From the moment Henry Cavill announced he’d be departing the role of Geralt of Rivia at the end of The Witcher’s third season, the show had a unique challenge in front of it: How do you deliver a send-off worthy of the big-name actor who drew so many eyeballs to this fantasy drama in the first place?
Putting too much weight on Cavill’s last ride as Geralt could unintentionally make the episode feel like a series finale for a show with at least two seasons left (and that ends, as it turns out, on many cliffhangers). Then again, ignoring the situation altogether could feel dismissive of Cavill, an actor whose open enthusiasm for the source material has made him, for a sizable chunk of the fan base, the TV show’s primary draw.
While no answer could satisfy everybody, I do think The Witcher found a reasonably clever solution that’s also, conveniently, entirely faithful to the original novels. If Cavill gets only a cursory send-off, that’s just because Geralt’s role in the story is getting smaller as the world is getting bigger. Season three has made a big deal out of Geralt’s stubborn insistence on neutrality at all costs. What he’s finally learning, after two episodes nursing his wounds in the Brokilon Forest, is what it’s like to get swept up in the tides of history. And what The Witcher is really promising here is that the show has plenty of stories left to tell without him.
As Geralt heals, Yennefer is back in the smoking ruins of Aretuza, leading her fellow sorceresses in a “What the hell do we do now?†forum. Their group includes Tissaia, now white-haired after her “spell of last resort†(and, honestly, pulling it off).
This is a show that can’t stop talking about found families, so it’s touching, but not at all surprising, when she and Yennefer tenderly refer to each other as mother and daughter. But as Tissaia explains to Yennefer in the note she writes before killing herself, her recent experiences have led her to the conclusion that the best thing she can do for her former students is die and let them try to do better than she ever could. I’m not a big fan of plotlines that treat killing oneself as a noble gesture, but that’s what happens here. After discovering Tissaia’s body, Yennefer rallies the other sorceresses, vowing that they’ll defeat Vilgefortz and make sure nothing like this ever happens again.
The coup at Aretuza seems to have spread the revolutionary spirit across the Continent because back in Nilfgaard, Fringilla and Francesca are plotting again. When they approach Emhyr with a pitch to give them control of Cintra, he agrees on one condition: He gets to retain command of the elven Scoia’tael army, using it on suicide charges in his great war.
It doesn’t sound like much of a deal, which is why it’s a relief to learn that Fringilla plans to sneak away with Ciri at the first opportunity. But having secured even a measure of protection from Nilfgaard — if only for the elves too old and weak to fight for Nilfgaard — Francesca weakens. It’s only when Fringilla confesses that she and Emhyr plotted the death of her baby that the elven queen vows revenge, setting up another conflict we’ll see next season.
Despite the apparent dominance of Nilfgaard, Francesca isn’t the only threat to Emhyr’s empire; even his moment of triumph is on the brink of disaster. With great fanfare, “Ciri†is marched into the kingdom … only to be revealed as Teryn, the brainwashed girl Geralt rescued from the castle earlier this season. For now, she can play the part, but Emhyr is in for a major disappointment if he attempts to draw on Ciri’s considerable powers.
Still, the court intrigue in Nilfgaard seems like child’s play compared to the chaos in Redania, where the queen was murdered just a few episodes ago. With King Vizimir demanding Philippa’s death in payment for her failure in the Aretuza coup, Dijkstra is hell-bent on taking the blame (and her place on the executioner’s block). But Philippa has her own scheme to execute. After orchestrating Vizimir’s murder via that random handmaiden she keeps goading into assassinating people, Philippa crowns his younger brother, Radovid, the new king of Redania. Jaskier spent much of the season waffling over whether Radovid had any actual principles under the façade he projects; now the entire kingdom is poised to find out.
But for all the political violence that plays out across the episode, the most consequential moment for the future of The Witcher comes in the dank little tavern where Ciri is being held. Her captors recognize that she resembles the girl Emhyr has been looking for but have no concept of how dangerous she can be. They certainly don’t anticipate the arrival of the Rats, a group of young thieves (including Ciri’s former pickpocket, Mistle) that shows up to free a fellow captive. (I hope you liked these guys because — while for some reason Netflix still hasn’t formally announced it — there’s a full-blown spinoff about the Rats in the works.)
This rescue mission turns into an initiation ritual when they give Ciri a sword and invite her to square off against the sole surviving captor. She doesn’t hesitate, using the same kind of precise, unsparing sword swings we’ve seen Geralt use over and over to kill her enemy without breaking a sweat. It’s a reminder of how far she has come as a warrior, even without her magic, and how much damage she could do if she abandons her moral compass entirely.
In short, she needs Geralt — which is why he’s getting back on the Path despite all rational medical advice insisting he should stay off the Path. We’re repeatedly told he’s nowhere near full strength, but the show at least gives Cavill one last good fight, showing off his reliably excellent swordplay as he dispatches a bunch of guards at a checkpoint.
On a practical level, the most significant development in Geralt’s story is the introduction of Milva, a sharp-tongued archer who joins him and Jaskier on the road. (We’ll definitely see more of her in season four.) But on a character level, the most significant development here is that Geralt decides to fight these guards after he witnesses them being needlessly cruel to a family with a young daughter. Given his own found family, it’s not hard to figure out what set him off.
Simple as it is, this is a compelling final character beat for Cavill: the moment at which Geralt decides he won’t be neutral anymore. Still, it’s telling that the final shot of the episode isn’t Geralt wandering off into the mist — it’s Ciri, renaming herself “Falka†in honor of the infamous rebel princess who counseled her to burn it all down.
Henry Cavill may be done on The Witcher, but Geralt of Rivia will still be around, and Liam Hemsworth deserves the chance to make the role his own. That said, it does feel like especially apt timing that the title of this TV show now feels as though it could also be a reference to Ciri — and that also seems like a show well worth watching.
Stray Arrows
• I couldn’t resist hunting for metatextual winks about Cavill’s departure. Intentionally or not, they are there if you look for them. The quick flashbacks to Geralt’s encounter with Renfri in the show’s very first episode and the business with her medallion double as a way to bring Cavill’s time as the witcher full circle. “Tell me this isn’t the last time I’ll see you,†begs Yennefer in what turns out to be the last time Cavill and Anya Chalotra share the screen together. “Butcher, white wolf, or a savior / the witcher returns in the end,†vows Joey Batey in the song that plays over the finale’s closing credits.
• The Witcher’s second season concluded with a trailer for the spinoff series The Witcher: Blood Origin, so I was a little surprised season three didn’t do the same for that still-unannounced spinoff about the Rats. That said, invaluable Witcher fan site Redanian Intelligence has plenty of information about the show’s recently wrapped Cape Town–based production, including the news that Dolph Lundgren will appear as a witcher from the School of the Cat.
• In the opening title card, the familiar image of the wolf, star, and swallow — representing Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri, respectively — rusts and rots, which (intentionally or not) feels like a visual nod to the fact that this trio, at least in this form, will never be reunited.
• In another scene that’s basically just setup for season four, Yennefer visits Crach an Craite, a jarl from the Norse-like nation of Skellige (and, at one point, a rival suitor for Pavetta’s hand in marriage). We haven’t seen him since season one, so you might not have noticed that Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson has replaced Blair Kincaid in the show.
• Radovid putting on his murdered brother’s bloody crown is just the right amount of ultracorny symbolism for my taste.
• Vilgefortz is looking pretty rough after getting blasted at Tor Lara. Serves him right.
• A nice subtle hint, if you needed one, that Emhyr var Emreis doesn’t actually care about the elves: While both Francesca and Fringilla refer to the city of Xin’Trea under its original Elder name, Emhyr persists in calling it Cintra, the name adopted by its human conquerors.
• Here’s Jaskier’s latest song, “The Ride of the Witcher,â€Â which played over the closing credits. It’s co-written by a band with a long history with the Witcher franchise and still infinitely less catchy than “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher.â€
• Cavill may have hung up his sword and wig, but I’m still on the Path. See you in season four, everybody!