The Witcher season 2: All episodes reviewed and explained

The Witcher 2×08 “Family”

The last episode of the second season of The Witcher is aptly titled “Family.” Family, Ciri has learned, is many things: the family we find along the way, the family we leave behind…and, she will soon discover, the family that is revealed was there all along.

Voleth Meir has taken possession of Ciri’s body and entrapped her in a dream vision where she is back at Cintra, safe and happy, attending court with her grandmother Calanthe and her tutor Mousesack. In the meantime, the demon has used Ciri’s body to kill the witchers in their beds as they sleep. Geralt and Yennefer arrive at Kaer Morhen as the girl is about to murder Vesemir. (Have I mentioned how convenient timing is this season?)

Geralt has come to know Ciri better than anyone and is immediately suspicious. He realizes after a few words that she is being possessed. The remaining witchers armor up to fight Voleth Meir, as Geralt begs them not to hurt Ciri. Vesemir is willing to kill the girl rather than see his last few sons die. Geralt is convinced he can bring Ciri back without violence, but the demon is summoning monster after monster to keep the witchers occupied. The medallion tree turns out to have grown around a monolith, which Ciri’s scream has opened.

In the dream, Ciri is distracted by the people she loved who have left her. There are many references to the very first episode, like Calanthe telling Ciri to “exercise a modicum of respect” or Martin Marbury asking her to dance at a ball. Ciri is aware that something is off. She asks Mousesack questions about her bloodline but receives no real answer.

Ciri’s late parents, Princess Pavetta and Ser Duny, also show up. It doesn’t click that they should not be there until Geralt’s voice breaks through the illusion, telling her to hold on. Pavetta and Duny encourage her to stay with them, and Ciri is torn between the perfect illusion of her biological parents and the reality of an imperfect family at Kaer Morhen. In the end, it’s not just Geralt’s voice that drags her from the vision; it’s also Cohen and Vesemir and Lambert, broken and wounded but fighting for her.

She can’t fully go home to them, though. The witch can’t leave Ciri because her hut burned and Ciri is now her vessel to exist in this sphere. Yennefer chooses to right the wrong she did and risk it all for Ciri, because she is the missing piece to her own life. As Ciri says goodbye to her family in the dream — in a contrast to when she chose to stay with her mother in the Dol Durza in Episode 5 — they disintegrate like Avengers after a snap of Thanos’ fingers, although we should note one important detail: her father Duny does not shatter next to Pavetta.

Once Ciri is back, she uses the monolith to open a portal to another sphere where they release Voleth Meir from Yen’s body. Before they go back, the Wild Hunt calls to her. Yennefer’s powers are restored, and she and Geralt reach an understanding. He may not forgive her for the betrayal, but he does trust her to train Ciri in magic.

In Redania, Francesca is out for a vengeance for her murdered baby. Like a biblical god, she marks the doors of all the newborn that are to die, and kills them with a wave of her hands. Francsca’s violent nature has been long foreshadowed, as when she proposed to send Yen and Fringilla’s heads to Aretuza as a reminder of eleven supremacy or when she told Fringilla she had slit her own father’s throat…she only appeared benevolent because she was guided by faith, but it was our mistake in assuming she was soft.

Her scouts bring her Istredd, who has figured out Ciri’s genealogy and tells the elves that Ciri has Elder blood. Francesca’s world turns upside down as she realizes Ciri is the one Ithilinne prophesied, the only one who can save them. Hopefully this means the elves will team up with Geralt and Yennefer next season. They will need all the help they can get to protect Ciri, since the Brotherhood has put a price on Ciri’s head and that of anyone who protects her.

In the only way this season could possibly have ended, we finally see Emperor Emhyr in the flesh, after hearing about the White Flame and the loyalty he commands for two seasons. He arrives in Cintra and unmasks Fringilla and Cahir’s fake plan. We learn it was he who sent the assassin to kill Francesca’s child. Losing a daughter, he knows, can move mountains.

In a reveal worthy of a comic book villain, we find out that Emhyr is Ciri’s father. That is why Nilfgaard attacked Cintra at the very beginning of the show: Emhyr — who was only ever posing as Duny — wanted his daughter back, probably as a weapon of mass destruction.

I imagine Ciri will discover the truth about her real father sometime in season 3. Not that it will matter, of course. Ciri has found her real family with Geralt and Yennefer. Yennefer’s choice to sacrifice herself for and then stay with Ciri isn’t borne out of guilt or the fact that she’s Geralt’s child. Yen feels a pull towards the girl, as though she is only whole in her presence. Like Nenneke said, Ciri was missing something she had to find if she was going to gain balance, something only Yen can give her. Geralt and Yennefer could never be together because they were not destined to be a couple, but rather to be a family.

We finally understand the meaning of the dragon’s words from Episode 1×06: he told Geralt and Yen that they were made for each other but that nothing would come of it, because destiny alone is not sufficient; that “something more” was needed. That something more was Ciri.

This season has been something else, a journey spanning an entire continent and the deep valley of the human soul. Three people who were linked by destiny found each other and overcame everything the world threw at them. But the stakes will be even higher in season 3, and I cannot wait to go on another ride with these characters.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels