The presence of three different robed figures - and the three skulls subsequently discovered in an old temple by the elves - are an early hint about what’s really happening here. And Yennefer has had dreams she decides not to fully disclose: a vision of what seems to be an impossible future in which she and Geralt have a baby together, interrupted by a figure robed in red.

Fringilla has had similar dreams of a figure robed in black, whom she interprets as the Nilfgaardian emperor Emhyr var Emreis. Unfortunately for Francesca’s grand vision, she’s not alone in these dreams. She interprets the figure as Ithlinne, a famed elven prophet, and implicitly puts herself in a sequence of great elven leaders. To that end, Francesca has been having strange apparent dreams in which a figure robed in white guides her through a maze of corpses. More important, it includes Francesca, a more aggressive elf leader who dreams of restoring her people to their former place of power. The group of captors includes Filavandrel, the “king of the elves” you might remember from all the way back in season one. Of course, it’s not exactly true that Geralt has no one but Ciri - he just doesn’t know Yennefer is still alive and captive to a band of elves who captured her and Fringilla at the end of the previous episode. For better or worse, Geralt and Ciri have no one but each other, and Geralt’s home base isn’t looking so safe. None of this delights Geralt, who reacts to Eskel’s big orgiastic rager like … well, like any dad would if he bought his daughter home and found his family having a big orgiastic rager. Eskel has decided to celebrate his victory by bringing a bunch of booze and women up to Kaer Morhen, resulting in a party that’s a little closer to spring break than a warm family dinner. This unconventional family reunion includes one fellow Witcher, Eskel, who shows up with a nasty-looking scar and a valuable trophy: The arm of a leshy, a powerful forest monster. Not only is Geralt headed back to the only real home he’s ever known - complete with a surrogate father and about a dozen rowdy brothers - he’s showing up with Ciri, his surrogate daughter, in tow. So Geralt’s return to Kaer Morhen in, uh, “Kaer Morhen” represents a seismic shift for The Witcher on two levels. From the beginning of the series, he has traveled from town to town doing jobs and acquiring true connections with others only when bound together by a djinn, when mandated by the Law of Surprise, or when the other person involved is a bard who’s so cheerfully self-absorbed Geralt’s grumpiness bounces right off of him.

If Geralt is defined by anything - other than white hair, gravelly one-liners, and a penchant for killing monsters and taking baths - it’s being a lone wolf.

Yennefer the witcher