The Witcher Season 3 TV series Episode 1 Review: Shaerrawedd

While the series has never shied away from innovative storytelling, The Witcher Season 3 Episode 1’s novelty is in the excruciating detail it affords the mundanity of the lives of fugitives, espionage agents, and monster handlers.

Life on the run by nature can’t be spectacular since the whole point is to avoid notice. There’s some overlap with the spy game, as so much of that is waiting for secrets to spill. Finally, monsters are pets, like any creatures, requiring feeding and cleaning. It’s not glamorous, even if it can be hazardous work.

As a premiere, it’s an extremely thorough examination of where things sit as we launch into what could be the final battle for the Continent’s future.

As long-lived and experienced as he is, you’d think Geralt would know better than to try to evade Destiny, especially when traveling with Ciri, AKA the Child of Destiny, who has historically attracted more than her fair share of problematic attention.

Being more grunty than eloquent, Geralt’s motivations have to be interpreted from his actions — decisive, direct, leaving no opportunity for argument — so Yennefer’s voiced-over correspondence provides the narrative throughline to the multiple moves from hideout to hideout.

Furthermore, the use of the letters speaks to the damage their relationship suffered after the encounter with Voleth Meir on The Witcher Season 2.

Despite Yennefer’s last-minute decision not to sacrifice Ciri in exchange for her Chaos, Geralt’s trust in her has been shattered.

Throw in the djinn’s influence that still binds the two together but which will forever leave them wondering as to its authenticity, and you have a relationship that will never not be complicated.

Yarpen: Hold on. Hold on! Are you two fuckin’ again?
Geralt: Subtle, Yarpen.

Meanwhile, Ciri’s magical training is arduous for both pupil and teacher. Yennefer discovers, as many do, that teaching a thing is very different than doing a thing.

She has great potential but little talent.

Yennefer

Yennefer’s talent was always apparent, but she always needed it growing up, living as she did in squalor and abuse. Without her magic, she’d have died a victim of fear and hatred.

Conversely, Cirilla of Cintra inherited immense powers but never needed to tap into them, as her life as a princess wasn’t one where survival was a question until it was, of course.

The Battle of Cintra triggered her abilities much as Calanthe’s attempt to kill Duny triggered her mother’s. Neither noblewoman had any idea of the depth of their abilities.

Yennefer: Water magic is tricky.
Ciri: That’s what you said about earth magic and air magic.
Yennefer: Well, you have power like nothing I’ve seen. Makes it hard for both of us.

Watching Yennefer work with Ciri, it’s hard not to compare it to Ciri training with Geralt at Kaer Morhen on The Witcher Season 2 Episode 2.

The difference lies in how Geralt’s lessons on fighting monsters have tangible results and visible goals. Even when she failed a task, she could see improvement over her previous attempts. All Ciri sees when trying to use magic are her failures.

It’s not until they’ve decided on baiting a trap for Rience and they make camp at Shaerrawedd that Ciri realizes her true path.

After all their running and hiding, it’s a relief to deal directly with multiple confounding factors.

Knowing an even more powerful rogue mage controls Rience is a terrifying reveal. In a chilling parallel, much as Veldhoek is quite mad to try caging a jackapace, any mage willing to use Rience as a tool is (quite literally) playing with fire.

Ciri: Nenneke said I have the power to change the cycle of hatred. And I want to. To be the balance between kings and mages, and to align the Continent, instead of constantly pitting parts against each other. Because I am sick and tired of destruction and loss.
Geralt: I don’t doubt you, Ciri. I do doubt the world though.

Ciri’s belief that she can unite humans and elves is so optimistic it’s heartbreaking.

But just as she argues that Aelirenn might not have failed if the elder elves had supported her, Ciri can only succeed with the support of Yennefer and Geralt (and potentially others.)

Neither mage nor witcher has the hope Ciri has in humanity or elfdom. Both have seen enough conflict and cruelty to recognize that only a being of immense power — who is in control of that power — will be able to bring the factions in line.

And like teaching is different than doing, getting folks into line is different than keeping them in line.

With Dijkstra and Philippa — and now, Radovid — leaning on Jaskier behind the scenes, good money says the agents in the shadows will be a significant factor in which way the wind blows when the curtain falls.

What I find truly fascinating is that the Redanian contingent still sees Ciri as just a political marriage pawn. It’s like looking to adopt a pet iguana and bringing home a fire-breathing dragon.

Or, rather, like using a rogue fire mage to acquire a novice witcher with Elder Blood. Seriously, what does Vizimir think marrying Ciri will be like?

Dijkstra: Now, as for Prince Seed-waste. Boulder, Parchment, Dagger?
Philippa: Absolutely not.
Dijkstra: I was the one who seduced the Lyrian baroness last month, and the only secret she was hiding was syphilis.
Philippa: And that’s worse than the week I spent perched over a shit-filled moat in Temeria while they debated timber prices?
Dijkstra: Fair.

Meanwhile, surprisingly, the spymaster and his best spy are almost more comedic than Jaskier.

The keen-eared viewer will have noticed that Radovid mentions The Song of the Seven when he first meets Jaskier, placing this adventure sometime after the events the bard experienced on The Witcher: Blood Origin.

I suspect Radovid has Dijkstra and Philippa fooled. He comes across as a standard Redanian frat boy/younger prince, but he’s demonstrated a striking ability to charm and coerce.

Radovid: You could be our royal bard.
Jaskier: [laughs] Uh, no. No, a staid life at court is not for me.
Radovid: If your time at court’s been staid, you’ve been doing it wrong.

Jaskier’s life is looking to get even more entangled and perilous. As good-intentioned as he is, he’s made his bed with ruthless partners.

Speaking of good intentions and calling back to Ciri’s utopian vision of the Continent, what will Francesca’s future hold?

With Gage dead and Gallitan off to find an “old friend,” she only has Filavandrel left at her back, and he has nearly lost hope.

Elves and mages, spies and bards. Elder blood and prophecies.

By any measure, this is a weighty premiere. While we get our proper dose of swordplay and blood splatter — and I’ll admit watching Geralt break Rience’s hands was enormously satisfying — every interaction is fraught with layered meaning, every relationship teeters on the edge of trust, and every battle is waged on multiple fronts.

Yennefer: Just say this isn’t goodbye for good. That there are more good nights to come. That you will in whatever form think of me.
Geralt: That’s my promise to you.

Lurking in our subconscious is the knowledge that Henry Cavill’s time as Geralt is coming to an end.

Could Yennefer’s farewell speech foreshadow how they’ll handle the transition to Liam Hemsworth embodiment of the White Wolf?

You really wanna hide, you’d dye that mop. No one’s lookin’ for the Black fuckin’ Wolf.

Yarpen

Will the new Geralt take Yarpen’s advice? We’ll find out next season!

The closing scenes hint at what we’ll see next.

Aretuza, Yennefer and Ciri’s destination, looks to be as much a den of deception and danger as ever. Whether Rience’s inclusion (juxtaposed with a shot of Stregabor, no less) means that he is also at Aretuza, only time will tell. It does feel like a waste of all those goodbye scenes, though, if Geralt and Yennefer’s paths dovetail again that quickly.

The final shot brings us back to Cintra and the White Flame, last seen on The Witcher Season 2 Episode 8. That Emhyr saves only Ciri’s baby portrait, committing all others to the flames, signals yet another person obsessed with her. Of course, all the other images were of dead people, or himself, presumed dead all those years ago.

Considering the lengths he’s gone to to be reunited with her — launching an invasion of the North, allying with the elves but murdering their child –, one has to wonder what his next moves will entail.

Will Philippa and Radovid manage to take Rience out? And how will they manage his handler?

Where is Fringilla? And Cahir? Who will rise next from the ashes to rain terror down upon humans and elves alike? Can Jaskier manage his many allegiances?