Is The Witcher building up to its very own Red Wedding?
That’s setting an unfairly high bar, but it’s hard to draw any other conclusions after “The Invitation,†which spends an entire hour getting pretty much every major character to Aretuza for Yennefer’s big ball, and just in time for the midseason finale.
There is, of course, absolutely no way this party will go well (though honestly, it would be kind of fun to watch all these characters spend an hour making polite small talk and chowing down on canapés). But as to why it won’t go well … that’s a more complicated question. As with all things on The Witcher, it comes down to Ciri and many people who have pinned all their hopes and dreams for the future on her.
Let’s start with the most obvious: Geralt and Yennefer, the kinda-sorta parents who are now wracked with anxiety over their gifted daughter’s future. Ciri, having spent a solid year mired in magic training, spends the early part of the episode proving she hasn’t forgotten the witcher skills she picked up in season two when she kills the aeschna threatening the ferry to Aretuza. But even as she acquires the skill to become both a first-rate witcher and a second-rate sorceress, it’s Geralt, of all people, who gives her a little pep talk encouraging her to aim even higher. “If you want to be a queen, be a queen,†he says. “I think you’ll make an excellent one.â€
Queen of what, though? Cintra, her native kingdom, has been conquered by Nilfgaard and remains under the thumb of Emhyr var Emreis (her father, though she doesn’t know that yet). She could marry King Vizimir of Redania — back on the market after his last wife got decapitated! — and attempt to steer a northern alliance that could turn Nilfgaard back. She could embrace her Elder Blood and side with Francesca, leading the elves back to cultural and political dominance.
It’s enough to make you understand why Ciri’s actual wish is to go off to some quiet corner of the continent and kill monsters with Geralt. But Rience’s campaign against Ciri is enough to make that impossible — at least until the identity of his shadowy, even more powerful benefactor has been uncovered.
That brings us back to the ball, where the orchestrator of the conspiracy should finally be revealed. As the episode ends, we visit a series of duos — each of whom is poised to make a big move, and each of whom explicitly raises the same nervous question: Are you sure about this?
Geralt and Yennefer, for their part, are convinced they have uncovered the culprit: Stregobor, the arrogant mage and general thorn in the side who steers the brotherhood. The circumstantial evidence isn’t bad — he hates Yennefer, uses illusions, and has a troubling track record of experimenting on young women — but the fact that he’s featured an entire episode before the big reveal is enough reason to regard him as a red herring.
But don’t judge Geralt and Yennefer too harshly because they, unlike us, don’t have the whole story. In one of the season’s least-developed subplots, Triss Merigold has been stalking the halls of Aretuza, noting the splashes of blood in the rooms of the half-elven students who mysteriously disappear. When she shares her findings with Istredd, who notes that the disappearance of his long-sought Book of Monoliths may be connected, a hazy picture starts to form: one in which the novices of Aretuza are being subjected to all kinds of horrible experiments, the results of which Geralt fought in a castle just a couple of episodes ago.
That’s enough to make Triss doubt Tissaia, who enters the party with her lover and fellow mage, Vilgefortz. For Tissaia, this party is also a somewhat unwelcome reunion with an old friend: Philippa, who arrives with Dijkstra at Yennefer’s urging and King Vizimir’s insistence. It’s not even clear what these high-level meddlers can accomplish, though we know their goal: keep Vizimir from striking a deal with Nilfgaard. If they see an opportunity to strengthen their claim, they’ll grab it.
What does all this add up to? A fancy, tense, politically complicated time bomb that’s poised to explode with most of our main characters in harm’s way — and a party Ciri probably shouldn’t be anywhere near.
Stray Arrows
• Readers of Andrzej Sapkowski’s novel Time of Contempt already know the identity of Rience’s mystery benefactor, but the show has dropped a few pretty conspicuous clues. If you’re unspoiled but want to take your best shot at the answer before the midseason finale, leave your guess in the comments below.
• On the outskirts of the party, Jaskier and Radovid finally act on the mutual attraction that has been simmering all season. It feels especially fitting that Jaskier, lovable egomaniac that he is, finally makes his move right after Radovid reveals that he learned to play one of Jaskier’s songs.
• Add Fringilla to the list of wild cards that might get played in the midseason finale — while drunk at a bar, she overhears a conversation about the party, and she seems like she’s in just the right headspace to crash it.
• After a couple of seasons’ worth of buildup, we met Jaskier’s rival, Valdo Marx, and his fantasy glee-club buddies. Uh … isn’t comic relief supposed to be funny?
• That said: I was kind of into the especially weird bit when Valdo straight-up broke the fourth wall, blocking the show by sauntering in front of Jaskier and looking right at the camera (and prompting Jaskier to mumble a complaint).
• Jaskier’s quick joke about Geralt and Yennefer finding a unicorn is a reference to one of her most specific sexual quirks from the books.
• I can’t believe The Witcher had a scene where Jaskier and Ciri played cards and didn’t make it Gwent.
• Poor Aplegatt. Killed by an arrow, just as Ciri foresaw.