Within the finale of The Witcher’s third season — which additionally occurs to be the final episode where Henry Cavill will play the lead role — our hero, Geralt of Rivia, spends most of his time in mattress. This isn’t an exaggeration: after getting his ass totally kicked in a earlier episode, he’s caught recuperating in a forest, attempting his finest to get wholesome so he can proceed his quest. It’s a weird alternative that sidelines Geralt in what ought to, in idea, be an essential second for the collection, the character, and the actor. As a substitute of sending Cavill out on a excessive word, the season simply sort of… ends.
It didn’t must be this fashion. When it debuted approach again in 2019, Netflix’s adaption of The Witcher proved to be a surprisingly faithful version of the story, one which was darkish and humorous on the identical time. Things got off track in season 2 when the present moved away from each the supply materials and its predominant forged of characters, placing far more concentrate on political squabbling and worldbuilding than the principle trio of Geralt (Cavill), Ciri (Freya Allan), and Yenn (Anya Chalotra).
Season 3, which was split into two volumes, was an opportunity to sort things. The first five episodes seemed to be a good setup for what promised to be an thrilling finale. Geralt was prepping for an enormous showdown with the brand new large unhealthy, Ciri was lastly changing into unbiased, and Yenn had largely stopped making selections that made completely no sense. Quantity 2, which consists of solely three episodes, squanders virtually all of that potential.
The remainder of this publish contains main spoilers for the primary three seasons of The Witcher.
Now, to be truthful, there’s an epic showdown as promised. The primary new episode encompasses a large conflict at Aretuza, the house base of the mages, the place the dominion of Redania and a gaggle of the final surviving elves seem to struggle towards the magic customers for numerous causes: Redania’s spymaster needs to purge disloyal mages from their ranks, whereas the elves are preventing on behalf of the rival nation of Nilfgaard. The politics are complicated, however you don’t actually need to know them to comply with this large battle during which many individuals die, together with one poor soul who actually explodes in bloody chunks.
Extra importantly, the battle units up the most effective a part of the ultimate episodes: the long-awaited struggle between Geralt and a traitorous mage, Vilgefortz (Mahesh Jadu), who’s revealed to have been pulling the strings all alongside. He’s additionally a badass fighter, with a magical employees that may warp between his arms at will. Their struggle shouldn’t be solely a strong piece of motion but additionally a uncommon likelihood to see Geralt truly lose to a a lot stronger foe. Like Wolverine, Geralt at all times appears to claw his strategy to victory regardless of the percentages, however not this time.
And that’s the place all the things goes downhill in a short time.
The aftermath of the battle leaves all of our predominant forged members adrift. As a consequence of some magical teleportation attributable to her uncontrollable powers, Ciri finds herself in a desert the place she wanders alone together with her ideas earlier than finally being captured for the bounty on her head. This takes a complete episode. Geralt, in the meantime, was overwhelmed so badly that he needed to retreat to the forest house of the dryads for some magical therapeutic. This takes virtually a complete episode — the ultimate one, I’d add — during which he’s both mendacity in mattress or struggling to face up and maintain a sword. Yenn is flittering away within the background, tying up unfastened ends with the few surviving mages from Aretuza. None of them are doing something remotely fascinating, which is an issue once they’re the narrative and emotional core of all the present.
Alongside the way in which, there are a surprisingly massive variety of deaths, lots of which really feel sudden, as if the writers are pruning the forged for a considerably contemporary begin in season 4. The 2 precise Positive issues the ultimate quantity does contain setting Ciri up for a way more lively function sooner or later and introducing a brand new companion for Geralt named Milva (Meng’er Zhang), an archer who helps nurse him again to well being and refuses to take any of his shit. Whereas Geralt tries to push ahead in his quest regardless that he can barely get up, Milva continually bests him, reminding him that if she have been the enemy, “You’d be {dead} by now.”
And thus, like Geralt, the season simply sort of limps to a conclusion. There are a couple of small revelations that can influence the longer term, however it’s startling how a lot these episodes get away from the strengths of the present. It’s not humorous, the motion is sparse, there are only a few monsters, and the core forged is given little to do. That is significantly surprising for Geralt; even because the present continued its downward spiral, Cavill’s flip because the witcher remained a spotlight. Plainly the present received’t be acknowledging the ceremonial passing of the white wig from Cavill to Liam Hemsworth, so we would find yourself with a Fresh Prince situation.
Possibly a contemporary face will breathe some life into the present because it plods on for at least a few more seasons. However Cavill’s exit wasn’t solely anticlimactic — it made me much less than ever in following Geralt’s endless quest.
The total third season of The Witcher is streaming now on Netflix.