Netflix The Witcher season 2 recap guide: All 8 episodes explained

The Witcher season 2, episode 8 recap: Family

The real Ciri is trapped inside a dream of sorts, transported back to her days as a princess at Cintra when Mousesack and Calanthe were still alive. Here, things are as normal as they can be, a banquet is ongoing, and Mousesack informs Ciri she needs to get a move on to prepare for a night of dancing and her royal duties.

In reality, Yennefer and Geralt have returned to Kaer Morhen. Geralt is pissed at Yennefer, but they’re more or less working together to defeat Voleth Meir and keep Ciri safe, at least for now. Yennefer tells Geralt she now understands why Ciri is so special, that being around her makes her feel the same spark she once did when she had Chaos.

Things are worse than they can imagine inside the keep. A possessed Ciri has started killing off the witchers one by one. Geralt arrives just before she can kill Vesemir and Voleth Meir tries to fool him, but he sees through her bluster. Voleth Meir attacks Geralt and runs off. Vesemir drinks an elixir and tells the others to prepare for a battle. He intends to kill Ciri until Geralt stops him. Geralt pleads with Vesemir to give Ciri a fighting chance. If Geralt can convince Voleth Meir to leave Ciri’s body, then they can trap and kill her.

Yennefer wakes Jaskier for his assistance in creating a potion to remove Voleth Meir from Ciri’s body without killing Ciri in the process. She instructs Jaskier to give Geralt jasper, which can provide balance, while she concocts her potion.

Geralt finds Voleth Meir in the front hall and asks what it will take for her to give up Ciri. Then she screams, cracking the giant medallion tree and revealing a monolith inside. Voleth Meir summons two basilisks from another sphere. The witchers fight them while Geralt and Vesemir try to contain the demon. As they fight, Geralt tries to get through to the real Ciri inside, who is still trapped inside her dream world, dancing and partying with her loved ones.

Vesemir goes into a rage and tries to kill Ciri, but Geralt defends her while still attempting to call out to Ciri in her dream. From within, Ciri can hear Geralt, and the world around her starts to shatter, Mousesack turns into a monster and then back into himself. But just as Ciri begins noticing something is off in this dream, her parents, Duny and Pavetta, arrive.

At Kaer Morhen, Voleth Meir makes things more complicated by summoning yet another basilisk, this one even larger and more ferocious than the other two. While Geralt fights it, Vesemir tries killing Ciri again, stabbing her in the stomach. Geralt notices the jasper on the ground, dropped by Jaskier and he realizes that Voleth Meir is growing stronger because she’s feeding off of their hatred and pain. Once again, he tries to reach the real Ciri. They all call out to Ciri, including Vesemir and the other witchers.

But it’s not working because Voleth Meir needs a vessel to exist in this sphere and her hut has burned. Realizing this, Yennefer sacrifices herself by slitting her wrists and allowing Voleth Meir to enter her and become the new vessel.

This time, when Geralt reaches out to Ciri, she is able to return to the real world. The new plan is for Ciri to send Voleth Meir, who is now possessing Yennefer, through the monolith and into another sphere. Ciri, Geralt, and Yennefer are all pulled through the monolith where they come face-to-face with the Wild Hunt. Voleth Meir leaves Yennefer to join them, and Ciri returns them all to Kaer Morhen in the nick of time. Geralt tells Ciri they’re safe, for now, thanks to her.

What has been, need not always be

Dara tells Filavandrel and Francesca everything he knows about Redania and Dijkstra’s plans. They think their daughter was targeted specifically because they allied with Nilfgaard. Francesca believes it doesn’t matter what they do, at the end of the day, their hatred toward elves is what made them act. She doesn’t blame Dara for what he did trying to save himself.

With Francesca and the elves intending to storm Redania to take revenge for their slain child, Cahir takes Fringilla aside and suggests they form a plan of what to tell Emhyr. He suggests lying to the emperor and claiming they killed Francesca’s child but staged it to frame Redania for it to strengthen their alliance with the elves against the Northern Kingdoms. It will make Fringilla look like a truly formidable leader.

In Redania, Francesca leads the charge, slaughtering all of the Redanian infants in the village with her magic.

Somehow, the trip to another sphere has given Yennefer her magic back, so she heals all of the wounded witchers. Geralt tells Vesemir that he and Ciri have to go. She’s marked for something, and everyone is coming for her.

He’s not wrong, at Aretuza, Tissaia tells the brotherhood that Dijkstra is after Ciri because it will give him the rightful claim to Cintra, they intend to put a bounty on the girl and anyone who protects her. That will soon pit Tissaia and Yennefer against one another.

Rience and Lydia speak to their master, intending to go after Cintra. And Istredd is captured by the elves. He tells them that Ciri is Hen Ikeir, meaning Elder Blood, meaning one of the elves, albeit different. Francesca realizes that Ciri is the one Ithlinne prophesized. Add another group of people after Ciri!

And Dijkstra’s owl, aka the sorceress Philippa (Cassie Clare), overhears the entire incident. She finally transforms into her human form and tells Dijkstra that word is officially out about Ciri. Dijkstra instructs her to bring him Jaskier since it’s about time he paid back his benefactor. It looks like Dijkstra is the anonymous benefactor Jaskier had been referring to.

At Kaer Morhen, Geralt tells Yennefer that while he doesn’t forgive her, he wants her to come with them to help train Ciri because Yennefer is the only one who has been able to successfully help her. Ciri is the “something more” that will keep Yennefer and Geralt destined to be together. Geralt tells Ciri that the monoliths might be gateways to other spheres and her scream may have woken Voleth Meir. She knew Ciri would be her key to returning home. But Geralt wonders how Nilfgaard knew what Ciri was and what she was capable of before anyone else.

Well, the answer to that is soon revealed. The White Flame finally arrives in Cintra, and he’s pissed at Cahir and Fringilla, who he deems utter failures. It was Emhyr who ordered the death of Francesca’s child, to set a plan in motion that would help him find Ciri, his daughter. Yes, as fans of the books know, Emhyr is actually Duny! He orders Cahir and Fringilla to be taken away.