Warning: Huge spoilers for The Witcher season 4 ahead.
Over the course of eight episodes, The Witcher season 4 has changed the Netflix franchise for good.
Are Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri reunited in The Witcher season 4?
In a word, no. Given that The Witcher season 4 is essentially acting as a context-builder ready for season 5 to hammer the final episodes home, it's not surprising that they've remained separate this entire time.
That doesn't mean they've forgotten each other, though. Ciri is only beginning to learn the true extent of her powers, whispering Geralt's name every time she achieves a huge physical or mental goal.
This is something that's picked up on by fellow Rat Mistle (Christelle Elwin), having heard Ciri say Geralt's name in her sleep. Mistle eventually learns the truth of who Ciri really is, but chooses to keep the information to herself.
The journey for Geralt and Yennefer is a little different. One after the other, they both learn that the time they've spent trying to reach Emhyr was for nothing, as the Ciri locked up in his castle is actually a fake. Yennefer portals to face Teryn herself, before managing to find Geralt to share what she knows.
Geralt and Yennefer have a brief yet steamy reunion in episode 7, cementing their focus being on finding Ciri and bringing their family unit back together. It's this that ultimately separates them again, with Yennefer choosing to go directly after Vilgefortz in order to save Ciri's life and what's left of Aretuza (more on that later).
Who dies?
Sadly, there's quite a long list here (RIP, infinite number of nameless soldiers lost in battle), and some low-level Aretuza mages are also wiped out in the Battle of Montecalvo in episode 6. For episode 8, however, The Rats are our main victims.
All of our members are wiped out in the final few scenes, meaning Giselher (Ben Radcliffe), Mistle, Iskra (Aggy K. Adams), Kayleigh (Fabian McCallum), Reef (Juliette Alexandra), and Asse (Connor Crawford) are no more. The reason why, of course, links straight back to Ciri, so keep reading to find out exactly how this plays out.
We've also seen life-threatening attacks on other key characters, such as Jaskier and Regis, but they've each been able to recover from them. I've got no idea what could actually kill them off, but we've yet to find out.
Geralt accidentally pledges his allegiance to Queen Meve
With Geralt's advance on Emhyr now in tatters, his focus is to get the gang away from enemy attention in episode 8. However, he chooses to do that by sailing them down the middle of a river, where they're confronted by Nilfgaardian and Rivian soldiers.
New Hanza member Milva (Meng'er Zhang) suddenly miscarries, having kept her pregnancy a secret from everybody except Cahir. Geralt and the others now need to cause a distraction, while Regis can effectively treat Milva and get her to safety, resulting in Geralt, Cahir and the dwarves taking on the Rivian-Nilfgaardian battle happening on a nearby bridge.
After saving everyone's lives in the Brokilon Forest in an earlier episode, the dwarves see it as fair game to lay their lives on the line for the greater good. It's also the perfect chance for Cahir to show that he's no longer involved with the Nilfgaardian army, pretending to be a high-ranking officer to trick troops into following his orders. There's a lot of fighting, a lot of death and a very angry giant in the midst of it all.
The fighting subsides and the Hanza are safely away from the thick of it. However, Geralt is out of the water. Given the fact that it's looked like Geralt was fighting alongside the Rivian army (not to mention he'd taken one of Regis' potions that essentially sends him into beast mode), Queen Meve of Lyria and Rivia (Rebecca Hanssen) requests to meet with him.
Geralt is quickly swept up in the majesty of being commended for his efforts, and Meve knights him when he won't reveal where he's originally from (“well, this won't do.”) Jaskier comments that this has always been a dream of Geralt's, but our Witcher has forgotten one key thing: being knighted in front of a crowd effectively pledges your allegiance to the crowd.
Meve says that Geralt will serve nobody and nothing else other than her from this day forward, with the reality of what's happening finally setting in. The result? A quiet “f**k” under Geralt's breath.
Yennefer abandons Montecalvo to find Vilgefortz
After finding Geralt to tell him that Ciri isn't with Emhyr, Yennefer returns to Montecalvo. It's been left in a sorry state after the battle, with the mages licking their wounds after the deaths of some of their friends and allies. Istredd (Royce Pierreson) gave his life in order to stop Vilgefortz's takeover of the portals, making sure his book holding the original magic used to create them is destroyed.
Vilgefortz retreats back to his surviving flock, but Yennefer isn't done with him. She's insistent on rallying “The Sisterhood” to take on the now-corrupt “Brotherhood”, a plan which she confides in Philippa (Cassie Clare). However, instead of spearheading the sisterhood revolution herself – something she'd already put in motion before the Battle of Montecalvo – she leaves it in the capable hands of Triss (Anna Shaffer).
Yennefer instructs Triss on the importance of allying the sisterhood from all backgrounds, and to carry on regardless of if Yennefer comes back alive or not. The hug, and Yennefer portals out of Montecalvo's courtyard.
She finds herself in choppy waters, with Vilgefortz's lair looming on a cliff in the background. While we don't see Yennefer reach land (yet, at least), Vilgefortz remains inside, killing mages when they're unable to replicate the chaos magic portals he had previously corrupted.
Ciri is captured by Leo Bonhart – and the Rats are no more
As we saw at the end of season 3, Ciri has spent all of her time in The Witcher season 4 with The Rats. However, she's struggled to settle into a routine with them, with both The Rats and Ciri just as distrusting as the other.
Over time, the group gradually accepts Ciri has one of their own, though Ciri struggles to keep her past and true abilities to herself. This isn't help when she starts a romantic relationship with Mistle, who is the first to see through her ruse.
There's also a huge sense of morality that Ciri has to deal with while spending time with The Rats. Once she learns that they hire out their skillset to the highest bidder (they kidnap a young boy for the Redanian Army, for example), she sees the wanton bruality behind some of their actions.
But what we can't forget is how many people are out to get Ciri for their own gain, and sadistic hitman Leo Bonhart (Sharlto Copely) is soon hired to kill them all. He leaves no stone unturned and no body intact in order to track them down, finally setting a trap for Ciri when she decides to leave the group for good.
She gets word that The Rats are in danger, drawing Ciri straight to Bonhart. There's little she can do once she's there, with Bonhart in the middle of killing them all. She's forced to look as Bonhart beheads Mistle, dumping her head in a barrel along with the rest of them. Ciri is now under Bonhart's “care”, even though she's supposed to be dead too.
Emhyr ramps ups his efforts to have Geralt killed
Meanwhile, season 4 hasn't been plain sailing for Emhyr either. His corrupt spies are liaising with The Brotherhood to try and have him overthrown, all using the knowledge that Ciri is really Teryn to their advantage.
Seasons 2-3 taught us that Ciri is biologically Emhyr's daughter, but Geralt assumed the role of her father because he is bound to her by the Law of Surprise. The fact Emhyr plans to marry Ciri to cement his power with an heir is… vomit-worthy… to say the least, but that's the least of his worries at the moment.
It takes most of season 4 for Emhyr to learn he doesn't really have Ciri at all, challenging Teryn to fight and being presented with her feeble combat skills. However, Teryn pledges her full allegiance to Emhyr after Yennefer gives her the chance to escape, explaining that her new life is much better to being one of Vilgefortz's experiments.
Once he realizes, all hell breaks loose. However, it's his aides who once again convince him of what to do, explaining that if Geralt is killed, Ciri's destiny is no longer bound to him. Instead, it would come straight back to Emhyr. Agreeing that killing Geralt is the best thing to do, our final scene shows Emhyr in the dungeon, presenting some kind of creature with Geralt's scent.
We have no idea what is the other side of the prison bars, but it's being tasked to end Geralt's life, or else.
Who is the young girl reading The Witcher's story?
In short, we don't quite know. A young girl is seen reading about The Witcher's life at the very beginning of season 4, and by episode 8, she's grown into a teenager. We learn that she's to go to Aretuza, which has been rebuilt many years after Geralt and Yennefer were alive.
She tells us that she's bound to Ciri and Geralt through “destiny,” though it's not clear exactly what this means. She continues to tell Geralt's stories to a young boy while the older man who gave them both the book moves on.
Clearly, her significance will be revealed in season 5, so watch this space.
The Witcher season 5 predictions
The main aim of The Witcher season 5 will be to bring Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer together once and for all. However, this doesn't guarantee that they'll all be alive by the end of it, seeing as details from the books and games are constantly being changed.
We also need to see if Emhyr is successful in bringing down Geralt, if Ciri can get away from Bonhart, and if Vilgefortz can be stopped and/or killed. Fans originally thought season 4 would end on the Tower of the Swallow, which is when Bonhart chains and tortures Ciri purely for his own horrific pleasure.
Seeing as we didn't quite get there, it would be safe to assume that this is next up in season 5. Whatever is coming, Laurence Fishburne and Joey Batey assure me that it will be “huge”.
“Season 4, part one and two, essentially was how we shot it,” Batey says. “We shot it 18 months, all in one go, and you wrote it in that way.”
“It's absolutely huge, what's coming,” Fishburne adds.
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