The Witcher Season 2 Yennefer Scene That Has Fans Scratching Their Heads
Contains spoilers for "The Witcher" Season 2
Much of the first season of Netflix's epic fantasy series "The Witcher" is dedicated to introducing the show's three protagonists: Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), Ciri of Cintra (Freya Allan), and Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra). With its principal character established, Season 2 then proceeds to insert new complications into each of their lives. For Yennefer, this means losing her ability to wield magic early on to a malevolent entity called the Deathless Mother that feeds on human suffering.
Nearing the season's climax, Yennefer controversially agrees to sacrifice Ciri to the Deathless Mother in exchange for regaining her magical affinity. Though Geralt tries his best to stop her, the Deathless Mother ends up successfully possessing Ciri and proceeds to the Witcher stronghold of Kaer Morhen. It's there that Geralt, Yennefer, and their Witcher allies must then figure out how to stop her, and whether or not killing Ciri in the process is worth bringing an end to the considerable threat the evil spirit poses.
Yennefer, as it turns out, becomes the hero of their ensuing battle after forcing the Deathless Mother to leave Ciri's body for good. Why her method for doing so works, however, has become a matter of considerable speculation among fans of the show.
Plenty of Witcher fans don't understand how Yennefer saved Ciri
In a thread titled "S2E8 question," user diffmonkey asked the members of the "Witcher" subreddit how Yennefer knew that slitting her own wrists — the decisive action that causes the Deathless Mother to immediately evacuate Ciri's body — would work as intended. While no user in the replies could provide a definitive reason as to why, a number of commenters shared their theories.
User hanna1214, for example, proposed that Yennefer simply understood this to be a way to stop a possession, given her considerable training in the magical arts. "I imagine they study the theory behind possessions, vessels, dark magic and stuff like that," they proposed.
Meanwhile, user damnamyteV2 referenced the fact that Yennefer was briefly possessed by a genie in Season 1, and must therefore have some knowledge of escaping possession after doing so herself. On top of that, they suggested that the pain of Yennefer's self-inflicted injury drew the Deathless Mother out, since she feeds on suffering.
Finally, user BlueKnightoftheCross argued that Yennefer didn't realize that her actions would so decisively save the day, but rather thought that the Deathless Mother would possess her dead body instead.
Given the lack of certainty among these and other fans, a definitive answer as to how Yennefer was able to save Ciri may either be left open to interpretation, or perhaps come at some point during the upcoming Season 3.