The Witcher season 1, episode 5 recap: Bottled Appetites

Episode five of The Witcher has Geralt and Yennefer meet, and in a clothing-optional style. Also, Ciri is still in danger.

Previously on The Witcher, Geralt (Henry Cavill ) acted as a bodyguard to Jaskier the bard (Joey Batey) at a marriage ceremony of a cursed hedgehog man (Bart Edwards). Episode 5 begins with Cahir (Eamon Farren) meeting with a doppler (or a doppelganger) called Adonis (Ben Wiggins). Their plan is simple, and rather easily enacted.

The Doppler changes himself to look like Mousesack (Adam Levy), kills the real one, then intends to track down Princess Ciri (Freya Allan). Although Eithne (Josette Simon) allows Ciri to stay in Brokilon Forest, the imposter Mousesack tricks Ciri into leaving, along with Dara (Wilson Radjou-Pujalte).

The Witcher and Yennefer finally meet

After curing a man’s impotence with her magic spells, Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra) has a renewed interest in regaining her lost fertility. Yennefer gets pestered by a few people before the main story. Mayor Beau Berrant (Roger Ringrose) shows up wanting to tax her magic. Also, Tissaia (MyAnna Buring) makes a brief and awkward appearance. However, Yennefer’s story tied into Geralt’s in an interesting way.

After Jaskier gets struck ill by a Djinn accidentally freed from a lamp, Geralt comes to Yennefer for help (despite Geralt comparing the bard’s singing to a pie with no filling). In other words, Geralt does care about people despite his gruff demeanor.  They come to meet Yennefer through a healer named Chireadan (Lucas Englander), who doesn’t hold her in high esteem but suggests her magic is strong. She happens to be at the Mayor’s place.

After knocking out a guard (Richard van Weyden) with a bag of coins, Geralt enters to find Mayor Berrant stark raving nude. In fact, Geralt and Jaskier find a whole room full of naked, writhing people, under some bizarre spell of Yennefer’s (they stop when she utters the word “ragamuffin”). Geralt and Yennefer take a bath together, building some tension between the two. She expresses a desire to become the Djinn’s master. When she kisses Geralt, he falls asleep.

Geralt awakens in a jail cell, unsure of what happened. Chireadan chides him about going on some rampage — apparently Yennefer’s attempt at getting revenge on people. When the same guard shows up that Geralt struck earlier, we learn that Geralt actually had three wishes, not Jaskier. How? The guard’s head explodes!

Putting the genie back in the bottle

Yennefer ultimately does save Jaskier, but it’s discovered that he’s not the one with three wishes. She wants that level of power, so she tries to usurp the Djinn. Geralt understands that she’s power-mad and a threat to herself, so he makes his third wish (which seems to involve saving Yennefer’s life). Then, in an interesting moment for The Witcher, Geralt and Yennefer get it on. How do these story elements tie together? As revealed in the previous episode, Ciri was awkwardly won by Geralt through the Law of Surprise.

It appears that Geralt wanted one of his wishes to get rid of this fate. It seems that now, with Yennefer’s life being saved, that fate has not been averted. Although The Witcher outwardly expresses disbelief and disdain for the Law of Surprise, it seems he actually believes in it and has seen its power at least once before.

What are your thoughts on The Witcher? Let us know in the comments!