(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
What’s more satisfying than a good kill?
To clarify: I’m talking about an on-screen kill; rooting for their downfall of evil characters is essential to a TV or movie viewing experience. Few shows understand this better than The Witcher, the Netflix fantasy series based on the beloved books by Andrzej Sapkowski.
A fantasy series chock-full of vengeance, pretty much everyone in the vast ensemble has murder on their minds. And in the very first episode of Season 4, we get one hell of a kill sequence.
Let’s set the scene: Geralt (Liam Hemsworth) and company are on a mission to rescue his adopted daughter Ciri (Freya Allan), and on the way, face countless people who impede their journey. They live in a war-torn continent, where death and destruction await them around every corner. Something has caught their eye: a fully intact farmhouse, complete with healthy-looking livestock—a rarity in trying times. As they approach, a young woman emerges, begging them to stay away, as the house has been struck by a pox: coming any closer could get them struck by foul disease.
As Geralt and his crew prepare to leave—they’re already a day behind in their rescue mission—they witness a group of soldiers forcing their way into the home, grabbing the pleading woman, and taking her into the house. Geralt and his archer companion, Milva (Meng’er Zhang), troubled by what they see, want to get inside and help. But their companion, Zoltan (Danny Woodburn), the dwarf warrior, doesn’t want them to get harmed: “She’s not the girl you’re looking for,” he reminds Geralt. For Zoltan, there are far bigger fish to fry than a random civilian.
But Geralt doesn’t see it that way. “No, she’s not,” Geralt responds, drawing his sword and charging into the house. Just because this woman isn’t the one he’s on a mission to rescue doesn’t mean he can just walk away from evil. Even if it means risking his life by possibly contracting the pox.
For those uninitiated with The Witcher, there’s one critical detail you should know: Geralt is a highly skilled monster hunter with magical abilities. The man, put simply, is not someone you want to cross.
It turns out his instincts were dead-on. As Geralt approaches the farmhouse, he finds the group of men attempting to gang rape the woman. He arrives in the nick of time, unleashing staggering violence on them all.
In a series of swift, fluid motions highlighted by terrific camera work, we see what a masterful warrior Geralt is. The men rush to attack him. Geralt effortlessly disarms the first man by grabbing his hand and slicing it clean off. He cuts down the other assailant and returns to the first, slashing him down to his death. The sound work here will have your skin crawling, as every slice, punch, and scream cut through the violence and root into your brain.
The massacre continues, as another soldier tries to attack Geralt with an axe. He misses, and Geralt takes advantage, brutally impaling him with his sword, pinning him to a wagon. While his sword is occupied, he punches another man right in the eyes—delivering a splurt of blood and a sploshing sound that’ll have you wincing. But don’t close your eyes for too long, or you’ll miss Geralt kicking the man’s leg, instantly snapping it. While he’s down on his knees, he’s beheaded in one fell swoop. It all takes place firmly in center frame, so you won’t miss any of the gory details.
There’s still the man pinned to the wagon to deal with. While most would just pull their sword out, Geralt isn’t most people. Using his immense power, he physically rips the man off the sword, resulting in an exceptionally fatal wound. I’ve seen a ton of astonishing violence on TV before, but this moment in The Witcher is one of the nastiest things I’ve ever seen.
Just when things couldn’t get gnarly enough, Geralt moves to the stable, where more enemies await. Geralt takes a sickle hanging on a bale of hay and drives it through a man’s genitals and rips it back out with one fell swoop. Blood launches like a jet out of his crotch, and before the man can fully process what’s happening to him, Geralt shoves the sickle into his skull. You really do reap what you sow!
Continuing his rampage, Geralt returns to using his sword, slicing the neck open of another soldier, before using his magic to burn the face of another. While that man is overwhelmed by pain, he takes the moment to drive the sword into his neck through his skull. Consumed by fury, Geralt doesn’t notice another man about to strike him down with an axe—but Milva has been watching the whole time, and launches an arrow through the man’s head, saving Geralt, and ending this blood-soaked, gore-fueled brawl.
This fight is more than just a simple (or in this case, a very complex) act of rage. Geralt is fueled by a nagging and overwhelming feeling that he’s unable to protect the one he cares for most—Ciri—from the evil of the world. By protecting this woman he’ll never see again, Geralt isn’t only acting nobly, but he’s able to assuage his fears by restoring justice to someone who cannot defend themselves. The fact that he protects her in such an incredibly nasty fashion is just a bloody bonus.
