Welcome to the recaps of The Witcher Season 2 for Grimdark Magazine. I’m Ryan, and I enjoyed the first season of this show a lot. I haven’t read the books so a lot of the plot points will be coming at me for the first time.
Kaer Morhen starts with Geralt and Ciri finally making their way to Kaer Morhen, the place where Witchers go to rest and recuperate over wintertime. The set design seems to have pulled a lot from the video games, which I found interesting. I don’t recall set design being taken from a video game before, but it works.
We see several Witchers already here, and they all have a strong bond of brotherhood. While it seems outwardly positive how well they know each other, there is an unfortunate undercurrent to this, one vocalized by Geralt as he discusses his childhood to Ciri. Kaer Morhen had been attacked, and Vesemir was the only older trainer to survive. The number of Witchers is running low, and there is no way for more to be created.
The monster of the week in this was far less interesting than last week’s. The monster design was again very well done, as the monster looked interesting in a very pulp, almost comic-book way. But the fight itself had been telegraphed early on. No, the real interest here was seeing how the witchers all relate to each other, and particularly how Vesemir and Geralt relate. This lets Geralt take on Vesemir’s role as trainer and mentor to Ciri.
Yennefer, meanwhile, has been captured along with Fringilla by elves. She tries using her wits as best she can to convince them that she’s more valuable alive and free. Since her capture after the Battle of Sodden, she’s been put into deuterium handcuffs, a special metal that prevents spellcasting. During the battle where she was captured by elves, she begged Fringilla to rescue her, saying she could save them if only she was freed on the handcuffs.
The elves end up taking them on a journey that leads to powerful old beings who offer them great power and tempt them down various paths.
All of this leads Yennefer to realize that it’s not the deuterium, but the fire magic she had used at the end of Season 1. She has burned out her own magical power.
