I'm afraid The Witcher season 4 will end with the most horrific moment from the books

This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS from The Witcher book series by Andrzej Sapkowski.

In just under two weeks, Neflix will premiere the fourth season of its epic fantasy series The Witcher. This is a particularly important season for the streamer's flagship fantasy show. Following the departure of lead star Henry Cavill after season 3, Liam Hemsworth will assume the role of Geralt of Rivia. This season marks his introduction for audiences, and the anticipation to see how he makes the role his own couldn't be higher.

But Hemsworth isn't the only actor with a high bar to clear in season 4. The show's other two leads, Anya Chalotra (Yennefer of Vengerberg) and Freya Allan (Princess Ciri) also have huge plotlines ahead of them, each separate from Geralt's. In the case of Ciri, it will see her come into her own as the main character of the saga, just like she does at this point in Andrzej Sapkowski's book series.

Yesterday IGN released what might be the most in-depth look at season 4 yet, and it has me very nervous for how season 4 will end. Writer Alex Zalben interviewed Hemsworth as well as showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, and gained a number of insights into the show that have never been previously reported. Of all the coverage and teases for The Witcher season 4 that I've seen to date, it's by far the best; I'd highly recommend giving it a read.

I want to home in on one part of that extensive piece, where Hissrich discussed how she planned for The Witcher seasons 4 and 5 to be shot back-to-back as one large story...and how it opened the door for season 4 to have a much bleaker ending than previous seasons.

“We wrote both seasons back to back, we filmed them both back to back,” Hissrich told IGN. “They're coming out as two separate entities, but they really are one long story. What was interesting for us is that most seasons end on, seasons one, two three, they end on an up note. You finally have the family reunited. We made a choice at the end of Season Four to have it end on quite a downbeat, to put people in this position where things have almost never looked worse. Because for us, that was the only way to split this journey in half. And then in Season Five, start Geralt up again. Because really, once you start Season Four, it's all about reuniting this family, and it takes 16 episodes to get there. We definitely wanted to make sure that we felt like we had individual journeys. But truly, all five seasons, it really is just one big story.”

Ending season 4 on a "downbeat" makes sense; lots of stories pull a darkest-before-dawn moment to hook fans in for the next installment, from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back to Avengers: Infinity War to multiple seasons of Game of Thrones, the list is pretty much endless. But having read all of The Witcher books — and having followed some of the leaked filming updates from season 5 — I think I have a pretty good idea of what this "downbeat" ending for season 4 might entail.

It has me afraid for our favorite witcher and his found family, especially Ciri. You should be too, because The Witcher season 4 is probably going to include the single most brutal scene in the entire book series. FULL SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Witcher season 4 ending could be horrific

In the fourth season of The Witcher, Geralt, Ciri, and Yen will all be off on their own separate adventures. Geralt will travel the Continent in search of Ciri with a band of companions, known as his hansa. Yennefer will organize the Lodge of Sorceresses to fight Vilgefortz of Rogeveen (Mahesh Jadu). And Ciri will fall in with a group of teenage thieves called The Rats. Each will have powerful moments, but when it comes to the ending of the season, Ciri is who I'm most worried about.

The penultimate novel in The Witcher Saga, The Tower of Swallows, is all about Ciri escaping from a terrible encounter with the bounty hunter Leo Bonhart. The book relies on a framing story where Ciri takes refuge in a swamp, and gradually relates the traumatic events that led her there to a kindly hermit who offers her shelter. She is eventually driven from this place and forced on the run again; we'll most likely see that in season 5.

Because of the unique structure of The Tower of Swallows, the timeline of events is sometimes hard to gauge. But it seems very likely that Netflix will include some of those events in season 4, holding the rest back for season 5. Ciri doesn't have a whole lot of page time in the third Witcher novel, Baptism of Fire, and the show only has two seasons to adapt the final three books in Sapkowski's saga. It makes sense to pull some of her later material forward.

What starts Ciri's downward spiral is her first encounter with Bonhart. This mercenary is utterly vicious, sadistic, and extremely deadly. He carries around a number of medallions from witchers he claims to have slain, which serves as a stark warning of his sword skills and cunning. When Ciri and The Rats cross paths with him, they don't stand a chance.

Knowing Ciri's true idenity, Bonhart takes her prisoner...but he has no reason to keep The Rats alive. Instead, he binds Ciri and forces her to watch as he tortures, murders, and mutilates the corpses of each of her friends, including her lover Mistle. It is a gutwrenching scene; in my opinion, one of the most terrible that Andrzej Sapkowski wrote in the entire series.

If we're looking for a darkest-before-dawn moment for Ciri, this is it. I have a feeling season 4 will be her season with The Rats, ending with them all getting murdered and Ciri taken captive by Bonhart. We know that season 5 begins with Ciri being thrown into a fighting pit, which happens right after the murder of The Rats. The timing lines up.

As for Bonhart, it sounds like he's going to be quite a presence this season. He's played by Sharlto Copley of District 9 fame, and while Hissrich said the actor "doesn't love to play villains," he committed to going all in for Bonhart. Hissrich described a scene where he requested fake spit that he could spit in another actor's face and then wipe menacingly off of them — something which the IGN article states is not typically allowed on set. But after seeing what Copley had planned, the team ran with it. I imagine the result was terrifying.

“The best thing to do with Sharlto is wind him up and let him go,” Hissrich said. “His performance is so authentic. He is so in that character when he shows up on set with his bald cap and his teeth, and we have a lot of moments with him that were actually unscripted, that we have ended up putting in the cuts because he so leaned into the perverseness of Leo, and the idea that just how much he enjoys being an unredemptive character, which I don't think The Witcher ever had before. We talk a lot about the shades of gray, and there are no shades of gray with Leo Bonhart. He's pure evil.”

All this paints a pretty damning picture of what's in store for Ciri. Since The Witcher is introducing Bonhart in season 4, and he serves as her primary antagonist for the back half of the book series, I think it's all but assured we'll see them cross paths this season. And if they do, I don't expect The Rats to make it out alive. Considering they'll be the first friends Ciri has made since Geralt and Yennefer, it's going to be a crushing moment in the series.

Don't expect Geralt and Yennefer to have a happy ending in season 4 either

So that's what I expect to happen for Ciri in The Witcher season 4. What about Geralt and Yennefer? Surely they, at least, can cach a break?

I wouldn't count on it. Let's start with Yen. The main thing to know regarding her storyline is that the show is making pretty much all of it up...because Yennefer spends the latter books of the series as a prisoner, first to Francesca Findabair, and then to Vilgefortz of Rogeveen himself. She largely stays off-page while Geralt and Ciri go on their separate adventures, until late in the final book when all roads converge on Vilgefortz's dread fortress of Stygga Castle.

Since the show understandably didn't want to bench one of its leads for two whole seasons, Yennefer will be gathering an army to fight Vilgefortz in season 4, which will likely coincide with a Continent-wide war breaking out between Nilfgaard and the Northern Kingdoms. This war does happen in Sapkowski's books, and it's a fairly bleak affair.

Since Yen becoming Vilgefortz's captive is essential to the endgame of the series, I imagine season 4 will end with a major defeat for Yennefer of Vengerberg. I expect she'll be taken captive, just like Ciri. Then, season 5 will revolve around Geralt and Ciri's aims shifting as they each decide to go after her.

Geralt of Rivia will earn his name in season 4, but with a catch

As for Geralt, I'm anticipating that he'll have a slightly less traumatic ending than Ciri or Yen, if only a little. The big event we know is coming this season for our witcher is the Battle of the Bridge, which is the climax of Baptism of Fire. This is a major moment for Geralt and his hansa, where they find themselves caught between warring armies from Nilfgaard and Lyria, who are fighting over a bridge that the hansa needs to cross.

Despite his constant earlier preaching about neutrality, Geralt and his allies get involved and turn the tide of the battle. It's a triumphant moment, where Queen Meve, the ruler of Lyria and Rivia, formally dubs Geralt a knight. Up until that point he had styled himself as Geralt of Rivia as a purely stylistic choice, but now the knightly moniker is his in truth.

But this victory comes with a few catches. A personal tragedy strikes one member of the hansa during the Battle of the Bridge. Geralt then finds his knighthood to be more curse than blessing, as Queen Meve expect him to now do her bidding whether he wants to or not. We've seen set photos of Geralt clashing with Maeve's forces in season 5, presumably after they pursue him to force him back into service.

Even though Geralt won't be wearing any chains, he'll be a prisoner in his own way by becoming beholden to a monarch — the exact sort of situation Geralt always resisted tooth and claw. It won't last, but if the season drops the curtain there, it'll be a rough moment for each member of our main trio.

Ultimately, these are just my theories for where The Witcher season 4 will end. But given Hissrich's comments and the overall flow of the story, I'd be shocked if at least one of these predictions didn't come true.

We won't have to wait long to find out. The Witcher season 4 premieres October 30 on Netflix.