Given that this is a piece designed to explain the ending of The Witcher season 2, it should be pretty obvious that we’re going to be venturing deep into spoiler territory here. If for whatever reason it’s not obvious, we’ll state it outright: we’re going to be venturing deep into spoiler territory here. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
Still here? Nice! Let’s talk about The Witcher season 2’s ending and look at the many ways it could influence an already-confirmed season 3, without getting too into the weeds of what happens in the books because a) spoilers and b) as we noted in our Witcher season 2 review, it’s very liberal with its changes anyway.
Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer become a Family
Given that ‘Family’ is the name of the season’s final episode, it seems prudent to start our explainer by focusing on what that means. While Geralt and Ciri’s early days together are a little shaky, season 2 is all about the White Wolf learning how to become a dependable father figure for his child of surprise. This is addressed pretty brazenly later on in the season when Ciri tells Yennefer that Geralt is “like the father I never had.”
It’s around this time that Yennefer starts to see Ciri in a similar way to how Geralt does, although her deal with the Deathless Mother – which involves delivering Ciri to Voleth Meir to get her Chaos back – is nearing fruition. Ciri, using a sort of preternatural instinct that allows her to involuntarily access her power, manages to figure out what Yen is up to and attempts to run away, but not before Nilfgaard attacks. As always, Geralt arrives in the nick of time to save his daughter and learn of Yen’s true intentions. It’s worth remembering that this isn’t a simple case of deus ex mechanizing an easy solution by having the hero appear purely for the sake of convenience. If you paid attention to season 1, you’ll likely know just how important the concept of destiny is to The Witcher, meaning there are larger forces at play allowing Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer to continuously bump into and save one another.
Towards the end of the season finale, Yennefer tries to make amends by priming herself as a host for Voleth Meir in order to exorcise her from Ciri. Once the switch occurs, all three characters are transported to an alternate sphere alongside Voleth Meir, where it becomes clear that the latter – who has been on The Continent since before the Conjunction of the Spheres (more on that later) – was really just trying to go home to her own world. At this point, the Wild Hunt appear and ask Ciri to join their ride. It’s bad enough having Nilfgaard, Redania, the Brotherhood, the Northern kingdoms, the elves, and a host of private factions after you – why not add an ancient race of spectral elves on skeletal steeds into the mix?
On top of all of that, we learn the true identity of Nilfgaard’s elusive White Flame, gain insight into Dijkstra’s dirty tricks, witness whole new story beats that weren’t in the books, and become privy to so much more. We also know some of the ideas mentioned so far might not have been openly explained in the show, so we’re going to go into more detail on those, too.
What’s up with the Deathless Mother?
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One of season 2’s most prominent and dangerous antagonists is Voleth Meir, commonly referred to as the Deathless Mother. Unlike many of the other monsters and miscreants in Netflix’s adaptation, Voleth Meir isn’t actually featured in any of the books – in fact, her character seems to be way more inspired by the games, which received a lot more love in season 2 than in the series’ inaugural outing.
Voleth Meir is a demon who was trapped in her hut by the first ever witchers. In the Netflix series, she calls out to Yennefer, Fringilla, and Francesca Findabair after appearing in their dreams as a robed figure. All three sorceresses meet her properly once the elves uncover an ancient ruin, which leads to a hut perched on basilisk legs. This is a clear reference to the chicken-legged abode of Baba Yaga, the Polish folk monster who serves as the main inspiration for the Crones in The Witcher 3.
The reason Voleth Meir called out to these sorceresses was to manipulate them into making trades with her. Because Voleth Meir is a demon who feeds on suffering, temporarily affording these people happiness in order to orchestrate a violent reversal to trigger immense pain was on her agenda from the get-go. The fact Francesca’s baby is killed, which in turn instigates the mass murder of newborns across Redania, is what the demon ultimately needed to escape her prison.
Once she’s out, she possesses Ciri after sensing her nascent power. From here, she travels back to Kaer Morhen, kills multiple witchers, smashes the Medallion Tree to expose yet another stellacite monolith, and attempts to bring monsters from alternate spheres to The Continent. Her efforts are eventually thwarted by Yennefer, who offers herself up as a vessel once she realizes that Voleth Meir can’t exist in this realm without a host. The ensuing reaction causes Ciri to teleport herself, Geralt, and Yennefer to another sphere, at which point Voleth Meir departs and presumably goes home.
What is the Conjunction of the Spheres?
You might be thinking: “What’s all this sphere mumbo-jumbo these people keep banging on about?” The easiest answer is this: in the world of The Witcher, monsters and even humans aren’t native to The Continent. The universe is separated into different spheres, all of which were independent of one another until a massive cosmic phenomenon called the Conjunction of the Spheres caused them to clash. In the books, people generally think that the Conjunction caused several spheres to sort of merge, cementing the existence of monsters and mortals on the Continent.
In the series, this has taken a fascinating turn. Throughout season 2, we see various monoliths – the huge stone pillars that Yennefer’s ex-boyfriend Istredd studies. Scholars previously thought the mysterious structures were related to the Conjunction, but it’s only during the events of season 2 that people like Istredd and Geralt realize that they likely represent points of impact – instead of a permanent joining of worlds, it’s as if the various spheres only touched for a second before breaking off from one another again. This explains why so many of the monsters in this season are new to Geralt – they’re not from his sphere.
Naturally, that brings us to the Big Bad revealed at the end of season 2: The Wild Hunt.
Who are the Wild Hunt and what do they want?
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Anyone who has played the Witcher games will likely know of the Wild Hunt – or the Wraiths of Mörhogg, as they’re known in Skellige – on account of the fact that the third game is literally named after them. There’s much more to them than their scary skeleton masks though.
The Wild Hunt are a race of dimension-hopping spectral elves called the Aen Elle and are different to the Aen Seidhe elves we see on The Continent. Prior to the Conjunction of the Spheres, the Wild Hunt travelled to various worlds in order to take their inhabitants as slaves. The Conjunction put an end to this, which is why they’re so laser-focused on Ciri after meeting her in the season finale: Ciri, with her Elder Blood, is capable of opening portals to other spheres just like she does for Geralt and Yennefer here. Put plainly, she is the Wild Hunt’s solution for going back to their pre-Conjunction ways.
What is Elder Blood?
We heard a lot about Elder Blood this season. Known as Hen Ichaer in the original Elvish, Elder Blood refers to the bloodline of Lara Dorren, an elven sorceress who married a human mage. It’s actually difficult to get into it here without spoiling things that are yet to come, so instead we’ll just include Ithlinne’s prophecy, which is written on page one of Blood of Elves and spoken aloud in the Netflix adaptation:
Verily I say unto you, the era of the sword and axe is nigh, the era of the wolf’s blizzard. The Time of the White Chill and the White Light is nigh, the Time of Madness and the Time of Contempt: Tedd Deireádh, the Time of End. The world will die amidst frost and be reborn with the new sun. It will be reborn of Elder Blood, of Hen Ichaer, of the seed that has been sown. A seed which will not sprout but burst into flame.
Ess’tuath esse! Thus it shall be! Watch for the signs! What signs these shall be, I say unto you: first the earth will flow with the blood of Aen Seidhe, the Blood of Elves…
Which brings us to the next piece of the puzzle at the end of season 2…
What is happening with the elves?
As you probably noticed while you were watching, the elves aren’t particularly pleased right now. Marching under Francesca Findabair and Filavandrel – the latter of whom is the former elf king we met in season 1’s ‘The Edge of the World’ – the elves are out not for revenge, but, as Francesca puts it, “justice.” After Francesca’s baby is killed, the elves leave Nilfgaard and head to Redania, home to the perceived culprit King Vizimir.
When Istredd shows up at the elven camp, he tells Francesca that Ciri is Hen Ichaer – a Child of the Elder Blood. With this information in tow, the elves are given newfound hope, although the matter of obtaining vengeance for losing the first elven baby born in years remains unresolved. That’s not to mention they have the wrong guy.
Who is the emperor of Nilfgaard?
The person who actually ordered the death of Francesca’s child was none other than The White Flame himself. Constantly referred to as Emhyr throughout the season, the finale reveals that the emperor of Nilfgaard is actually Duny, Ciri’s father and the Urcheon of Erlenwalde from season 1, episode 4. You know, hedgehog man.
There’s quite a lot going on here, most of which is explained in later books. All we’ll say is this: yes, this plot point comes directly from Sapkowski’s novels and makes perfect sense. You’ll see.
What happened to Ciri’s mother?
While Duny, now going by Emhyr, is alive and well, details around Ciri’s mother are still very muddled at this point in the story. Both were presumed dead and now one apparently isn’t – that’s all we know from the show. We could explain exactly what happens here, but that would be spoiling what’s to come instead of explaining what we’ve already seen.
On top of that, the series has already steered away from the books on multiple occasions. Eskel doesn’t die in the novels, Voleth Meir is a product of the Netflix adaptation, and all of those new monsters are new to book readers, too. Hell, the vast majority of Yennefer’s entire arc is totally original to the Netflix series.
There are a whole lot of other moving parts, too. While newcomers to the series might not have thought much of Dijkstra’s owl, her transformation at the end gave us our first look at Philippa Eilhart, King Vizimir’s resident sorceress in Redania. Speaking of which, Vizimir is conspicuously absent from the meeting of Northern kings and queens coordinated by Tissaia. The mounting political intrigue in these areas is directly proportional to the number of people who want to capture Ciri for their own personal gain, and our family of three are at the heart of all of it.
Here’s hoping season 3 comes soon, eh?
Written by Cian Maher on behalf of GLHF.
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