Summary

The frustrating season finale resolves nothing but sets the stage for the fourth season. One character’s death is particularly upsetting, and Cavill’s last moments with the series are the opposite of epic.

We recap the Netflix series The Witcher Season 3 Episode 8, “The Cost of Chaos,” which contains spoilers and explains the Ending.

Henry Cavill’s final stand as the eponymous White Wolf is upon us. The frustrating season finale resolves nothing but sets the stage for the fourth season. One character’s death is particularly upsetting, and Cavill’s last moments with the series are the opposite of epic.

The Witcher Season 3 Episode 8 Recap

At the start of the episode, Geralt is still convalescing in Brokilon and getting on Milva’s, the poor elf tasked to nurse him back to health, nerves.

While the forest elves are doing their best, the healing water they use doesn’t work on mutants, but Geralt being Geralt, decides to go in search of Ciri anyway. Thankfully, Milva convinces the stubborn White Wolf to go back to bed.

Why does Yennefer need to find Ciri?

Meanwhile, Yennefer is desperately trying to gain intelligence on Ciri’s whereabouts. If Emhyr gets his hands on the princess, it could force the Kingdoms of the North to surrender, so Yen must get to her first. Yen believes it’s Vilgefortz who’s transporting Ciri to Nilfgaard.

Yennefer, Tissaia, Triss, and the Aretuza witches head to the cave where Vilgefortz was conducting brutal experiments on the half-elves.

Fringilla and Francesca go to Emhyr with an interesting proposal. They want to rule Cintra side-by-side, giving Fringilla the power she craves and Francesca safety for her people.

Emhyr agrees and names Fringilla Imperial Governor of Cintra. However, he wants the able-bodied fighters of the Scoia’Tael to stay up North and continue fighting the war. Needless to say, Francesca is not pleased with that.

How did Tissaia die?

At Aretuza, a now-white-haired Tissaia isn’t handling the destruction of Aretuza and her lover’s betrayal too well. Yen tries offering some tough-love-type words of encouragement that initially seem to work.

While Yennefer and the rest are attending the service for the novices, Tissaia writes a note before ending her own life. She leaves us with the phrase, “Sometimes a flower is just a flower, and the best it can do is die.”

After losing Tissaia, Yennefer finally goes to see Geralt. She uses her magic to heal him, and Geralt vows to make Emhyr and Vilgerfortz pay.

Why does Phillipa assassinate King Vizimir?

Back in the wondrous land of Redania, Dijkstra finally faces his king; it’s clear Vizimir is not pleased. But instead of punishing the Spymaster for the Aretuza purge failure, the king decides to make an example out of Phillipa.

Vizimir is pleased to see his brother return safe and sound. But Radovid doesn’t plan on staying; he asks for permission to leave.

Meanwhile, a drunk Dijkstra decides to sacrifice himself and save Phillipa’s life. While touched by his gesture, the cunning witch has already hired an assassin to permanently solve the Vizimir problem.

A stunned Radovid is now the king of Redania.

How does Francesca learn the truth about her baby’s murder?

To no one’s surprise, Fringilla and Francesca were scheming behind Emhyr’s back to kidnap Ciri as soon as she arrived in Nilfgaard. But when Francesca tells her she had changed her mind and, instead, wanted to take the Emperror’s offer to lead her people in Cintra, Fringilla finally tells her friend a hard truth to swallow: it was Emhyr who ordered the elven baby’s murder.

This revelation did nothing to move Francesca back to Fringilla’s side. Now, the Queen of the Elves is back on the revenge path.

Both Yennefer and Geralt are preparing to go after Vilgerfortz. She’s rounding up the mages at Aretuza while Geralt is back to full strength and finally leaves the Brokilon.

At Emhyr court, Princess Cirila’s arrival is announced with great pomp among the courtiers. A severely burned but still alive Vilgefortz is at Emhyr’s side as he’s receiving the long-lost princess.

Where is the real Ciri?

But when we see the princess’s face, it’s not Ciri, but Teryn, the young Aretuza novice Geralt saved from the cave. The real Ciri is tied up in a tavern full of bounty hunters. She meets Kaileygh, a fellow prisoner known as the Rat, who proposes an alliance. Rat’s crew storms the tavern and rescues the two.

Ciri even engages in hand-to-hand combat with the bounty hunter who captured her and was spouting some unsavory and misogynistic things just minutes earlier, marking her first human kill.

The Witcher Season 3 Ending Explained

When Geralt and Jaskier need to bribe a Nilfgaardian soldier to get past a roadblock, the White Wolf gives the man the jewel he took from Renfri after he killed her.

When he sees the guard abusing his power and mistreating a poor family, he returns to the roadblock and starts a fight with a dozen soldiers. Milva’s last-minute arrival helps him win.

What happens in Henry Cavill’s last scene as Geralt?

One soldier is left alive, and Gerald sends him on his merry way with a threatening message for that “F*** Emhyr.” The Witcher is going to stop at nothing to free Ciri from his clutches. (Of course, Geralt has no idea that the real princess is nowhere near Nilgaard .)

In the final scene, one of the members of Rat’s gang asks Ciri her name. Still stunned after killing the bounty hunter, she simply says, “Call me Falka.”

Did Ciri decide to take on Falka’s life philosophy, too?

What did you think of Netflix’s The Witcher Season 3 Episode 8 and the Ending? Comment below.

The Witcher Season 3 Episode 8 Recap and Ending Explained