The Witcher: A Look Inside the Episodes (2020) s01e08 Episode Script
Episode 8
["GERALT OF RIVIA" BY SONYA BELOUSOVA
& GIONA OSTINELLI PLAYING]
[WOMAN] The title of episode 108
is "Much More".
[MELANCHOLY STRING MUSIC PLAYS]
It's actually a title that means a lot.
First of all, it's episode eight,
it's the finale of the first season,
and, you know, it's sort of a nod to:
"Stick with us. There's
much more to come".
What was really important
is that this is the episode
where Geralt and Ciri eventually meet.
We see their individual paths
of destiny collide.
[MAN] Witcher!
Where are you going?
[LAUREN] But them coming
together is just the beginning
of their journey
and how they start to change
and shift one another,
and the title was really
sort of emblematic of that.
[STRING MUSIC CONTINUES]
[METAL CLATTERS]
When we find Geralt
at the top of episode 108,
he believes Ciri is dead,
and he believes that he has
royally fucked everything up.
And it puts him in a place
where he basically just
wants to go back home.
His home is a place called Kaer Morhen.
Kaer Morhen is the Witcher stronghold
up in the Blue Mountains.
[MAN GRUNTS, PANTS]
[LAUREN] On his path,
he meets a man named Yurga.
Ill winds follow grave robbers.
If I was a robber, I'd be
taking their belongings, butcher.
If I was a butcher, you'd
be amongst the corpses.
[LAUREN] Yurga is unfortunately
attacked by ghouls,
which are some of the nastiest monsters
that we have on the Continent.
[GHOULS GROWLING, SCREAMING]
[GERALT GRUNTS]
[LAUREN] Geralt, despite
his desire to not get involved,
constantly gets involved in everything.
- [GHOULS GROWLING]
- [GERALT GRUNTING]
[LAUREN] Geralt is bitten by a ghoul,
and we have heard
that ghoul bites are fatal.
What this does for our story
is it actually allows
Geralt to go through
kind of a fever-dream sequence.
[UNSETTLING, TINKLING SOUNDS]
It's really funny trying
to pitch a dream sequence
for your lead character
in the finale of an episode,
and everyone's like: "No, he
actually has to do something".
But I think that the one thing
that we hadn't seen Geralt do,
this entire season,
we hadn't seen him
come to terms with his past
and how that made the man
that we know now.
And all of a sudden,
when you have this moment
of him talking to his mother
and talking about being a white knight,
hopefully, you can go back
through the episodes and start to hear
that he's been trying
to be a white knight
in all of the stories
that we've seen so far.
[WOMAN] We have to cling to something.
If we don't, the world
descends into chaos.
[LAUREN] And the person
that we end up meeting
in one of these fever dreams
is Geralt's mother.
And we learn from this woman,
whose name is Visenna,
that she abandoned him at Kaer Morhen
when he was about 7 years old.
Because, basically,
Visenna is both heartbroken
that she left her son there
and that she knew he may not survive,
but she also doesn't
regret her decision.
She actually did the
best that she could.
This is a woman who
believes strongly in destiny.
That's the theme that
keeps coming back for Geralt.
It's time for you to find
what you let go of.
[LAUREN] In this episode,
the big thing for Ciri is an
escalation in her powers.
Ciri's got some real powers that
we haven't even begun to touch on.
They got what they deserved.
[LAUREN] But also, again,
we're putting Ciri in this
place of: "Who am I?
What kind of monster am I?
Am I like my grandmother
now? I just kill people?"
The idea of planting that burden
and that weight in the brain of a child
was fun for us.
In Yennefer's storyline,
what we're really building toward is
what is called the Battle of Sodden,
and this is this really
sort of dominating event
through the first two books, which
is Nilfgaard attacking in Sodden,
trying to move north,
and the 22 mages that take
a stand there to try to stop this.
For Yennefer,
we go from having a character
who's been questioning her magic,
questioning her journey,
we've left her totally alone,
and yet, something in her still
drives her to fight for her home.
You saved me.
[LAUREN] What we realize is
she's fighting for Tissaia
[YENNEFER] I won't ever forget that.
that the primary relationship
for Yennefer's entire season
isn't actually Geralt, but
her mother figure, Tissaia,
that we meet in episode 102,
that is-is kind of mean
and harsh to her,
but, in fact, they're
fighting for each other,
and they're fighting
for that relationship.
[POIGNANT MUSIC PLAYS]
And that's kind of
The entire Battle of Sodden, for her,
is really about what she's
willing to do to save Tissaia.
[TISSAIA] Everything
you have ever felt
everything, you've buried.
Forget the bottle.
Let your chaos explode.
[GRUNTS]
[FLAMES ROAR]
[SCREAMING]
[LAUREN] Fourteen of the 22 end up dying
on the field in this battle.
Yennefer may or may not
be one of those 14.
She disappears at the end,
and this is really the cliff-hanger
that the season is based on for her.
There's just so much else in there.
Vilgefortz does something
very surprising
at the end of the Battle of Sodden.
[MAGE] Vilgefortz!
[LAUREN] He kills one of his own mages.
This sets up in our minds
perhaps there's something
more to Vilgefortz.
And, most importantly,
we understand that the politics
of the Continent are changing.
What's going to happen next?
Is Nilfgaard going to put
their tail between their legs,
and go back south?
Are they going to rebuild?
What are the Northern Kingdoms
going to do about it?
How will the Brotherhood be involved?
And, above all of that,
how are Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer
going to factor into this Continent
that is at war
and appears to be at war over Ciri?
This first season is all about
this family coming together,
but them coming together is really
just the beginning of their journey.
So, there's so much set up,
which is why we ended up
going with the title "Much More".
Basically saying: "There's much
more to come in season two.
Please stay tuned".
& GIONA OSTINELLI PLAYING]
[WOMAN] The title of episode 108
is "Much More".
[MELANCHOLY STRING MUSIC PLAYS]
It's actually a title that means a lot.
First of all, it's episode eight,
it's the finale of the first season,
and, you know, it's sort of a nod to:
"Stick with us. There's
much more to come".
What was really important
is that this is the episode
where Geralt and Ciri eventually meet.
We see their individual paths
of destiny collide.
[MAN] Witcher!
Where are you going?
[LAUREN] But them coming
together is just the beginning
of their journey
and how they start to change
and shift one another,
and the title was really
sort of emblematic of that.
[STRING MUSIC CONTINUES]
[METAL CLATTERS]
When we find Geralt
at the top of episode 108,
he believes Ciri is dead,
and he believes that he has
royally fucked everything up.
And it puts him in a place
where he basically just
wants to go back home.
His home is a place called Kaer Morhen.
Kaer Morhen is the Witcher stronghold
up in the Blue Mountains.
[MAN GRUNTS, PANTS]
[LAUREN] On his path,
he meets a man named Yurga.
Ill winds follow grave robbers.
If I was a robber, I'd be
taking their belongings, butcher.
If I was a butcher, you'd
be amongst the corpses.
[LAUREN] Yurga is unfortunately
attacked by ghouls,
which are some of the nastiest monsters
that we have on the Continent.
[GHOULS GROWLING, SCREAMING]
[GERALT GRUNTS]
[LAUREN] Geralt, despite
his desire to not get involved,
constantly gets involved in everything.
- [GHOULS GROWLING]
- [GERALT GRUNTING]
[LAUREN] Geralt is bitten by a ghoul,
and we have heard
that ghoul bites are fatal.
What this does for our story
is it actually allows
Geralt to go through
kind of a fever-dream sequence.
[UNSETTLING, TINKLING SOUNDS]
It's really funny trying
to pitch a dream sequence
for your lead character
in the finale of an episode,
and everyone's like: "No, he
actually has to do something".
But I think that the one thing
that we hadn't seen Geralt do,
this entire season,
we hadn't seen him
come to terms with his past
and how that made the man
that we know now.
And all of a sudden,
when you have this moment
of him talking to his mother
and talking about being a white knight,
hopefully, you can go back
through the episodes and start to hear
that he's been trying
to be a white knight
in all of the stories
that we've seen so far.
[WOMAN] We have to cling to something.
If we don't, the world
descends into chaos.
[LAUREN] And the person
that we end up meeting
in one of these fever dreams
is Geralt's mother.
And we learn from this woman,
whose name is Visenna,
that she abandoned him at Kaer Morhen
when he was about 7 years old.
Because, basically,
Visenna is both heartbroken
that she left her son there
and that she knew he may not survive,
but she also doesn't
regret her decision.
She actually did the
best that she could.
This is a woman who
believes strongly in destiny.
That's the theme that
keeps coming back for Geralt.
It's time for you to find
what you let go of.
[LAUREN] In this episode,
the big thing for Ciri is an
escalation in her powers.
Ciri's got some real powers that
we haven't even begun to touch on.
They got what they deserved.
[LAUREN] But also, again,
we're putting Ciri in this
place of: "Who am I?
What kind of monster am I?
Am I like my grandmother
now? I just kill people?"
The idea of planting that burden
and that weight in the brain of a child
was fun for us.
In Yennefer's storyline,
what we're really building toward is
what is called the Battle of Sodden,
and this is this really
sort of dominating event
through the first two books, which
is Nilfgaard attacking in Sodden,
trying to move north,
and the 22 mages that take
a stand there to try to stop this.
For Yennefer,
we go from having a character
who's been questioning her magic,
questioning her journey,
we've left her totally alone,
and yet, something in her still
drives her to fight for her home.
You saved me.
[LAUREN] What we realize is
she's fighting for Tissaia
[YENNEFER] I won't ever forget that.
that the primary relationship
for Yennefer's entire season
isn't actually Geralt, but
her mother figure, Tissaia,
that we meet in episode 102,
that is-is kind of mean
and harsh to her,
but, in fact, they're
fighting for each other,
and they're fighting
for that relationship.
[POIGNANT MUSIC PLAYS]
And that's kind of
The entire Battle of Sodden, for her,
is really about what she's
willing to do to save Tissaia.
[TISSAIA] Everything
you have ever felt
everything, you've buried.
Forget the bottle.
Let your chaos explode.
[GRUNTS]
[FLAMES ROAR]
[SCREAMING]
[LAUREN] Fourteen of the 22 end up dying
on the field in this battle.
Yennefer may or may not
be one of those 14.
She disappears at the end,
and this is really the cliff-hanger
that the season is based on for her.
There's just so much else in there.
Vilgefortz does something
very surprising
at the end of the Battle of Sodden.
[MAGE] Vilgefortz!
[LAUREN] He kills one of his own mages.
This sets up in our minds
perhaps there's something
more to Vilgefortz.
And, most importantly,
we understand that the politics
of the Continent are changing.
What's going to happen next?
Is Nilfgaard going to put
their tail between their legs,
and go back south?
Are they going to rebuild?
What are the Northern Kingdoms
going to do about it?
How will the Brotherhood be involved?
And, above all of that,
how are Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer
going to factor into this Continent
that is at war
and appears to be at war over Ciri?
This first season is all about
this family coming together,
but them coming together is really
just the beginning of their journey.
So, there's so much set up,
which is why we ended up
going with the title "Much More".
Basically saying: "There's much
more to come in season two.
Please stay tuned".