In just five episodes, the first volume of the long-awaited third season of Netflix's
"The Witcher" packs in a considerable amount of story.
All that plot means not everyone likely caught all the callbacks and references, and there
are plenty.
Warning: Spoilers for "The Witcher" Season 3, Volume 1 to come!
The third season of "The Witcher" opens with a montage that catches viewers up on what
the series' central trio, Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer, have been up to since leaving Kaer
Morhen at the end of Season 2.
Geralt and Yennefer are shown to be working together to help keep Ciri hidden and help
her learn to control her magic.
Unfortunately, Geralt still hasn't forgiven Yennefer for nearly giving Ciri up to the
Deathless Mother and refuses to communicate with her directly.
So the audience is treated to Yennefer's voiceover as she narrates the letters she writes to
her former lover.
Each letter begins with the phrase "Dear Friend."
At first, this might not seem like an unusual way to start a letter, but Yennefer's sarcastic
delivery of the line in each voiceover suggests that there might be more to this phrasing
than meets the eye.
"Dear friend."
The phrase is indeed a direct callback to the Season 2 episode "Dear Friend," in which
Geralt and Yennefer are finally reunited for the first time since Yennefer's assumed death.
"This is my…dear friend."
"Dear friend?"
Yennefer is surprised by the term, offended even, given their long history as lovers.
The third season's first episode also finds Jaskier being thrown out by a woman he cheated
on.
As he is tossed out on the streets, he's eventually approached by the dwarf Yarpen, who Geralt
sent to enlist his help.
Yarpen seems annoyed that he has to deal with Jaskier again, and the two exchange quips
until Jaskier makes a mention of the rule of threes.
"It's a rule of threes thing.
It has to be done."
This is not just a cheeky nod to the fact that Jaskier is a writer, but also a reference
to this being the third time that the two would be working together.
The first time Geralt and Jaskier teamed up with Yarpen is in the Season 1 episode "Rare
Species," where he and his band of dwarven warriors were among the four teams that set
out to hunt the green dragon for King Niedamir.
Yarpen and his team begin as rivals to Geralt and Jaskier, but they ultimately work together,
and Yarpen befriends Geralt.
In the Season 2 episode "Voleth Meir," Geralt and Jaskier enlist Yarpen's crew after Ciri
is kidnapped by Yennefer.
Yarpen accompanies the two until Ciri is safely back with Geralt.
In the second episode of Season 3, "Unbound," Geralt and Jaskier visit the detective agency
Codringher and Fenn to purchase information on Rience, a fire-wielding mage who has been
hunting Ciri relentlessly, to try and determine who he might be working for.
Geralt meets with Ellis Codringher, who initially tries to squeeze more money out of the Witcher
for the info.
But Geralt outsmarts the detective, who then starts giving up what he knows.
Codringher mentions a visit from Istredd, referring back to a scene from the show's
second season episode "Dear Friend."
After learning that Ciri was able to destroy a monolith, Istredd visited the detective
agency in hopes of learning more about the situation.
He discovered that a particular gene, leishardrathardlara kept appearing in the women of the Cintran
royal bloodline, and that it may be the key to how she was able to destroy the monolith.
The bard Jaskier has quickly become a fan-favorite character thanks in no small part to actor
Joey Batey's performance.
Not only does the character have great chemistry with Geralt and add a unique and comedic dynamic
to the cast, but he also sings several original songs with deep ties to his relationship with
Geralt.
These songs have proven very popular among much of "The Witcher's" fanbase, taking on
a sort of life of their own.
Jaskier has an even bigger role in Season 3 than in the previous seasons, following
Geralt and company on many of their adventures.
He also strikes up an interesting relationship with Radovid, the Prince of Redania.
Throughout the season, Jaskier wears a shirt with a floral print, no doubt a reference
to the character's name.
In the English translations of author Andrej Sapkowski's novels and the video games, Jaskier
goes by the name Dandelion.
Netflix chose to keep the character's Polish name, which translates more closely to buttercup.
The season's second episode reintroduces audiences to Triss Merigold, Ciri's former mentor and
one of Yennefer's fellow sorceresses.
It's revealed that Triss hasn't yet returned to King Foltest's court in Temaria, despite
some members of the Brotherhood urging her to do so.
She has instead remained at Aretuza.
Tissaia has continued to protect her, and given her a role at the school as a teacher.
Triss is briefly seen teaching a lesson to a group of students.
Eagle-eyed viewers might notice some familiar elements of this particular lesson.
Each student has a branch of daisy flowers and a rock in their hands.
So they're likely for the levitation incantation, in which the life force of the flowers is
drained in order to lift the rock.
The incantation spoken in order to lift the rock is "Zeilil Eip," which in Elder Speech
translates to "rise up."
This is one of the first lessons Yennefer learned in the first season and remains one
of the most important in her mind.
After losing her ability to use magic in Season 2, Yennefer attempted to recite "Zeilil Eip"
in the Deathless Mother's lair.
"Zeilil Eip.
Zeilil Eip.
Move, damn it!"
After parting ways with Geralt at the end of the season's first episode, Ciri and Yennefer
try to lay low as they slowly make their way to Aretuza, where Yennefer hopes that Tissaia
will help train Ciri to control her magic.
While stopped at a local tavern, Ciri bumps into a courier that wishes her safe travels.
Ciri then sees a vision of his impending death.
The courier's name is never mentioned in the show, but fans of the books know this is Aplegatt,
a royal messenger for Demavend, the King of Aedirn.
His mission is to bring back correspondence from Sigismund Dijkstra of Redania.
His death, while seemingly a small and unimportant moment, creates major ripples throughout the
Northern Kingdoms because of a letter he was unable to deliver.
There's another small hint of what is to come when the courier visits Redania and attends
King Vizimir's party.
The king fires an arrow in jest, and it whizzes past Aplegatt's face, hitting the wall just
in front of him.
In the season's third episode, "Reunion," Yennefer and Ciri make another stop on their
way to Aretuza, this time in the town of Gors Velen.
Yennefer wants to reach Tissaia, but has to split up with Ciri to do so.
She brings Ciri to the Giancardi Bank, which is run by a local dwarf named Molnar Giancardi.
Molnar is indebted to Yennefer because she once saved his family, so he agrees to watch
after Ciri.
He places Ciri in the care of his assistant, Fabio Sachs, while she explores the city.
During her exploration, Ciri happens upon a painting of the tower at Aretuza.
Fabio tells her about the painting, while also telling her stories about the famed academy
for mages.
In particular, he tells that he heard about some students that got turned into eels.
Although this may be a mere legend to Fabio, audiences will know that his story is indeed
true.
It was confirmed in the Season 1 episode "Four Marks," where Yennefer sees Tissaia turn three
of her underperforming students into eels to help power Aretuza's magic.
Yennefer is ultimately able to contact Tissaia and arrange to have Ciri brought to Aretuza
to study magic.
When Ciri is brought before Tissaia, they have an interesting interaction.
Ciri, clearly intimidated by Yennefer's longtime mentor, looks at Yennefer with a pleading
stare while Tissaia grabs her face and examines her.
Viewers with a good memory might find Tissaia's next line to be eerily familiar.
She says,
"Don't look at her.
Look at me."
This scene mirrors Yennefer's first meeting with Tissaia years before, where Yennefer
looks to her mother for help as Tissaia buys her from her father.
Ciri looks to Yennefer, indicating that she may be beginning to see Yennefer as a surrogate
mother, a theme that will continue throughout the season.
Many of the characters in "The Witcher" have grown and evolved quite a bit since the first
season.
But few have come nearly as far as Cahir, a high-ranking Nilfgaardian intelligence officer
and one of Emperor Emhyr's most trusted allies.
In Season 1, he was charged with capturing Princess Cirilla of Cintra and bringing her
back to Emhyr.
Cahir appears to be a true believer in the Nilfgaardian cause, never questioning his
loyalty to Emhyr or his belief in his mission, despite all of the brutality he has witnessed
and been a part of.
Things begin to change after Cahir is captured in Season 2, though.
While escaping the Brotherhood's custody and going back to Cintra, Cahir spends a lot of
time hiding among different groups of people, especially the elves.
Upon returning, he appears more lenient towards those who don't align with Nilfgaardian beliefs,
including the mage Fringilla.
As the third season gets going, Emhyr asks Cahir to kill Gallatin, an elven warrior he
befriended.
He carries out the deed, but it becomes apparent that the decision weighs heavily on him, and
his loyalty to Emhyr could be waning.
"You said you knew a good leader when you saw them.
How?"
In the third season's fourth episode, "The Invitation," Geralt and Ciri try to take a
ferry to Aretuza to attend a gala put on by Tissaia and the Brotherhood.
When they arrive, Jaskier informs them that the ferryman refuses to leave because he is
afraid of an unknown monster lurking in the waters.
Ciri, looking to convince Geralt to kill the monster, says,
"Besides, we're Witchers."
"Is that so?"
This scene is more significant than it may seem at first.
Ciri has spent a considerable amount of time learning how to fight and training to be more
like the Witchers she lived with at Kaer Mohren, but this marks the first time that she has
actually referred to herself as a Witcher.
She never underwent the mutation process to possess a Witcher's powers, but she nevertheless
considers herself to be one of them.
This is in stark contrast to the mages, where Ciri shows little interest in aligning herself
with them, despite Yennefer's pleas for her to.
The fifth episode of the season, "The Art of Illusion," pretty much all takes place
during the course of one night, at the ball being held at Aretuza by the Brotherhood,
and is told out of order, from various perspectives.
The ball is meant to align all the magical advisors against Nilfgaard, but Geralt and
Yennefer have an alternate agenda, hoping to find evidence that backs their theory that
the Wizard Stregobor is behind Rience's attacks on Ciri.
Throughout the episode, a song sung by a group of bards is played multiple times as viewers
experience the story's different perspectives.
Viewers might notice that the bards regularly repeat the phrase, "All is not as it seems."
This is a not-so-subtle allusion to not only the theme of the entire episode, but also
the twist ending.
Stregobor had nothing to do with Rience's attacks.
It's Vilgefortz, a trusted ally of Tissaia, who's the mastermind behind the evil plot.
Vizimir II, King of Redania, is one of the major players in the War of the Northern Kingdoms
that rages throughout the third season of "The Witcher."
Early in the season, Vizimir makes plans to capture Ciri to marry her and take control
of Cintra, which would make him the strongest king in all of the Northern Kingdoms.
This plan is wholeheartedly supported by his spymaster, Sigismund Dijkstra, and his sorceress
advisor, Philippa Eilhart.
But after meeting with Nilfgaard, Vizimir agrees to hand Ciri over to the invading kingdom,
a move that Dijkstra and Eilhart cannot abide by.
One of the season's most shocking moments comes when Vizimir receives what appears to
be a gift from Nilfgaard.
The box contains the head of his wife, Hedwig, making Vizimir very distraught.
His brother, Radovid, discovers that Dijkstra and Eilhart were responsible for her death,
and uses it to blame Nilfgaard for the attack.
While the moment comes as a big surprise, the scheming spymaster and the sorceress hint
at the big move earlier, when she says,
"Perhaps it's time to make her useful to us."