How to make sense of The Witcher’s mage ball and what happened

Here’s a joke: Geralt and Yen walk into a party.

As far-fetched as that seemed – perhaps most so with Geralt (Henry Cavill), who has very little interest in social events after three seasons – it’s actually the premise for one of the most daring adventures in history. The witcher yet.

The ball of the magician kicking off the conclave for peace prepared by Yen (Anya Chalotra) is just a beautiful dance on his face. But as you may have heard (a lot) watching the fifth episode of Season 3: Everything is not what it seems. As Geralt and Yen discover, the party was more of a nest of underhandedness, politics, and performative magic.

Suffice to say, the continent won’t be the same after the Conclave, for reasons the end of Season 3 Part 1 merely hints at. If all Rashomon-ing made your head a little dizzy, here’s what you need to know about all the political power that entered that room – and left the prom with:

[Ed. note: Spoilers for all five episodes of The Witcher season 3 part 1.]

Nilfgaard is suspicious

The most we can say about Nilfgaard’s machinations in episode 5: they are up to it something! Lydia van Bredevoort (Aisha Fabienne Ross), the liaison between Rience (Chris Fulton) and the one she works for, flutters around mysteriously with her best illusion face. Although Geralt and Yen hear a lot of talk about traitors possibly working with Nilfgaard, they usually brush this off before the main event of the night.

Stregobor, the mages, and the Brotherhood of Sorcerers all fight (sometimes with each other)

Geralt and Yen walk into the ball with a clear goal: to find evidence against Stregobor (Lars Mikkelsen). They suspect him of supporting Rience the fire mage, based on the compelling evidence that he uses illusions, hates Yen, and has a history of experimenting on young women. “If Stregobor is behind this, he’s a traitor to the Brotherhood,” notes Yen in Episode 4, setting the table for their downfall at the Conclave.

Fortunately, Triss (Anna Shaffer) and Istredd (Royce Pierreson) also have their suspicions, after observing some strange things in Aretuza, including the disappearances of elven girls and the Monolith Book. That book (also featured in The witcher spinoff Blood origin) allows the user to travel through time and space, so they stress that Stregobor must be stopped this evening.

Geralt and Yen devise a plan to create enough of a distraction for Yen to go to Stregobor’s office and find the damning evidence – namely the book, a list of faerie students in Aretuza, and some trinkets from the kidnapped girls. Tissaia (MyAnna Buring) and Vilgefortz (Mahesh Jadu) arrested Stregobor until the end of the Conclave.

Tissaia takes the Monolith Book and tells Yen and Geralt that they “saved the night”. Their success gives them lots of good vibes, and the opportunity to say “I love you” and retire to their room for a long night of relaxing all other weird moments from the night (among other things).

Dijkstra, Philippa and the Redanians are also planning something

The Redanians have spent most of the season trying to capitalize on their immense whisper network. Dijkstra (Graham McTavish) and Philippa (Cassie Clare) have been trying to get Redania under their thumb, manipulating the king and using Radovid (Hugh Skinner) to hire Jaskier (Joey Batey).

They come to the conclave under duress – the king, grieving his wife (whom Dijkstra and Philippa had killed, unbeknownst to him), orders their presence – but still spend much of the episode pursuing their agenda. Dijkstra pulls Geralt aside and speaks of “traitors who will soon turn their allegiance to Nilfgaard, and not to the North,” and troubles brewing in Aretuza. “It would be wise to give up neutrality and take sides,” he continues, telling Geralt that Redania is the “only hope” of keeping Ciri (Freya Allan) safe.

Meanwhile, Philippa takes Yen aside to talk somewhat vaguely about Lydia van Bredevoort, Phillipa’s friendship with Tissaia and the Battle of Sodden. She says she thinks Tissaia and the Brotherhood of Sorcerers are doomed, but she and Yen are built differently. “We break rules, we are not afraid of power. There is still hope for you,” Philippa emphasises, speaking of traitors who “already work with Nilfgaard.” She continues, “But if you and Tissaia stick to this plan, neither of you will be better off than poor Lydia: in love with a poison that slowly kills you.” And though Yen walks away and doesn’t hear, Philippa mumbles that ‘tonight means everything to us also.”

In the end, Yen and Geralt piece their warnings together just enough to understand some of their other interactions and realize – perhaps too late – that Vilgefortz is the poison that is slowly killing Lydia, and the one doing the experiments on the girls Geralt found in Episode 2 .

The end of Season 3 of Geralt and Yen ties everything together

So where is our intrepid main couple? Well, they’re a little behind the times. In the last moments of the episode, they put that Stregobor together was not behind the experiments, kidnapping and vigorous reading of books; Vilgefortz was. Stregobor is just a racist elf who has been framed.

But Vilgefortz’s web of lies seems to go further than that. As Geralt and Yen discover in the cold daylight (after talking all night), Vilgefortz is also the one who damaged Yen’s portal and nearly killed her, timed Tissaia twice with Lydia, and sent Rience after Ciri.

What’s worse, he doesn’t seem to have much faith in the conclave actually bringing about peace, speaking to Geralt about “the battle to come” and wishing him luck (although his good wishes are dripping with mischief and appear to be beautiful ). to a showdown in part 2 of the season). And sure enough, Geralt ends Part 1 of Season 3 with a knife to his throat, and Dijkstra tells him, “You should have picked a side, Witcher.”

In the end, the game is ready for the event that will turn everything upside down and reveal the darkness that really plays on the continent. Unfortunately for Geralt and Yen, that threat is no joke either. We’ll find out more when part 2 of The witcher Season 3 lands on Netflix with three episodes on July 27.