Please note that this article will have spoilers forThe Witcherup to Season 1 Episode 6: Rare Species.
Having Geralt and Yennefer finally together seemed like it would giveThe WitcherNetflix series a more cohesive plot, but by the end of this episode, they’re pulled apart again.The WitcherEpisode 6: Rare Species continues the show’s general downward trend, but not just because of Geralt and Yennefer splitting up. It’s yet another episode bludgeoned with silly dialogue and a “monster of the week” feel that gives the show a tone more akin to the Kevin SorboHerculesshow than theGame of Thronesthat it’s otherwise clearly trying to emulate with its gore and near-constant nudity.
The story in this episode that is set up and resolved by the time the credits roll features Geralt, Jaskier, and Yennefer getting tied up in a quest to hunt a dragon. They are joined by dwarves, monster-hunting Reavers, and a generic knight who is meant to escort Yennefer safely through the quest. Shortly after the quest begins, the group comes across a rather ugly monster, brought to life with CGI as opposed to the more practical effects seen in past episodes that were more impressive. Geralt spares the beast, but the knight hacks it to death and then later eats it, giving him diarrhea.
Yes, we’ve sunk to toilet humor inThe WitcherEpisode 6. Whereas past episodes used Geralt’s bluntness or even the dynamic of Geralt andhis companion Jaskierfor comedy (sometimes to excess, admittedly), this episode uses a knight defecating in the woods. The poor knight ends up getting his throat slashed overnight anyway, and the Reavers break off from the group. The group wind up taking a shortcut that they’re led to by the dwarves, which is when Borch and his warrior companions Tea and Vea fall off the cliff to their supposed deaths.
Borch is the one who set up the dragon hunt to begin with, and we meet him and his companions right at the start. In one of the episode’s better scenes, Tea and Vea protectGeralt’s horse Roachby snapping a thief’s neck. Jaskier’s reaction to this is actually pretty funny, and since he’s not overused in this episode, he remains a solid source of comic relief from start to finish.
Borch and his companions are also funny, but not in a good way. The camp was out in full force in this episode, with the entire plot line of Borch and his companions feeling like something ripped out of a 90s show like the aforementionedHercules. Viewers come to find out that the big twist of the episode was that Borch was actually a dragon the entire time, and an especially rare one with golden scales, to boot. His green dragon companion is dead, but he wants to protect his egg from the likes of the Reavers, so he set up this whole thing for Geralt to do that for him.
The show then offers a big fight that sees Geralt and Yennefer team up with the dragon to take out the Reavers. It’s not nearly as impressive as the hard-hitting fight scene fromThe WitcherEpisode 1, but the show’s swordplay and action is still a highlight for sure. The dragon’s CGI was a little wonky and made the scene a bit silly at times, but otherwise this was the best and most interesting part of the episode.
With the enemies defeated, we then learn thatGeralt and Yenneferhave their fates bound together because of a wish Geralt made with the djinn in the previous episode. This sets Yennefer off, and she goes her own way. Geralt then blows his gasket at Jaskier, and they also split up, deciding to no longer be traveling companions. It’s supposed to be a sad moment, but really it’s just frustrating since the show took six episodes to get these important characters together only to split them apart again.
In the future, though it’s unclear just how far into the future just yet,Princess Ciriand Dara are following the Doppler imitating Mousesack through the woods. Dara is suspicious of Mousesack, and rightfully so. The Mousesack Doppler is so obviously evil, going as far as tosniff Ciri’s hairthat it’s comical. Of course, we have to deal with Ciri not catching on at first, though thankfully it doesn’t take long for Mousesack Doppler to reveal his true colors and explain his evil plan like a James Bond villain.
Dara and Ciri fight the Doppler, but they end up getting separated. Ciri gets tied to a tree, whereas the Doppler takes her form and lets itself get captured by Cahir’s men. This is so the Doppler can attack Cahir itself, and they have a short fight of their own that sees Cahir slaughter an entire bar in search of the shape-shifting creature. Back in the woods, Ciri is freed by Dara, but Dara decides he no longer wants to be her companion because of the clear dangers involved.
It could have been Dara’s line delivery at the end of the episode, but it was more likely the clunky and campy dialogue that was the culprit, but the split from Ciri was impossible to take seriously. The show is constantly undermined by its weird dialogue and time-jump pacing, and whileshowrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrichmay have had good reasons for structuring the narrative the way that she did, it just doesn’t lend itself well to quality viewing. It may have been better to go with a more linear narrative and introduce Ciri in later seasons.
