during the Thanedd ball it’s all in one episode.
By this point, Geralt and Yennefer are once again a full-on couple and their evening ends with a lot of passion, pretty much like in the books.
The Witcher Season 3: Vol. 1 concludes on a cliffhanger just before it all explodes and that’s where we start waiting until Vol. 2.
The Witcher Season 4 is in production for a 2025 release. Andrzej Sapkowski’s new Witcher book has a planned Winter 2024/2025 release with The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep anime set for a late 2024 release as well.
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