Copyright Polygon
Ciri can never catch a break in The Witcher. 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, she nearly died in the desert and gave up her immense magical power. Season 4 again ends with Princess Cirilla of Cintra (Freya Allan) in a very dark place — with even more challenges ahead in the show’s fifth and final season. “Me 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,” Allan said in a Zoom roundtable attended by Polygon. “She 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.” [Ed. note: This article contains major spoilers for The Witcher season 4 including the finale.] 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’ most ruthless members. “There's a part of Ciri that wants to completely forget everything and become this different person, Falka, this person who's brutal and cold,” Allan said. “But really you can't run from where you've come from.” Ciri’s 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’s a fraught relationship that comes after Mistle intervenes to protect Ciri from sexual assault, leading to questions of consent and who is using who. “[Ciri’s] discovering things about herself,” Allan said. “There 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’t want to be alone and Mistle says, ‘Is that all?’ and she says, ‘That’s everything.’” While Mistle opens up to Ciri about her own past, Ciri won’t admit who she is, which frustrates Mistle. “How do you have your first really vulnerable, romantic, loving relationship with someone who you're only letting see part of you?” showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich said. “That'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.” Just as Mistle is disappointed by Ciri’s 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’re 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. “Working 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,” she said. “He 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.” Hissrich also praised Allan’s fearlessness as a performer. “There is never a point where [she’s] like, I’m not sure I want to go there. I don’t know that I want to portray that,” Hissrich said. “In fact, if anything, [she’s] constantly pushing me further with this character and embracing some of that darkness.” 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’s. “As cliche as it sounds, it’s one of the greatest honors and privileges to be able to write yourself an ending that feels earned,” Hissrich said. “I don’t think a lot of television shows get to write toward that in the way that we got to.”
