'A Discovery of Witches' Series Finale Ending Explained (original) (raw)
Teresa Palmer and Matthew Goode in A Discovery of Witches
Image by Annamaria Ward
Updated Sep 8, 2024, 9:30 PM EDT
Sign in to your Collider account
Just in time for Halloween, the unfairly underrated series A Discovery of Witches has found new life on Netflix. Originally released in 2018 and running for three seasons on AMC, the genre-bending drama — fantasy, supernatural, historical, and romance — has been bewitching Netflix audiences since it debuted on its new streaming home in August. The show concluded in 2022, and the final episode — directed by Jamie Donoughue and written by Helen Raynor — resolves some of the major problems plaguing our main cast of characters. For one, the finale sees heroine Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer) finding what she needs to thoroughly harness her powers and defeat the people trying to destroy her household. Season 3 also answers one of the biggest questions of the series: can there be a future where all creatures (vampires, daemons, witches, and humans) exist together in peace and harmony despite their differences?
For those who haven't investigated the Netflix Top 10 series yet, A Discovery of Witches is based on the best-selling All Souls book series — originally a trilogy that expanded into five novels, with more on the way — written by bestselling author Deborah Harkness. The tale begins with Diana, an American witch and scholar, and her accidental discovery of a strange manuscript named Ashmole 782 in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. This manuscript, secretly known as the Book of Life, is the key that unlocks Diana’s dormant powers and brings a cast of other witches, daemons, and vampires into her life: one of them being Matthew Clairmont (Matthew Goode), an ancient, enigmatic, and handsome vampire. The series follows Diana and Matthew through their love story as they try to retrieve the Book of Life. That said, how does A Discovery of Witches's third and final season wrap up any loose ends?
Diana and Matthew Face Enemies, Mysteries, and Losses in 'A Discovery of Witches' Season 3
Diana, Matthew, and their families have faced no shortage of obstacles leading up to A Discovery of Witches' series finale. The duo falling in love was an act forbidden by the Congregation, the governing body overseeing the affairs of witches, vampires, and daemons. Diana and Matthew's defiant union could prompt a war between the Congregation's three pillars, species who already share tenuous relationships and a bloody history with one another. Diana's ties to the Book of Life and her untapped magical abilities (inherited from her uniquely powerful parents) have also earned her personal enemies within the witch community: specifically, Satu (Malin Buska), her direct rival, and Peter Knox (Owen Teale), the Congregation's leading witch emissary whose goals are entirely self-serving.
But Diana and Matthew's partnership has defied the odds over three seasons, leading to their marriage, Diana's official induction into the Clairmont family, and the healthy birth of their vampire-witch twins — something that shouldn't be genetically possible. And the more Diana has learned about her considerable magical abilities (the same ones she spent her adult life avoiding), the more her power has grown. Going into the series finale, she's begun to harness her potential as a Weaver, an extraordinarily rare sub-sect of witches capable of creating their own spells — a gift that makes them their species' most powerful spell-casters.
However, the multiple clashing parties seeking the Book of Life — not to mention how Diana and Matthew's romance challenges the Congregation's foundations — claim a dear cost. Season 3 opens with the aftermath of the second season finale, when Peter Knox invaded the Clairmont family home and murdered Emily Mather (Valarie Pettiford), one of Diana's beloved aunts. Diana's journey becomes more personal than ever before — and after fusing with the Book of Life by absorbing its knowledge (essentially becoming the ultimate scholar), our heroine has never been better equipped or more determined to protect her loved ones. Season 3's finale lets Diana demonstrate some flashy girlboss moves, but this story doesn't conclude with epic sorcery battles; society-altering events boil down to conversations, an area that's always been the quieter-minded A Discovery of Witches' strength.
Diana Confronts Satu and Benjamin To Save Matthew in 'A Discovery of Witches' Series Finale
Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer) aiming a red-tinted magical arrow down a long corridor of a decaying hospital in A Discovery of Witches Season 3
Image via Sky One
In the penultimate episode of Season 3, Diana discovers Matthew has been taken captive by Season 3's major vampire villain (and the son Matthew disowned), Benjamin Fuchs (Jacob Ifan). Benjamin, in cahoots with Satu, uses Matthew as bait to lure Diana, as she will inevitably attempt to rescue him. With help from Baldwin (Peter McDonald), Matthew's brother, Diana and her allies realize that Benjamin is holding Matthew prisoner at an eerie abandoned hospital in Poland — and that Benjamin is torturing his sire the same way a group of Nazi German scientists once assaulted Matthew's vampire father, Philippe (James Purefoy), during World War II.
Initially, the Bishop-Clairmont clan's arrival finds Matthew in a state of delirium. After recognizing that the sight is the work of a highly effective enchantment, Diana banishes the image and separates herself from her friends; she reassures them that she must confront this impending battle alone. Diana promptly faces off against Satu again, and if these two women were once outmatched in Satu's favor during Season 1, the tables have now thoroughly turned. Diana defeats Satu with relative ease, punishing the other witch by removing her magic, then conjures a magical bow and arrow to eliminate Benjamin. “Justice,” Diana declares as Benjamin dies on the floor. Justice, indeed.
The Truth Behind Daemon DNA Is Unveiled in 'A Discovery of Witches' Season 3
Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer) standing in an old hospital room and looking concerned while wearing a dark coat and her long blonde hair down in A Discovery of Witches Season 3
Image via Sky One
Throughout the entire season, Benjamin has desperately sought to cure blood rage, the vampire genetic illness that affects both him and his adopted son, Jack (Toby Regbo). Often triggered by strong emotions, blood rage causes violent impulses and a loss of control. Matthew, who inherited the disease from his sire and mother Ysabeau (Lindsay Duncan) before passing it onto Benjamin, has already spent A Discovery of Witches' first two seasons struggling to control his darker instincts. The Book of Life reveals that the key to all of their dilemmas, including blood rage, is daemon DNA.
Related
Blood rage begins when a human with a sufficient amount of daemon DNA (enough to trigger the sickness) is reborn into a vampire. Witches can also suffer from it, and this addition of daemon DNA makes them Weavers. This explains why Diana and Matthew are able to have children despite centuries of biological differences arguing otherwise; since they share the same basic genetic makeup, they can conceive children with one another.
However, because the Congregation had decreed that creatures of different species can't intermingle, the prevalence of daemon DNA has decreased over time. This caused the vampires' inability to sire new fledglings and the progressive decline in the witch community's power, two key mysteries that Matthew and various sorcerers have been investigating (respectively) since before the series started. As long as the Congregation's law remains intact, the likelihood of all three supernatural species — vampires, witches, and daemons — undergoing extinction continues to rise. The discriminatory guidelines the Congregation established to keep the peace could be what dooms them all.
Diana Confronts the Congregation and Abolishes the Covenant in the 'A Discovery of Witches' Series Finale
Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer) facing the camera, standing against a blue-green tinted background and wearing a dark navy jacket over a white blouse with her blonde hair up, in A Discovery of Witches Season 3
Image via Sky One
Because Diana absorbed the Book of Life and is living proof of their discoveries (having born two children with a vampire), Baldwin encourages her to take his seat at the Congregation and tell them everything she's learned. She heads to the hidden Venetian island where the Congregation resides, reveals how she became the Book of Life and uses her magic to create a tree from one of the Book's now blank pages. Diana's display proves that all four humanoid species are intricately connected, essentially providing the Congregation with a scientific ultimatum: If their societies don't institute dramatic change, then everyone (sans humanity) will eventually die.
Diana's powerplay prompts some obvious debate among the Congregation members, with many of them recommending a systematic and careful reform. Agatha (Tanya Moodie), a daemon, quickly sides with Diana, but the slippery vampire Gerbert (Trevor Eve) advocates for her punishment, viewing her as a criminal. In the end, after a few minutes of discussion, everyone (except for Gerbert) votes to abolish the Covenant. Agatha is appointed the new leader of a Congregation tasked with creating a far more inclusive future.
Diana and Matthew Get Their Happily Ever After in 'A Discovery of Witches' Series Finale
Matthew Clairmont (Matthew Goode) and Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer) standing in front of a Catholic priest at their twins' christening ceremony, with Matthew holding one twin and standing on the left in a black suit and Diana holding the other baby and standing on the right in a white blouse, in A Discovery of Witches Season 3
Image via Sky One
Overall, A Discovery of Witches Season 3 is kind to everyone involved. Matthew and Baldwin share a deeply belated heart-to-heart, and Matthew even tells his son, Jack, that he loves him. Agatha reunites with her family (her son, his spouse, and their child) after they finally emerge from hiding. Even Domenico Michele (Gregg Chillin), a vampire who had always harbored rather shady motivations, emerges from Gerbert’s domineering shadow.
Perhaps most importantly, Diana’s friends discover their happy endings. Marcus Whitmore (Edward Bluemel) gives his beloved human girlfriend, Phoebe Taylor (Adelle Leonce), a token of their marital future. We witness a promising hint of romance between Miriam Shephard (Aiysha Hart) and Chris Roberts (Ivanno Jeremiah), and Hugh’s household finally acknowledges the late vampire's relationship with Fernando Gonçalves (Olivier Huband). Gallowglass (Steven Cree), having fulfilled his vow to protect Diana throughout the centuries, rides gallantly off into the sunset. The episode's final shot shows Diana and Matthew happily recreating their romantic tango from the first season, surrounded by the ones they hold dear.
Although Sky One and Bad Wolf confirmed in 2022 that Season 3 is A Discovery of Witches' final installment, that declaration was made two years before Deborah Harkness published the next phase of Diana's story, titled The Black Bird Oracle. Set seven years later, Black Bird Oracle follows the dynamic duo and their twins as Diana unearths new information about her father's side of the family. Neither Sky One nor Bad Wolf have suggested a potential Season 4 or a Black Bird Oracle continuation series. Rumors and questions abound nonetheless, especially since the series has gained fresh traction on Netflix. Whatever happens with A Discovery of Witches, fans can take comfort in Season 3 neatly wrapping up its main storylines into a satisfying conclusion.
Release Date
2018 - 2022-00-00
Diana Bishop, historian and witch, accesses Ashmole 782 and knows she must solve its mysteries. She is offered help by the enigmatic Matthew Clairmont, but he's a vampire and witches should never trust vampires.
Seasons
3
Streaming Service(s)
All three seasons of A Discovery of Witches are available to stream on Netflix.