The Witcher S3: Cahir & Gallatin Are The Doomed Bromance We Didn't See Coming
Contains spoilers for "The Witcher" Season 3, Episode 3
As "The Witcher" characters go, Cahir Mawr Dyffryn aep Ceallach (Eamon Farren) tends to have a more difficult time than most. He starts out strong as the powerful and mysterious big bad of the show's first season, establishing himself as a capable Nilfgaardian commander and gaining a number of personal and professional victories. However, he ultimately fails in his mission to capture Ciri (Freya Allan) and gets caught himself. As a result, his Season 2 is a conga line of indignities that reveals the person underneath the intimidating black armor.
"The Witcher" Season 3 doesn't start particularly well for the Nilfgaardian, either, as Emperor Emhyr var Emreis (Bart Edwards) has relegated him to a lowly pawn terrorizing the Northern Kingdoms. Episode 2 marks a turn in Cahir's fortunes when the rebellious Gallatin (Robbie Amell) seeks his help to overthrow Queen Francesca (Mecia Simson). Gallatin and Cahir are clearly familiar with each other and enjoy a friendly, joking rapport that seems to set up a fun bromance. Unfortunately, this isn't meant to last, because Cahir is forced to kill his friend in the very next episode.
Since he's an original character created specifically for the Netflix series, Gallatin's head was always on the chopping block. Still, "The Witcher" Season 3 manages to make the most of his brief presence. The affably gruff Elf warrior's relationship with Cahir shows yet another surprising side of the Nilfgaardian, and further raises his value as one of the show's most quietly important characters.
Cahir is turning into the show's secret weapon and his brief bromance with Gallatin proves it
Though he's by no means a saint, Cahir has been one of the show's most complex and human characters since Season 2. Even when he's playing the straightforward "evil black knight" stereotype in Season 1, the show's progression makes it clear that he's far more than a one-dimensional threat. Cahir's Season 2 arc with Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) – a fellow candidate for the prestigious "Most complex 'The Witcher' character" award — reveals more and more layers of his personality, confirming that while he might be kind of awful, he's also complex, somewhat out of his depth, and fully capable of being a stand-up guy when the situation calls for it. This storyline also proved how well Cahir works with other characters, to the point that fans want to see more of his relationship with Yennefer.
The brief Season 3 bromance with Gallatin is essentially a "Best of" collection of Cahir's known personality traits, distilling his pleasant, ruthless, and duplicitous aspects into one concise mini-arc. He emerges from the arc carrying more guilt and hurt than ever, and while murdering his friend might put him back into the White Flame's good graces, it's clear that the Cahir we see in "The Witcher" Season 3 is a much more complicated figure than the one we met in Season 1. Since he often operates separately from the show's biggest characters, building Cahir into such a captivating, morally ambiguous character has been essential ... and the Gallatin storyline does some heavy lifting to establish him as the show's surprise secret weapon.
"The Witcher" Season 3, Volume 1 is available for streaming on Netflix.