The second episode of The Witcher season 4 gives Geralt of Rivia (Liam Hemsworth) and his loyal companions a night of respite before the long road ahead, thanks to a run-in with a fan-favorite character from both the books and games: Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy, or Regis for short (Laurence Fishburn).
Meanwhile, Ciri (Freya Allan) becomes a Rat in truth, Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) gathers allies to her cause, and the Nilfgaardian emperor Emhyr var Emries (Bart Edwards) makes an infuriating discovery.
FULL SPOILERS ahead for The Witcher season 4 episode 2, "Dream of a Wish Fulfilled."
Geralt goes to the graveyard
The second episode of The Witcher season 4 begins with a comedic encounter and a monster hunt. when Geralt and his traveling companions (known as his "hansa" in the books) arrive at a haunted elven graveyard called Fen Carn. There they meet two idiotic villagers who are trying to claim a bounty on a monster that's supposedly haunting the place, given to them by a local priest. These villagers insult Milva and try to steal her horse, which earns one of them a punch in the face. This sends them packing, but not before Milva suddenly vomits on the ground — make note of that for later.
Fen Carn is a shortcut Geralt knows to reach Nilfgaard, which will allow them to avoid any battlefields by going through the ruins. But it turns out that the villagers were right; a creature does indeed haunt the ruins, and it quickly turns into the first monster fight of the season, with a wraith.
Jaskier gets sucked down into a tomb when he unwittingly reads the inscription on it, and then Geralt lures the wraith out into a battle. The CGI in this scene feels a little goofy, but the wraith design itself is very solid. I enjoyed how the scene cut from Geralt's battle to the wraith to Milva and Zoltan's effort to save Jaskier. The music in this scene is also really good, especially once Geralt uses his signs to trap the wraith.
That said, I am a little confused about why Geralt just...rips out the wraith's heart? This is such a contrast to the very intelligent way that the books and games do monsters, where Geralt comes off as one part investigator as well as one part monster hunter. The only information we get about the wraith afterward is that its heart was twisted by years of sorrow and anguish, which is what turned it into a monster. But some sort of tie to who this person was and what specifically turned them into a wraith probably would have been more compelling, rather than a fairly arbitrary weak spot for Geralt to break with his bare fist.
When we next catch up with the hansa, Geralt, Jaskier, Milva, and Zoltan are leaving Fen Carn to reunite with Percival and their other traveling companions, since night fell while they were fighting the wraith. They hear a noise in the graveyard, and meet a mysterious figure: Regis, a barber-surgeon who's out gathering herbs in a haunted elven ruin at night. Which is totally a thing normal people do. I'll admit, I was a little skeptical about Fishburne's casting for Regis, but he absolutely steals every scene he's in. He's easily one of the standout performances of the season.
Regis says he's hiding in the graveyard to avoid the war. He invites the travelers to his house for the night, where it just so happens he makes his own mandrake moonshine. Enter a night of heavy drinking.
While everyone's partaking of Regis' home-brewed liquor, the barber-surgeon quietly invites Geralt into a side room to tend to his wound. It's a solid scene for the two, where Geralt tries to lie about his wound and Regis sees right through it.
The night of revelry brings the members of our hansa closer together as they all get drunk; except for Regis that is, since his "health isn't what it once was." Geralt grumps out of the room when he realizes Regis was plying them with alcohol partially to get the measure of them, and passes out against a log in the forest. He has dreams of Ciri and Yennefer, except these are not nightmares, but idyllic visions of the life they might have had:
We see Ciri leave Geralt and Yen, only to return later to their graves. She places a flower crown on the sword standing at the head of Geralt's. There's a very cool cut then, as Ciri wakes up from the same dream. Where did Geralt's dream end and Ciri's begin? Were they both exactly the same?
Geralt wakes up a few scenes later, after Ciri is formally invited to join the Rats, which is some very cool editing that blurs their realities together. Geralt confides in Regis that it's been 40 days since he left Brokilon, but he's only traveled 50 out of the 250 leagues he needs to go to get to Emhyr's palace. Somehow, he needs to move faster if he's to save Ciri, who he still believes is being held there.
Regis decides to join the party so he can continue treating Geralt's leg, and also for the companionship of the hansa. He takes a bloody cloth with him as he leaves; a few scenes later, we see him sniffing it. If you know, you know; if not, it won't be long before you find out what that's about. Who's blood is it, I wonder?
A final, beautifully chilling detail: the flower crown that the little refugee girl Beata (Audrey Kattan) has is the same one that hangs at Geralt's grave in the dream. As the hansa departs, Milva leaves supplies for Cahir, who's still shadowing the group's every step.
Ciri and the Rats
Down in the towns bordering the Korath Desert, Ciri is attending her first heist with the Rats. Since she's not an official member, her job is to sit with Asse on the getaway cart so she can watch and learn. The set for the city is beautiful, and very distinct from anything we've seen in previous seasons of The Witcher. The music and sound design also do a lot of heavy lifting in his sequence.
The heist goes sideways when Reef does a drug called Fisstech with the tax collector she's supposed to be robbing, giving him a chance to get away. She accidentally knocks him out a window, alerting the guards. The Rats are fun to watch because it seems like they're all having a great time being bandits, especially Reef. But the escape hits a snag when Mistle is caught by a guard. Ciri comes to the rescue, fighting off guards and leading MIstle onto the bck of the carriage just as Asse pulls away. More guards give chase, and Ciri throws the Rats' hard-earned haul into the street so that a bunch of peasants swarming the coins block the cavalry charge.
The Rats are all understandably pissed at Ciri for throwing away their gold. Ciri dresses them down in turn, which gives Freya Allan an opportunity to show off her acting chops. Afterward, Mistle and Ciri go outside to talk, and Ciri puts distance between them by saying she'll leave the Rats in the morning. Their conversatoin is noticed by a commoner.
But after Ciri wakes up from her and Geralt's shared dream, the Rats get an unexpected windfall of luck: the cityfolk show up to help the thieves sneak out past the guards, becuase they're so grateful that the Rats returned their money that the tax collector squeezed out of them. The Rats now have admirers.
This is a key point about this band of thieves from the book, but I like how the show made it a part of Ciri's journey in this episode in a somewhat more direct way. It provides a good excuse for a scene where the Rats formally induct Ciri into their ranks, giving her a token each as a symbol of her new life. Ciri lets Giselher cut her palm, a blood pact binding her to the Rats for life.
However, despite accepting Ciri, the Rat's final shot of the episode focuses on Kayleigh, who pulls out a wanted poster of Ciri that offers a generous reward.
Yennefer
Yennefer has a smaller role in this episode, which is mostly laying groundwork for what's to come by visiting other sorceresses. The first is Philippa Eilhart, who we hear transform back from her owl form right as Yennefer arrives at her castle of Montecalvo. Philippa tries to play it off like everything's fine, but Yen correclty guesses that she's been booted from the Redanian court. Despite Yen revealing that Keira Metz is dead and Vilgefortz is gathering an army to hunt other mages, Philippa isn't interested in working with her, since she failed to back up the Redanians when Vilgeforttz was first accused of working with Nilfgaard during the Thanedd coup.
Yen's next stop is Fringilla Vigo (Mimî M Khayisa), who is hiding out in a non-descript cabin somewhere in the North. Just like Philippa, Fringilla is not on friendly terms with Yennefer. But Yen wants Fringilla to agree to join Vilgefortz as a spy in order to expose his location. She seemingly sways her by appealing to her hatred for Emperor Emhyr, saying that taking out Vilgefortz would also hurt Fringilla's former lord and enemy as well.
Later in the episode, three rogue mages confront Yen in the woods. She fights them off, until Philippa arrives and helps her. Working together, Yen and Philippa utterly murder the rogue mages in extremely gruesome fashion. Then Yen reveals the next sorceress she plans to visit: Francesca Findabair, queen of the elves. Philippa gifts her a feather as she sets off.
Nilfgaard
We only get one scene in Nilfgaard in "Dream of a Wish Fulfilled," but it's a very important one. This is the moment when Emyhr var Emries confirms his suspicion that the Ciri he's been hosting at court is an imposter. This reveal happens similarly quickly in the book, because Emhyr is ruthlessly smart. I'm glad they didn't string it along in the show.
Ultimately, what gives fake Ciri away is that Emhyr asks her to fight him, reasoning that the real Cirilla was trained by witchers so she should know her way around a sword. Fake Ciri does not, and no amount of acting can hide it.
Emyhr places her under guard and demands Stefan Skellen bring him Vilgefortz. He also mentioned that there's a prophecy involving Cirilla that "won't work with an imposter." We need to find out more about that.
Istredd
We also see Istredd (Royce Pierreson) for the first time of season 4 in this episode. He's in a cozy little room lined with papers, conducting his research into the monolith. Yen comes to visit him, trying to find out why Vilgefortz wants Ciri. We then find out Istredd is the reason Vilgefortz is able to block portals, because he uncovered a way portals are connected to the monoliths that link worlds, Istredd's specialty. He reasons out that Ciri is connected to time and space somehow.
If you thought something was fishy with this scene, you were right. Istredd wasn't with Yen at all, but Vilgefortz, who has him captive in his dread stronghold Stygga Castle.
Fringilla arrives, and shows Vilgefortz the dimeritium blade Yen gave her. She is honest with Vilgefortz...at least, honest enough that he decides to recruit her. His eye is also real messed up, from getting melted by the Tor Lara explosion. That explosion changed everyone caught in it.
Verdict
"Dream of a Wish Fulfilled" is another solid episode of The Witcher, setting up larger plotlines while giving small payoffs like the introduction to the beloved character of Regis. It makes me nervous to say it, but right now it feels a lot like The Witcher is on a hot streak