The Witcher: A Look Inside the Episodes (2020) s01e02 Episode Script
Episode 2
1
["GERALT OF RIVIA" BY SONYA BELOUSOVA
& GIONA OSTINELLI PLAYS]
[WOMAN] "Four Marks" is about
the first half of Yennefer's journey
to be the sorceress I think
most people would know
and recognize from the books,
and we really delve into her backstories.
[YENNEFER] I can do it! [GRUNTS]
I wanted to see her as a hunchback.
I wanted to see the Yennefer
and see the pain and
the struggle of her life.
[TISSAIA] How much for this beast?
- Six.
- Four.
- Sold.
- [YENNEFER GRUNTS]
[LAUREN] Yennefer is quite bitter at times
and quite angry about
the hand that life dealt her,
and that's one of the things she
really struggles with over the series.
I just wanted to know why.
Four marks. [SOBS]
[GRUNTS]
[LAUREN] The Tower of the Gull
is the most potent
place on the Continent.
It's the foundation of magic,
and it's actually at Aretuza.
This is how Yennefer learns
that she is magical.
[YENNEFER] How did I get here?
Well, it looks to me like you portaled in.
I what?
[THUNDER CRASHES]
[LAUREN] We're calling these
in our series "conduit moments".
This is just something
that we came up with
to sort of explore
how these young women and men
learnt that they had magical powers.
[ZAPPING SOUND]
- [SCREAMING]
- [ZAPPING SOUND]
[YENNEFER CONTINUES SCREAMING]
[LAUREN] The relationship
I was most interested in
was the relationship
between Tissaia and Yennefer,
which is a kind of dysfunctional
mother-daughter relationship,
and Yennefer, from the very beginning,
seeks Tissaia's approval.
Tissaia is a character
that seems to have everything.
She is beautiful,
she is very controlling
and very controlled.
But we see that, actually, she's
missing something in her life too,
which is the love of a daughter.
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
Istredd's biggest importance in the book
is sort of the role he plays
in Yennefer's life.
He really is one of her first loves
and it was really important for us
that Istredd met Yennefer
as the young, scared,
but yet really strong
hunchback character.
[STREGOBAR] You've been
working on her for months.
You must be able to give me something.
[LAUREN] What's sad is one of
the first things that happens is
Istredd betrays Yennefer.
He doesn't really
intend to, but he does,
and that hurts her more than
anything we've seen so far.
She's part elf.
[LAUREN] One of the things that was
important to us in the first season
is to really track Ciri's journey
through the continent.
She's on her own from the beginning
and she's really terrified.
Who's there?
[LAUREN] We decided to come up
with a friend for her,
- is really where it started.
- You mean they're poison?
[LAUREN] We really get to see
these two kids together,
surviving in the world and
being each other's best friends.
There's a lot of mentions
of elves throughout 102.
We see it as a thematic
between all of our stories.
Ciri meets Dara, a young elf.
[CIRI] You're an elf.
[LAUREN] Yennefer starts to learn
that elves are at the
foundation of magic
in the Continent.
See, when humans
and monsters all arrived
after the Conjunction of the Spheres
elven mages taught the first humans
how to turn chaos into magic.
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
And Geralt meets the Elf King.
That's when we actually
really dig into Filavandrel
and how elves have been persecuted
and that they have been pushed out
of the kingdoms and into the mountains
and how they're in hiding.
And what Geralt is telling him is:
"Come down from the mountains.
You basically need to learn
to live nicely with others".
I can't.
So, we start to understand
how all of these events
are really building the history
of the Continent.
[JASKIER] Ooh, I could be your barker.
[LAUREN] Jaskier calls himself
Geralt's best friend,
but I think Geralt would have
a different point of view on that.
What Jaskier brings to the surface
is a lighter side of Geralt,
or rather is constantly poking at Geralt
and making fun of Geralt
to Geralt's face. [CHUCKLES] Um
- [JASKIER] You hide
- [LAUREN] Jaskier's also a bard.
You get to hear Jaskier narrate
what we're seeing.
- [LUTE PLAYS]
- [JASKIER] They came after me ♪
With masterful deceit ♪
Broke down my lute ♪
And they kicked in my teeth ♪
[LAUREN] And we start to play
with how people tell stories
and how we tell stories
that reflect a certain narrative.
[JASKIER] "He can't be bleat" ♪
That's not how it happened.
Where's your new-found respect?
Respect doesn't make history.
[LAUREN] And Jaskier is
our prime example of that.
We'll often see him kind of twist
history to make it favor Geralt
- a little more.
- [JASKIER] A friend of humanity ♪
[MUSIC INTENSIFYING TO FINAL CLOSE]
["GERALT OF RIVIA" BY SONYA BELOUSOVA
& GIONA OSTINELLI PLAYS]
[WOMAN] "Four Marks" is about
the first half of Yennefer's journey
to be the sorceress I think
most people would know
and recognize from the books,
and we really delve into her backstories.
[YENNEFER] I can do it! [GRUNTS]
I wanted to see her as a hunchback.
I wanted to see the Yennefer
and see the pain and
the struggle of her life.
[TISSAIA] How much for this beast?
- Six.
- Four.
- Sold.
- [YENNEFER GRUNTS]
[LAUREN] Yennefer is quite bitter at times
and quite angry about
the hand that life dealt her,
and that's one of the things she
really struggles with over the series.
I just wanted to know why.
Four marks. [SOBS]
[GRUNTS]
[LAUREN] The Tower of the Gull
is the most potent
place on the Continent.
It's the foundation of magic,
and it's actually at Aretuza.
This is how Yennefer learns
that she is magical.
[YENNEFER] How did I get here?
Well, it looks to me like you portaled in.
I what?
[THUNDER CRASHES]
[LAUREN] We're calling these
in our series "conduit moments".
This is just something
that we came up with
to sort of explore
how these young women and men
learnt that they had magical powers.
[ZAPPING SOUND]
- [SCREAMING]
- [ZAPPING SOUND]
[YENNEFER CONTINUES SCREAMING]
[LAUREN] The relationship
I was most interested in
was the relationship
between Tissaia and Yennefer,
which is a kind of dysfunctional
mother-daughter relationship,
and Yennefer, from the very beginning,
seeks Tissaia's approval.
Tissaia is a character
that seems to have everything.
She is beautiful,
she is very controlling
and very controlled.
But we see that, actually, she's
missing something in her life too,
which is the love of a daughter.
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
Istredd's biggest importance in the book
is sort of the role he plays
in Yennefer's life.
He really is one of her first loves
and it was really important for us
that Istredd met Yennefer
as the young, scared,
but yet really strong
hunchback character.
[STREGOBAR] You've been
working on her for months.
You must be able to give me something.
[LAUREN] What's sad is one of
the first things that happens is
Istredd betrays Yennefer.
He doesn't really
intend to, but he does,
and that hurts her more than
anything we've seen so far.
She's part elf.
[LAUREN] One of the things that was
important to us in the first season
is to really track Ciri's journey
through the continent.
She's on her own from the beginning
and she's really terrified.
Who's there?
[LAUREN] We decided to come up
with a friend for her,
- is really where it started.
- You mean they're poison?
[LAUREN] We really get to see
these two kids together,
surviving in the world and
being each other's best friends.
There's a lot of mentions
of elves throughout 102.
We see it as a thematic
between all of our stories.
Ciri meets Dara, a young elf.
[CIRI] You're an elf.
[LAUREN] Yennefer starts to learn
that elves are at the
foundation of magic
in the Continent.
See, when humans
and monsters all arrived
after the Conjunction of the Spheres
elven mages taught the first humans
how to turn chaos into magic.
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
And Geralt meets the Elf King.
That's when we actually
really dig into Filavandrel
and how elves have been persecuted
and that they have been pushed out
of the kingdoms and into the mountains
and how they're in hiding.
And what Geralt is telling him is:
"Come down from the mountains.
You basically need to learn
to live nicely with others".
I can't.
So, we start to understand
how all of these events
are really building the history
of the Continent.
[JASKIER] Ooh, I could be your barker.
[LAUREN] Jaskier calls himself
Geralt's best friend,
but I think Geralt would have
a different point of view on that.
What Jaskier brings to the surface
is a lighter side of Geralt,
or rather is constantly poking at Geralt
and making fun of Geralt
to Geralt's face. [CHUCKLES] Um
- [JASKIER] You hide
- [LAUREN] Jaskier's also a bard.
You get to hear Jaskier narrate
what we're seeing.
- [LUTE PLAYS]
- [JASKIER] They came after me ♪
With masterful deceit ♪
Broke down my lute ♪
And they kicked in my teeth ♪
[LAUREN] And we start to play
with how people tell stories
and how we tell stories
that reflect a certain narrative.
[JASKIER] "He can't be bleat" ♪
That's not how it happened.
Where's your new-found respect?
Respect doesn't make history.
[LAUREN] And Jaskier is
our prime example of that.
We'll often see him kind of twist
history to make it favor Geralt
- a little more.
- [JASKIER] A friend of humanity ♪
[MUSIC INTENSIFYING TO FINAL CLOSE]