Summary
The Witcher Season 4 gets off to a determinedly reassuring start in “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger”, insisting that Liam Hemsworth will suffice as Geralt of Rivia with a few capable action sequences. But the wild ping-ponging between point-of-view characters is a disorienting approach.
Season 4 of The Witcher has its back against the wall in the most considerable way possible. Nobody liked the previous season very much, and that was before Henry Cavill released Roach’s reins in favour of Liam Hemsworth, a casting switch that, predictably, nobody liked either. This is perhaps why Episode 1, “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger”, begins with one of the most obviously reassuring statements of intent imaginable. Through the voice of Nimue, a young girl who’ll be important to the story overall and who reads aloud from Jaskier’s writings about Geralt of Rivia, Yennefer, and Princess Cirilla, we get a kind of “story so far” summary with some of Geralt’s familiar exploits re-done with Hemsworth. Here he is fighting kikimoras in a swamp; here he is rolling around with Yennefer in some hay; here he is getting whooped by Vilgefortz at the end of Season 3. They might as well have written: “See? Liam Hemsworth can do all this just fine!” on the screen.
You can’t avoid the clunkiness of this, but there’s also an element of truth to it. Hemsworth looks just fine in the costume. He moves well enough, and he sounds more or less the same, even if he’s audibly putting some gruff into his tone. There’s a noticeable difference if you’re really looking for it, but it goes away quickly enough. It’s not the kind of thing I’d spend a season whining about. The opening pulls double-duty not just as a “previously on” plot summary but also as a reminder that there are other things to be focusing on, such as all the different things that happened in this show a year ago that we’ve forgotten about by now.
In the present day, Geralt — still a bit tender — is on the road with Jaskier and Milva, on the hunt for the still-missing Ciri. They come across a caravan raided by havekars — opportunistic smugglers who loot the dead and sell the trinkets on at extortionate prices — so that Geralt can kill a couple of chancers and threaten Cahir, who was being transported by the caravan in a coffin. Geralt is angry. His injuries aren’t healing quickly enough, he’s deeply fed up about the losses of Ciri and Yennefer, and he isn’t sure if he can save the day and reunite his “family”. Most of these frustrations he takes out on Cahir, but he doesn’t kill him since Ciri didn’t either, when she had the opportunity.
Geralt doesn’t cheer up throughout “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger”, but he does develop some clarity of purpose. On the road, he runs into Zoltan Chivay and his band of singing dwarves, and while he isn’t exactly glad of the company, after a while the togetherness puts a bit of a spring in his step (just as long as he’s not putting his weight on the bad leg). To prove that Geralt hasn’t lost his heroic touch, when he spots a bunch of soldiers trying to sexually assault a woman who is pretending to have the pox to keep herself safe, he intervenes and murders them all. The action choreography hasn’t lost a step, at the very least. One of the soldiers escapes, but, as a goodwill gesture, Cahir, who must have been following along, kills him so he can’t report what he saw.
Meanwhile in The Witcher Season 4, Episode 1, Yennefer is portalling all over the Continent in search of Vilgefortz. Her investigations are hampered by the portals being on the fritz, though, and when she finally gets back to the remaining Aretuza mages, she explains that Vilgefortz must be controlling them, since that would explain why his loyalists keep popping up all over the place to torment her into joining their cause.
Like Geralt, Yennefer is also angry. This is most capably demonstrated by how she buries her fingers into the mind of Burnita, another of Vilgefortz’s stooges, who the mages have in captivity. It’s nasty work, but with their combined power, the mages are able to dig deep enough that Vilgefortz himself takes control of Burnita and speaks through her to torment Yennefer. Then he makes her eyes burst for dramatic effect, which is classic villain business.
And, finally, Ciri, who is still travelling with the Rats and weighing up her options, which include travelling north alone or staying with her new mates — and, eventually, lover — and winging it. She chooses the latter, obviously, although I’m not sure I’d trust any of the Rats as far as I could throw them. Still, it’s nice to have company. And based on how often Ciri glares into bodies of water and has ominous visions, she probably doesn’t have too much to look forward to in her near future. She might as well get laid while she can.
Elsewhere, there are things to keep an eye on. Emperor Emhyr is still in possession of Teryn, the half-elf brainwashed by Vilgefortz, whom he believes is Ciri. He also re-establishes his villain bona fides by having the soldier whom Geralt spared to deliver him a message drawn, quartered, and fed to pigs. Nice. And in Redania, King Radovid is supremely out of his depth, which is a problem for Dijkstra and Philippa, who are trying to plot behind his back. The former is keeping the latter in check by not revealing that she orchestrated Vizimir’s murder, though it’s bound to come out at some point. You know how Spymasters are.
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