The Witcher: A Look Inside the Episodes (2020) s01e01 Episode Script
Episode 1
["GERALT OF RIVIA" BY SONYA BELOUSOVA
& GIONA OSTINELLI PLAYS]
[WOMAN] The themes of episode one
This is where we really start
to dive into the ideas of good and evil.
- [GRUNTS]
- [LAUREN] When we first meet Geralt,
he is in the middle of a battle
with a kikimora.
We made a decision to start
with him in Witcher mode.
We just wanted to immediately see him
almost as a monster himself.
And we wanted to understand
why this guy that we
just saw kill a monster,
seemingly do a really good thing,
could be so hated and feared by people.
We don't want your kind here, Witcher.
You don't scare me.
That's too bad.
[LAUREN] Marilka's character
is also in the books,
but, in the books, is, I believe,
about three years old.
She's one of the few characters
that I decide to take the name,
but give her a bigger role in our story.
And the reason was, is that I wanted
someone for Geralt to talk to.
Marilka actually wants to be a Witcher,
and one of the things
that we're foreshadowing
is that women can't be Witchers,
and this will play back
into our story much later.
[WHISPERING] Find Geralt of Rivia.
He is your destiny.
[LAUREN] So, we planted
that in Ciri's head.
We basically wanted to give her
a journey from episode 101,
give her someone she's searching for,
the thing she's searching for
that she thinks is going to
save her and protect her.
We understand from the beginning
that she is a girl who knows
how to fit in other places,
and this is great foreshadowing
for the rest of the season
when she's kind of in hiding.
We were starting her
at the beginning of her journey.
We understand who she is,
how she's been raised,
but even in the first episode,
I think we really see
glimpses of her tenacity
and her stubbornness.
And when she is forced,
at the end of the first episode,
out into the big continent,
we start to see how those fundamental
aspects of her personality
are gonna start to serve her
over the rest of the season.
[DISSONANT MUSIC PLAYS]
Queen Calanthe of Cintra.
She has a really important role
throughout the rest of the season.
We start to see cracks appear.
We start to understand, from
different stories that we're playing,
that this facade that she has built,
that we see in episode one,
is not everything it seems.
And we get to play that out through Ciri
as she learns who her
grandmother really was,
people her grandmother had killed,
that she had no idea,
and sort of what Cintra stood for.
Ciri saw it as a safe place,
and by the end of this season,
we'll see that she's starting to question
how she was raised.
Geralt is the ground of neutrality
between two different characters,
Stregobor and Renfri.
It's really fun to watch him
go through this episode
and try to be pulled
in two different directions
by two different people who
have two really different ways
- of looking at the same situation.
- [WOMAN SHRIEKS]
[LAUREN] I don't know that it was
a choice for Geralt to kill Renfri.
I think, in that moment,
he acted out of pure instinct.
He believed that he
was protecting the town.
I will kill everyone here
until Stregobor comes down.
[LAUREN] And I think
he believes that she will do that,
if only to prove that
she's willing to do anything
to seek revenge on her past.
Her importance isn't
about what they talk about
or how they interact in the first episode.
[RENFRI GASPS]
It's what she leaves him with.
She's probably the only person
who understands the humanity
that is underneath the shell
that he wears,
the mutant skin that he wears
for the rest of the world.
And we see these two people
fall in love, frankly,
and it's very fast and it's very messy.
It does not have a good ending. [CHUCKLES]
Geralt, throughout the rest of the season,
carries Renfri's death with him.
In fact, he carries more than that.
He carries the brooch that
she's wearing when she dies,
so that he is never without her
and the reminder that she gives him,
which is to find humanity
in situations where, otherwise,
he might act a little too fast.
You made a choice.
[CROWD YELLING ABUSE]
And you'll never know
if it was the right one.
[LAUREN] And that's really what
we want to leave Geralt with
in the first episode,
is that he acted from instinct,
not-not from choice,
so what does that make him?
Does that make him a monster?
Because monsters
just kill out of instinct,
they kill because they
don't know what else to do.
Or did he make a choice?
Did he have a rational thought
and that's what made
him kill this woman?
Which would mean he's more human,
but it would also mean that he's
a little bit more of a despicable human.
That's really where
we want to leave Geralt,
which is this idea of "Am I a monster
or am I a really bad person?"
"Am I acting out of instinct
or do I have rational choice?"
He leaves the first episode
not quite sure if he did the right thing.
[CROWD YELLING]
["THE END'S BEGINNING" BY SONYA BELOUSOVA,
GIONA OSTINELLI ANDDECLAN DE BARRA PLAYS]
& GIONA OSTINELLI PLAYS]
[WOMAN] The themes of episode one
This is where we really start
to dive into the ideas of good and evil.
- [GRUNTS]
- [LAUREN] When we first meet Geralt,
he is in the middle of a battle
with a kikimora.
We made a decision to start
with him in Witcher mode.
We just wanted to immediately see him
almost as a monster himself.
And we wanted to understand
why this guy that we
just saw kill a monster,
seemingly do a really good thing,
could be so hated and feared by people.
We don't want your kind here, Witcher.
You don't scare me.
That's too bad.
[LAUREN] Marilka's character
is also in the books,
but, in the books, is, I believe,
about three years old.
She's one of the few characters
that I decide to take the name,
but give her a bigger role in our story.
And the reason was, is that I wanted
someone for Geralt to talk to.
Marilka actually wants to be a Witcher,
and one of the things
that we're foreshadowing
is that women can't be Witchers,
and this will play back
into our story much later.
[WHISPERING] Find Geralt of Rivia.
He is your destiny.
[LAUREN] So, we planted
that in Ciri's head.
We basically wanted to give her
a journey from episode 101,
give her someone she's searching for,
the thing she's searching for
that she thinks is going to
save her and protect her.
We understand from the beginning
that she is a girl who knows
how to fit in other places,
and this is great foreshadowing
for the rest of the season
when she's kind of in hiding.
We were starting her
at the beginning of her journey.
We understand who she is,
how she's been raised,
but even in the first episode,
I think we really see
glimpses of her tenacity
and her stubbornness.
And when she is forced,
at the end of the first episode,
out into the big continent,
we start to see how those fundamental
aspects of her personality
are gonna start to serve her
over the rest of the season.
[DISSONANT MUSIC PLAYS]
Queen Calanthe of Cintra.
She has a really important role
throughout the rest of the season.
We start to see cracks appear.
We start to understand, from
different stories that we're playing,
that this facade that she has built,
that we see in episode one,
is not everything it seems.
And we get to play that out through Ciri
as she learns who her
grandmother really was,
people her grandmother had killed,
that she had no idea,
and sort of what Cintra stood for.
Ciri saw it as a safe place,
and by the end of this season,
we'll see that she's starting to question
how she was raised.
Geralt is the ground of neutrality
between two different characters,
Stregobor and Renfri.
It's really fun to watch him
go through this episode
and try to be pulled
in two different directions
by two different people who
have two really different ways
- of looking at the same situation.
- [WOMAN SHRIEKS]
[LAUREN] I don't know that it was
a choice for Geralt to kill Renfri.
I think, in that moment,
he acted out of pure instinct.
He believed that he
was protecting the town.
I will kill everyone here
until Stregobor comes down.
[LAUREN] And I think
he believes that she will do that,
if only to prove that
she's willing to do anything
to seek revenge on her past.
Her importance isn't
about what they talk about
or how they interact in the first episode.
[RENFRI GASPS]
It's what she leaves him with.
She's probably the only person
who understands the humanity
that is underneath the shell
that he wears,
the mutant skin that he wears
for the rest of the world.
And we see these two people
fall in love, frankly,
and it's very fast and it's very messy.
It does not have a good ending. [CHUCKLES]
Geralt, throughout the rest of the season,
carries Renfri's death with him.
In fact, he carries more than that.
He carries the brooch that
she's wearing when she dies,
so that he is never without her
and the reminder that she gives him,
which is to find humanity
in situations where, otherwise,
he might act a little too fast.
You made a choice.
[CROWD YELLING ABUSE]
And you'll never know
if it was the right one.
[LAUREN] And that's really what
we want to leave Geralt with
in the first episode,
is that he acted from instinct,
not-not from choice,
so what does that make him?
Does that make him a monster?
Because monsters
just kill out of instinct,
they kill because they
don't know what else to do.
Or did he make a choice?
Did he have a rational thought
and that's what made
him kill this woman?
Which would mean he's more human,
but it would also mean that he's
a little bit more of a despicable human.
That's really where
we want to leave Geralt,
which is this idea of "Am I a monster
or am I a really bad person?"
"Am I acting out of instinct
or do I have rational choice?"
He leaves the first episode
not quite sure if he did the right thing.
[CROWD YELLING]
["THE END'S BEGINNING" BY SONYA BELOUSOVA,
GIONA OSTINELLI ANDDECLAN DE BARRA PLAYS]