The Witcher season 3 recap guide: All 8 episodes explained

The Witcher season 3 episode 3 recap: Reunion

Vespula has apparently forgiven Jaskier as The Witcher season 3, episode 3 opens with them in bed together, though she also deduces that Jaskier has a newfound crush on Prince Radovid. Vespula and Jaskier’s mid-morning dalliance is interrupted by Geralt, who needs Jaskier’s assistance.

They take Teryn to an old friend of Geralt’s, a healer named Anika (Catherine McCormack), who knew Geralt’s late mother Visenna. Anika lives with a man named Otto Dussart (Dempsey Bovell), who Geralt previously helped cure of lycanthropy (werewolf) by giving him a special amulet. With their assistance, they give Teryn an extraction elixir to try and break through her muddled memories and coax her into telling them who was experimenting on her.

Yennefer and Ciri arrive in Gors Velen to see Giancardi, the dwarven banker who owns the Giancardi Bank. Yennefer is there to retrieve coin from her vault before she goes to Aretuza to see Tissaia and curry favor. She leaves Ciri with a chaperone, Fabio (Stuart Thompson). Yennefer visits with Tissaia, who tells her she’ll still need to seek forgiveness from the rest of the council, but she does convince her to let Ciri come and be a novice at Aretuza.

In Gors Velen, Ciri and Fabio get into trouble pretty quickly as Ciri sees a shady dealer with a supposed “basilisk,” charging people to see it and potentially kill it. In reality, the “basilisk” is a baby wyvern, and Ciri kills it, though she lets a nearby squire claim victory to avoid drawing more attention to herself.

We’re also briefly introduced to Mistle (Christelle Elwin), a member of the Rats. Mistle is an important character in Ciri’s story as she serves as a love interest to her in the books. The character will be in the Witcher spinoff/prequel series The Rats, which is currently in production.

Dijkstra and Philippa are struggling to keep control over Vizimir, who has taken a secret meeting with a Nilfgaardian, and somehow Dijkstra, the spymaster, didn’t know about it. Philippa also sensed disturbing energy from a portal, similar to what Yennefer felt. They know that there is another mage at play, and they need to figure out who it is.

Istredd also comes back into play in this episode. He is working with a Nilfgaardian spy searching for a mysterious book of monoliths. The book in question is missing, and the spy informs him it relates to the White Flame himself.

Back at Anika’s, the extraction potion begins to do its work, but all Teryn can tell Geralt is that she heard a woman with a funny voice. She seems to become possessed by the mage or some uncontrollable force and attacks, yanking off Otto’s amulet, which causes him to begin transforming.

Geralt leaps into action and manages to get the amulet back on Otto, and Jaskier pours the rest of the extraction elixir down Teryn’s throat. Geralt learns the mage is operating out of Aretuza. He asks Anika to keep an eye on Teryn for him while he goes after them.

Not long after the wyvern mishap, Ciri runs directly into Tissaia and Margarita Laux-Antille (Rochelle Rose), the rectoress at Aretuza. They mistake Ciri for a wayward novice. Yennefer joins them, and they bring Ciri back to Aretuza, where she quickly discovers what life is like for a novice. It’s not fun. Sabrina (Therica Wilson-Read) and Margarita taunt Ciri and treat her like a serving girl, resulting in a big fight between Ciri and Yennefer, as Ciri doesn’t want to be part of what she deems a vain and vapid group of power-mad women.

Yennefer’s next plan is to host a conclave so they can present a united front to the northern kingdoms and perhaps gain unity against Nilfgaard.

In Redania, Philippa and Dijkstra put a plan into action to turn Vizimir against Nilfgaard again. Dijkstra has Queen Hedwig murdered and her head sent to Vizimir, courtesy of Nilfgaard. Radovid is shocked by Dijkstra’s actions, but he can’t do anything about it, lest he be accused of treason alongside them. It was actually the queen’s handmaid, Eva (Cal Watson), who did it on orders from Philippa as the two are sleeping together. Eva and Philippa also discuss the strange portals they’ve been seeing, and Philippa begins to draw conclusions regarding the mage controlling Rience.

Speaking of Rience, he visits Lydia (Aisha Fabienne Ross), who can now only communicate via telepathy because uses an illusion to cover the damage to her face after she tried using the witcher mutagen. Rience tells Lydia he wants to speak to her master because if he wants Rience to keep doing his bidding, he has a demand of his own.

In Cintra, more plotting is afoot between Cahir and Gallatin as they propose a new plan of allyship to Emhyr. They want to form an alliance and leave Francesca out of the picture, but Emhyr will need more than that to trust Cahir again. And what does Emhyr want? It turns out he would rather ally with Francesca and the elves rather than let Gallatin take over because Gallatin is headstrong and the type of leader who could cause discord and trouble among the elves. They need them united, so Cahir murders his old friend on Emhyr’s orders.

While running away from Aretuza, Ciri finds herself stalked by the Wild Hunt. Luckily, Geralt arrives in time thanks to Ciri’s enchanted talisman, which she uses to call out to him. But even though the Wild Hunt disappears after Geralt arrives, they’re startled to see that a piece of armor has fallen to the ground, proving that this time the Wild Hunt was really there and not just in Ciri’s dreams.