Trigger warning: this article contains mention of rape and sexual assault.
The first episode of the second season of The Witcher changes one important plot point from the books, and it turns out to be a good choice. Netflix’s adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s acclaimed fantasy book series has seen varying degrees of faithfulness to its literary source material, and the newly released second season continues this trend. While the show has been criticized for this divergence as well as for the convoluted narrative structure of its first season, the second season of The Witcher isn’t afraid to fire back at all the timeline complaints. For better or worse, season two pushes ahead with more changes from the books—but one plot point in particular ends up benefiting from this.
The second season of The Witcher opens with the episode “A Grain of Truth”—a title taken straight from the eponymous short story that the plot of the episode is based on. Appearing in Sapkowski’s anthology book The Last Wish, “A Grain of Truth” follows Geralt of Rivia during his encounter with a man-turned-beast called Nivellen. Therein, Geralt learns that Nivellen owes his bestial appearance to a curse, fights a bruxa (a type of vampire), and attempts to restore Nivellen to his former humanity. The episode itself follows a similar trajectory with some minor modifications (and one major one).
Aside from the glorious recreation of Nivellen with prosthetics and no CGI (and one handsome Kristofer Hivju of Game of Thrones fame), The Witcher season 2, episode 1 also adds Ciri to the mix and makes a few narrative adjustments for the short story to work in a cinematic context. However, by far the most radical change from the source material is also the episode’s most ingenious. Whereas in the short story Nivellen reveals to Geralt the reason for his curse early on, the reveal is cleverly postponed until the end of the episode in the second season of The Witcher.
The reveal is particularly important because it has a profound change on the character of Nivellen and his perception by both Geralt and the reader/viewer. Throughout the story both literary and cinematic, Nivellen (one of many new characters introduced in The Witcher’s season 2) repeatedly calls himself a monster and deserving of the curse laid upon him. However, it is only when he reveals that the reason for the curse is the rape of a priestess that the weight of his crime can truly be grasped. In the short story, Nivellen confesses his crime to Geralt early on, and the grizzled monster hunter chooses to remain by his side and free him of his curse.
In the episode of The Witcher, Nivellen only reveals that he raped the priestess after the curse is lifted. Here, Henry Cavill’s Geralt has an entirely different reaction. Together with Ciri, the witcher turns his back on Nivellen and leaves him to consider the abhorrent nature of his crime. This change from the source material allows the story to unfold in a similar manner but keeps Geralt from knowingly aiding a man who has committed rape. With The Witcher season 2 praised by author Sapkowski, this change ranks among the season’s more inspired choices and maintains the spirit of the source material while also handling sexual assault with more gravity.