Ciri pushes herself harder than Geralt would like during training, while Yennefer deals with suspicions at Aretuza.
Tropes present in this episode
- Always a Bigger Fish: The fight with Eskel's Leshy lasts barely a minute before another monster sneaks up behind it and decapitates it.
- Arc Words: "What's lost is lost." Said by Triss in regards to her scars, Tessaia in regards to Yennefer losing her magic, the Brotherhood being what it once was, and the title of the episode implies this of the subplot with the Witchers at Kaer Morhen, who need to accept that Eskel is gone.
- Confirmation Bias: In-universe, when word spreads that the elves are allying with Nilfgaard, Stregebor smugly chortles that this "proves" what fantastic racists like him have known all along: that elves are inherently wicked and untrustworthy. Not that, you know, humans treated them worse than dirt for centuries and now The Dog Bites Back.
- The Dead Have Names: Tissaia makes a list of names of the mages who died at Sodden Hill.
- At Cahir's (would be) execution, the names are read.
- The Determinator: Ciri gets knocked down repeatedly by the obstacle course but keeps getting up and trying again.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Lambert takes this role on for Ciri particularly when he puts her through the obstacle course.
- Due to the Dead:
- Tissaia lists the names of casualties of Sodden Hill and reads them at Cahir's execution.
- Geralt and Vesemir dissect Eskel's remains to study his Leshy infection, but then lay what's left to rest in a cave to be eaten by wolves.
- Fantastic Racism: Stregebor insists that all elves are the enemies of humanity, as evidenced by their allying with Nilfgaard. Likewise, he derisively refers to Yennefer as "quarter-blood." Whatever practical justifications he wraps it up in, it all boils down to him just mistrusting elves.
- Foreshadowing: When the leshy-killing mutant eventually corners Ciri, it actually reaches out one of its hands instead of actually harming her despite how close-range they are. This point will later be picked up with a chernobog from the monolith, when Ciri eventually admits these beasts don't seem to want to actively hurt her.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Stregobor is treated pretty coldly by the rest of the mages.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Lambert is an asshole to Ciri, but seems to put her through the obstacle course specifically to see how devoted she is to being a witcher. Once he sees that she is serious about it, he starts giving her actual advice.
- Lonely Funeral: For Eskel. To a large extent, the fact that only their fellow Witchers will ever be present in their funeral means all Witchers who eventually die/are killed are bound for this. A deceased Witcher's body is supposedly left behind in a selected slab within the caves surrounding Kaer Morhen, to be subjected to a form of "sky burial
" by the wolves of the area, befitting their school. - Hate Sink: Stregebor has always been an unlikable character, but this episode shows him at his most loathsome. Despite voting against stopping Nilfgaard's advancement in the first season, he now smugly pretends he couldn't have known Nilfgaard would try to invade the Northern Kingdoms, and pulls a half-hearted Inquisition to absolve himself. Once Yennefer returns a celebrated Hero of Sodden Hill, he does everything in his power to twist her elven blood and month-long disappearance as proof of her untrustworthiness. He then captures and tortures her to find out where she was following Sodden Hill, then immediately twists the knowledge that she was a prisoner of war to Nilfgaard and the elves as "proof" that she is now their spy. As a cherry on top, he puts her in a no-win situation where she can either refuse to execute a Nilfgaard soldier and prove his claim that she's a spy, or do it and prove his claim that she's inherently ruthless and untrustworthy.
- Impossibly-Low Neckline: The dress Yennefer wears throughout most of the episode displays such an impressive décolletage that the entire dress looks like it will fall off any second.
- In the Blood: Like the girls born under the Eclipse, Stregebor firmly believes all elves and elf-blooded humans are inherently predisposed to wickedness, violence, and treachery, and spins their every action as "proof" of their evil natures. He also willfully ignores how their bad actions are in response to violence and aggression directed against them first — usually instigated by him.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: The elves side with Nilfgaard against the Northern Kingdoms who've treated them so terribly for so many centuries. Yennefer also rebels against the Brotherhood and frees the Nilfgaard prisoner partly thanks to Stregebor's relentless anti-elf witch hunt against her.
- Moving the Goalposts: Stregebor does this to Yennefer by refusing to acknowledge her heroism at Sodden Hill. Despite her holding the line and saving the mages that he had chosen to abandon by voting against stopping Nilfgaard, he does everything in his power to spin her actions as proof of her trustworthiness: Her using fire magic as a last resort? Proof of her bad character since fire magic is forbidden. Her disappearing a month after the battle? Proof that she must be up to something. Her being a prisoner of war by Nilfgaard? Proof that she must be a Nilfgaard spy. No matter what she says or does, she can't do any good in his eyes.
- Never My Fault: Stregebor, through and through. Like the girls born under the eclipse, he paints Yennefer's every action after returning to the Brotherhood as proof that she's inherently wicked and untrustworthy, not that she's responding to his preemptive aggression and persecution.
- Self-Serving Memory: Stregebor uses the fact that he was there when the famous elven princess Falka notoriously turned against humans after her human father rejected her elven mother as proof that all elves are inherently predisposed to violence and treachery. When Istredd tries to point out that history notes that she did so only in response to mistreatment and neglect at the hands of humans, Stregebor brushes him off.
- Survivor's Guilt: The conversation between Geralt and Vesemir as they lay Eskel to rest is dripping with this, focusing on their guilt, the fact that their paternal instincts are not enough to protect their fellow Witchers (even more so Ciri)—not to mention the case of the leshy has dealt the Witchers a significant defeat they were unable to prepare for:Vesemir: None of this makes sense. Death by a mutating leshy. Find that in our annals.Geralt: How did we miss this? I feel like the Continent’s evolving underneath our feet and… We didn’t see it coming.Vesemir: Maybe another Conjunction’ll come along and change it all again. I know you think I’m mad, but I need to know what happened. If it were your child… You’d be going crazy to figure it out. What you missed. What you could have done differently.Geralt: I know. It’s a burden I now share.
- Scylla and Charybdis: Yennefer recognizes the execution as this. If she refuses to kill a Nilfgaardian, she proves herself a spy. If she executes a prisoner, she proves herself too ruthless and bloodthirsty to be safe. Tissaia suggests a third option, revealing that she lost her magic and is therefore no longer a threat. Yennefer takes a different one: free Cahir and escape in the confusion.
