We're nearing the end of the road for The Witcher season 4, but there's still plenty of good stuff still to come. After a chaotic battle of mages at Montecalvo castle, the season's penultimate episode focuses on what many Witcher fans love best: a monster hunt. Geralt and his hansa have a gloomy ordeal ahead in this episode, and it leads to a standout creature confrontation.
Meanwhile, Ciri and the Rats have a falling out that leads to a terrifying revelation, and Yennefer discovers the truth about Emhyr's engagement to the Lion Cub of Cintra.
FULL SPOILERS ahead for The Witcher season 4 episode 7, "What I love I do not carry."
The truth comes out
"What I love I do not carry" picks up right where the previous episode left off, with Yennefer blasting her way into fake Cirilla's room. She realizes that fake Ciri — Teryn — was brought there by Vilgefortz, and was formerly a novice form Aretuza. She offers to take Teryn to safety in Montecalvo, but Teryn refuses. The sorceresses were not able to keep her safe from Vilgefortz before. Now she's placing her faith in Emhyr. This is a fascinating development we'll come back to later, but for now, Yennefer portals away before reinforcements can arrive.
To Ysgith Swamp
From there we jump to the hansa, who are camped out a hilltop ruin planning their next move. They're concerned about traveling through the Aldiss Pass, because it is being heavily guarded by northern soldiers harvesting war timber. The other option is going through the swamplands. Since everyone wants to avoid more fighting, they agree that the swamp is the path they will take.
Then we get a surprising reveal: Milva is pregnant from her night with the Scoia'tael. Regis already knew, because he's a vampire, but this is news to the rest of the hansa. Remember when she threw up during the second episode of the season? Now we know why. When everyone starts to talk over each other about what to do with her, she shuts them down and storms off. Parenthood is a running theme of this episode, and Milva encapsulates one piece of that theme that we'll return to several more times.
Then we get to the Ysgith Swamp, which is a very cool and creepy setting. This season really has had a great variety of locations, and of those, the Ysgith Swamp is near the top for me in terms of atmosphere. Even the title card is different this episode, as the camera plunges underwater to hint at the trials to come.
The group's journey through the swamp gives them some time for more bonding. Geralt and Cahir finally get more comfortable, comparing notes about what they've seen of Ciri in their dreams. Regis, meanwhile, is enamored with the local fauna. Cahir offers to help Milva, a kindness which surprises her. There are a lot of good little character interactions for the hansa.
But the peace is short-lived. Geralt hears a whispered voice saying his name, which none of his companions can hear. A moment later, Zoltan, Yarpen, and Percival are all snatched by some mysterious being and dragged underwater. The remaining hansa members can't find them, which is horrifying. And so we enter the biggest monster hunt of the season, as the disembodied voice invites Geralt deeper into the swamp and the hanging willows part to allow him passage.
As they continue the hunt, Regis notices an herb which could help Milva rid herself of her pregnancy. Their conversation is cut short however, as the monster snatches Cahir and Jaskier, leaving just Geralt, Regis, and Milva to search for their captive friends. Geralt tries to go off on his own to find the monster, but he's assailed by visions of Ciri dying in Yennefer's arms on a nearby island. He struggles toward them, until Regis and Milva chase him and pull him out of the illusion.
Then Geralt hears their friends calling for help, and they finally reach the creature's lair, just as it snatches Milva and Regis, leaving Geralt once more alone to face it. We finally see the creature; it's a young girl who is completely overgrown with swampy vines and tentacles...and her mother, the one who was calling to Geralt. These are Rusalka, spirits which haunt waterways. and her swampy looking mother. She says "Mama, he's home." These are Rusalka, spirits which haunt waterways.
The Rusalka are so creepy, with fantastic makeup and digital effects. Geralt is quickly subdued, but he knows a thing or two about monsters: he asks for their riddle, knowing that if he can solve it they must let him go. The mother Rusalka supplies it without missing a beat:
"What I love, I do not carry. What I nurture, I do not feed. What I live and die for is not mine alone. What am I?"
He can't think of an answer right away, so the Rusalka tells him the daughter will play with his friends, while she lies with him, saying she "missed him." He convinces her to release his hands so he can embrace her, but instead he impales her daughter with his sword. Vines pull him into the water in retaliation. As he's dragged into the depths, Geralt realizes the vision he saw wasn't Yen and Ciri, but this Rusalka and her daughter when they were still human. They got lost in the swamp, and never saw the girl's father again. This gives Geralt the answer to the riddle: "A father." When he shouts it out, the Rusalka spirits fade, leaving behind two skeletons where they died in their past lives.
With the danger over, Regis transforms into a bat to lead them from the swamp. They make camp, and Zoltan gives Geralt his Mahakam steel sword. Yarpen and Percival announce they're leaving to head home to Mahakam. Yarpen saw his death when he was pulled under the water, and he has a woman he loves back in Mahakam, waiting to wed him. Seeing Geralt's passion for his life with Yennefer and Ciri has reaffirmed that for the dwarf. After Yarpen and Percival leave, we see that Milva has medicine from Regis for the abortion, but has not used it.
That night, Milva and Geralt have a heart-to-heart. She relays a story about caterpillars eating their cocoons from the inside to Geralt, which is a metaphor for how she feels being pregnant. She tells Geralt her real name: Maria. She says the baby is eating the warrior Milva from the inside out; maybe what's left will be Maria, who could be a mother. Geralt then talks about his own past with Ciri and Yennefer. It's a beautiful conversation for these two, a father and prospective mother whose roles have shifted greatly over the course of their journey.
An unexpected reunion
As Geralt goes to bed, Yennefer portals in and they're reunited for the first time since she healed him in Brokilon Forest. She tells him that Ciri is not in Nilfgaard, and worries if they'll ever find her. Then she conjures a tent which is much larger on the inside, and they get into a bath while she tells him about the battle at Montecalvo — and the deaths of Istredd and Vesemir. I won't lie to you reader, I hate this scene. Geralt literally says nothing about the death of Vesemir, his own father figure, before he and Yennefer start having a steamy sex scene. I don't know if this was a directional choice or just Hemsworth's execution of the scene, but I've shouted at my television every single time I've watched it.
Beyond the Vesemir of it all, I also don't like Yen and Geralt's reunion because it undermines their departure at Thanedd last season, which is the last time they see each other in the books before the big, climactic ending of the series. Plus, Liam Hemsworth just looks...kind of bored in this scene? It brings up an issue I've started having with his acting in the later episodes of the season, which is that some of his deliveries just feel kind of wooden.
At the same time, I can understand having the reunion here, because otherwise we'd literally never see Hemsworth's Geralt and Chalotra's Yennefer together in the present. So perhaps the show had to do this in order to cement their relationship a bit more for viewers.
The next morning, Geralt confides in Yen about his dreams of a life well led, with her and Ciri. They talk about how their experiences have changed them. Yen doesn't want to go back to Montecalvo, and wants to meet the hansa. Geralt's companion gather around a fire, and now that they know Ciri isn't in Nilfgaard, they make a plan to go find a circle of druids to help them locate her. With the approaching equinox, the druids can harness that celestial power to work incredible magic and, hopefully, divine Ciri's whereabouts.
But the hansa will make that leg of the journey without Yennefer. Her time with them is brief, as despite her wishes, she must return to Montecalvo to see how the other soreceresses are faring.
Nilfgaard
"What I love I do not carry" also contains a few important scenes in Nilfgaard. After Yennefer's explosive incursion to the imperial palace, Emhyr storms through the halls and goes to see Teryn/fake Ciri. Teryn is actually honest with him about her conversation with Yennefer, which gives Emhyr enough information to reason out who it was that invaded his keep. He orders Skellen to track Yen down. Then, he has a very candid conversation with fake Ciri about what it means for her to have turned down Yen's offer for sanctuary. Their dynamic is a very interesting development; fake Ciri genuinely seems grateful to him for giving her a home. I'm curious to see how the show handles their relationship moving forward.
The next and final time we return to Nilfgaard, we see Skellen get held up at knifepoint as he walks into Emhyr's chamber. The emperor accuses him of leaking the news that his Cirilla is a fake, since it's spreading across the Continent. Skellen insists he is loyal, even as Emhyr cuts his face. And then he points out a crucial detail they've all been overlooking: if Ciri is part of Geralt's destiny, she cannot be part of Emhyr's. This is why they cannot find her. The mage Xarthisius agrees, and they come to the conclusion that Emhyr needs to kill Geralt of Rivia.
I'm not really sure if I buy the logic here, but hey, who am I to argue with a sketchy mage and a Nilfgaardian spymaster? Regardless, it's a nice bit of tense set up that will presumably come into play in season 5.
"I'm not Cirilla anymore...I'm not your Falka, either."
This episode is also a turning point for Ciri. Down in the south, the Rats are enjoying a day off. Ciri sees a horse she says has the grace of a kelpie, which I'm sure more than a few gamers and readers pegged right away, since Kelpie is the name of Ciri's horse in the source material. The red-cloaked man from a few episodes back shows up with news. This is Hotspurn, the man the guards told Bonhart to find at the end of the previous episode. It's revealed that the Rats were kidnapping the noble kid for Hotspurn on Emperor Emhyr's orders, which Ciri is not okay with.
Hotspurn says the Baron of Casadei put out a bounty on the Rats, but wants Ciri alive to flay her. Leo Bonhart accepted the bounty, which means he is hunting them for both Skellen and Casadei. One wants Ciri alive, one dead. Again, the Rats reference a prior run-in with Bonhart, which you can learn more about after finishing season 4 in the standalone special The Rats: A Witcher Tale.
Hotspurn mentions Emperor Emhyr's engagement to the Lion Cub of Cintra, which makes Ciri interrupt, since obviously, Emhyr can't be really marrying her if she's sitting right there. Everyone brushes off the interruption, except Mistle. He also offers to get them pardons if they work more formally for Nilfgaard, which they refuse. Hotspurn leaves them with a warning that Leo Bonhart is in a town called Jealousy, and to avoid it.
Now that Ciri knows they've been working for Emhyr, she bails on them. Mistle goes after her and finally pieces together that she's the Lion Cub of Cintra. She tries to convince Ciri to stay with them, be free and be Falka. But Ciri decides she can no longer run from her destiny, and that she has to fix whatever scheme Emhyr is doing using her name.
The next scene we get for Ciri is the very end of the episode, where we see she's overturned Hotspurn's cart and released the child. Hotspurn's bone is sticking out of his leg, which is pretty gnarly. Hotspurn begs for help, telling Ciri that the Rats are in danger. He wasn't warning them about Leo Bonhart; he was luring them into a trap. Bonhart plans to torture and murder them to get to Ciri. She leaves Hotspurn, takes his horse — now her horse, Kelpie — and rides hard for Jealousy. The final shot of Ciri riding across the countryside is insanely beautiful. I really can't understate how good The Witcher's location filming is; the only other fantasy shows that have been even close are Game of Thrones and The Wheel of Time.
Will Ciri make it in time to save the Rats? Will Geralt find the druids to locate his missing daughter? Answers await in the season finale!
Verdict
"What I love I do not carry" is mostly a very solid episode to tee us up for the season finale. It features the season's best monster hunt, along with more good material for Ciri and the Rats, and some interesting developments in Nilfgaard. The only flies in the ointment is Yennefer's sudden appearance at the hansa's camp and Geralt's outrageous under-reaction to the death of Vesemir. But on the whole, I do love a good thematic episode of television, and "What I love I do not carry" did that better than most episodes of The Witcher season 4.