{"id":118156,"date":"2025-11-02T19:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T19:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/118156\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T19:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T19:47:11","slug":"how-it-sets-up-the-series-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/118156\/","title":{"rendered":"How it sets up the series finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ciri can never catch a break in The Witcher<\/a>. In season 1, her homeland was sacked by Nilfgard and she had to travel the Continent fleeing capture. In season 2, she was possessed by the demon Voleth Meir. In season 3<\/a>, she nearly died in the desert and gave up her immense magical power. Season 4<\/a> again ends with Princess Cirilla of Cintra (Freya Allan) in a very dark place \u2014 with even more challenges ahead in the show\u2019s fifth and final season.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and my mom actually had a phone call where we were talking about Ciri’s journey and she was even saying it makes her feel emotional,\u201d Allan said in a Zoom roundtable attended by Polygon. \u201cShe feels so bad for Ciri, and it’s the same for me when I’m reading these scripts. I start crying while I’m reading them because I’m just heartbroken for her constantly. She’s like a piece of me in many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Ed. note: This article contains major spoilers for The Witcher season 4 including the finale.]<\/p>\n

The Witcher season 3 ended with Ciri captured by bounty hunters and then rescued by a group of young bandits known as the Rats. Taking on the name of Falka (the leader of a bloody rebellion who Ciri saw in a vision), Ciri kills her captor and becomes one of the Rats\u2019 most ruthless members.<\/p>\n

\"Ciri
\n Photo:\u00a0Jay Maidment\/Netflix<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a part of Ciri that wants to completely forget everything and become this different person, Falka, this person who’s brutal and cold,\u201d Allan said. \u201cBut really you can’t run from where you’ve come from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ciri\u2019s season 4 arc is focused on a loss of innocence. Her first kill is quickly followed by her first sexual experience with one of the Rats: Mistle (Juliette Alexandra). It\u2019s a fraught relationship that comes after Mistle intervenes to protect Ciri from sexual assault, leading to questions of consent and who is using who.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Ciri\u2019s] discovering things about herself,\u201d Allan said. \u201cThere was one really important scene for me where I added some lines from the book that we ended up loving. Mistle is trying to ask what this relationship is to Ciri. She says she doesn\u2019t want to be alone and Mistle says, \u2018Is that all?\u2019 and she says, \u2018That\u2019s everything.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

While Mistle opens up to Ciri about her own past, Ciri won\u2019t admit who she is, which frustrates Mistle.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you have your first really vulnerable, romantic, loving relationship with someone who you’re only letting see part of you?\u201d showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich said. \u201cThat’s something Mistle is constantly sort of poking at in Ciri. She knows there’s more there, and she just wants to get to those layers, which is a real human aspect of a relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as Mistle is disappointed by Ciri\u2019s lack of trust, Ciri grows disillusioned with the Rats when she learns they accept jobs for Nilfgard. She plans to abandon the group until she finds out that they\u2019re going to be killed by the notorious bounty hunter and witcher killer Leo Bonhart (Sharlto Copley). Ciri rides back to try to warn the Rats, but is too late to save them. The season ends with Bonhart forcing Ciri to watch him decapitate Mistle. It was a horrible moment for Ciri, but a great experience for Allan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with Shalto for me has been one of the biggest joys of the whole Witcher experience. He is a bloody brilliant actor and, in scenes, you never know what’s going to happen with him,\u201d she said. \u201cHe genuinely is a flawless Leo Bonhart. I know that’s such a fan-favorite character and I can assure you it’s been in the best hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ciri
\n Photo:\u00a0Susie Allnutt\/Netflix<\/p>\n

Hissrich also praised Allan\u2019s fearlessness as a performer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is never a point where [she\u2019s] like, I\u2019m not sure I want to go there. I don\u2019t know that I want to portray that,\u201d Hissrich said. \u201cIn fact, if anything, [she\u2019s] constantly pushing me further with this character and embracing some of that darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonhart will continue to torture Ciri in The Witcher season 5 as Geralt of Rivia (Liam Hemsworth) and Yennefer on Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra) work to find and rescue her. Seasons 4 and 5 were shot back-to-back, which allowed Hissrich to plot backwards from the endpoint. Part of that setup involved the introduction of Nimue (Sha Dessi), a young aspiring sorceress living 100 years after the events of this season, whose destiny is tangled with Ciri\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs cliche as it sounds, it\u2019s one of the greatest honors and privileges to be able to write yourself an ending that feels earned,\u201d Hissrich said. \u201cI don\u2019t think a lot of television shows get to write toward that in the way that we got to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ciri can never catch a break in The Witcher. In season 1, her homeland was sacked by Nilfgard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-118156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}