The Witcher season 3 recap guide: All 8 episodes explained

The Witcher season 3 episode 4 recap: The Invitation

Cahir is rewarded for murdering Gallatin by being invited back into Emhyr’s good graces. He gets a new mission, his target is Francesca. It won’t be easy to go after her. What about Fringilla? At this point, Emhyr believes Fringilla is dead, so it will be up to Cahir to accomplish this mission alone.

Yennefer takes her stand in front of the Brotherhood, proposing a conclave that will create a strong united front among the Northern Kingdoms against Nilfgaard. No more division, no more secrets. Only trust and unity. Stregobor isn’t pleased with Yennefer being back, and he makes his distaste known, comparing her to a fungus. But she has Tissaia’s full support and also Vilgefortz’s. Slowly, the others agree to Yennefer’s plan.

Now that the Wild Hunt has been dealt with, at least for now, Geralt tells Ciri that her power acts as a conduit for the monoliths, creating doorways between the spheres. When they portaled to the sphere with the Wild Hunt during the fight with Voleth Meir, she might have left the door open on the way out, so to speak, allowing the Wild Hunt to crossover.

Now they need to go to Aretuza so Geralt can hunt down the mage. Ciri isn’t thrilled by the idea, especially since she and Yennefer left things on bad terms. But Geralt assures her that Yennefer will forgive her.

At Aretuza, Tissaia commends Yennefer for her gift at politics despite her disdain for it. They’re interrupted by Triss. She tells them she found blood in one of the novice’s bedrooms. Worse, she meets with Istredd, who tells her his own theory about the missing Book of Monoliths and the possibility someone is hurting the novices, any of the ones with elven blood, and potentially planning to banish them forever.

Elsewhere, Geralt and Ciri meet up with Jaskier, and they prepare to take a ferry from Gors Velen to Aretuza. In exchange for payment, Geralt offers to kill a monster that’s been interfering with the ferryman’s passage. Onboard the ship, the group comes face-to-face with Jaskier’s longtime rival, Valdo Marx (Nathan Armarkwei Laryea), and his troupe of bards. Valdo has been invited to perform at the conclave ball at Aretuza.

Being with Vilgefortz has softened Tissaia in many ways. She and Yennefer are both a bit giggly over the newfound romance, especially when Yennefer sees the bracelet he gifted her. Later, Vilgefortz pulls Yennefer aside to question her motives. He warns her not to leave Tissaia high and dry again because she’s always left to clean up her messes. Yennefer assures him that’s not going to happen this time.

Pivoting back to Redania, Dijkstra and Philippa continue their scheming. Dijkstra sends the messenger Aplegatt with a message to the navy commander (seemingly putting Ciri’s vision of his death into motion). It sounds like Dijkstra and Philippa have uncovered who Lydia and Rience are working for, but they need proof to ensure things don’t go belly-up once they crash the Brotherhood’s conclave and start pointing fingers.

Aboard the ferry, Ciri puts her hunting skills to use to figure out what kind of monster they’re dealing with: a scary water monster known as an aeschna. There is a nice scene between Ciri and Geralt here, with him offering her some advice. Ciri is still unsure of learning magic. She wonders if it would be better to govern with steel and steel alone, like Calanthe. Geralt tells her to be careful not to let her sense of justice turn to rage. But for the record, he thinks she would make a great queen, and if that’s what she wants, he’ll support her.

Yennefer crashes Queen Hedwig’s funeral to invite Philippa to the conclave. Dijkstra isn’t happy about this, but Vizimir interrupts. Yennefer appeals to his emotions, using his queen’s death as a way to suggest monarchs need better protection, the kind of protection they could be offered by the Brotherhood. Vizimir then demands that Philippa, Dijkstra, and Radovid attend the conclave.

Things start to get rocky on the boat as Valdo Marx and his group perform a song, much to Jaskier’s annoyance. The music disturbs the aeschna, which rears up and attacks. Geralt and Ciri work together to kill the monster, with Ciri delivering the finishing blow. After, Geralt tells Ciri he’s proud of her. Awe.

When Yennefer tries portaling back to Aretuza, she somehow gets sidetracked and ends up in a dangerous illusion where a fake Geralt tries to kill her. It’s the same strange magic we’ve been seeing in the portals all season. She manages to escape and return to Aretuza, where Triss and Sabrina rush to her side. Yennefer explains that it was corrupted, and Triss notices that Yennefer returned with traces of stellacite on her from the portal, meaning whoever made it could have a link to the monoliths and the missing book.

Ciri is still unsure about going to Aretuza full-time. What will Geralt do while she’s gone? She tells Geralt it’s not too late for them to turn back, go off the grid, and live out their days hunting monsters. But Geralt tells Ciri was he found at Vuilpanne, the horrific abomination of missing girls, and Teryn, who thinks she’s Ciri. Ciri realizes that it’s all much more harrowing than she realized and agrees to continue their mission and stop whoever is behind all of this.

We catch up with Fringilla for the first time in a while. She’s finally escaped and seems to be thriving, hanging out in a tavern and listening for important information and tidbits. Fringilla overhears the bartenders discussing the upcoming conclave at Aretuza.

Geralt, Jaskier, and Ciri meet up with Yennefer. Yennefer and Ciri immediately make amends, and then Geralt and Yennefer leave her with Jaskier while they prepare to attend the ball and the conclave. Yennefer places powerful wards around a lone shack in the woods to keep Jaskier and Ciri safe. They play card games for a bit, with Ciri beating Jaskier every time.

Once she falls asleep, Jaskier notices someone snooping around the shack. He follows the sound outside and discovers Radovid inside a nearby hovel. He assures Jaskier he slipped his security detail, so they’re not in any danger. Realizing they’re alone, the two finally act on the sexual tension that’s been brewing between them all season.

In the woods, Cahir catches up to Francesca and her men. He offers her food and a new mission where they will work together, as allies. Cahir says Gallatin was planning to stage a coup, which is why he’s dead. Now is the chance for her to team up with them under the White Flame.

And just like I suspected, Aplegatt is shot and killed on his way to deliver Dijkstra’s message, just like Ciri’s vision foretold.

After the brush with the corrupted portal, Triss returns to Istredd. She believes that whoever is hurting the novices is someone among them, someone at Aretuza. With the stellacite, they conduct a locator spell and see a safe where the Book of Monoliths is supposedly being held, a safe that belongs to Stregobor.

Meanwhile, Geralt and Yennefer discuss the portal and the illusion. They also deduce that Stregobor must behind all this, as he uses illusions and he hates elves. Is Stregobor really the mage behind everything? Geralt wants to go kill him, but Yennefer asks him to wait and let things play out at the conclave.

He’ll go to trial, and the other mages will do far worse to Stregobor than Geralt even could. Geralt isn’t thrilled at having to play politics, but he agrees to do it for Yennefer. The episode ends with everyone preparing for the ball and the subsequent conclave.