With a mysterious new villain, a surprise twist and big changes for all of our favourite
characters, the Witcher Season 2 has tons of details we need to discuss.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and in this video I'm explaining everything you might
have missed in the ending of Season 2 and what it all means for Season 3.
Spoilers ahead, of course, so take care.
Key to understanding the Season 2 finale is the Deathless Mother, aka Voleth Meir, a demon
who takes possession of Ciri.
According to Vesemir, the first witchers imprisoned Voleth Meir in a hut long ago.
One of the oldest monsters.
A demon.
She wreaked havoc until the witchers bound her deep in the forest.
However, the demon woke from her slumber after Ciri's scream split the monolith outside Cintra.
She begins by appearing in the dreams of Yennefer, Fringilla, and Queen of the Elves Francesca,
and manipulates their fears and personal pain.
For Yennefer, the demon taunts her about her loss of power after Sodden Hill and promises
it back if she takes Ciri to the broken monolith by Cintra.
For Fringilla, the Deathless Mother spurs her on to take power for herself by forming
an alliance with the Elves.
This leads the Nilfgaardians to mistrust the sorceress and when she uncovers their plot
and takes revenge, you can hear Voleth Meir cackling in the background feeding off the
pain and destruction she's sown.
As for Francesca, the demon takes the form of the legendary Elven prophet Ithlinne who
preys on her insecurity about never having brought a baby to term and promises she'll
finally give birth to a pure Elven child.
However, when Francesca's baby is cruelly assassinated, the Deathless Mother revels
in her suffering, which gives her the energy to break free from her prison in the hut.
The newly-liberated demon seeks out Ciri, possesses her, and begins to murder the witchers
at Kaer Morhen one-by-one.
Notice how she uses the same dagger that she used to kill an early witcher.
Klef here was one of the first witchers.
That's what she used to kill him.
So, Voleth Meir is basically using the same dagger to enact revenge on the school of witchers
who locked her away all those years ago.
Although Geralt arrives to try to break Ciri out of the Deathless Mother's possession,
the demon is able to keep control of her by offering her an alternate world in her mind
where she can be with loved ones she's lost.
And fans of Bly Manor will notice some interesting parallels here with that horror story.
Voleth Meir then uses Ciri's scream to split open the Witcher Medallion tree, revealing
a stone monolith which she splits into shards that attack the witchers, before creating
a portal that pulls through a pair of basilisk monsters from another world which she sets
upon the witchers.
In fact this moment was foreshadowed in the fifth episode when Triss and Ciri journeyed
into the valley of Ciri's soul, and Ciri began to call out to Geralt who was with Istredd
at the site of the shattered monolith outside Cintra.
Geralt!
As Ciri called out, the Medallion Tree at Kaer Morhen began to crack and vibrate, a
clue to the hidden stone inside, and shards of the monolith outside Cintra flew into the
air and opened up a gateway that released another monster.
Istredd who'd been researching monoliths discovered that they were all connected and that on the
same day Ciri destroyed the first stone, another monolith began to vibrate, something which
led to a new theory about what happened during the Conjunction of Spheres, the event that
collided worlds together.
If the original spheres are still out there somewhere and our monoliths are calling to
them… then the monsters aren't new.
And they're using our monoliths as gateways.
Although the witchers manage to slay the basilisks, the Deathless Mother remains firmly in control
of Ciri keeping her tucked away in the happy memories of her long-dead family.
I'm staying right here.
Forever.
Geralt realises the only option is to find an alternate vessel to Ciri to contain the
demon, which leads to Yen sacrificing herself in a call-back to her attempted suicide in
Season 1, something also foreshadowed in her vision with the Deathless Mother.
For Yennefer, this is the moment to right the wrong she did to Ciri by almost delivering
her to Voleth Meir, and the spell she casts pulls the demon out of Ciri and into her.
Notice how Yen's eyes finally become purple again at this point because this is the moment
her magic returns after being depowered for most of the second season.
I felt it come back when I…
When you sacrificed yourself for Ciri.
Next though, to get the monster out of Yennefer, Ciri uses her own powers to take herself,
Geralt and Yen into another world.
As they all land on another sphere, the demon leaves Yen and reforms itself as one of a
group of apocalyptic riders which fans of The Witcher 3 game and the books will recognise
as The Wild Hunt.
The Wild Hunt is a group of antagonists who are associated with being an omen of doom,
appearing before or during times of war, and they were mentioned this way a couple of times
in Season 2.
The Wild Hunt walks among us!
They're known for travelling between realms and kidnapping people to use as slaves and
they're clearly after Ciri specifically because of her exceptional powers.
Child of the Elder Blood, starry-eyed Daughter of Chaos, join our Hunt.
Your place is among us.
By the way, not only does the reddish colouring of this world give it hellish, apocalyptic
feel, but it may also be an allusion to the name "Red Riders" that the Wild Hunt are sometimes
known by.
The Wild Hunt also appeared during the journey into Ciri's deep subconscious when she discovered
she's a descendant of Lara Dorren.
Notice the little blue flowers here around the dying elf which only grow wherever Elder
Blood has been spilled, like the ones which grew from Ciri's blood around Kaer Morhen.
Lara Dorren was an Elven sorceress who had a child with a human mage;
however, their union was controversial among both humans and elves, which led to Lara's
persecution.
When Istredd visits Codringher and Fenn, he learns about the curse Lara placed before
she died 'My curse will hound your descendants unto
the tenth generation.'
'Until the columns of time and space tremble and open for my people.'
'Then my vengeance will be born again.'
The curse alludes to Ciri's screams and her effect on the monoliths which have now opened
portals in space-time that allow inter-dimensional travel,
and it also ties in with Ithillinne's Prophecy that predicts the end of the world, a part
of which Lara Dorren recites to Ciri during her mind journey with Triss.
The world will die amidst frost and be reborn of the new sun.
Reborn of Elder blood, of the seed that has been sown.
A seed that will not sprout, but will burst into flame.
Elder blood is a gene that tends to pass on more in the female line, and although Calanthe
possessed it herself, the Queen tried to supress knowledge of her Elven heritage.
And Ciri witnesses that fear herself when she sees her mother and father arguing over
the discovery of Ciri's Elven descent.
They'd kill her if they knew.
It's a prophecy.
Maybe it's not true.
[Duny] It doesn't matter if it's true.
It only matters if the people believe it.
And Duny was right because Triss is truly terrified after what she sees in Ciri, and
reports the matter back to the Brotherhood at Aretuza who by the end of the season decide
to place a bounty on Ciri and anyone protecting her.
And talking of Duny, the big twist reveal at the end is that Ciri's father is still
alive and is actually Emperor Emhyr, aka the White Flame.
In fact, there was a little hint in Ciri's dreamworld that her father was still alive,
because notice how everyone from Mousesack to Calanthe and Pavetta fade away to dust,
but he doesn't.
In the books, Emhyr was the heir to the Nilfgaardian throne, until his father was overthrown by
someone known as the Usurpur, who had a sorcerer curse Emhyr and turn him into a hedgehog-human
hybrid.
Emyhr fled Nilfgaard and ended up going under the alias Duny, keeping his original identity
a secret even after he married Pavetta.
Ciri and her family had assumed Duny died on the sea voyage he took with his wife;
however, there's a secret reason why he survived which will take us into likely Season 3 spoiler
territory so you can skip forward to this timestamp in case you don't want to know yet.
In the books, Duny planned to use the sea voyage as a way to secretly disappear with
Pavetta and Ciri to Nilfgaard, by faking their death at sea with the assistance of the mage
Vilgefortz.
However, when Pavetta discovered the plan, she decided to get Ciri off the boat before
it set sail.
This led to an argument later at sea where Duny accidentally pushed Pavetta overboard
where she drowned.
Vilgefortz then ported Duny and himself off the boat which led everyone to assume Duny
had also died on the trip.
In the meantime, Duny returned to reclaim his position as Emperor of Nilfgaard as well
as his former name Emhyr.
Another twist Emhyr reveals is that he was the one who ordered the murder of Francesca's
Elven baby, which meant he knew Cahir and Fringilla were lying to him;
so they end up carted off by Nilfgaardian soldiers.
Having the baby killed sends Francesca and the elves north to Nilfgaard's enemy, Redania,
who they believe are to blame for the baby's death, and Francesca carries out some infanticide
of her own as she casts a spell killing all Redania's babies.
Francesca also later discovers from Istredd that Ciri is Hen Ikeir, the Elven term for
Elder Blood, which means the Elves too now will be looking for the princess in Season
3 as they will see her as a possible saviour who can liberate them from human persecution.
And lurking in the background of this moment and many others in Season 2 is Dijkstra's
spy owl, who is finally revealed as Philippa at the very end.
I'm saying word is out about the girl.
Things just got more fun, Philippa.
Philippa is a sorceress in the Redanian court with the ability to polymorph into an owl.
Notice also the owl feathers on her costume and the talon-shaped ring on her hand.
Although Vizimir is the king in Redania, it seems like Dijkstra together with Philippa
are the ones really pulling the strings in the kingdom, given Vizimir's overall apathetic
attitude to important matters.
Speaking of which, I'm starving, Dijkstra.
Get to the point.
But there's still another twist to reveal when Dijkstra tells Philippa:
Bring me the bard.
It's about time he paid back his benefactor.
Dijkstra doesn't mention Jaskier by name, but it's heavily implied that the famous bard
loved and hated by Geralt, appears to be on the Redanian payroll.
This is surprising as I didn't detect any real hints of an alternate agenda during Jaskier's
scenes in Season 2 and my best guess is that his fame with his "Toss A Coin To Your Witcher"
song put him on Dijkstra's radar as someone who could potentially spy on the witchers.
That, or there'll be a new bard who's revealed as a spy in Season 3.
Another pair of characters with their own agenda are Rience and Lydia.
Rience was initially in jail for crimes during Calanthe's reign, but when Nilfgaard took
over the city, Lydia came to him with an offer of freedom in return for hunting down Ciri.
During this mission, he ended up getting half his face burned by Yennefer, an interesting
change from the books which I explain in my easter eggs and things you missed video.
Rience managed to steal the vial of Ciri's blood from Kaer Morhen which he took to Lydia
who attempted to perform blood tracing on the sample.
This went badly for her, as we discover in the finale, where we see she suffered significant
injuries from the experiment that burned off part of her face and now she can only communicate
telepathically.
I won't let you down again, my lord…
As for whom Rience and Lydia are talking to, I suspect strongly in Season 3 it'll be revealed
to be Vilgefortz.
In the books, Lydia is the mage's personal assistant and secretary, and there are clues
in the show that Vilgefortz has a hidden agenda.
At the end of the first season, he decided to murder a Northern solider even though he'd
gone with the rest of the Brotherhood to Sodden to defend the North against the Nilfgaardian
attack.
And in Season 2, he begins to act strangely around Tissaia whenever the subject of Ciri
comes up and he seems to be obsessed with trying to uncover what Tissaia might be hiding
about the princess.
I wouldn't ask you to if it wasn't necessary!
I expect in Season 3, now that Emhyr's identity as Ciri's father has been revealed, Vilgefortz's
true intentions and what he's getting in return from the Emperor will also be disclosed.
I'm looking forward to seeing more of the Redanian Intelligence network and Philippa's
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So what do you think about The Witcher's second season?
And do you have any theories for Season 3?
Let me know in the comments below and if you enjoyed this then do leave a thumbs-up, I
really appreciate it.
Next tap left to discover all the easter eggs and crazy details you might have missed in
Season 2.
Thanks for watching and see ya next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!