This week Netflix dropped the fourth season of its monster-hunting fantasy show The Witcher, and it was an epic journey. Actor Liam Hemsworth made his debut as Geralt of Rivia, following the departure of Henry Cavill after season 3. Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra) organized an army of sorceresses into the most ambitious magical battle the show has ever filmed. And Ciri (Freya Allan), the Elder Blood princess of Cintra, underwent a horrifically devastating ordeal at the hands of the mercenary Leo Bonhart (Sharlto Copley).
A lot happened in The Witcher season 4. We recapped every episode of the season, but now that it's all out there, it's also a good time to dig a bit deeper into the ending specifically — and what it means for the show's fifth and final season.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD for The Witcher season 4, as well as minor spoilers for season 5!
Geralt of Rivia and the hansa
After crossing the breadth of the Continent in season 4, Geralt and his traveling companions — known as his hansa — have finally reached Nilfgaard. Originally, they were going to storm the capital, confront Emperor Emhyr, and save Geralt's foster daughter Ciri. But now that they know the Cirilla in captivity there is a fake, the hansa's new mission is to make contact with a circle of druids before the upcoming equinox, so that they can use their celestial magic to divine Ciri's true location.
But there will be at least one major complication on the way. During the season finale, Geralt's hansa got involved in a pitched battle for a bridge that provides a crucial passage between Nilfgaard and the Northern Kingdoms. With their help, the forces of Lyria and Rivia prevailed, and Queen Meve made it safely back to her army. She then promptly knighted Geralt, making Sir Geralt of Rivia a true knightly honorific instead of just the witcher's chosen name, and swore him to her service — and her service alone.
Obviously, Geralt isn't going to stand for that. We already know that there will be at least one clash with Meve's forces as the hansa continues their quest to find the druids, thanks to photos taken during the filming of season 5. Whatever happens next, it's doubtful our witcher will abandon his quest to find his daughter just because some monarch decided to try and force him into their service.
Ciri and Leo Bonhart
As epic as the Battle of the Bridge was, the gruesome highlight of the finale was when Ciri's band of thieving friends known as the Rats decided to confront Leo Bonhart, an extremely skilled mercenary who had been tracking them all season. It does not go well for the Rats. Bonhart slaughters all of them in gory fashion.
By the time Ciri shows up, it's too late to do anything but get revenge. But even that is out of reach; she duels Bonhart, and loses. When last we see Ciri, she's tied to a pillar in the town of Jealousy, being forced to watch as Bonhart saws the head off her lover Mistle and adds it to the rest of the Rats' severed heads in a barrel of preservative fluids.
However, we do get another brief glimpse at Ciri and Bonhart in the secret special The Rats: A Witcher Tale, which you can watch on Netflix after season 4. That shows Ciri and Bonhart on the road to their next destination, while she learns more about the Rats' backstory. It also sets up a major location for season 5: Dom Houvenaghel's fighting pit. An important part of the books happens there that involves Ciri, and we already know that it was filmed for season 5. Expect to see that play out at the top of the season. After that, the Wild Hunt will finally come more into the picture as yet another villain for Ciri as the show speeds into its endgame.
Yennefer and Vilgefortz
After the explosive battle at Montecalvo castle in Episode 6, the evil sorcerer Vilgefortz of Roggeveen no longer has a chokehold on the magic needed to use portals. Yennefer of Vengerberg quickly took advantage of that to storm the Nilfgaardian capital palace, where she discovered that the Cirilla who Emperor Emhyr had in captivity was an imposter.
After informing Geralt of this news, Yennefer returned to Montecalvo castle, where the surviving sorceresses and novices were licking their wounds. Her final act as the leader of this cohort is to encourage them to form a Lodge of Sorceresses — a coalition dedicated to safeguarding magic and the Continent above all else. Anyone who's played the games or read the books will be familiar with the Lodge, but suffice to say this is a major development that will see characters like Philippa Eilhart, Triss Merigold, and Francesca Findabair form a more lasting alliance.
With the seeds for the Lodge planted, Yennefer had Triss use the dagger from Vesemir's last stand — which was coated in Vilgefortz's blood — to create a portal directly to the sorcerer's hideout at Stygga Castle. Except when Yennefer walked through, the portal spat her out in the middle of a storm-wracked sea. When last we saw her, she was treading water in front of an enormous whirlpool. In the books, Stygga Castle is not underwater, but on a cliff overlooking the sea.
I believe there are two main options here. Either the whirlpool is part of a vast system of portals meant to confuse any pursuers (which Fringilla Vigo mentioned Vilgefortz used earlier in the season), or Vilgefortz used his immense magical power to relocate his entire castle elsewhere before Yennefer could arrive. No doubt we'll find out more about Yen's precarious situation in season 5, but there's a good chance it will involve her heading to a beloved game location: the Skellige Isles.
As for Vilgefortz, when last we saw him, he killed off the last of his rogue mage followers. Now he is truly alone, nursing his schemes for Ciri and his lust for vengeance against Yennefer. He took body parts from the last three of his followers, who he slew himself in Stygga Castle, and began building a monstrosity which will undoubtedly cause problems for our heroes in the show's final season.
Emperor Emhyr's monster
The final scene of the season finale returns us to Nilfgaard, where Emperor Emhyr var Emreis sets a new plan in motion to kill Geralt of Rivia. This season we found out that Emhyr has a terrible motivator for wanting to reclaim his daughter Ciri: to marry her and produce an incestuous heir with Elder Blood powers, who he believe was prophesied because of guidance from his court mage Xarthisius. But there's a catch, which Emhyr realized late in the season: if Geralt and Ciri are intertwined by destiny, than Ciri and Emhyr cannot fulfill their alternate destiny. Only one path can prevail.
Emhyr takes this to heart by bringing the brooch from Geralt's sword down into a cavern, and giving the witcher's scent to a mysterious beast housed there. That brooch once belonged to Renfri, a woman Geralt reluctantly killed in the series premiere of the show. After her death, Geralt attached it to his sword as a memento. We last saw that sword get shattered on Thanedd Isle during Geralt's duel with Vilgeforz. It's not entirely clear how Emhyr got it, but I'd wager Vilgefortz brought it back to him as proof of Geralt's defeat after Thanedd.
The monster itself is only seen in silhouette in the finale, but it's enough to tell that it has a long beak of some kind. What sort of beast is this? Emhyr doesn't have any monster like this in the books, so your guess is as good as mine until season 5 shows it in all its terrible splendor.
Nimue
The last plotline we see in the finale is the future story involving Nimue and the traveling storyteller Stribog. They live 100 years after the main story with Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer, when the characters we know and love have passed into myth. You may recognize Nimue's name from Arthurian legend; yes, this is that same Nimue, or at least The Witcher's rendition of her.
Nimue has grown up since the season premiere, and by the end of season 4, she takes over as a storyteller for Stribog, who is getting old. He gifts her his copy of Jaskier's memoir "Half a Century of Poetry," and leaves her to finish telling the tale of Geralt and Ciri to the chiildren of her village.
Nimue also mentions that she will be studying at Aretuza, implying that the school for sorceresses survived the dire events of Yennefer's era. But Nimue's studies will be a bit different than Yen's. She still believes she is tied to Ciri and important to the saga somehow; remember the season premiere, where she showed Stribog a picture of Ciri with "the Lady of the Lake," who she believes to be herself.
Without going too deep into spoilers, we will absolutely see more of Nimue in the final season of The Witcher. She is indeed relevant to Ciri's journey, and it promises to be a mindbending development as the show reaches its epic conclusion.