In season 3 of The Witcher, Geralt and Yennefer strive to protect Ciri from mages, monarchs, an mysterious forces who threaten the future of the Continent. Part 1 is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary:
Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer travel the continent fleeing from the many bounty hunters after the young princess after the rogue mage Rience placed a bounty on her. Dijkstra and Phillipa continue to hold sway over King Vizimir of Redania but that remains tenuous.
Vizimir appoints his younger brother, Radovid, to help Disjkstra with his spycraft and improve the state of the kingdom. Rience isn’t the only one after Ciri as the elves under Francesca are also in search of her because she is prophesied to lead them to their new home.
Geralt and Yennefer decide to set a trap for Rience to get rid of them once and for all but the elves get there too. Geralt follows the mage through a portal to a castle near scarlet ammonite mines in West Redania before returning to the battle.
They enlist Jaskier’s help to set up the trap but he is being courted by Phillipa and Dijkstra to bring Ciri to Vizimir. He feels a slight spark during his first meeting with Radovid but doesn’t think anything of it.
Yennefer feels something truly evil about Rience’s magic and deduces that he must be serving a far stronger sorcerer. She tells Geralt that the only way to train Ciri is by taking her to Aretuza but Geralt insists on finishing Rience first so they split up.
The elf Gallatin believes that Francesca doesn’t have their people’s best interests at heart so he seeks out Cahir to help him out. Fringilla remains a prisoner of Emhyr, chained and forced to test drinks for poison.
Ciri doesn’t have control over her visions and Yennefer tells her that she needs to keep her reactions in check or risk revealing their identities to unfriendly eyes and ears.
Geralt and Jaskier visit Codringher and Fenn to find out more about Rience’s master and learn that Istredd has also been chasing Ciri’s trail. Triss notices that novices are disappearing at Aretuza but no one else takes her seriously.
Geralt travels to the castle in West Redania and finds a weird creature and a young girl experimented on and made to believe that she is Ciri. Rience kills Codringher and Fenn just as Radovid lets Dijkstra know that Vizimir has been having secret visits with Nilfgaard.
Geralt takes the young girl to Anika, a druid who was friends with his mother. Anika finds out that she is being mind controlled to believe that she is Ciri and Geralt uncovers a little more about the sorcerer behind everything.
For Yennefer to return to Aretuza, she must first apologize for her past transgressions and she meets with Tissaia and later Sabrina and Laura of the Brotherhood. Ciri doesn’t enjoy the way Yennefer is behaving around the others and says some harsh words.
Cahir kills Gallatin to regain favor with Emhyr and the emperor sends him to join forces with Francesca in their search for Ciri. Dijsktra has Vizimir’s wife killed and blames it on Nilfgaard to retain his sway over the king.
Ciri flees from Yennefer’s side but is chased by the Wild Hunt before Geralt arrives to save her. Yennefer proposes to hold a conclave of mages at Aretuza to foster peace among the kingdoms of the north against Nilfgaard.
Istredd arrives in search of a book on monoliths that he believes holds the secret to traveling through time and space in between spheres. He and Triss investigate the missing book and novices that have been disappearing and discover something shocking.
Yennefer travels to Redania to invite Phillipa to the conclave and Vizimir insists that Radovid and Dijkstra attend too. On her way back, she goes through a corrupted portal where an illusion of Geralt tries to kill her.
Jaskier is tasked with watching over Ciri in a cabin outside Aretuza. Yennefer places a protection charm on her door that lasts till the morning. Radovid shows up and Jaskier meets him outside and the two of them end up giving into their attraction for each other.
Yennefer and Geralt conclude that Stregobor must be the mage behind Rience after their collective observations and plan to expose him during the conclave. They attend the party the night before to do just that but they’re not the only ones.
The Witcher season 3 part 1 ending explained in detail:
What do Triss and Istredd discover?
The Book of Monoliths, an ancient elven text predating the conjunction was taken to Aretuza but Istredd isn’t able to get to it before someone else reaches it.
He believes that someone intends to use Ciri’s power and book for nefarious means. Triss worries about the missing novices after finding blood in their chambers. She goes to the library where she meets Istredd and also finds out that the missing novices were all half-elves.
After Yennefer returns from the corrupted portal, Triss gets some trace stellacite on her hands, and together with Istredd, she uses a locator spell and uncovers the location of the book that Istredd is looking for.
What is Yennefer and Geralt’s plan?
Yennefer and Geralt attend the festivities the night before the conclave but they have ulterior motives. They have interactions with everyone in attendance, including Phillipa, Dijkstra, Vilgefortz, Istredd, and Stregobor.
Istredd tells Yennefer about the book and she makes that a priority. Geralt and Istredd cause a public scene as a distraction while Yennefer searches Stregobor’s quarters.
She finds a safe but Stregobor is alerted too. Soon he, Geralt, Istredd, Triss, Tissaia, Artorius, and Vilgefortz arrive to find out what’s happening.
Yennefer and her allies reveal that Stregobor has been experimenting on half-elves and plans to use the book of monoliths to rid the world of elves altogether.
Stregobor is arrested to be put on trial and Geralt and Yennefer celebrate a job well done that night.
Who is the true mastermind?
During their conversations, Yennefer and Geralt realize that they had some strange interactions that night. Geralt talks about the warning he received from Dijkstra and his conversation with Vilgefortz.
Yennefer mentions her interaction with Phillipa who warned her that Brotherhood does not have a future on the continent. Both of them also bring up Lydia van Bredevoort’s presence and notice that she had earrings made of scarlet ammonite, similar to a bracelet that Vilgefortz had given to Tissaia.
Putting two and two together, they realize that Vilgefortz, not Stregobor is the one who is behind Rience. Yennefer casts a locator spell to make sure Tissaia is safe while Geralt goes ahead to clear a path.
He is ambushed by Dijkstra who claims that the witcher should have listened to his warning.
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