The Witcher is back for the final three episodes of its third season! This is the last last time that Henry Cavill will play Geralt of Rivia, so we better treasure it.
We break down all the new episodes below, starting with…
The Witcher season 3, Episode 6 recap: “Everybody Has a Plan ’til They Get Punched in the Face”
Episode 306 begins with Dijkstra’s knife at Geralt’s neck. At the end of the fifth episode, Redania made the big move to round up all the sorcerers and sorceresses at Aretuza and stop them from aligning with Nilfgaard. Phillippa and Dijkstra figured out that Vilgefortz was allied with Nilfgaard. Phillippa says this is “a purge,” but we all know it’s not going to be that easy.
Yennefer finds Geralt’s sword and disappears through a secret passage, narrowly avoiding capture by the Redanians. Yennefer fights Lydia, but Triss arrives and stops Lydia. Yennefer kills Lydia.
Radovid tries to help take Ciri back to Redania, which upsets Jaskier. Ciri goes missing. She’s on the run again! AGAIN! She knows what’s coming for her and flees to the forest. I wish, for her sake, that she could just stop running through forests.
Back at the sorcerer’s keep, the Redanians try to explain to Tissaia what Vilgefortz is doing, but Tissaia doesn’t believe them. Vilgefortz has the upper hand, which Tissaia will soon realize. Vilgefortz is part of a conspiracy which stopped the Redanian ships, and replaced them with a Nilfgaardian and Elven force, the Scoia’tel, which lays siege to Aretuza. Vilgefortz reveals his plans to Tissaia, who is devastated by his betrayal. He brings the Scoia’tel and Nilfgaardians into Aretuza.
This is the most epic battle sequence we’ve seen in the series so far. Tissaia and the mages put up a good fight, but Tissaia’s forces are not strong enough to hold back the Scoia’tel and the Nilfgaardians, who are led by Francesca, Fringilla and Cahir. It’s a bloodbath! Literally, Tissaia pops Francesca’s husband Filavandrel like a balloon. His blood ends up all over Francesca, and she loses it! With the help of Fringilla, Francesca uses all of her power to lay waste to Aretuza. It’s epic destruction everywhere.
Outside the fortress, Yennefer finds Ciri, but they’re attacked by Rience. Luckily Geralt shows up and slices off Rience’s head. The trio is together again, but they aren’t away from danger yet.
Back in the thick of the battle, Tissaia summons Alzur’s Thunder, which Ciri points out is a spell of last resort. Yennefer must go to her, because Tissaia is the closest thing she has to a mother, which jeopardizes everything. Geralt tries to talk her out of it, but Yennefer leaves. She gives Ciri the biggest hug and says her slogan: “Never lost. Always found.” She calls Ciri her daughter before she leaves.
We also get to see Fringilla and Cahir have a moment. Remember, Cahir believes her to be dead, but she tells Cahir to think for himself, which leads to one of the best moments of the season so far: Cahir finds Ciri and Geralt fleeing, and Cahir apologizes for everything, including destroying Cintra and all the pain he caused Ciri. He asks Ciri to kill him, but she can’t. He flips his allegiance and tries to buy Ciri some time by fighting the Scoia’tael. Unfortunately, it’s not enough.
Back in Aretuza, Stregobor uses fire magic to hold off Francesca and Fringilla. “Falka will be waiting for you,” he says. Interesting, very Interesting! Yennefer rescues Tissaia.
On the beach, Geralt fights Vilgefortz, who is looking to bring Ciri to Emyhr and Nilfgaard. He is much stronger than Geralt and nearly kills him. He leaves Geralt broken and dying on the beach before following Ciri into Tor Lara. Vilgefortz tries to get Ciri to side with him, but instead she uses her power and touches the rock in the tower, which explodes and collapses with her and Vilgefortz inside.
Triss rescues Geralt from the beach while everyone flees Aretuza and Tor Lara tumbles into the sea.
Episode 306 is easily the best episode of The Witcher yet
This is the best episode of The Witcher ever, and it’s not even close. Everything has been building to this moment, and it’s epic!
Unfortunately, having seen the last two episodes of the season, there’s no doubt this episode should have been the season finale. The final two episodes, while important, do not even come close to the epicness of episode 6.
I guess that’s by design. As we’ve seen with other major fantasy series like Game of Thrones, it’s hard to keep it up episode after episode. I was just hoping for a more satisfying conclusion to the season that leaves more questions than answers. We’ll discuss more of that shortly. On to episode 7 of The Witcher season 3!
The Witcher season 3, Episode 7 recap: “Out of the Fire, Into the Frying Pan”
The Witcher Episode 307 follows the best episode of the series so far, and it’s kind of clunky. I understand why it needs to happen, but there’s just so much filler. After an epic episode, we want to shift into overdrive, and this episode slams on the brakes.
I understand the change of pace, but the season was so good until this point. If the season finale was another banger of an episode, I wouldn’t mind the seventh episode being so slow, but the finale never reaches the level of Episodes 5 and 6.
Anyway, let’s get into what happens.
As Tor Lara collapsed, Ciri was transported via portal to vast desert. There’s nothing for miles around her. She remains alone for most of the episode, although she does have run-ins with a unicorn who helps her, a giant scorpion monster who tries to kill her, and visions of Falka, a former Redanian Princess who led a bloody rebellion and killed her whole family.
Back up north, Radovid reveals to Jaskier that the Second War has begun, but Jaskier must find Geralt and Ciri. Radovid thinks Ciri died in the tower explosion. Jaskier finds Yennefer, who can’t find Ciri, but at least Geralt is healing, thanks to Triss. He’s currently recuperating in Brokilon Forest being looked after by dryads.
Then we’re back with Ciri, who is injured in the sand. She’s in Korath, but she has a dislocated shoulder. She eats some salve, leaving the tin it was in. She starts walking. She starts to fade, and she’s walking in circles somehow. There’s a person with a cloak behind her. She doesn’t know who they are. She tries to drink water but is attacked by a sand monster and saved by a unicorn. She follows the unicorn through the desert but it disappears. Then there’s a giant sandstorm, but she survives.
Over the course of the episode, Ciri has visions. There’s still someone following her. She sees Pavetta, her mother, who says she’s been abandoned again. She says Ciri is too heavy a burden. Then Ciri gets mad and eats a lizard.
Lizard was a bad choice! She’s having visions of Geralt and Yennefer. Then she gets sick from eating the lizard and is approached by a vision of the future, but Ciri doesn’t know who or what is happening.
Finally the unicorn comes back, but Ciri doesn’t have the strength to continue on. She tries to pet the unicorn but it won’t let her. She follows the unicorn through the desert to palm trees. It’s showing her where there is water. She’s eating bugs now, too, to get her strength back.
Ciri is approached by her a vision of her grandmother Calanthe, who tells her to stand up to the enemy. She accidentally punches the rocks. Ciri realizes that the visions she’s seeing are all manifestations of her ancestor Falka. Falka tells her to use her powers to burn the system to the ground.
Ciri fights a giant sand scorpion who nearly kills the unicorn, and she bludgeons it to death with a rock. Ciri then saves the unicorn by healing its wound. Falka asks Ciri to embrace the fire magic, which is easy for her to use. She embraces the fire. She steps into the fire and becomes the fire. Now, she’s ready to take back what’s hers, and it’s time to make them pay. Falka tells her that she will be betrayed by Jaskier, Geralt, and Yennefer. She freaks out, and then she says, “I relinquish my powers.”
Then she’s found by someone in the desert.
At the end of the episode, we catch up with Jaskier, who is walking around the forest looking for Geralt. He finds the dryads, or rather they find him. He begs the dryads to help him and to let him come to help Geralt. The dryads allow Jaskier to visit Geralt, who is not doing well. He tells Geralt that Ciri is missing. Actually, it’s worse: she’s on her way to Nilfgaard.
The Witcher season 3 episode 8: “The Cost of Chaos”
It all comes down to this: Henry Cavill’s last episode of The Witcher. Cavill left the series after season 3, and Geralt will be played by Liam Hemsworth in season 4 and beyond. Unfortunately, the season 3 finale of The Witcher is not a grand sendoff to Cavill. It’s a bit underwhelming considering how good the season was up to Episode 7.
One of my big problems with this episode overall is that Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri don’t really play important roles. Let’s get into it.
The episode opens with Milva (Meng’er Zhang) and the healers helping Geralt. Geralt still wants to leave before he’s ready, but at least he’s not moping as much.
Geralt trains hard throughout the episode, but he’s not at full strength. Geralt and Jaskier are approached by Dara, who asks Geralt to tell Ciri that he forgives her and that he’s sorry. Geralt proves he can fight and then leaves for Nilfgaard to save Ciri. Geralt kills a group of Nilfgaardioan soldiers who are blocking the road after they refuse to let a girl and her family through. Geralt lets one soldier go with a promise to Emyhr that he will free Ciri. Milva also joins them, so it appears Geralt, Jaskier, and Milva will be the new trio trying to save Ciri.
Meanwhile, Yennefer learns that Vilgefortz has found Ciri and is taking her to Nilfgaard, although what she’s heard isn’t actually true. If Ciri joins forces with Nilfgaard, or appears to join forces, it will shift the tide of the war and bring others to Nilfgaard’s side.
Yennefer, Tissaia, Triss, Phillippa and others find Vilgefortz’s castle where he was torturing those Elven girls who Geralt found killed. They reverse the spell to help the dead find peace. They have a row out in the wilderness before Yennefer takes charge and tries to unite them.
Yennefer and Tissaia have a conversation about her role in this war between Nilfgaard and the North. Yennefer must find Ciri. She’s tired of Tissaia feeling sorry for herself, but it doesn’t help. Tissaia chooses not to fight anymore, and she dies, or so we are led to believe. I’m not totally convinced that Tissaia didn’t just fake her own death to find a way to defeat Vilgefortz, but we’ll see in season 4 and beyond.
Yennefer then goes to visit Geralt, who apologizes for losing Ciri. She tells Geralt that she’s so angry about what Tissaia did and asks who the sorcerers and sorceresses have now. Geralt says that they have Yennefer. He promises to make Vilgefortz and Emyhr pay for what they did.
Yennefer hatches a plan to kill Vilgefortz with the surviving magic users from Aretuza.
Elsewhere on the Continent, Fringilla visits Emyhr in Nilfgaard with Francesca. They have some plans in the works. They propose that Francesca and Fringilla be sent to Cintra, but there’s a twist: Emyhr isn’t just going to let the elves off easy. They must remain allied with Nilfgaard with the Scoia’tel on the front lines fighting in the North. It’s effectively a death sentence for the elves who can fight, although Emyhr promises to protect the young, old, and those who are unable to fight.
Later, Fringilla reveals that Emyhr is responsible for killing Francesca’s baby. Fringilla wants to make things right, but Francesca is furious.
Dijkstra survived the battle at Aretuza and returned to Redania, where he breaks the bad news to Vizimir about what happened. Vizimir tells Dijkstra that someone must pay, and it appears to be Phillippa, but luckily, Phillippa’s lover Eva finds out. Dijkstra offers his life in exchange for Phillippa’s. She thanks him for doing so and reveals she has a new plan. Eva kills Vizimir, which makes Radovid the new King of Redania.
In Nilfgaard, Ciri is honored in a welcoming ceremony to weaken the North and turn the tide of war, but it’s not actually Ciri! It’s Teryn, the fake Ciri. We also see Vilgefortz, who has a pretty scarred face from the collapse of Tor Lara, with Emyhr and the fake Ciri.
Next we catch back up with the real Ciri, who is tied up in a bar while her captors are eating. She’s been here before in her visions. The captors mention Kayleigh and a local band of bandits called the Rats. The Rats show up. We met Mistle and a few others earlier this season. There’s a big brawl, but the Rats win easily. Ciri faces off against her captor and kills him.
At the end of the episode, Mistle asks who Ciri is, and Ciri says, “Call me Falka,” and then season 3 ends.
Verdict
I don’t love how this season ended, but I’m intrigued to see where the story is going. It’s just a shame that Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer are separated again at the end of the season, but I guess that’s just how it goes with this show. This is a long, epic journey, and if Ciri, Geralt and Yennefer are to find peace, it’s not going to be until the very end.
As mentioned, this episode covered a lot of ground, but it wasn’t all that interesting for the main trio. Ciri was absent most of the episode while Geralt prepared for a new journey and Yennefer mourned the loss of Tissaia.
After watching the episode, I’m very interested in seeing what Francesca is going to do after learning of Emyhr’s involvement in the death of her child. The Redanians are also still making big moves. I don’t know why, but I find myself rooting for Phillippa and Dijkstra to find a way to stop Emyhr.
I’m also curious to see how Ciri fits in with the Rats and how quickly they learn who she really is and if they care.
That’s all for now about The Witcher season 3! We’ll share more updates about The Witcher season 4 when we find out.
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels