Summary
“Reunion” is still spread a little thin, but it nonetheless contains some important developments in the overarching story.
This recap of The Witcher Season 3 Episode 3, “Reunion”, contains spoilers.
Jaskier is thinking about Radovid.
What he’d like to believe is that he’s thinking about him in relation to how he relates to Geralt and Ciri. Is he a problem or a solution? Is he the spoon to Geralt’s blunt-force hammer? Or is he the dagger that might be plunged into his back?
What’s more likely is simply that Jaskier has a crush and can’t see the forest for the trees.
The Witcher Season 3 Episode 3 Recap
Who is Anika?
Geralt pulls Jaskier away from his postulation to help him deal with the more pressing problem of the young girl he liberated from Vuilpenne who looks like and claims to be Ciri. They take her to Anika, a druid friend of Geralt’s mother, who rooms with a werewolf named Otto whose life Geralt saved a while back after being hired by the villagers to kill him (there’s no wonder this guy’s broke.)
Anika deduces the girl, who is part Elven, has been afflicted by an extremely sophisticated mind-control enchantment. The potential antidote is ropey and might not even work, but while they wait for her to wake up, Geralt and Ciri use the time to discuss Philippa and Djikstra’s request that he convince Geralt to take Ciri to Redania.
Needless to say, Geralt isn’t buying it.
Where was Teryn taken from?
When the girl comes to, she reveals her name is Teryn. She recognized the man who took her away from Aretuza, but before she can reveal his name Geralt pushes her too hard and she slips back into a mind-controlled state. “Reunion” co-opts some demonic horror shortcuts here, with an overlapping deep voice snarling otherworldly threats.
With a blast of magical energy, Teryn swipes the amulet that keeps Otto from turning into a werewolf, so Geralt has to wrestle him into submission while Jaskier drugs her. Anika is hurt by the blast but recovers. While she’s on her sickbed, she talks with Geralt about his mother and why she left, bringing tears to his cat eyes, but stiffening his resolve when it comes to Ciri. He decides to leave for Aretuza, leaving Teryn in Anika’s care until he can figure out how to help her.
What idea does Yennefer pitch to Tissaia?
Yennefer takes Ciri to see a banker named Giancardi who owes her a favor. She has some matters from her past to attend to, so she leaves Ciri disguised as a normal girl and in the care of a young man named Fabio. She also puts a locator spell on Ciri’s talisman, just in case she gets into trouble, which we know she will.
Yennefer’s personal matter is a meeting with Tissaia in one of the bank’s vaults. There’s no love lost between the two since Yen has deduced that Tissaia revealed Ciri’s survival to “curry favor” with the Northern kings, the specifics of which Tissaia takes exception to, but the point is made. The Continent is on the cusp of war, Ciri is doubtlessly going to be integral to it, and if Rience and whoever’s backing him get her, that can’t bode well for anyone.
Ciri interprets “staying out of trouble” as interrupting a sideshow claiming a baby wyvern is a basilisk, wrestling the wyvern in full view of everyone, and getting all her coin stolen by a rogue. She summons Yennefer out of panic which doubles as an impromptu introduction to Tissaia, Rita, and Sabrina.
Ciri… isn’t a fan of Aretuza’s witches, or indeed of how Yennefer acts around them. Yen sees it as a necessary evil to ensure her training and protection; Ciri sees it as selling one’s soul. And she has a point. Yen proposes to Tissaia another mage conclave to focus on togetherness and understanding so that the Brotherhood doesn’t contract the toxicity of the fractious Northern kings.
Who kills Vizimir’s wife, Hedwig?
To retain control at the Redanian court, Dijkstra and Philippa conspire to have the severed head of Vizimir’s wife, Hedwig, delivered to him in a box with a note claiming it’s a gift from Nilfgaard.
Radovid knows who is responsible for this bit of macabre manipulation, though he has no leverage to officially challenge Dijkstra.
Who is Rience working with?
After Philippa deduces that the powerful black portals mean that Rience is working on behalf of Nilfgaard, we learn that he is being bossed around by Lydia, the mute mage who can only communicate via telepathy after having her vocal cords and most of her face terribly burned.
Rience, though, is becoming tired of taking orders and wants a favor of his own. He only agreed to do Lydia’s bidding because he believed she wasn’t working on behalf of Nilfgaard, and her suggestion that the White Flame is simply a means to an end isn’t much consolation for Rience.
Why does Cahir kill Gallatin?
In Episode 2, Cahir convinced Gallatin to petition Emhyr for support and reward in overthrowing Francesca. They go to see him in “Reunion”, and Gallatin explains that Francesca is going against his orders to soften the North and instead wasting time and spending Scoia’tael lives on trying to find a girl.
Of course, Emhyr and Cahir know he’s referring to Ciri. Gallatin doesn’t realize he has condemned himself to death.
To regain his favor with the White Flame, Emhyr instructs Cahir to kill Gallatin, which he does, though the act clearly troubles him, and he breaks the mirror so he doesn’t have to look at himself afterward.
The Witcher Season 3 Episode 3 Ending Explained
“Reunion” ends with Ciri galloping on her horse, having fled from Yennefer and the facile debauchery of the Aretuza witches.
Earlier, before fleeing, Ciri had tried to summon Geralt through her talisman but to seemingly no effect. As she gallops through the woods, the Wild Hunt begins to pursue her, and Eredin’s voice whispers to her that she is death itself. He lays a ghostly hand on her shoulder and implores her to join them, but Geralt arrives right on time to scare them away.
Ciri notices that some of Eredin’s armour is sizzling on the ground, proving the apparitions were real.
You can stream The Witcher Season 3 Episode 3, “Reunion” exclusively on Netflix.
