S03.E07: Out of the Fire, Into the Frying Pan

[AnimeMania]

Haunted by faces from the past, Ciri endures the ultimate test of survival on a desperate journey under the harshest of conditions.

Premiere Date: July 27, 2023     Netflix

[thuganomics85]

Me:  "Damn, this episode has one of the lowest ratings on IMDB!  What happened?"

(realize that this episode is mainly going to just be about Ciri in a desert)

Me"  "Yep, that would do it!!"

 

Not saying that this couldn't have worked, but it takes a certain kind of show to pull off this type of episode, and I just don't think this is one of them.  No disrespect to Freya Allen either, who I generally think is good all around, but, yeah: this was a chore to get through.  Even the "appearances" from previous characters did almost nothing for me (and in Calanthe's case, went way overboard in the scenery chewing department but not in a good way.)

But I guess the big takeaway is that Ciri tapped into "forbidden magic" and saw a path where she could get revenge on everyone that wronged her, but in doing so, it could lead to her turning on her family as well.  So, now she is refusing her powers.  I guess we'll see how this changes things for her.  Also, I know it wasn't intentional, but having her repeat "I don't want it!" several times was definitely giving me Jon Snow/Game of Thrones flashbacks...

At least we do find out what happened to Jaskier and he's back in the fold with a very, very, wounded Geralt.

I'm guessing something big is in store for that dryad escorting Jaskier, since she was played by Meng'er Zhang a.k.a. Xialing from Shang Chi.  This is her second project ever!

Will wait tomorrow for the finale and to see if Henry Cavill will get anything close to a proper farewell.

[Meredith Quill]

Ciri wandering around in a desert for 99% of the episode... I mean, whoever thought this was a genius idea, really should be fired.

[shrewd.buddha]

Ciri's been through the desert with a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can't remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain
La la la la la la...     (paraphrased}

We decided amongst the two of us that the showrunners had exhausted their budget on the previous episode, so their genius solution was to have an entire episode shot in the desert.  

Maybe this was an experiment to see how little of the Witcher they could put into a episode of The Witcher...?

It was ... surreal.  For six episodes it seemed as if the show jumped to another setting and set of characters every 90 seconds.  But now we were stuck in the desert with Ciri for 95% of the running time (!) How many minutes was that?, because it felt like forever..

And to what an anticlimactic ending: Ciri is tempted to embrace fire magic, heals one Unicorn, then abandons all her magic. (Who, exactly, is she bargaining with?)

I dread the next, final, episode.  I have no confidence that there will be a satisfying conclusion - or transition to whatever is going to happen without Henry Cavill.

 

 

Edited July 29, 2023 by shrewd.buddha
clarification

[Taryn74]

2 hours ago, shrewd.buddha said:

Ciri's been through the desert with a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can't remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain
La la la la la la...   

Did I just sit here alone in my house and sing that out loud? Yes, yes I did.

[Meredith Quill]

2 hours ago, shrewd.buddha said:

I dread the next, final, episode.  I have no confidence that there will be a satisfying conclusion - or transition to whatever is going to happen without Henry Cavill.

[iMonrey]

On 7/28/2023 at 7:11 PM, thuganomics85 said:

Also, I know it wasn't intentional, but having her repeat "I don't want it!" several times was definitely giving me Jon Snow/Game of Thrones flashbacks...

Funny you should say that because the episode was giving me Daenerys Targaryen vibes. The bit about the spokes of a wheel that had been turning for generations, the part where she's engulfed in flames, and there was something else too that I'm forgetting right now.

I agree we didn't need a whole episode of Ciri wandering around in the desert having fever dreams. I don't care if this was in the books or the game or whatever, it's something that should have been changed for TV. 

On 7/30/2023 at 1:30 PM, Kasienka said:

I still don't care about Radovid/Jaskier and I think it's ridiculous Yennefer doesn't have time to check on her heavily wounded boyfriend. Or even open a portal for Jaskier so he won't have to go to Brokilon through war torn country.

Nobody is using portals this season. Why not? Did the show blow their portal budget last season or something? Last episode, Yen was about to walk away with Geralt and Ciri when she suddenly decides she has to go back to help Tissaia. Then she turned around and . . . walked back there? Either it was an emergency or it wasn't. 

I got the impression she wasn't using portals when they were on the lam because they could be traced but it that instance it wouldn't have mattered.

[Taryn74]

25 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Nobody is using portals this season. Why not?

Weren't the portals being corrupted by the guy that ended up betraying the mages? (I can't be bothered to keep up with their impossible names...LOL) I seem to remember Yen opening a portal that put her in some dark place instead of where she intended to go and they made a big deal out of it.

[tennisgurl]

I guess I'll give the show credit, this really did feel like wondering around in the dessert for several days. We finally get to stick to one plot and one location for almost an entire episode and this is what they do with it? I recommend anyone watching this take breaks, watching it all the way through sounds like an absolute slough. This kind of intense character studies can work, but this just did not.

It was at least cool to see some old characters, even if they didn't do much with them besides lecture us on how Ciri is the chosen one or that she fully sucks. We also got to see a cool scorpion monster and it fought a unicorn for a second, which was pretty awesome. At this point, I'll take any monster fights that I can get. There is always a part of me that's an eight year old girl that loves playing with unicorn toys, so I always enjoy seeing unicorns. 

This extremely slow season really did not need an episode like this. I already miss Henry Cavill.

Edited August 4, 2023 by tennisgurl

[Silver-hyren]

One thing that has bugged me about this show since the first season is they don't really explain how the magic system works.  At times it seems like it draws from life-force (hence the literal cannon fodder mages at Sodden), but other times it's element based.  They mention that fire magic is forbidden I think in passing in the last episode of season 1 when Yennifer uses it.  Okay, but why?  It's kinda given as an explanation for why Rience is the way he is (er, was).  I got the impression it's addictive and corrupting but they don't really say.  Now here, "Yen says it's dangerous and Aretuzza banned it."  Okay, but whyy!

[blackwing]

This episode was interminably boring.  Why do so many shows do this kind of episode?  The one where a single character who is missing/dying is alone by themselves and wandering around on an endless trek where they hallucinate dead people who alternately advise and mock them?  I found myself not caring at all.  And annoyed that they wasted an episode on this.  

Edited September 1, 2023 by blackwing

[Tuggy]

8 hours ago, blackwing said:

Why do so many shows do this kind of episode?

Well, it can also be very well done! In Agents of SHIELD that is basically what they did in the episode "4,722 Hours" and it was a masterpiece 😁

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4,722_Hours

Edited September 1, 2023 by Tuggy