The third and penultimate episode of Netflix’s fantasy prequel series The Witcher: Blood Origin “Of Warriors, Wakes, and Wondrous Worlds” is an epic of love, self-sacrifice, and betrayal, dazzling audiences with expressive costumes and one stirring musical number. Fans of the parent series The Witcher will be delighted to spend a little extra time in this magical world.
1. Costumes
The costumes (designed by Lucinda Wright, who also designed the costumes for season two of The Witcher) continue to make an impact. After some successful political maneuvering, Merwyn (Mirren Mack) trades her flowing yet angular dresses for some angular yet flowing armor. It showcases both her ruthlessness and her glittering personality. Meldof (Francesca Mills) sports a bright blue tunic embossed with flowers, underneath a belted multi-colored cap-sleeved jacket. Her unique style sets her apart from her Elven companions, and brings out her stunning blue eyes. In both cases, the costumes express the multitudes within their characters.
2. “Stay With Me, Oh, Lover”
“Stay With Me, Oh, Lover” is a sumptuously resplendent ballad. Sophia Brown delivers a powerful performance, with a voice that holds you with feathery softness, and pulls at your heartstrings with textured strength. The song earns its place in the story as a head-turner and a show-stopper. The first remarkably strong musical follow-up to “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” in The Witcher cinematic ouvre, it captures the franchise’s signature earnestness, and soars with it.
3. A Fairy Tale Romance
This signature earnestness is similarly expressed in the fairy tale romance between Eile and Fjall (Laurence O’Fuarain). To its enormous credit, the show does not shy away from sweetness, nor does it stray into the saccharine. A perfectly timed thunderstorm and a brave self-sacrifice might sound trite in theory, but in practice they are grounded by multi-dimensional characters and honest performances.
4. The First Witcher
As promised in the first episode, this is the story of the creation of the first witcher. It’s an opportunity to interrogate what witchers truly mean to the franchise, metaphorically. The monsters in The Witcher are always representative of a societal ill, so what does that make the witchers? Are they the societal cures, or are they warriors doomed to fight the symptoms instead of the disease for eternity? What does it mean that one must become a monster to fight a monster? Or is a witcher really a monster at all? Or aren’t we all monstrous in some way?
5. Star Power
A victim of success, the show struggles under the weight of Michelle Yeoh’s enormous star power. Eile is the obvious starring role in what is ostensibly if not actually an ensemble piece, and Sophia Brown delivers a star powered performance, but Michelle Yeoh is such an icon, it’s hard not to wonder why this story isn’t about Scian. Scian has plenty of interesting things to do, including a genuinely funny will-she-won’t-she betrayal plot, but audience members who can’t un-see what Michelle Yeoh is capable of can’t help but be disappointed that she isn’t doing even more.
The Witcher: Blood Origin was originally planned to last six episodes, and the final four-episode script does indeed feel truncated. Three of the seven main ensemble characters don’t have enough to do, and at least two of them could’ve been cut entirely to give the third enough screen time to feel more like a main character. There currently are no plans for a second season or spin-off, but there is plenty of story left to explore should someone feel the urge.
