Warning: Full Spoilers for  The Witcher “Betrayer’s Moon” below

This week I was a little hesitant with starting the third episode of Netflix’s The Witcher  due to the sour taste that “The Four Marks” left in my mouth. However I am happy to report that this week’s episode “Betrayer’s Moon” is the strongest episode so far thanks to the focus on Yennefer and Geralt and seeing the end of Yennefer’s origin story.

The Witcher has been decent so far, however, “Betrayer’s Moon” brought the action, suspense, and one of the most iconic short stories to live action. If The Witcher stays on this track for the next five episodes I may have some renewed hope in the series.

After the mess that was ‘The Four Marks” and the uneven story telling in the “The End’s Beginning” “Betrayer’s Moon” finally brought some focus to two of our main characters, Yennefer and Geralt. As a result, this cuts Ciri out of the episode almost entirely, which helped tighten up the story, as last episode her story felt unnecessary and forced. Here she was given a good minute of screen time as she was called mysteriously to a forest which gave the feeling of an actual plot being developed as opposed to the monster of the week formula that has been presented so far.

Yennefer yet again had the strongest outing as we now have her full origin explained. Seeing her go from a brittle, abused girl to a powerful sorceress may have felt a little rushed as she was just introduced in the last episode but seeing her when she finds out that her lover has manipulated her and her teacher betrayed her brings it in to perspective. Yennefer becomes fed up, starting to fend for herself, taking her life into her own hands to forge her own path. It is unfortunate though that her path consists of deep lore that has yet to be explained to the audience, leaving me without the knowledge of what the stakes are or if there will be any consequences down the road.

Geralt’s monster hunt this week is the strongest in the series yet, as it is based off of one of the more iconic short stories “The Witcher”. It starts off humorously, as Geralt is out of coin at a brothel and needs a quick job to pay the innkeeper. This leads him to Vizima to reverse a curse put on the princess at birth, turning her into a blood thirsty Striga.

After meeting with the king and his Sorceress Triss Merrigold, we learn that the princess was born of incest. We also learn that the king’s right hand man was jealous and set a curse upon the princess. Geralt then decides to reverse the curse instead of killing her, which leads to one of the best and creepiest fight in the series thus far. We see Geralt enlist his full skill set from signs, and extreme strength, to potions. Geralt is a force to be reckoned with and the Striga is his match.

The CGI has been extremely inconsistent since the first episode but thankfully the striga here is completely practical. It makes the fight look a tad bit awkward in scenes but it also gave off a feeling of intensity that so far has been lacking from fight scenes in the series.

So far the series has been missing any real overall plot and seeing Ciri being the only character to move the over arching plot forward is a little disappointing. I feel that Geralt, as fun as his monster hunts are, should be moving forward with not only a main plot but also a bit more development on his character; as his life is just “Monsters and Money”. Yes Witchers don’t have much emotion but that doesn’t mean he can’t learn which I hope will be fixed later in the season.

The Witcher this week has a great balance of action, story, and a wow factor that hasn’t been present in the show yet. If the fourth episode is as well paced, written and directed; I think the show will be picking up. Unlike the end of the second episode, where I was dreading to watch another; “Betrayer’s Moon” makes me look forward to seeing where everything goes in the fourth outing.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

0.00

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Focused Story telling
• Prosthetic Work

Cons

• Lack of overall narrative
• Rushed Story arcs