Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Witcher’ Season 3 Part 2 on Netflix, Featuring Henry Cavill’s Last Stand As The Beefy Dark Fantasy Badass

 Season 3 of The Witcher returns to Netflix for its final three episodes with Henry Cavill in the lead role. Why did Cavill choose to bequeath the white wig of Geralt of Rivia to Liam Hemsworth? Was it because his titular character was submerged beneath a surging wave of subplots? Creative differences with Witcher series creator Lauren Schmidt Hissrich? We still don’t know. But we do know how crazed things have become on the Continent. Volume 1 of Witcher Season 3 closed with a big plot twist, plus Geralt finding himself in another tight spot. But it’s like he’s been known to say. “Never lost, always found…”   

THE WITCHER – SEASON 3 PART 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: As is its wont, the second part of Witcher Season 3 begins on the tip of steel that ended its first volume. “You should’ve chosen a side, witcher,” grumbles Redanian spymaster Sigismund Dijkstra (Graham McTavish). And throughout Aretuza, mages are being rounded up and bound with magic-suppressing dimeritium shackles.

The Gist: The “battle to come” that Vilgefortz of Roggeveen (Mahesh Jadu) teased to Geralt earlier this season has arrived in full force. The palace and Thanedd Island is in chaos, with mages restrained by those loyal to Dijkstra and sorceress baddie Phillippa Eihart (Cassie Clare), Tissaia de Vries (MyAnna Buring) standing defiant against this unprecedented incursion into the hallowed halls of Aretuza, and Geralt maintaining his neutrality even as he’s ostensibly a prisoner. There are also forces landing on shore, but they are not who Dijkstra believes them to be. Everyone is always getting played by someone else in The Witcher, and this time it’s Vilgefortz who reveals his true aims. “The Scoia’Tael will enter this place and burn it to the ground,” he tells Tissaia. Their romance was a fraud, he was playing her the whole time, and also using Dijkstra and Phillippa’s own schemes as cover for his own nefarious aims.

Of course, all of this unrest leads back to Cirilla of Cintra (Freya Allen). The princess’s emerging powers, having been guided and honed by Geralt and his once again (for good this time?) lover, the noble sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), remains highly sought after by all of the Continent’s competing interests. When we last saw her, she was ensconced in a magic-protected dwelling monitored by the bard Jaskier (Joey Batey). But when contacted telepathically by Yen, Ciri mobilizes, and the two soon unite. They’ve gotta get Ciri to safety, get away from this island. But that proves to be a tall order. 

It’s a close-quarters battle in the palace, as Tissaia tries to rally her people against the forces of Francesca Findabair (Mecia Simson), the elven queen who Vilgefortz admitted via magic portal. Many fall on both sides. And before long, Tissaia has to call in the big guns. She conjures “Alzur’s Thunder.” The spell will kill anything it touches, but it might also destroy everything she’s worked for, and as its power surges through her body, Tissaia’s hair turns white and she becomes ever weaker. This is really not going well for the good guys. And that’s before we even get to Geralt’s showdown with Vilgefortz. “I will not join your fight,” the forever neutral witcher grunts. But his adversary just keeps pushing his magic staff into Geralt’s soft tissue. “I could smash your brain out through your ears.” Is this the moment when the witcher loses?

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Witcher world has grown with its success on the small screen, and spawned more lore from the pages of Andrzej Sapkowski’s original novels. Like the animated spin-off The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, or the miniseries Witcher: Blood Origin, both for Netflix and both prequels to the action and characters of the main series.

Our Take: Eons ago – or in 2019 – a decision was made. Before anything at all was known about stuff like the elder blood princess, of Emperor Emhyr var Emreis, or even what it meant to glimpse the Wraiths of Mörhogg hurtling across the sky, it was decided that with The Witcher, it was simpler and more enjoyable to just go with the flow. Any readers of the original book series would of course feel different. They’d have context, and be able to spin up hot takes on the series as they contrasted it with the work of Andrzej Sapkowski. But to come into it completely blind, it was a revelation when Witcher actually blessed that ignorance. With well-choreographed and often satisfyingly gory fight sequences, a resolute central performance from Henry Cavill, helpings here and there of lusty unions right off the cover of a trashy fantasy novel, and an ever-growing list of fully realized side characters who operated on both sides of what passes for justice on the Continent – Geralt ally Yarpen Zigrin (Jeremy Crawford) and his fellow mercenaries, for example, have remained favorites – The Witcher was always straightforward about piling on thick layers of lore even as it retained the buoyant pace of television fantasy of yore, from Xena: Warrior Princess all the way to the hokey evil-of-the-week sorcery in Charmed.

Sometimes it’s nice to just let a show cook, and The Witcher continues to make weird meals with its oodles of diabolical double crosses and inevitable “there’s a spell for that” moments that bang the story off in another new direction. (Seriously, there are portals everywhere.) There’s a bit of uncertainty creeping in, given the backstage drama of Cavill’s departure. But everybody else in this series is fully invested and really, really good, and its ability to spin a wild and bloody yarn is sure to continue without him. The white wig will live on, and so will the crazy. 

Sex and Skin: The Witcher has eagerly included its fair share of skin over the years. Maybe not to Game of Thrones levels, but certainly enough to further cleave its brand of fantasy drama from the pack of GOT wannabes.

Parting Shot: “Everybody Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Face” is too right of a title for this kickoff to volume 2 of Witcher’s third season. Geralt, Yennifer, Tissaia, and the sorceresses who survived the attack on the palace have definitely taken some L’s. Licking their wounds, they’re left to wonder what’s next for Ciri as they gaze at a Tor Lora tower in structural distress.

Sleeper Star: From the start of The Witcher, Joey Batey has been a repeat scene-stealing offender. Batey brings a charming warmth to the bard Jaskier, a flair for witticisms, and a romantic melancholy that this season finally found him in the arms of Prince Radovid (Hugh Skinner), only for their romantic union to be revealed as just another part of Phillippa and Dijkstra’s dastardly plotting. Justice for Jaskier’s love life when?!

Most Pilot-y Line: As Yenn knows well, her royal charge “will only master her power if she masters herself. With us, Ciri will find and fulfill her own destiny.” This has been the journey for some time now. But as season three continues, The Witcher is making Ciri even more central to the adventure and the drama.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Witcher enters its run of final Henry Cavill-led installments with the evil chasing Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri more fully revealed, which in no way means there won’t be more twists and turns and spells cast to carry this engaging dark fantasy story ever forward. 

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges