The Witcher season 3 is better if you remember all this from season 2

The Witcher season 3 is finally (almost) here, and you can be forgiven for wondering where life on the Continent will pick up — or where it left off. After all, it’s been a year and a half since The WitcherThe last drop and its hefty political intrigue. Between Geralt and Ciri coming together with Yen, the politics of Nilfgaard and Redania, general Witcher lore, and some mage chicanery, there’s a lot to remember.

In Season 3, viewers will be brought up-to-date on all the character’s adventures in between seasons. But we’ve put together this refresher on where we left off with Geralt, Ciri, Yennefer, Roach, Rience, and the other characters by the end of season 2, and what you’ll need to remember to keep up with the first part of season 3.

[Ed. note: As you might have guessed, this post fully spoils season 2 of The Witcher. You should really only be here if you want to know what happens in the show.]

All of us wants Ciri — here’s why

Photo: Susie Allnut/Netflix

Image: Netflix

Photo: Susie Allutt/Netflix

Photo: Susie Allnutt/Netflix

No, like actually: Everybody and their mums are lookin’ out for the Princess of Cintra. Let’s look at the board:

• Emhyr, aka The White Flame, aka the emperor of Nilfgaard, wants Ciri to shore up his claim to the Cintran throne, which he’s already taken control of. There are also more personal reasons, like the fact that season 2’s finale revealed Emhyr is actually Ciri’s long lost father Duny.
• After her baby was murdered, elf leader Francesca (Mecia Simson) learns of Ciri’s Elder blood and believes Ciri is the elves’ only hope for rebuilding their society. She and her clan join in the search for Ciri.
• Ciri was targeted by The Wild Hunt for having Elder Blood. So far The following are some examples of how to get started: motive beyond that is somewhat opaque, but suffice it to say they’re bad news.
• The Redanians — and specifically their spymaster Sigismund Dijkstra (Graham McTavish) — want to marry Ciri to their king, Vizimir, so they can shore up theirCintra.
• The other Northern monarchs put a bounty on Ciri and anyone who protects her, because simply “Princess Crilla created far less trouble for us when she was dead.”
• Fire mage Rience (Chris Fulton) was looking for Ciri all throughout the second season, working for fellow mage Lydia van Bredevoort (Aisha Fabienne Ross) to do so — who in turn is working for a mysterious lord who we don’t know about yet. Rience comes into contact with Ciri, Geralt and Yen once. They all manage to escape, though Yen burns his face using fire magic. In trying to find her, Lydia attempts to use a blood tracing spell on the Witcher mutagen made from Ciri’s blood, and the spell leaves her horribly disfigured.

Ciri (and Yen) are safe with Geralt

After the events of the second season finale bring them together (more on that below), Geralt, Ciri, and Yen come together to helm Ciri’s education. Geralt will continue teaching her in the ways of the Witcher and how to defend herself, while Yen handles Cirilla’s magic education and the honing of her rather significant magical gifts.

Geralt’s main focus in Season 2 was to try and help Ciri realize what she could do with her skills. While she was sad that her abilities and place in the world had cost her so much — including the lives of loved ones — Geralt encouraged her to follow his credo of staying out of things as much as she could (and telling her she couldn’t turn herself into a Witcher using a special serum, even when it was made from her blood; dads, amirite?).

Yennefer is considered “a traitor” by the Brotherhood

Image: Netflix

After the Battle of Sodden when Yen’s fire magic stopped the Nilfgaardians from invading North, The Brotherhood of Sorcerers started to suspect Yen as a traitor. [checks notes]She was missing from the fight, when she tried to save all of her friends by using up all her spells. Neat!). The council decrees she can prove her loyalty by executing Cahir, the White Flame’s most trusted general who had been chasing Ciri. Cahir is released and she goes on the run with Ciri.

Though they’d part ways when Cahir heads to Cintra to go back to serving the White Flame (more on that later), Yen would continue to be seen as a traitor in the eyes of the Brotherhood, and particularly its governing council.

Tissaia, Yen’s mentor at the mage school Aretuza, remains loyal and sympathetic to Yen, and asks her romantic paramour Vilgefortz to do the same. Tissaia, Yen’s mentor at the mage school Aretuza, remains loyal and sympathetic to Yen, asking her romantic paramour Vilgefortz to do the same.

Ciri was also taken by Yennefer and nearly handed over to Deathless Mother

In a desperate act to get her magic back, Yen makes a deal with the Deathless Mother — also known as Voleth Meir — to bring Ciri to a location outside Cintra. Voleth will return Yen’s chaos magic in exchange for Yen helping her to bring Ciri outside of Cintra.

The plan doesn’t go as intended: Ciri and Geralt separately discover the deception, leading Geralt to draw his sword on Yennefer. Voleth breaks out of the hut she’s been hiding in, possesses Ciri before killing some Witchers and using a Monolith to transport to her own world. The good news is that Yen managed to get back her magic by traveling between worlds.

Ciri has been chased away by The Wild Hunt

Image: Netflix

These spooky wraiths are almost a myth in the world of Netflix’sThe WitcherCiri’s Elder blood is probably the reason, not to mention the prophecy she found earlier in season 2, which said that either Ciri would save the world or destroy it. It probably has something to do with her Elder blood, not to mention the prophecy she stumbled upon earlier in season 2 (stating she’d either save the world or destroy it).

Fringilla Cahir and other slammed (or worse).

Image: Jay Maidment/Netflix

Image: Jay Maidment/Netflix

Fringilla (Mimi Ndiweni), Nilfgaard’s mage, and Cahir (Eamon Farren), ended the season on a bad note. After spending all of season 2 trying to work with the elves against the rest of the Continent, Fringilla and Cahir panicked when the White Flame said he was coming home and they didn’t have much to show for their alliance. They claimed credit for the death of Francesca’s baby as a way to make their emperor trust that they were in charge.

UnfortunatelyIt was the White Flame who actually ordered the killing of the baby elf, which makes Fringilla & Cahir appear as a pair of obvious fools. White Flame drags the elf babies off at the end of Season 2 as he is triumphantly standing before his Court.

Dijkstra owned an owl that was in fact a Philippa.

Photo: Susie Allnutt/Netflix

As the spymaster of Redania, it behooved him to collect intel even in rooms he wasn’t in. He sent instead his owl. It turned out that Philippa, Cassie Clare’s mage and bird-changer, was Philippa.

He is informed that Cirilla’s alive in the final episode of Season 2. Jaskier is to be brought in to assist them.

Now you’re caught up with what you need to remember before The Witcher Henry Cavill is the star of season 3, which will be his final series. Part 1 will debut on Netflix June 29. Part 2 follows July 27.