The Witcher: A Look Inside the Episodes (2020) s01e07 Episode Script
Episode 7
["GERALT OF RIVIA" BY SONYA BELOUSOVA
& GIONA OSTINELLI PLAYS]
[WOMAN] Episode 107, honestly,
came to fruition
really in the edit room,
which is when all of our storylines
come crashing into each other.
[MAN LAUGHS]
[LAUREN] That's not initially
how it was written,
but it's something we-we found.
Basically, all of our stories
have been operating
on different timelines.
We've been moving back
and forth through time a lot.
Ciri's entire story, for season one,
takes place over about two weeks.
Geralt's takes place over about 30 years.
Yennefer's takes place
over about 90 years.
For us, it was about
planting all of the seeds
of Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer
coming together.
- [OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYS]
- We start to see the mages get involved
in this battle we've been watching
mostly through Geralt
and Ciri's story lines.
We can stop Nilfgaard if we act now.
[LAUREN] Mages really find their power
in being part of the Northern Kingdoms,
and if Nilfgaard attacks
the Northern Kingdoms,
then their entire way
of life will crumble.
[OMINOUS MUSIC CONTINUES]
In episode 107,
Geralt must come
face to face with the fact
that he claimed this child of surprise,
who now belongs to him,
and there's something in him that still,
um, we call it
the "white knight complex".
Despite the fact that we've heard
that Witchers have no emotions,
that their sole job is to kill monsters,
Geralt still has a tiny, tiny bit
of a desire to be a hero,
and so, when he sees Nilfgaard
marching towards Cintra,
he starts to question
whether or not his child,
that destiny has promised him,
is okay.
Ciri's journey in this episode
is kind of bifurcated
because we're actually experiencing
Ciri in two different timelines.
This allows us to see just
how much she has grown.
I can't do this without you.
[LAUREN] All she's
trying to do at this point
is get back to the only family
that she might have left,
which is in Skellige.
And there's a lovely moment where
you think this all might work out,
and then she just steals
Zola's horse and rides off.
And she basically is just
at this place that is like:
"Screw everyone else.
I'm a survivor. I'm going
to make it on my own".
[HORSE NEIGHING]
But we also get to see Ciri through
Geralt's lens, in Geralt's story,
and this is the Ciri that
we met in episode 101,
where she's still very much
a protected princess
and she's just learning
how complicated the world is,
and the episode really allows us
to see how much Ciri has grown
and how much she'll continue to grow.
In the final moment of the episode,
Ciri experiences a trance,
and we played around a lot
with this in the writers' room
because we wanted to make sure
that we were teasing the idea
of what's called Ithlinne's Prophecy,
which is this concept that
Ciri is kind of at the middle of.
[DISTORTED FEMALE VOICE] blizzard.
The Time of the White Chill
and the White Light is nigh
[NEIGHING]
the Time of Madness
and the Time of Contempt.
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES AND FADES OUT]
[LAUREN] When we find
Istredd in episode 107,
he's actually working,
not really for Nilfgaard,
but under Nilfgaard.
In our other stories,
Nilfgaard has been presented
as this kind of one-dimensional,
evil empire
that is set to take over the world.
Istredd provides us a really
different viewpoint on that.
These people were starving
before Nilfgaard.
See, most kings only care
about their cocks and their coffers.
They look out for their people.
Everybody gets something.
[LAUREN] Soldiers and mages
and commoners and royalty,
they all are equals.
If they are taking over the world,
they have their own
sort of purpose and goal,
and maybe it's not necessarily
as bad as we think.
Istredd himself is
digging into monoliths.
It's the first time we start
to understand that they are a key
to what happened
in the Conjunction of the Spheres,
and will continue to be a key of
how things might change in the future.
Yennefer in this story line,
it's actually meant almost to feel like
what could be the end of her story,
which is that she returns to Istredd
and she says that she would
like to be with him again.
It's one of the loveliest scenes,
I believe, that we have.
She's kind of opening herself up to them
and we get to see this really soft,
vulnerable side of Yennefer, saying:
"Maybe I made a mistake. You're right.
I did seek out power.
I did seek out glory".
You went after the thing you loved.
I'm sorry you chose power.
[LAUREN] Istredd rejects her,
and it's probably the lowest that
we get Yennefer in our season.
And then we deliver her
back home to Aretuza.
What happens when she goes back
and when she sees other young girls
willing to put themselves through
what she went through
and: has it all been worth it?
Why are you back, then?
Why am I back?
[LAUREN] It's a really
interesting turn of a story for her,
because you actually get her,
in these moments,
questioning every
choice that she's made.
In a series where we're
talking so much about destiny
and so much about the choices
that characters make
and how they end up
where they're meant to be,
it's interesting to see what
happens to her character
when she thinks she's
made all the wrong choices.
Because I think we kind of know
that she's on the path
that she's meant to be on.
So, really, it's an episode where,
thematically, hopefully,
audiences are on the edge of their seat
about how these stories are
all gonna begin intersecting.
[STIRRING, DYNAMIC MUSIC PLAYS]
& GIONA OSTINELLI PLAYS]
[WOMAN] Episode 107, honestly,
came to fruition
really in the edit room,
which is when all of our storylines
come crashing into each other.
[MAN LAUGHS]
[LAUREN] That's not initially
how it was written,
but it's something we-we found.
Basically, all of our stories
have been operating
on different timelines.
We've been moving back
and forth through time a lot.
Ciri's entire story, for season one,
takes place over about two weeks.
Geralt's takes place over about 30 years.
Yennefer's takes place
over about 90 years.
For us, it was about
planting all of the seeds
of Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer
coming together.
- [OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYS]
- We start to see the mages get involved
in this battle we've been watching
mostly through Geralt
and Ciri's story lines.
We can stop Nilfgaard if we act now.
[LAUREN] Mages really find their power
in being part of the Northern Kingdoms,
and if Nilfgaard attacks
the Northern Kingdoms,
then their entire way
of life will crumble.
[OMINOUS MUSIC CONTINUES]
In episode 107,
Geralt must come
face to face with the fact
that he claimed this child of surprise,
who now belongs to him,
and there's something in him that still,
um, we call it
the "white knight complex".
Despite the fact that we've heard
that Witchers have no emotions,
that their sole job is to kill monsters,
Geralt still has a tiny, tiny bit
of a desire to be a hero,
and so, when he sees Nilfgaard
marching towards Cintra,
he starts to question
whether or not his child,
that destiny has promised him,
is okay.
Ciri's journey in this episode
is kind of bifurcated
because we're actually experiencing
Ciri in two different timelines.
This allows us to see just
how much she has grown.
I can't do this without you.
[LAUREN] All she's
trying to do at this point
is get back to the only family
that she might have left,
which is in Skellige.
And there's a lovely moment where
you think this all might work out,
and then she just steals
Zola's horse and rides off.
And she basically is just
at this place that is like:
"Screw everyone else.
I'm a survivor. I'm going
to make it on my own".
[HORSE NEIGHING]
But we also get to see Ciri through
Geralt's lens, in Geralt's story,
and this is the Ciri that
we met in episode 101,
where she's still very much
a protected princess
and she's just learning
how complicated the world is,
and the episode really allows us
to see how much Ciri has grown
and how much she'll continue to grow.
In the final moment of the episode,
Ciri experiences a trance,
and we played around a lot
with this in the writers' room
because we wanted to make sure
that we were teasing the idea
of what's called Ithlinne's Prophecy,
which is this concept that
Ciri is kind of at the middle of.
[DISTORTED FEMALE VOICE] blizzard.
The Time of the White Chill
and the White Light is nigh
[NEIGHING]
the Time of Madness
and the Time of Contempt.
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES AND FADES OUT]
[LAUREN] When we find
Istredd in episode 107,
he's actually working,
not really for Nilfgaard,
but under Nilfgaard.
In our other stories,
Nilfgaard has been presented
as this kind of one-dimensional,
evil empire
that is set to take over the world.
Istredd provides us a really
different viewpoint on that.
These people were starving
before Nilfgaard.
See, most kings only care
about their cocks and their coffers.
They look out for their people.
Everybody gets something.
[LAUREN] Soldiers and mages
and commoners and royalty,
they all are equals.
If they are taking over the world,
they have their own
sort of purpose and goal,
and maybe it's not necessarily
as bad as we think.
Istredd himself is
digging into monoliths.
It's the first time we start
to understand that they are a key
to what happened
in the Conjunction of the Spheres,
and will continue to be a key of
how things might change in the future.
Yennefer in this story line,
it's actually meant almost to feel like
what could be the end of her story,
which is that she returns to Istredd
and she says that she would
like to be with him again.
It's one of the loveliest scenes,
I believe, that we have.
She's kind of opening herself up to them
and we get to see this really soft,
vulnerable side of Yennefer, saying:
"Maybe I made a mistake. You're right.
I did seek out power.
I did seek out glory".
You went after the thing you loved.
I'm sorry you chose power.
[LAUREN] Istredd rejects her,
and it's probably the lowest that
we get Yennefer in our season.
And then we deliver her
back home to Aretuza.
What happens when she goes back
and when she sees other young girls
willing to put themselves through
what she went through
and: has it all been worth it?
Why are you back, then?
Why am I back?
[LAUREN] It's a really
interesting turn of a story for her,
because you actually get her,
in these moments,
questioning every
choice that she's made.
In a series where we're
talking so much about destiny
and so much about the choices
that characters make
and how they end up
where they're meant to be,
it's interesting to see what
happens to her character
when she thinks she's
made all the wrong choices.
Because I think we kind of know
that she's on the path
that she's meant to be on.
So, really, it's an episode where,
thematically, hopefully,
audiences are on the edge of their seat
about how these stories are
all gonna begin intersecting.
[STIRRING, DYNAMIC MUSIC PLAYS]