The Witcher S2 E5 – Turn Your Back

Weaker episodes often serve as build-ups to the stronger ones ahead. Maybe this one is the first.

I did enjoy this one a little more than the last two and I really hope this means we’re going to get a great finale when the time comes!

This season is definitely Triss Merigold’s time to shine as well as Geralt and Ciri’s. She and Vesemir discovered earlier on the flower that grows when Elder Blood is spilled and can be used to create more witchers. Ciri seems afraid of her own power but wants to become stronger to defend herself from the knight that hunts her and anyone else who might come after her.

The best moment of this episode was when she and Triss enter visions of her past using magic where the former sees her mother discovering where her power came from and surprise, we get to see a brief glimpse of the Wild Hunt! Finally! I know one of my friends was eager to see them as well. They were in the games too and I really hope they appear in this series depending on how far the writers want to take it.

Ciri now wants to become a witcher in order to learn the truth and some of her blood is used to create the mutagen that makes witchers. But Vesemir is reluctant because many boys who became witchers were not made by choice, it was through torture mostly. Not everyone survived, and it reminds me a lot of the Joining ritual to become a Grey Warden. Like how many needles are on that thing to induce the transformation?!

Geralt also teams up with Istredd to find out more about these monoliths that could be the source of unidentifiable monsters pouring into the Continent, but eventually, he is drawn back to Ciri when her power activates during one of the visions where she foresees the arrival of the Wild Hunt. I’m not surprised he stopped Vesemir from injecting the mutagen!

Yennefer’s quest is still modest at this time but Jaskier’s latest song about how Geralt abandoned him is growing on me. What Yen really needs is her power back and it doesn’t get interesting until the very end when she sees the Deathless Mother who tells her where she must go, and takes the form of Ciri briefly.

So yeah, a stronger episode than before and I hope this means it gets even better from then on. Maybe Yen will get access to Chaos again too.