Summary: Geralt goes to Temeria to slay a striga. Upon arriving there he learns that it killed a witcher. He is met by a sorceress, Triss, who wants him to save the striga who is a princess. Triss takes Geralt to meet the King, Foltest, and he discerns that the striga is the king's daughter and was birthed by his sister. After investigating, Geralt discovers that Ostrit, one of Foltest's men, is responsible fo rthe curse that made the girl into a striga. Geralt sacrifices Ostrit to the striga and fights her until sunrise when the curse is broken. Yennefer has passed her training and is going to be sent to Cintra, but Stregobor reveals she is an elf and tries to get her sent to Nilfgaard instead. The consensus is to send her to Nilfgaard and Yennefer is furious. Discerning that Istredd betrayed her, she argues with him and then goes to forcibly be reborn into a more beautiful and powerful form anyways. After, she meets with the king of Cintra to ensure that she is sent there instead. Ciri walks into an enchanted forest and Dara is unable to follow her.
The Good: The striga storyline is entertaining to watch. A reliable and easy way to make television more engaging is to include a mystery, and this episode did that effectively with that opening scene as we are aware that there is a dangerous monster out there, but we don't know what it is. The rest of the episode explores the origin of the striga and further enriches the world by exploring its fantastical and political aspects. The mystery is gradually resolved through these scenes, and we even get a horror-thriller action sequence reminiscent of "Alien". The story is fun to watch, the visuals are stunning, and the soundtrack is excellent. This is an easy to enjoy adventure, and the presentation was nailed. Geralt himself is uninteresting throughout the episode, but that is the point. The show is making a point of addressing how simplistic and shallow his life is, and it seems clear that this will change when he finally meets his destiny in Ciri, which will hopefully happen soon. Geralt has been set up neatly for a more compelling story down the road. Thankfully, Geralt is still engaging to watch even without much depth. His blunt, no-nonsense approach is refreshing in a political world that is packed with exposition. It's easier to engage in a story where you don't fully understand the world when you're exploring it with a character who doesn't care about anything going on in the world outside of his little bubble of existence. Because of this, I was easily able to invest in the story based off of the details that we know instead of fixating on the details that weren't addressed. Yennefer's story has some significant flaws (see: The Bad), but overall it works. Last episode got us to sympathize with Yennefer's uselessness, and we root for her to overcome her insecurity. This episode serves up a nice twist on that storyline by having Yennefer already be successful, but be faced with losing the chance to leave her past self behind. Yennefer is promised rebirth and feelings of power, but that goes away when she is threatened with being sent to Nilfgaard. We then see Yennefer take matters into her own hands and satisfyingly rebel against the wizards, choosing to force her way into Cintra. I also really enjoyed the world-building details in this episode. We've all-but confirmed that these storylines are happening at different timelines, which I'm glad has been revealed already instead of being milked for a twist later on. I was also pleased to learn more about the wizards, who firmly believe that they are maintaining peace across all kingdoms by sending members of their order to every royal family, similar to the maesters in "Game of Thrones". The Bad: There are a few little things that bother me in Geralt's storyline. The monster reveal did not feel significant at all. I don't know anything about the monsters in this world, so it means nothing to me to hear the characters discuss which monster it is that's terrorizing the people. It's also hard to invest in these monster-of-the-week type of stories. It's clear to me that these storylines will not be important in the long run, and when there is so much bland exposition and empty action filling out the episode, it makes the story feel much less interesting. This show is reminiscent of "The Mandalorian" in this regard, and that's making these early episodes somewhat difficult to invest in. Additionally, I've always hated the trope where villains are initially presented as vicious and unstoppable only to immediately become less competent when faced up with the heroes. The striga falls into this trap in the episode. It is ruthless and murderous against the Witcher at the start of the episode and against Ostrid, but it immediately becomes less bloodthirsty against Geralt. Instead of trying to eat him, it just throws him around. The inconsistency in its behaviour takes me out of the experience and it weakens the action scene. I would much rather prefer the monsters to be written consistently, either make it less vicious in its introduction or have it be more ruthless against Geralt. These options will decrease the drama, but that's a small sacrifice to make to improve my immersion. Yennefer's character development hasn't been very fluid. It felt like she was only just starting to find her way in the magical world in the last episode, but now it seems that she is one of the top mages in her class which is a sudden change. I wish we had seen this play out because I found myself being confused with her sudden increase in ability. In particular, the change in her relationship with Tissaia felt jarring and I was disappointed that the change in their dynamic happened off-screen. The romance between Yennefer and Istredd was just as awkward and cringeworthy as in the last episode, and I did not enjoy it. Their argument was written well to reflect Yennefer's arc in this episode, but it never quite felt organic or satisfying because the character of Istredd is still so murky, and we don't know enough about the world of the wizards yet. Istredd makes a big deal about the fact that he and Yennefer are both spying on each other and that this is normal. I was confused by this because we don't know enough about the wizards for this reveal to have significance. Furthermore, I still don't buy into their relationship with each other because of how rushed it has been. I don't feel like I understand the characters well enough to know why they like each other, and I feel no tragedy or sadness to see them arguing with each other. This episode brings up a fundamental problem with the show. All the storylines feel disjointed and its hurting the pace of the story. Geralt's story suggests that this is a lighthearted mission-of-the-week kind of story, but Yennefer's suggests a much darker serialized storyline. Then Ciri turns up at the end of the episode to remind me of the overarching storyline which has been all-but ignored since the first episode, making for a choppy pace and unfocused structure in these first few episodes. Episode-by-episode this isn't a huge deal, mainly because Geralt has a new storyline each episode, but for a serialized show, this makes it really difficult to invest in the main storyline. I was annoyed to see this episode lean so heavily on nudity and sex. The endless fanservice is one of the most annoying things about "Game of Thrones", and I'm disappointed to see that it's bled into this universe too. The usual flaws with dialogue and acting continue. The acting was better here, but the dialogue was difficult to get into. Most of it was exposition and plot details, which isn't very interesting to listen to. The Unknown: What is a vukodlak? Are orens the currency of the world, or just Temeria? Where is Temeria? Is it a kingdom, or within a kingdom? Which kingdom does Foltest rule? Why don't the Temerians like Witchers? It is suggested that they have the power to exile Geralt at will. Why are Witchers so reviled in this world? Why isn't Yennefer allowed to be reborn when she is assigned to Nilfgaard? I don't understand that at all. Why is it so important for Yennefer to be sent to Nilfgaard? Is she the best of Tissaia's mages now? Yennefer's story is clearly set well before the events of the first episode. What is the significance of this? How will Yennefer's assignment to Cintra influence the events of the future? Will her absence from Nilfgaard be what causes their attack from "The End's Beginning"? Who is Falka? What was Falka's Rebellion? What was Geralt's gift for the princess? What is that stuff that he drinks? What is this forest that Ciri entered? Who was shooting at Dara? Why weren't they shooting Ciri as well? Best Moment: The striga murdering Ostrit was a chilling horror sequence and tremendously well shot. The striga looked impressively terrifying, and I loved the way that its appearance was built up to. Excellent presentation. Character of the Episode: Geralt. Conclusion: Impressive visuals and more engaging storytelling ensured that this was the best episode yet. However, there are still lots of major flaws that need to be ironed out. Score: 59
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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