As if to confirm this, we cut to Tissaia and the rest of the Council discussing the Lion Cub of Cintra’s discovery. With the Wild Hunt after her, and the royals and mages having realized that she is still alive, they need to be on the move. In the aftermath of this, Geralt knows that he and Ciri need to leave Kaer Morhen. She’s able to whisk all three of them away in the nick of time, but she won’t soon forget the experience, and that certainly isn’t the last we’ve seen of the Wild Hunt. But the Wild Hunt appears, trying to claim Ciri. The portal leads to a desolate wasteland tinged by fires, where Voleth Meir leaves Yen’s body. She calls out in Elder, and Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer are all pulled through the portal. Back to herself, Geralt quickly explains that she needs to use her powers to pull monsters through the monolith to send a monster back the other way. She is determined to right the wrong and implores Voleth Meir to enter her body instead, finally freeing Ciri from her possession. She cannot be separated from Ciri unless she can enter a new vessel, which Yennefer volunteers as. But, despite having realized this, Voleth Meir can’t exist in this sphere without a host vessel. Contrary to the misconception about Witchers, they feel everything, hatred especially, after lifetimes being spent maligned and persecuted, made to suffer one loss after another. With the monsters dead, he realizes that it’s the hate of the Witchers that Voleth Meir is trying to feed on. The Witchers fighting off the basilisks is excellent stuff, and Geralt even gets to square off with a huge one, just to let everyone know what time it is. Geralt has to fight off Vesemir while trying to convince Ciri to resist Voleth Meir’s influence, all while the Deathless Mother tries to convince him to kill Vesemir, to prove that he no longer needs him. It’s a brutal flurry of VFX, and it’s also morbid, with Vesemir rounding on Ciri after seeing those he loves be ripped to be pieces in front of him. Jaskier is in this scene, crawling around under tables, trying to give Geralt the potion he and Yennefer brewed up, but it’s hard to say his quips really add anything to this scene. He implores her to stay strong while Vesemir, casting the Yrden sign to keep her in place, has to watch his surrogate sons each be murdered in turn by the monsters.

Another scream breaks that to pieces, revealing two basilisks, which the remaining Witchers are forced to fight off while Geralt tries to talk Ciri down. The Witchers find Ciri standing before the tree in the great hall, the one from which all the medallions of fallen Witchers hang, and her scream cleaves the whole thing in two, revealing a Monolith beneath. Meanwhile, at Kaer Morhen, things kick off big time.

But is she willing to take on responsibility for such a heinous plan, even for her own advancement? Cahir suggests framing all this as part of Fringilla’s master plan, fulfilling her request in the previous episode for him to sing her praises to Emhyr. Both elves steal horses and head out to confront their child’s killer, which leaves Fringilla unable to prove to Emhyr, using Francesca, that she has secured Nilfgaard a valuable alliance.

Family, too, is a central theme in Cintra, with Filavandrel and Francesca having been devastated by the loss of their child, responsibility for which, thanks to Dara’s confession, is laid at the feet of Redania. Along these lines, it’s telling that the possessed Ciri experiences visions of her past when Calanthe was still alive.

The witcher season 2 episode 8