The Witcher: Blood Origin – Season 1 Episode 3 Recap & Review

Of Warriors, Wakes, and Wondrous Worlds

Episode 3 of The Witcher: Blood Origin starts with our six warriors jumping back through a portal and destroying the creature after them, shutting off the portal and slicing it in half. They’ve made it closer to Xin’Trea and it seems this beast is one of many that have come through.

However, Balor’s beast is still circling in the air and they come across Meldof, who unashamedly rips off Arnie by declaring “come with me if you want to live.”

Meldof brings them into her cave where she feeds them and learns about their bloody exploits, destroying all those armies and arriving at this spot. Syndril suggests they could make their own creature to battle it, with him becoming one and merging the beast’s biological essence with his own in order to take out Balor’s winged nightmare.

The transformation will be long and painful, but before that they need some herbs. Eile believes that she’s part of this prophecy and needs to be the one to sacrifice herself. Fjall tries to convince her not to, telling her to live. However, she holds his hand and shrugs, telling him all her songs have been sung.

With the elixir made, Eile steps up and presents herself as the sacrifice. A final supper of sorts ensues, complete with music and gameplaying. Scian is in no mood to party, and heads out, knowing that their little stunt on the steps of Xin’Trea could be their last. Fjall and Eile end up exchanging a kiss in the middle of this, as dramatic music and thunder, along with strobed lightning, ensues.

When Eile awakens, she finds herself alone and learns with horror that Fjall is the one who has taken the first elixir instead. Apparently there’s no way to reverse this and instead, they’re forced to continue on.

Meanwhile, Merwyn the Massacre has her mage find the book, hidden underneath some floorboards. Avallac’h brings it back to Merwyn, where he points out he may be able to open gateways. That is, until Balor shows and forces him up against the wall with his staff, exerting his powers.

Just before tossing Avallac’h, Erendir manages to talk him out of it by holding his partner in crime up at knifepoint. Eventually Balor concedes and is imprisoned, with Merwyn more determined than ever to open the gateways. However, they can’t open it as Avallac’h’s power isn’t strong enough. They need Balor’s magic.

Elsewhere, Geldof decides to band along with this motley crew, determined to go out in a blaze of glory and be reunited with her beloved when all of this is said and done. However, Scian is not there. Instead, she’s decided to betray them all, heading into seeing Merwyn, claiming crucial information about Fjall.

Scian wants a good deal of money in exchange for handing over Fjall and Eile. Not only that, but she also demands Soulreaver, her family’s sacred sword, as payment too. Oh, and she wants 50 Golden Empire soldiers to help her bring him in alive. Merwyn agrees and off they go.

Merwyn next heads off to see Balor, wanting his help. Apparently this cell supresses magic, but Merwyn decides they should work together and shape the power of elf-kind as a duo. He also wants Fenrik, his apprentice, to be with her.

Scian shows up before Fjall, where she realizes that he’s the one who has used the elixir. None of them bother with questioning where she’s been, as it turns out this double-cross wasn’t one after all, she lured these soldiers in just to kill them! She wanted to kill all these soldiers and take their armour for themselves so they could pretend to be soldiers. Through all of this, it turns out Geldof is also an amazing shot with a bow as well as a competent hammer-wielder. Who knew!

So off this lot go, deciding to use their makeshift Trojan Horse plan to get into Xin’Trea. As they stand at the gates, Fjall struggles to control his powers until Eile starts humming a tune to him.

The Episode Review

So the penultimate episode of The Witcher: Blood Origin sees our characters all arriving together at Xin’Trea, ready to shape the future and destroy the Empire. In terms of worldbuilding, this show has been pretty poor. We’re told that the Kingdom is suffering from famine but not once have we actually seen that properly.

Meanwhile, none of the characters have had a shred of growth beyond a couple of revelations about their past. All of them are competent fighters and mages, meaning any threat against them is completely negated. While they’re not outright Mary Sue characters, they’re certainly close to that.

With the finale up next, Blood Origin could knock it out the park with a solid final chapter but even then, this has been a very weak and tepid fantasy effort.