Ahead of The Witcher Season 4, here's the only chapter three recap of the Netflix fantasy drama you need

The Witcher Season 4 is set to drop on October 30, 2025, exclusively on Netflix.

In Season 3, we saw betrayals and a lot of unpredictable plot twists and, of course, Henry Cavill's final trip as Geralt. Season 3 aired in two parts, and by the end of July 2023, things in the Continent were already in pure chaos.

The entire season was based on Andrzej Sapkowski's Time of Contempt. Tension was built into almost every scene, and you really felt like someone was going to be stabbed in the back at any moment. And to add to everything else, we are gearing up for Liam Hemsworth to grab Geralt's swords in The Witcher Season 4.

So, before we get to season 4 of The Witcher, let's look back on Season 3!

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Recap of The Witcher Season 3

The Witcher Season 3 has been divided into two parts, which together have 8 episodes. Part 1 has 5 episodes and aired on June 29, 2023, while Part 2 has 3 episodes and dropped on July 27, 2023.

In part 1, Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri traverse the Continent in a search for temporary safety as they evade dangers, both political and magical, while trying to protect Ciri. There are also several bigger shifts in the plot, with Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri being chased from one safe hideout to another as enemies continue to closely pursue Ciri and chase down her Elder blood from the events of Season 2.

Geralt and Yennefer, on top of the emotional baggage, have hit a low point in trust. Eventually, Geralt and Yennefer start to trust one another again, especially as they gain an ally in the dwarf witcher, Yarpen Zigrin, for the time being.

Yennefer is set on making Ciri the next great thing in magic. That goes about as well as you would expect. Yennefer and Geralt butt heads over Ciri’s training: one is all about pushing boundaries, the other wants to let the kid breathe. Still, you can see them slowly stitching their little family together, even if there is a whole lot of bickering along the way.

Meanwhile, Rience is setting things on fire and making life miserable for our heroes, all while the Redanian court is knee-deep in its own schemes. King Vizimir is playing his own game of thrones, but it’s his brother Radovid who really starts stirring the pot. We also get Jaskier, the bard, shipped off to perform at court for Radovid.

Aretuza is a whole different mess. The trio rolls up to investigate the magic, and Yennefer, always the big-picture thinker, tries to rally the Brotherhood of Sorcerers to protect Ciri. Then there is Triss, who gets tangled up in a nightmare of missing girls and a mage who is experimenting on young girls.

Geralt, meanwhile, is dealing with every shifty character in sight, setting the stage for betrayals that are basically set to explode later.

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The aftermath of the Thanedd Coup

The main event of The Witcher Season 3 Part 2 was the Thanedd Coup, a brutal battle of magic between mages that led to political and magical instability across the Continent.

In Episode 6, Everybody Has a Plan ’til They Get Punched in the Face, Aretuza was the focal point of treachery as Vilgefortz’s longstanding true allegiance to Nilfgaard came to fruition. His betrayal fractured the Brotherhood of Sorcerers, and hence began a brutal melee that closed with Tissaia de Vries calling upon Alzur’s Thunder, a fateful lightning spell that symbolized her hopelessness and annihilated friend and foe alike.

Geralt of Rivia found himself a part of that chaos and fought Vilgefortz in one of the series’ most shocking fights. Despite Geralt’s combat prowess, he got badly hurt, facing a decisive defeat that showed how vulnerable the Witcher is.

This tragedy compelled Yennefer to don her mentor’s mantle. As she had professed in her final letter to Geralt, she would dedicate herself to bringing about a new haven for mages and to preserving the very concept of magic from corruption. In many respects, the coup dismantled old paradigms of power but created new beginnings. Yennefer assuming a leadership role signified a great change in her character, from a self-serving sorceress to an energized visionary reformer.

In parallel, Redania’s politics transformed dramatically. The assassination of King Vizimir, which Philippa Eilhart had orchestrated, allowed her and Sigismund Dijkstra to shape Redania under the auspices of Vizimir's brother, Radovid.

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Ciri’s transformation

While Geralt and Yennefer engaged in their wars out in the open, Ciri’s trek through the desert in The Witcher Season 3 Episode 7, Out of the Fire, Into the Frying Pan, was an inner journey, a confrontation with destiny, trauma, and self. Alone in the Korath Desert, she faced physical and mental challenges while being haunted by the hallucination of her ancestor, Falka, a murderous rebel from the legends of Cintra.

Under Falka’s sway, Ciri accessed forbidden fire magic that provided her with horrifying power at the price of her sanity. In her near-death moment, she crystallized a rejection of destiny itself: Ciri decided to reject her elven bloodline, her royal claim, and her magical lineage.

She was rescued, or rather, recaptured by Nilfgaardian bounty hunters, who were freed by the Rats, a group of young delinquents. Taking on the name of “Falka,” Ciri embraced her nature of defiance and rage simply to rebel against prophecy.

This shift in identity is significant: it is the death of Princess Cirilla of Cintra, born anew as an antihero bound between vengeance and survival. In Sapkowski’s novels, this phase of Ciri's existence foreshadows her path towards moral ambiguity, and Netflix has lifted Ciri's pathway among the Rats to center the emotional crux of Season 4.

Vilgefortz’s machinations continued in Nilfgaard. Unable to procure the real Ciri, he turned over the decoy Teryn to Emperor Emhyr var Emreis, the "White Flame." The emperor welcomed her publicly as his daughter, using that premise to leverage his hold on power and assert a claim to divine legitimacy.

Kings and subjects across the Continent were tricked into believing that the legitimate heir of Cintra was now at the foot of Nilfgaard's throne, achieving a propaganda victory. The “False Ciri” narrative directly mirrors the stories in Sapkowski’s lore.

While Ciri’s morality declines, Geralt’s trajectory reflects redemption and conviction. Recovering under Milva, an archer who appeared as a connection to the new resistance, Geralt made physical and ideological progress. His decision to throw away Renfri's brooch, a token of his neutrality for some time, was emotionally meaningful and gave Geralt a new purpose in the world.

“Neutrality be damned,” he articulated, realizing that safeguarding Ciri meant becoming active. By making this vow, Geralt would collide course with Nilfgaard and begin the process of going south, which is how The Witcher Season 4 is speculated to begin.

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Setting the stage for The Witcher Season 4

As Season 3 was winding down, the fates began to entangle again. Yennefer had rallied the surviving sorceresses to restore the Brotherhood's harmony, while Geralt, Jaskier, and Milva rode toward Nilfgaard, all of them united in cause and an approaching battle. Ciri, a fugitive now known as Falka, rode away with the Rats. Henry Cavill's final seconds as Geralt were purposely muted: calm before the storm, marking both an end and a beginning.

The Witcher Season 4 will also mark the first season of Liam Hemsworth as Geralt, alongside a tonal shift in structure. The adaptation is also expected to pull in some material from Baptism of Fire and The Tower of the Swallow, as Geralt, establishing himself as the leader of his army, and Ciri further engage with the underworld.