Stanko's Stance

We start episode three What Is Lost the same way we ended episode two. Geralt is training Ciri and the young princess is struggling to get a new move right. Geralt is telling her that she needs rest, but Ciri seems determined to keep working no matter what. There is a drive within Ciri, that is for sure. When the pair walk back into the great hall of Kaer Morhen, Ciri carrying the sword with her, and when she storms off with her lunch, she carries her sword wit her again out of the room. It is safe to assume that episode director Sara O’Gorman is trying to show the audience that Ciri is taking this training seriously wherever she goes; she is carrying that extra weight.

While Ciri has a flash forward sequence (we will get more clarification on these seeing powers in a short time), Geralt has a flash back. Ciri’s vision is not optimistic; she is being pulling towards something, as if something is tracking her. Geralt’s memory is melancholy, showing a time when he was younger and he and Eskel were training together in Kaer Morhen, pining over the amount of time training and putting in the extra work.

They really packed a lot in before the opening title sequence. The audience is transported to Aretuza where the brotherhood is meeting talking about those mages who fell at the battle of Sodden Hill. From the clouds, Yennefer appears from the shadows and most everyone in the room is relieved she is alive. But Yennefer is entering a scorpion’s put. Political dealings are being played within the Brotherhood and soon it’ll make everyone’s feet entangled in unforgiving roots.

Before we continue, it must be made clear that Lambert and Coen are dicks. Plain and simple. These two witchers are teasing Ciri on her desire to become like a witcher. Knowing she is one to take the bait, they entice her to a harder training session; an obstacle course on the side of a mountain. Ciri is not one to back down from a challenge, so she attempts this maze death trap. She attempts it over, and over, and over.

It is through her resolve and frank stubbornness that she begins to earn Lambert and Coen’s respect. Nearing the end of the episode, Ciri is working her way through the different parts of the obstacle course, navigating the bloody sharp wooden spikes and icy footings. Geralt arrives to watch her, and is there to see her nearly complete the course.

Ciri, lying bloodied on the ground, gets up and hears Geralt say “So close.” I think that may cause some EMOTIONAL DAMAGE. Yes I am on that TikTok trend, deal with it.

That is not the end for Ciri and Geralt this episode, but we should take a turn to the south and head to Cintra where Fringilla and Francesca are talking business. Nilfgaard has made an allegiance with the elves, but it is one that can be for mutual benefit. Francesca is adamant that her people have a new place to start over and to live in peace. Tissaia says that she can deliver such things if the elves help the Nilfgaardian army understand that landscape of The Continent, and in particular the North.

It is an uneasy bond, but this alliance between elves and men has everyone up in a tizzy.

You guys remember Stregobor from season one? The asshole mage who is high ranking on the council along side Atrorius. Well this dick is back to his hating ways. Using the elven relationship with Nilfgaard as a spring point, Stregobor begins seeding doubt into the heads of the brotherhood mages regarding one of their own, the hero of Sodden Hill, Yennefer. It was easy to forget, but Yen is one-quarter elvish. This idea was first raced in episode two this season when Francesca and Filavandrel noted that while she may be part elf, she is not actually one of them because she does not honor any of the customs or way of life. Now Stregobor is saying that Yen is partnering with the elves, that she is betraying that brotherhood and the North. What an asshole.

It is decided that Yennefer must behead the southern soldier kept prisoner in Aratuza in order to prove that she is not a traitor. Yen exclaims to Tissaia that this will only pin her as a murder, which would also aid Stregobor’s arguement that she is not to be trusted. Tissaia notes that Yen could tell everyone that she has lost her magic…so she knew the entire time! Their mother/daughter, mentor/student relationship has a tender moment here; it is proof that Sodden Hill changed the perspective that both Yen and Tissaia view the world.

Oh, here I will throw in that Stregobor put Yennefer in a mental prison and tried to extract any information from her with that prying interrogation method. You know, torturing your own kind on a hunch and nothing more, standard procedure. Tissaia saves her, but the damage is done. What a jerk.

This a reminder for everyone; that Nilfgaardian sodier captured at Aratuza is actually Cahir, the leader of the Nilfgaardian army and the man who tortures Ciri’s waking moments. Well, in a twist of fate, he is not going to be teaming up with Yennefer! Rather than killing Cahir, Yennefer undoes his binds with the axe and creates a massive distraction in front of The Brotherhood and the Northern Kingdom kings to escape the land of Aratuza. She agrees to carry Cahir away with her on her horse. When he asks why she saved him, she makes it abundently clear this is for selfish means. She is going to take her own place of prosecution, not one that Stregobor is trying to lay before her.

Alright, let’s end this thing with the best part of the episode. Geralt and Ciri are in the woods around Kaer Morhen when all shit is about to go down. Ciri’s visisions draw her and Geralt into the woods right into the path of the Leshy, which is just there chilling looking all evil and dangerous. The Leshy, the one that got Eskel and infected him, wakes up and starts attacking the pair of heroes…all-be-it for not very long.

All of the sudden there is a giant black centipede monster cutting through the leshy like a hot knife through butter. This creepy-crawly thing even spurns a little bit of hear from Geralt, who tells Ciri to run and hide. The action follows the princess running through all the wilderness trying to avoid this beast, but its clicking and hissing gets closer and closer, until eventually it has Ciri cornered. Rather than just trying to smite Ciri down into a million pieces, this monstrosity tries to reach out to her; it mirrors the same attraction that the Leshy brought to her. Why do all of these new devilish malevolent beings all want a piece of Ciri?

Now Geralt kills this centipede by debasing its spine and cutting off its head. It is a glorious kill. Now there is more evidence for Vesemir, Geralt and others to study. What is this new evil coming about The Continent? How are these beasts, which are different from the norm, roaming all around?

These are answers we will find out in the next episode.

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