The Witcher Recap: Campfire Stories

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Following four episodes of travel and several injuries – including a worsening leg wound for Geralt and a head injury for Jaskier – the group needs to rest. Geralt is reluctant, but when Milva points out the river crossing is too dangerous, they’re forced to stop, build a campfire, and share stories for the night.

This episode relies heavily on characters recounting key moments from their pasts, which is a direct way to reveal their histories. However, this approach isn’t new – it echoes storytelling techniques used as far back as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It also allows The Witcher to experiment with its format, including an animated sequence and a playful musical number, all within the episode’s hour-long duration.

Though the pacing and breadth of the episode ensure that things never get boring, not all the stories are equally compelling. Zoltan Chivay’s flashback, which reveals he was wrongly and tragically framed as a traitor to the dwarves, plays out so quickly that it feels more like reading a Wikipedia entry on his background. (It also makes no sense that he and Yarpen didn’t settle this the moment they crossed paths.) Milva’s story is similarly tragic and similarly rushed: After murdering her abusive stepfather, she found one night of passion with an elf while working as a coyote for the Scoia’Tael, then returned to the group the following morning to find everyone dead.

The episode gets much more lively when Jaskier starts telling the story of his long-standing feud with another bard, Valdo Marx. Zoltan jokes, “Will this all be sung?” and Jaskier playfully retorts, “Yes.” This scene brings back something that was missing in recent seasons of The Witcher: a lighthearted, fun atmosphere. Through a detailed musical performance led by Jaskier (with Geralt occasionally adding a single grunt instead of singing), we find out how Jaskier once mentored Valdo, only to have him steal Jaskier’s songs and become famous performing them.

The situation becomes tense when Regis has his turn. He enters a camp of allies who are now understandably cautious of the 428-year-old vampire, and immediately addresses the rumor that garlic can harm him. He then makes a startling comment about Jaskier’s blood, quickly adding, “What I mean is, it’s clean – no diseases.”

The story offers fun, Halloween-themed vampire comedy, but takes a serious turn when Regis reveals his history. Through a narrated animated sequence, we learn Regis was once a wild, rebellious vampire – similar to those in The Lost Boys – indulging in endless blood-drinking and reckless behavior. Everything changed when he met Bethané, a woman who introduced him to the joys of cooking and a calmer life. He swore off blood, but when his old vampire group disapproved and kidnapped Bethané, he retaliated violently. Sadly, Bethané died from the shock of seeing his brutality, and a vampire hunter finished the job, staking, beheading, and burying him beside her. With a dry tone, Regis remarks that’s not nearly enough to truly kill a vampire.

Regis’s story quietly suggests that people are capable of change, much like in other shows. After getting better, he chose to be good instead of bad, a transformation that the other characters still developing their stories seem to understand.

Cahir recounts how he became loyal to Emyhr. As an unwanted son of a harsh father, he was offered money by a wizard to secretly feed a strange creature – a hedgehog-faced monster – kept in a cave. (We, as the audience, know this creature was actually Duny, Ciri’s father, who later became Emperor Emhyr, but Geralt is only now understanding how complex the scheme to control Ciri’s life truly is.) Emyhr became a father figure to Cahir and eventually ordered him to find Ciri. Only after facing difficult experiences, and being saved by both Yennefer and Ciri, did Cahir realize he had been used and was on the wrong side.

Discovering this, and learning that Cahir also has prophetic dreams about Ciri, deeply affects Geralt – a significant shift, considering witchers are trained to control their feelings. Geralt, like Regis, demonstrates that the usual beliefs about witchers aren’t always correct. He’s proven this by falling in love with Yennefer and then taking on a fatherly role with Ciri. He remembers a sweet moment from season two at Kaer Morhen, when Ciri, still getting to know him, playfully challenged him to be more open with his emotions.

I could tell my words really got through to Geralt. The next morning, he was so grateful, thanking everyone – even Regis and Cahir! – before suggesting we continue our journey. It seemed like things would be easier than we thought, and then Milva dropped a surprise: she admitted the river was actually safe to cross the whole time! She just figured we all needed the rest. After the honest conversation we’d all had, even Geralt couldn’t argue with that. I mean, what are friends for if not to look out for you and know what you need?

Stray Arrows

The heartwarming campfire scene is quickly ruined when Vilgefortz viciously tortures Fringilla, forcing her to reveal where Yennefer and her forces are. It seems the major battle this season will happen much sooner than expected.

The episode includes two short, funny flashbacks around the campfire. We see Percival Shuttenbach, the gnome, briefly remember standing on a pile of skulls, laughing in the rain, and casually mentioning he didn’t have much going on before meeting the group. There’s also a quick scene of the parrot yelling “Noooooooo!” when someone buys it.

A big congratulations to Liam Hemsworth! He’s officially proven he can play Geralt of Rivia – he nailed the opening scene by delivering a gritty “fuck” just like the character does.

Jaskier ends his tale with a song declaring that his words and stories will endure, and announces – with some prompting from Regis – that he plans to publish a book called Half a Century of Poetry. The opening of season four showed us that he successfully achieves this goal.

Regis uses the phrase ‘a baptism of fire,’ and the speaker jokingly wonders if the writers are simply trying to force the titles of all the Witcher books into Laurence Fishburne’s lines.

I got a kick out of learning that everyone on the Continent apparently knows Rience as “fire fucker” – it’s hilarious how that insulting nickname just stuck! It really adds a funny little detail to the world-building, knowing that reputation follows him around.

Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy is Regis’s complete name. Before choosing the name Geralt of Rivia, Geralt briefly went by a made-up name: Sir Geralt Roger Eric du Haute-Bellegarde.

If you’re feeling peckish, here’s how to make Geralt’s fish soup: you’ll need water, root vegetables, pike fish, basil, pimento, bay leaves, and sage.

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2025-10-30 21:59