It's been a long time coming, but with episode 5 The Witcher finally gets a move on with its overarching plotlines. Geralt and Yennefer meet for the first time, and Nilfgaard actually enacts a plan to capture Ciri. There's notable character development across the board, and a stronger feeling of coherence between the show's separate threats. Similarly, it is exciting to see Yennefer going all-out as a bitter and selfish character during her first encounter with Geralt. We've been on quite a journey with her, and the sequences with Kalis' baby in the previous episode tie right into her manipulation of Geralt here, as she attempts to use the djinn to reverse her sterilisation. The time we've spent with Yenn helps paint her story as a tragedy, which successfully prevents her from becoming the piece's villain. This party serves to bring the character's anger to the forefront, but the more overt scenes in which she parades around naked with a womb painted on her abdomen feel silly rather than chilling, and that, unfortunately, undercuts the sense of darkness that the episode is clearly attempting to convey. That darkness is also misserved by a few directing decisions throughout the episode. It finally feels as if The Witcher's elongated prologue is over and its individual threads are being pulled together in order to advance the overarching plot. The events of "Bottled Appetites" have true consequences for the story; Geralt and Yennefer have begun their relationship, and Nilfgaard's plot to capture Ciri has not only been put into action, but also succeeded.
Review of Bottled Appetites
