Witcher fans rejoice! Season 2 dropped on Netflix on Friday, December 17. As is the standard for Netflix series, the entire season drops on the same day. This is obviously different than the serialized, weekly released from Disney Plus and Amazon, but we’re going to kick off our review with just the first 2 episodes to keep it digestible.
First off, I have to say the recap was super helpful to watch. Season 1 had a lot going on, and the odd way the episodes lined up in non-chronological order made it a challenging series to understand initially. But, once we got through the recap, we jumped right into the action.
The Aftermath of the Battle at Sodden
Geralt, now with Ciri in tow, searches the battlefield of Sodden for Yennefer. We know that Yennefer won the battle for the Northern Kingdoms by unleashing an unfathomable amount of chaos magic to burn the Nilfgaard army alive.
But, she has disappeared and is presumed dead by the other sorcerers and eventually Geralt, when he meets the sorceress Tissaia on the battlefield.
Geralt and Ciri then head off toward the home of the Witches (Kaer Morhen) as a hopefully safe place to hide and recuperate, while Cirir’s pursuers are left behind.
Meanwhile, Tissaia helps tend the wounded and work with the other sorcerers to gather intelligence on what the Nilfgaard army is after with their current campaign of conquest. She also deeply mourns the loss of Yennefer.
Beauty and the Beast
On the way to Kaer Morhen, Geralt and Ciri stop to get out of the winter weather, first visiting a town that is disturbingly silent and empty. We saw an intro scene where a family visiting the town were attacked and killed by some flying monstrosity that is kept off-camera.
The duo makes a detour to the house of an old friend of Geralt’s, named Nivellen. Upon arrival, they discover that Nivellen has gone through a change and looks like a cross between a man and a wild boar. It seems that Nivellen has been cursed for pillaging the temple of some ancient god.
He is now immortal, having tried to kill himself numerous times, and is destined to stay in this terrifying form until true love breaks the curse. Very Beauty and the Beast. We learn that he also killed his family and retainers when he first changed into a monster, so now he lives in his giant manner home alone - except for a ‘cat’ that lives in the attic.
Not surprisingly, the cat turns out to be something else entirely. It is a strange non-human creature that looks like a beautiful young woman named Vereena, but moves oddly and is clearly something else entirely.
She befriends Ciri, asking her not to tell Geralt of her presence, since he will kill her. Ciri is still learning to trust Geralt and initially agrees. Meanwhile, Geralt has been investigating the village and believes that a monster is living in Nivellen’s house.
He comes back to confront the monster and finds Vareena drinking Nivelllen’s blood. The two battle, with Vareena showing herself to be able to change into a flying bat-like creature. She catches Ciri and threatens to kill her if Geralt doesn’t surrender, but Nivellen sneaks up behind her and stabs Vereena with a speer.
He explains to Geralt that he found Vereena in the woods, injured and she wasn’t afraid of him, so he took her in to nurse her back to health. But, once she was healthy, she didn’t want to leave. He also knew that she had killed everyone in the nearby village, but he was now allowing her to feed on him in order to keep her under control.
As she dies, his curse is lifted and it seems that he needed to lose his true love in order to be saved. He begs Geralt to kill him, but Geralt is having none of it and he and Ciri leave.
This story is indicative of the nature of the books upon which the series is based, where very episodic adventures take place during the course of a larger story.
Yennefer Captured by Nilfgaard
Meanwhile, we learn that Yennefer is not dead, but instead captured by Nilfgaard and their sorceress (Fringilla), who we met in season 1, as she and Yennefer trained together among the Brotherhood. She is being taken back to Nilfgaard as a prisoner, basically in hopes that Fringilla won’t be executed for her failure during the Battle of Sodden.
The small band of Nilfgaard soldiers is attacked by a band of elven warriors and Fringilla and Yennefer are taken captive. Yennefer asked Fringilla to release her as they were attacked so she could help defend them, but Fringilla refuses. We assume that Fringilla somehow has Yennefer bound away from her magic.
3 Witches
The 2 sorcerers are taken to the leader of the elves, another sorceress named Francesca. She needs the help of the other two women to enter a strange ancient temple where she hopes to find the magic that can free her people from the genocide they have been facing at the hands of humans. We learned a bit about this in the first season, that the elves once had an empire, but now are effectively refugees, mistrusted and hunted by humans.
They travel into the catacombs and have separate visions of meeting the Deathless Mother, a powerful and mysterious ancient witch. She offers each what they desire, but while Yennefer denies her, Francesca and Frigilla emerge feeling they have a new ally. Yennefer is freed, while Fringilla joins the elves as they hope to ally themselves with Nilfgaard. But, as Yennefer tries to open a portal back to the Brotherhood, she discovers that her magic is gone. Whether it has been gone since the Battle of Sodden or the Deathless Mother stole it is unclear.
Kaer Morhen
Geralt and Ciri arrive at the Witcher stronghold of Kaer Morhen and begin to settle in and plan how to stay safe for the winter. We learn a great deal more about other Witchers, most of whom aren’t too excited to have a young princess in their midst.
As other Witchers arrive for the winter, one named Eskel brings in the arm of a horrible tree creature for study. He explains that he killed it, but was wounded. That wound turns out to be infected by the tree monster and eventually, Eskel succumbs to the roots growing throughout his body. Geralt and the leader of the Witchers (Vesemir) eventually fight Eskel and Geralt kills him to save Vesemir. Th
