Deaths, fire, and big revelations: The Witcher season 3 cast on the show’s most brutal episode yet

Warning: This article contains major spoilers from The Witcher season 3 volume 2.

There’s an argument to be made that The Witcher season 3 episode 6 may be the fantasy series’ best yet – or at least its most brutal. Set in the aftermath of Conclave Ball, Aretuza becomes a battleground as Vilgefortz’s betrayal comes to light. As forces from across the Continent converge to find Ciri, sacrifices are made from all sides.

Among those on the chopping block were Filavandrel and Artorius, with the former’s death being particularly gruesome as he was literally disintegrated. Then "fire fucker" Rience also faced a grisly end in the blood-bath episode as Geralt chopped his head off in an extremely badass moment with Yennefer. 

It’s certainly a thrilling episode, and one Yennefer star Anya Chalotra says left her stunned when she first read it. "Having read the seasons before shooting, I’ve always been like, 'Wow,'" she tells GamesRadar+. "[But] I’m so happy that I get to explore what I have this season with Ciri [and] in episode six with the mind games going on there. I have to be in control in a way that I haven't been before and oversee things that I haven't had the capacity for. It was very fun.”

At the heart of all of the carnage is Vilgefortz’s betrayal too – and in particular Tissaia’s reckoning with it. Actor MyAnna Buring agrees it was a particularly painful realization. "Personally as MyAnna, I think they should have seen it coming," she tells us. "But Tissaia did not see it coming. I think that with anyone you love for anyone or that you put your trust and faith into when they betray you like that, it's devastating."

The actor adds that she feels this storyline will be hugely relatable beyond the fantasy show. "We're telling stories about characters and people, and there's always something that you can reference in real life," Burning smiles. "I think all of us have had some experience with that kind of enormous letdown. It's just this is on such an epic scale that it actually involves people's lives lost."

It’s something Therica Wilson-Read, who plays Sabrina Glevissig echoes too: "I think it's just such a betrayal in so many different ways. But I also think that because people were so close to him, like Tissaia, she probably can’t see it. When you love someone you overlook any red flags."

The betrayal certainly has wide-reaching consequences going forward in season 3 too and undoubtedly beyond as the fantasy show enters its fourth outing.

For more on the show, check out our stories on:

• The Witcher season 3 volume 1 review
• Our ode to Henry Cavill’s perfect Geralt of Rivia
• The Witcher season 3 cast break down volume 2’s big death
• Freya Allan talks Ciri’s The Witcher season 3 ending
• The Witcher season 4 news and everything we know so far
• The Witcher cast talk Liam Hemsworth’s Geralt entrance
• Why is Henry Cavill leaving The Witcher?
• Henry Cavill helped choreograph The Witcher's best fight scene
• Why The Witcher needs to embrace soap opera with its Geralt recasting

These interviews were completed prior to the SAG/AFTRA strikes.