In the fourth episode of Witcher, a lot of things became clear. This was an ‘aha!’ episode, where pieces clicked together with a satisfying snap.

Some necks were snapped, too.

Geralt is persuaded to go to a ball with Jaskier, who’s worried he’s going to be killed by the husbands of women he’s slept with. Geralt agrees, and even concents to be dressed in some awful preppy garb.

It turns out this ball has one specific goal. It’s a marriage banquet for Queen Calanthe’s daughter, Pavetta. Fun fact, the groom is TBD.

If that name sounds familiar, it’s because we saw Queen Calanthe in episode one. It’s Ciri’s grandmother. 

This is when everything clicked. Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t realize that everyone was on a different timeline in their own little stories. Ciri is not born in this episode, at least not in the scenes that involve Geralt or Yennifer.

This could have been handled better. It didn’t need to be a huge detailed explanation. It could have been as simple as putting up some date cards at the start of a scene change. Here’s Geralt, and here’s the year it’s in. Now here’s Ciri, and it’s several years in the future. That’s all it needed. And it wouldn’t bother me so much if there was a reason for leaving that information out. It doesn’t do anything for the story for that to be some big twist four episodes in. 

Anyway, that point aside. While Geralt’s been at a ball, Yennifer’s been saddled with a young queen named Kalis who just had a baby girl. Neither is very pleased with their lives. 

An assassin with a strange, spiderlike monster, attacks their carriage in the woods. What follows is a truly fantastic scene, with Yennifer jumping through portal after portal, trying to get the queen and her new baby to safety. Finally, she grabs up the baby and leaves Kalis to die. Too bad the baby died, too.

This episode had a fantastic fairy tale feel that I appreciated. Every part of it felt like something you might read in a Grimm book.

But I’m taking off a point for the completely unnecessary convolution of the timeline. There is no need to confuse viewers unless their confusion adds something to the story.

What did you think of Episode four? Let us know in the comments below. (4 / 5)