Summary
“Dear Friend…” raises the stakes considerably and delivers a fine action sequence as we approach the second season’s endgame.
This recap of The Witcher season 2, episode 6, “Dear Friend…”, contains spoilers.
I forgot to mention this in my recap of the previous episode, but while Geralt and Istredd were exploring the destroyed Monolith, they angered what Geralt describes as “some kind of chernobog”, a kind of nasty rock dragon thing that goes after Geralt and Ciri in the opening of “Dear Friend…”. It’s a piece of work, and it slashes Roach so badly that Geralt is forced to mercy-kill him, but he’s eventually able to take the thing down using Ciri as bait. This, like the monster that killed the leshy, feels like a bit of a step up from the usual Witcher’s work, a higher class of monster brought about by the worsening state of the world. That’s the impression one gets, anyway.
The Witcher season 2, episode 6 recap
Meanwhile, lots is happening elsewhere. Rience gets about a bit in “Dear Friend…”, showing up at Kaer Morhen to fight Triss and Vesemir and steal the Witcher mutagen, and then later at the Temple of Melitele, where Geralt takes Ciri to be advised by his friend, Nenneke. The wise priestess calls her a child of destiny but cautions balance — Geralt needs to find what’s missing in her so that he can help her. By having Yen also arrive here, this episode is bringing together core characters while the overarching plot is developed in key ways elsewhere. There’s a sense of overall narrative cohesion, of pieces slotting neatly into place, that wasn’t present in the first season, with subplots and character dynamics that have been developed over time beginning to pay off.
Francesca, for instance, goes into labor, and Fringilla helps her along. When the baby is born it is initially quiet, but a cuddle and some whispering from Fringilla bring it around. She claims not to have used any magic to help the process, but that seems unlikely. A pureblood elf, the first in ages, is a huge deal for the elves and presumably for their continued alliance with Nilfgaard. Fringilla had every reason to keep that baby alive, but as we have learned throughout this show, its version of magic mandates that something must be destroyed in order for something else to be born.
It’s worth keeping an eye on, is all I’m saying.
Istredd, meanwhile, looks into Cintran genealogy and discovers that the women all have a unique gene. Calanthe, who famously hated the elves, had hid her own elven bloodline, presumably concerned about the generational weapon lurking within it. The implication is clear — Ciri is a big deal. This sentiment is confirmed by Triss, who returns to Tissaia at the end of the episode claiming that a single drop of Ciri’s blood could destroy the world. Talk about raising the stakes.
I’d be remiss not to mention the big fight scene of “Dear Friend…”, another of those Geralt-owns-all sequences like the opener of the first season. It’s a very cool-looking scene, but it’s noteworthy for its implications more than anything else, since it sees Ciri finally learn how to harness her magic to some extent, and leaves her in the care of Yennefer, who, as we know, is planning to take her to that door outside Cintra in order to regain her connection to Chaos. Everything seems to be balanced on a knife-edge in time for the final two episodes.
