Hut, hut, witches.
Spoilers ahead for The Witcher Season 2, Episodes 1-6.
Yennefer of Vengerberg was one of the most powerful sorceress. But she's lost her magic in Season 2 and the Deathless Mother in The Witcher may be the only way to get them back. But clearly, the Deathless Mother, or Voleth Meir in Elvish, is not a nice witch in the woods. And her luring Yennefer has put Ciri at risk.
The Deathless Mother is first introduced in the second episode, "Kaer Morhen." She appears as a cloaked figure to Yennefer (in red), Fringilla (in black), and Francesca (in white) and lures them to her hut with no doors in the woods. To see the Deathless Mother, you must utter the incantation:
"Behold the mother of forests, the Deathless Mother, nesting in dreams. Turn your back to the forest, hut, hut. Turn your front to me, hut, hut."
It's all very Hansel and Gretel-like and Fringilla's thought that it's some evil witch rather than an old Elven god seems accurate.
Once in the hut, the Deathless Mother takes on different figures that speak to each of their deepest desires. For Yennefer, who's lost her power, her dream is presumably to get it back. But the Deathless Mother wants Yennefer to be more desperate for her magic, or Chaos.
It takes until Episode 5, "Turn Your Back," when Yen's facing execution for her call upon the Deathless Mother. The witch in the hut (in her true form) then morphs into Ciri, and tells Yennefer, "I'm the key to you getting your power back. And a great deal more than that. All you have to do is deliver me to the right lock. A shattered back door just outside Cintra. Find me. Steal me." As pretty much everyone is after Ciri, adding Yennefer into the mix is no good.
All of this is rather a departure from the Witcher books where no Deathless Mother exists. As Screen Rant observed, her hut is reminiscent of the Crones' cabin from the video game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. And the folklore figure, Baba Yaga, feels like it inspired the Deathless Mother like the Crones in the video game. The Witcher site Redanian Intelligence also brought up how fans thought the Deathless Mother initially sounded like a female-version of Gaunter O'Dimm, a villain from the add-on for The Witcher 3, "Hearts of Stone." But with Yennefer involved, there seems to be something even more sinister and widespread afoot.
The Deathless Mother is trying to get Yennefer to lead Ciri to Cintra. As Dara puts together, there's a plot in Cintra of people looking for Ciri. So Yennefer, seduced by the offer to get her magic back, would be handing Ciri over to her enemies if she took her to the back door just outside of Cintra.
Book spoilers ahead.
But loads of people want to get their hands on Ciri for their own devices, so there's also the question of who is in Ciri's mind, messing with her dreams. So the Deathless Mother could be a front for none other than Vilgefortz. The mage seems good at the beginning of Season 2, but after "his" win at Sodden, he could be as power-crazed as his book counterpart. That would fit what this fan on Reddit predicted ahead of Season 2 — that the Voleth Meir storyline from the show is filling in gaps of a Chaos entity that tries to take over Ciri's mind that Yennefer and Triss confront in The Blood of Elves. Vilgefortz would certainly know how desperate Yennefer is to get her power back.
The show sets up Yennefer for a big betrayal of Geralt and Ciri. But perhaps all of this Deathless Mother is just leading Yennefer to prove herself. To show she's not as power-thirsty as everyone thinks and begin establishing the bond that she and Ciri will have. That, in some ways, the Deathless Mother will give her what she so desperately wanted in Season 1 — a child. But as the Deathless Mother seems to be influenced by numerous parts of the Witcher world, the purpose of this witch in the woods is still murky.
Images: Jay Maidment/Netflix, Netflix