3x04 The Invitation

(597-word review) This was the bringing together/near culmination of everything being set forward and explored in the first three episodes, with the Part 1 finale as the climax to, firstly, change your perception of the lacklusterness of practically all that's led up to it by, secondly, blowing your mind to epic proportions, but also blowing something else: in other words, it was intended to be exciting, possibly this season's excitement peak, then topped by the next episode.

And there was some of that, contrary to the direction some of you who may read this potentially thought I was going with that train of thought. Of course, it appeared at the end – still, it was faintly there, specifically impactful; however, that score cue was so generic – think of the level of impact the last few minutes could've been achieved if Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli still composed this show; that score cue would've been exceptional.

This episode was also this season's peak all-around: generally decent enough. I was pleasantly surprised. There were a few moments that hammered home the point of the show's mediocrity – while not affecting the experience TOO much, thankfully: Tissaia telling Yennefer that "for someone who disdains politics, you do excel at it" when all she did is suck up to the Brotherhood, who are also easily convinced from the looks of it (but that can somewhat be chalked off to their long lives/that more fitting instances of her supposed political excelling that were never shown to us happened in the past), the Aeschna's CGI, even the fight choreography of that fight sequence, was subpar, and lastly, Radovid knew where Jaskier was – through the power of infatuation and "learning" his song, for the confused.

As I have additional knowledge regarding a specific significant thing from the novels, I wonder if that enhanced the ending for me: one thing here already seems set in stone, so having that additional knowledge could add to the effectiveness. I also know something unspecific about the conclave, which the Part 1 finale will likely answer for me, only that it's an event in the novels I've seen other people mention, with something noteworthy happening.

It's a shame there's been so little excitement up to this point. It goes a long way, and most of the plotlines themselves weren't cutting it, even the ones involving our three central characters to an extent. But they've been carrying the season in a decent enough fashion, which is SO shocking – there's NO way the CENTRAL characters could do that – and yes, I omit Jaskier, bite me.

In particular, the subplot with him and Radovid, which advanced further in this episode, was monotonous. But let's have an open mind: maybe it was intended to serve as a bit of a relaxation pitstop from all the other things happening; it did feel like it didn't fit in whatsoever, not because of the subject matter itself, but because of the supposed stakes at play, the seriousness to what we're presented, and how we're supposed to believe this world is full of dangers of all sorts.

But the problem is that it wasn't needed even in that context, as presenting those regularities has been done inefficiently. While the writers are busy making up subplots like that, they disregard the more important duty of making what they're trying to sell believable.

Overall, this was the most engagement delivered by this season, and the last few minutes were effective enough to build slightly more-than-mild interest in the Part 1 finale, which, hopefully, carries through that interest instead of squandering it.