After much to do, and a cut up season to mark the event, Henry Cavill has hung up his swords as The Witcher’s Geralt of Rivia. The second volume of the Netflix present’s third season started streaming this week, they usually’re a fascinatingly bizarre trio—however they’ll’t escape the context surrounding them.
That context, in fact, is that is the final time we’ll see Henry Cavill within the present’s titular function. Subsequent time Geralt wanders onto Netflix, he’ll look like Liam Hemsworth, and The Witcher makes the choice to not acknowledge this transformation within the course of—there isn’t a Physician Who-esque fountain of sunshine right here. As a substitute, it appears, we’ll keep it up regardless like nothing has occurred.
However even then, the final three episodes of Cavill’s tenure are an interesting method to ship him out—or on the very least a perplexing selection. After spending the season organising a battle between Geralt and the sinister turncoat mage Vilgefortz, the climax of season three sees that duel happen… and Geralt get his ass handed to him. It’s extraordinarily Geralt in some methods, however on the identical time, the depth of his loss is not like something the present has put its hero via to date. Vilgefortz completely beats Geralt to the purpose that the overwhelming majority of the remaining runtime within the quantity is devoted to Henry Cavill mendacity down and recovering, after which sometimes attempting to face up and failing. It’s removed from the “suitably epic” sendoff that was teased.
A part of the fallout of this devastating battle is a frustration that season three had in any other case largely prevented—separating the present’s principal trio. Geralt is left to get better with assistance from a brand new ally, an archer named Milva (Shang-Chi’s Meng’er Zhang), whereas Yennefer offers with the surviving mages of Aretuza within the wake of Vilgefortz’s betrayal. Ciri, in the meantime, is forged to elements unknown when her highly effective magics randomly teleport her away to a distant desert land. It’s not that it’s wild that the majority of Cavill’s last hour as Geralt is spent in mattress, however that actually his time as Geralt ends in such a sedately weird method. After the Vilgefortz battle, there’s little in the best way of battle to cope with; the banter that made Yennefer, Ciri, and Geralt such a captivating trio to look at is nonexistent, as new relationships and connections are made of their separation. We’ve been reminded for the final yr that this is Cavill bowing out of the function, and but all the pieces occurring within the present after this jolt of motion is so wildly underwhelming that it feels weird that there isn’t some sort of momentous explosion of drama that ignites this new section of the collection’ lifespan.
And but, Cavill’s precise final scene within the collection is sort of nice, and a becoming farewell to the arc he has taken Geralt on throughout these three seasons. Largely recovered from the injuries he sustained combating Vilegefortz, Geralt and Jaskier (with Milva deciding to hitch them) start making their method to attempt to discover Ciri, navigating a Nilfgaardian checkpoint the place the troopers of the Empire are shaking down any refugees coming via. After the duo handle to bribe their manner via, Geralt finds himself halting—the household within the queue behind them is being accosted, and one of many Nilfgaard troopers takes a small doll from the younger woman, threatening the household that in the event that they battle again “she’ll go away right here an orphan.”
It doesn’t matter what Jaskier tells him—they should discover Ciri, they’ll’t afford consideration, they’ll’t save everybody—the Geralt of season three could be very totally different to the person we met in season one, the person who was all the time shifting, all the time on the run from any sort of duty that wasn’t combating monsters and getting paid for it. This Geralt can not assist however assist, and assist he does, violently slaughtering the Nilfgaardians on the outpost whereas Jaskier leads the refugees to security. In distinction to the beating he took going through Vilgefortz, that is Geralt at his finest, a swirl of violence and brutality—however within the title of defending others, simply as he intends to maintain defending Ciri. The final sights we see of Cavill’s Geralt is him handing the doll again to the younger woman, getting his horse, and strolling off into the the space with Jaskier and now Milva by his facet.
For all of the weirdness that results in this second throughout these three episodes, that is the second that feels finest prefer it was maybe tailor-made as a goodbye to Cavill’s model of the character. It’s a fun little fight scene, nevertheless it’s additionally an essential second to replicate on how a lot Geralt has grown as an individual—because of the individuals the again a part of the season tears away from him. It takes its time attending to that second, and does so weirdly, however at the least it’s the next observe than anything that comes on this awkward batch of episodes.
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