Ever since Netflix announced in 2022 that Henry Cavill was leaving The Witcher, fans have been divided. Could the show go on without the star who so incredibly portrayed the White Wolf on screen? Would viewers go along for the ride, as The Hunger Games actor Liam Hemsworth took up the silver sword and black armor to hunt monsters in Cavill's stead? And could he possibly fill Cavill's shoes, when the previous Geralt actor had so perfectly channeled the mutated monster hunter from Andrzej Sapkowski's books?
The wait to find out is over. All eight episodes of The Witcher season 4 are here.
We're recapping and reviewing each episode, breaking down their secrets and pointing out all the little details to help you get the most out of your watch. Now our journey begins with the season premiere, "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger."
FULL SPOILERS beyond this point.
The saga of Geralt of Rivia
The season begins with a scene we've been anticipating for quite some time: the introduction of a traveling storyteller named Stribog (played by Game of Thrones veteran Clive Russell), and a young girl named Nimue (Eve Ridley). Yes, that Nimue, from Arthurian legend. These two live in a time 100 years after Geralt of Rivia, when the witcher, Ciri, and Yennefer have long faded into legend. We only see them briefly at the beginning of the episode, but their scene gave me chills nonetheless.
Stribog glosses over "The Lesser Evil," aka the series premiere, simply saying that Geralt slew a Kikimora and that was the end of the Butcher of Blaviken story. But after he shoos his audience of children away to bed, Nimue lingers. She claims he's telling it wrong, which she knows because she has a book titled "A Half Century of Poetry," written by none other than Jaskier, Geralt's best friend and the "true recorder of all his tales." Which is pretty funny, knowing how much Jaskier's penchant for exaggeration irritated Geralt in earlier seasons.
We're then treated to a montage of Hemsworth's Geralt replaying iconic scenes from throughout the show's run, starting with a battle with Kikimoras. Except these scenes are all slightly different than when we saw Cavill play them. The Kikimora battle is way more epic, with Geralt fighting off a large group of them instead of a single monster in the swamp. It's our first taste of Hemsworth in action as Geralt, and it's a solid fight scene with some very cool magic, choreography, and digital visual effects.
From there we see:
- Geralt and Yennefer's (Anya Chalotra) tumultuous relationship. The quick cut from Yen's line, "I never want to see you again," to Geralt's, "I never want to be without you," gets me every time. Excellent editing.
- Geralt meeting Princess Ciri (Freya Allan) in the woods near Sodden, except now they're joined by Yen. The scene then becomes more metaphorical as Nimue describes Geralt's unceasing enemies. They're attacked by Nilfgaardians and Scoia'tael elves, which lets Yen and Geralt use magic to blast them all away while they kiss in a scene that mimics the dragon slayer fight from Episode 106, "Rare Species."
- The symbolic deluge of enemies continue. Now Geralt is on a beach, facing the Aeschna he and Ciri fought on the ferry in season 3, the white Basilisk from the season 2 finale, and the Chernabog which killed Geralt's horse, Roach, in Episode 206.
- We then see Geralt face the worst monster of them all: Vilgefortz of Roggeveen. The duel once again ends with Geralt beaten to a pulp on the beach of Thanedd, except this time Vilgefortz smashes Geralt's ribs instead of his back.
We cut back to Nimue and Stribog, where it's clear that the old storyteller is utterly enraptured in the story the young girl is weaving. Both actors do a wonderful job with their limited screentime, and had me on the edge of my seat. Nimue says she hates what happens next; how Ciri blames herself for everything and relinquishes her powers in the desert, which we saw in the penultimate episode of season 3.
Nimue makes a strange and wonderous claim: that she herself is crucial to the legend somehow. She shows Stribog a picture which she believes is herself, standing in front of a tower in a lake, with Ciri standing before her. It's labeled "Cirilla and the Lady of the Lake." Her confidence wavers, until Stribog takes out a book to start filling in the gaps for her in Geralt's life, and we cut to the characters we know and love.
*Book Spoiler Warning!*
The fact that The Witcher season 4 is establishing Nimue's suspicions about her role in the legend out of the gate gave me a ton of confidence in the show's approach of filming both seasons concurrently. This is a crucial but extremely weird plot beat, and the more time the series takes to prep viewers for it, the better it will land.
"And just when it seemed all was lost, Geralt rose again."
After the opening sequence, The Witcher season 4 premiere primarily splits into three separate stoylines, each focusing on one member of our main trio of Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri. Let's start with Geralt.
After leaving Brokilon Forest, Geralt is on the path with Milva (Shang-Chi's Meng'er Zhang) and Jaskier (Joey Batey), traveling across the war-torn countryside toward Nilfgaard. They see a burning village in the distance, which has fallen to the Nilfgaardians. The location shooting here is wonderful, showing us the farm country of the North we'd never previously seen...just as it's about to be destroyed.
They head into the forest, where they find a caravan of the dead. Geralt claims they're Havekars, essentially corpse robbers who sell their scavenged items to the highest bidders. The witcher is ambushed as he explores the scene, and kills off the assailant. We get a hint here of just how bad Geralt's leg is still bothering him from his duel with Vilgefortz, as well as a bit of comedic relief from Milva, who gleefully tests out an explosive arrow she looted on the ambusher's corpse.
We then find out what the caravan was transporting: the Nilfgaardian general Cahir (Eamon Farren), locked in a coffin. This is a scene straight out of the book Baptism of Fire, and I love that the show included it. Geralt spares Cahir, attributing this merciful streak to the fact that Ciri previously spared him on Thanedd and he wants to respect her wishes...but promises that if he sees the Nilfgaardian again, he'll kill him. Geralt then leaves his knife for Cahir to escape, as the shouts of approaching reinforcements fill the forest. It's an odd choice for Geralt to leave Cahir his knife when he was acting so hostile, but I guess even when the witcher is at his fiercest, he's still got a compassionate enough streak to not leave an enemy at the mercy of the Nilfgaardians.
Cahir isn't the only run-in Geralt and his companions have this episode. After a brief scene where Geralt tends his mangled leg with a vial of the waters from Brokilon, we get more bonding time on the road. Geralt's plan is to ride south to the Yaruga River, avoiding as much of the growing war between Nilfgaard and the Northern Kingdoms as possible on the way. But then Jaskier hears singing and hilariously joins in, and Geralt's mission gets promptly sidetracked by an evening with the dwarves Zoltan Chivay (Danny Woodburn) and Percival Schuttenbach (Linden Porco), the refugees they're escorting, and a foul-mouthed parrot named Field Marshal Windbag.
That night at camp there's more bonding, which is absolutely going to become a theme of this season for Geralt as he travels the Continent with his ragtag group. The two biggest things to note here are that Geralt is trying to downplay his injuries to his friends, and the book that Jaskier is working on is none other than his first draft of what will become "A Half Century of Poetry," the book that NImue has in the future.
The next morning, Geralt tries to ride off on his own again after revealing to MIlva and Jaskier that he's having nightmares about Ciri. But of course they won't let him go off alone; instead, he now has Zoltan, Percival, and their refugees tagging along as well.
That brings us into the final sequence for Geralt's hansa. They stop at a farmstead where Percival smells a cow — once more, the comedic timing from Percival and Jaskier is fantastic — before a woman emerges to warn them away because of a pox outbreak. We shortly find out that the pox was a lie when a group of soldiers arrives and attempts to assault the woman. Going against his own previous advice, Geralt goes back to help her, using Zoltan's superior Mahakam-forged sword to cut through bad guys left and right. It's another solid fight scene for Hemsworth. His Geralt is a bigger, even more brutal dude than Cavill's, and you really feel that in this fight as he literally tears the soldiers to pieces.
But just like with the brief skirmish in the forest, Geralt's injury gets in the way, this time when an enemy hits him in his weakened leg spot to gain an advantage. Only Milva's timely intervention saves Geralt from another wound. One soldier escapes, but fortunately, Cahir reveals that he's been following Geralt's group by killing the runner, preventing them from getting reinforcements. I'm a fan of the interesting dynamic going on with Cahir.
Geralt's section closes out the episode, as he decides to strip a dead body of its boots for Jaskier, in stark contrast to his earlier admonition when they encountered the Havekars. Geralt is entering into a more savage era, and woe to any who get in his way.
"What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger" ends with Geralt and his companions traveling onward, acompanied by some cool music that's very reminiscent of The Witcher 3 video game. I've got to shout out Hemsworth's wig and costuming; he looks great as Geralt, and in this episode at least, he does a really good job of stepping into the role. In my opinion, the premiere contains some of his best acting of the season...but we'll talk more about that soon enough. For now, let's head south and catch up with our wayward princess, Ciri.
"Something ends. Something begins."
Ciri's storyline picks up immediately after the end of season 3; she literally still has blood on her hands as she flees the inn where she was being held captive by mercenaries with the Rats. Ciri tries to teleport away and can't, so instead she rides off with this gang of teenage thieves, which consists of Giselher (Ben Radcliffe), Iskra (Aggy K. Adams), Reef (Juliette Alexandra), Asse (Connor Crawford), Kayleigh (Fabian McCallum), and Mistle (Christelle Elwin). Ciri is clearly in shock, and wants to return to the north. The Rats offer to help her with supplies, but encourage her to spend the night at a barn dance with them to rest.
The barn dance does a lot of heavy lifting to introduce the group, which is just fine considering how many new characters it is to keep track of. We get a brief reminder that Ciri previously met Mistle in Gors Velen, where she fought off a young wyvern during Episode 303. Both Kayleigh and Mistle seem to be taking an interest in Ciri.
That interest comes immediately to fruition in Ciri's next scene, which adapts one of my least favorite moments from The Time of Contempt. Just like in the book, Kayleigh tries to force himself on Ciri; Mistle chases him off, only to then hook up with Ciri herself. In the book, this is a clear instance of Mistle protecting Ciri from sexual assault, only to then turn around and commit another assault moments later. I won't lie, I've been somewhat dreading it on the show.
Thankfully, Netflix did a much better job of it than Sapkowski, for a number of reasons. The first is that the show added more consent for Ciri and Mistle. Yes, Ciri is still vulnerable, but that consent still makes a huge difference compared to what was in the source material. It also helps that Freya Allan is a 24-year-old actress, so watching her tackle more adult material like this is less uncomfortable than reading about 15-year-old Ciri undergoing it in the novels. Regardless, it's nice that the show improved on something from the books, for a change.
The following morning Ciri rises from bed with Mistle and goes out to stand in a lake, in an absolutely gorgeous shot. She remembers flashes of the big events in her life, from the dryads of Brokilon telling her the sword of destiny has two edges to the explosion at the tower of Tor Lara. "Something ends. Something begins," Ciri says in the Elder Speech. Then, she decides to join the Rats.
*Book Spoiler Warning*
The lake shot is a call forward to the very end of the series, and the final novel, The Lady of the Lake. We will almost certainly see Ciri in a similar setting again. It's a testament to the long game the show is playing with seasons 4 and 5.
"We need an army of our own."
While Ciri is in hiding with the Rats and Geralt traverses the Continent, Yennefer of Vengerberg is searching for anyone who knows how to find Vilgefortz of Roggeveen so that she can kill him. She teleports to various locations: the beach at Thanedd where Scoia'tael survivors are camped, a tavern with some dwarves, even what appears to be a Nilfgaardian embassy or stronghold. But when she pops up in Nilfgaard territory, her portal magic fails her, so she's forced to kill a guard with an axe and flee on horseback. I can only assume this Nilfgaardian building is somewhere in the north, since it wouldn't be possible for Yen to ride all the way back from Nilfgaard itself — just ask Geralt how long that would take.
Yen rides back to Gors Velen, where a mob is rioting at the gate of a building housing several sorceresses: Keria Metz (Safiyya Ingar), Triss Merigold (Anna Shaffer), Margarita Laux-Antille (Anna Shaffer), and Sabrina Glevissig (Sabrina Glevissig) are all there. As Yen pushes her way through the crowd, she's distracted by a man she believes to be Vilgefortz (Mahesh Jadu). When she tries to pursue him, she realizes it's only a rogue mage wielding illusion magic. Keira opens the gate to help Yen, but is promptly stabbed by someone in the crowd. Yen then realizes that Vilgefortz has planted evil sorcerers there to whip up the mob. But as chaos breaks out, she manages to capture one of Vilgefortz's sorceresses. Which does feel a little too convenient, especially since the sorceress doesn't fight back at all.
When next we see Yen, she tells Sabrina, Margarita, and Triss about the rogue mages working for Vilgefortz, and that their portals are somehow being blocked. Yen decides to torture the rogue, Burnita (Mei Mac), by putting her fingers in her head to find her thoughts. Tissaia tortured Cahir this same way looking for Yen in season 2, and it's intense.
It bears no fruit, however. After Yen and the other sorceresses push Burnita far enough, she becomes suddenly possessed by Vilgefortz himself, speaking with his voice. It's a creepy scene and my favorite of the episode for Yen. Burnita's character completely changes while she mocks Yen, before the possession suddenly dissipates and Burnita's eyes explode from a spell Vilgefortz laid to cover his tracks. It's terrifying stuff, and a good sample of how gory this season of The Witcher is going to get.
Yen's resolve is not shaken by this encounter. She tells her sorceress sisters that they must build an army of their own if they're going to stand a chance against Vilgefortz.
Nilfgaard
There are two other smaller subplots that crop up briefly in the season premiere. The first is Nilfgaard, where we catch up with Emperor Emhyr var Emries (Bart Edwards), and the fake princess Ciri, whose real name is Teryn (Frances Pooley). This scene serves as an introduction to Emhyr's two closest advisors, the spymaster Stefan Skellen (James Purefoy) and mage Xarthisius (Simon Paisley Day). Skellen in particular is a standout, which is no surprise with an actor of Purefoy's caliber in the part. They discuss Cahir, who Emhyr believes to be dead after the Thanedd coup, and Nilfgaard's invasion of the Northern Kingdoms.
The conversation is brought up short when the Nilfgaardian soldier Geralt spared during the season 3 finale checkpoint fight arrives and delivers his message: that Geralt of Rivia is coming for Emhyr. The emperor asks fake Ciri what he should do with this soldier, who abandoned his post rather than die fighting for his emperor. Fake Ciri balks, but says he should be punished. The punishment Emyhr chooses is to sentence the man to die by drawing and quartering. Nilfgaard is as brutal as ever.
The Northern Kingdoms
The other subplot we get a glimpse of in this episode is a meeting of Emhyr's enemies, the rulers of the Northern Kingdoms. That would be: Queen Meve of Lyria and Rivia (Rebecca Hansen), King Foltest of Temeria (Shaun Dooley), King Henselt of Kaedwen (Edward Rowe), King Demavend of Aedirn (Viny Moli), and Radovid, the new King of Redania (Hugh Skinner).
At the end of season 3, Radovid was propped up as a puppet king in Redania after the sorceress Philippa Eilhart (Cassie Clare) murdered the previous king, Radovid's older brother Vizimir. He's totally out of his element in this meeting of monarchs. At one point he tries to bring his spymaster Djikstra (Graham McTavish) in to help give advice, but Queen Meve completely steamrolls him in embarrassing fashion.
Beyond Radovid's uncomfortable position among his fellow rulers, the other big takeaway from this meeting is that Djikstra and Philippa are on the outs. The monarchs don't trust mages after Thanedd, and none of them want Philippa around. Djikstra uses this to push her completely out of court, saying that he will throw her under the bus for the murder of Vizimir if she doesn't go. Djikstra is looking out for himself, and the only opportunity to do that is without the association to his (excellently costumed) sorceress lover.
Verdict
The Witcher season 4 got off to a much stronger start than I was expecting in "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger." Liam Hemsworth was seamlessly onboarded as Geralt, while the other plotlines each had enough meat to them to also be just as interesting in their own right. I'm pleasantly surprised by how invested I am in the series from this opening episode, so here's hoping The Witcher can keep it up.