The Witcher Season 3 Episode 3 Review: Reunion

Multiple reunions occur on The Witcher Season 3 Episode 3, and it’s hard to tell which the title refers to or if it’s meant to encompass all of them.

When Yennefer is reunited with her Aretuzan sisters, Ciri discovers a different side to her mentor and friend. This triggers all the entitled outrage a Cintran princess can muster. Not a good look for her, really, even if it does attract the Wild Hunt.

Meanwhile, Geralt reconnects with Anika and, in a way, his mother. In Redania, Dijkstra and Philippa bring Vizimir back into their fold. And, in Cintra, Ehmyr and Cahir return their relationship to its bloody and toxic status quo. R.I.P. Gage.

Ciri spends a lot of this adventure with her nose out of joint. She resents being shunted off with a babysitter and shut out of whatever business Yennefer conducts at the bank.

She indulges her excesses at the market and swans about, complaining of boredom, egging poor Fabio on to prove her wrong about how mundane his town is.

Despite her royal upbringing and supernatural legacy, Ciri’s a witcher kid at heart and desperately wants to slay monsters.

But of course, with no small help from a random cutpurse, everything goes wrong.

The thief is a bit of a sore thumb, both for a thief and for an innocuous bit character. Considering how blatant she is about her interest in Ciri — throwing her a knife to save herself from the wyvern but still making off with her gold pouch — I’ll be disappointed if she doesn’t recur at some point.

Jaskier: She’d be safe with an army, an entire army at her back.
Geralt: Ciri would be nothing more than a brood mare on the Cintran throne.
Jaskier: She’s a princess, Geralt. That’s what princesses do. They sit on little royal thrones and they have little royal babies. And they rule kingdoms. This is what Ciri wants.

When Tissaia comments to Vilgefortz on The Witcher Season 3 Episode 2 that she plans to meet with Yennefer, I didn’t think it would be an Artuzan school field trip.

Being presented as a novice and forced to wait on Yennefer, Sabrina, and Rita while they imbibe, bitch, and gossip doesn’t improve Ciri’s mood. Then, watching Yennefer take the abuse the others heap on her and hearing that she and Geralt might be lovers cracks her calm.

Their argument in the storage space is both frustrating and a long-time coming.

Perhaps Ciri has forgotten what court life is like. Maybe her grandmother’s court was more open and blunt.

But Yennefer is a survivor of one of The Continent’s most complicated and deadly societies. She rose to the top of a peer group that regularly eviscerates its own.

I’m not Geralt. This isn’t Kaer Morhen. This is the version of myself I have to be here. So you need to find a version of yourself that can deal with that.

Yennefer

She believes that Ciri can be safe at Aretuza and that Tissaia will deliver her just as she saved Yennefer.

That Tissaia leaks bloody tears after gazing into Ciri’s soul seems a sign that she may not be strong enough to shape Ciri’s powers either.

While Yennefer clearly finds comfort in Tissaia’s presence, there is a reciprocal sentiment in Tissaia. She sees Yennefer as more than a former pupil or a lesser mage.

Their bond has a maternal vibe, but when Yennefer begins to outline her plan to unify the Brotherhood, it’s obvious that Tissaia sees her as a peer.

Tissaia: Strange, isn’t it? Men bleed and kill for this stuff. Only to let it rust. In dark rooms.
Yennefer: That’s because it’s worthless. It’s too soft to make anything useful. You can’t eat it. Can’t fuck it. Though the King of Aedirn used to like to try. Its power comes from believing in its value. An illusion designed to control the masses.

Ciri, conversely, has no prior relationship with Tissaia and bolts at the first chance she gets.

I wonder what draws the Wild Hunt to her in this particular predicament. Fun fact: if you turn on the subtitles, the voice of the Wild Hunt calling to Ciri is identified as Eredin, bringing full circle the character’s story from The Witcher: Blood Origin.

Ciri: No. You’re ghosts. Corpses.
Eredin: Yes, we’re corpses, but you are death itself!

Is it the tracking token? Yennefer tells her how to use it but doesn’t actually explain how it works.

I’ll assume Anika and Otto’s lodgings are not far from Aretuza, with the speed at which Geralt was able to arrive.

Geralt’s time at Anika’s is very revealing. Reunions aren’t always joyful.

Everything she can share with him about her mother and all that she can’t causes Geralt some discernable pain.

Love for a child forces parents to make the hardest choices of their lives. Impossible ones, even. Chances are, they toil over it for the rest of their lives.

Anika

Knowing all the hardships witchers went through at Kaer Morhen, it never occurred to me that mommy issues would add another layer to Geralt’s trauma.

His fear of separation from Ciri and intention to never abandon her is very much a knock-on effect of his mother’s abandonment.

Some of this transfers over to Teryn as he seeks to learn who she is and who is trying to My-Sweet-Audrina her into Ciri.

What is everyone’s theory on who speaks through Teryn when she’s possessed?

Stupid witcher. You’re doomed and you don’t even know it. I am Cirilla’s destiny. May all ye wail, for the Destroyer of Nations is upon us.

Teryn

Is it Voleth Meir back from the Wild Hunt? Or is that deep, haunting voice what the telepath hanging out with Rience sounds like if she had a lower jaw?

Just as Geralt understands that the dangerous rogue mage is at Aretuza, Philippa is realizing Rience and his master are working for Nilfgaard. The layering of temporal catalysts brings to mind the timeline twist from The Witcher: Season 1.

With a conclave proposed and Geralt nearby, it seems only a matter of time before a grander and more dramatic reunion happens.

If Teryn was a novice abducted from Aretuza, Tissaia and Triss will want to know. It may have something to do with the missing Nissa.

We know the rogue sorcerer is male and scary. Unfortunately, that describes quite a large contingent of the Brotherhood.

Even more mysterious than his identity is why Nilfgaard needs a mage’s assistance.

You want to be a great leader? You want to change the world? Well, guess what? The day-to-day of leading is dealing with a lot of vapid, power-hungry arseholes!

Yennefer

It’s a relief to know that Geralt knows of Jaskier’s work with the Redanians.

It’s a hard conversation, but having that truth out in the open allows for a more innovative resolution that allows their relationship to progress. One does wonder why Jaskier gets a chance to explain himself when Yennefer was frozen out for months for her betrayal on The Witcher Season 2 Episode 7.

One can only hope now that Geralt and Ciri have found each other, the other narrative threads will dovetail.

Will the Wild Hunt win the day? Will the Brotherhood entertain the idea of a conclave?

Hit our comments with what you’d like to see more!

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Diana Keng is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond ’til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. Follow her on Twitter.

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