With how strange 2020 has been, it’s hard to believe it’s only been a year since I was here recapping season 1 of His Dark Materials. And yet here we are, reaching the end of one hellish year, and we’re rewarded with quite the pleasant surprise. Or it was a surprise for me. This season really crept up on me, but I’m very excited it is here.
As I mentioned last time I did these recaps, please note that I’m writing from the perspective of someone who has read the books, but I will not spoil anything in the books that hasn’t yet happened in the show. If something happens differently in the show than it happens in the books, however, I may bring it up. Because I’m that person. Now let’s do this.
Wait. One more thing. Before I get into the episode, I also want to point out that I just found out that it does look like a third season is in the works for this show. Which is going to make me feel a heck of a lot more relaxed this season. Initially, as I was watching this episode, I kinda freaked out thinking about how this episode is only going to be 7 episodes long because of Covid filming issues. And I thought, well crap, there’s a lot we have to get through in only six more episodes. Thankfully, that no longer seems to be the case, so we can just sit back and enjoy the ride.
Okay. Now. Let’s do this.
So we start this episode with a little voiceover from the witches to catch us up on what we might have missed or no longer remember after 2020 boiled our brains. Lord Asriel has left the world in chaos, and “the witches believe this is the start of a power prophecy, one that could destroy all existence or make it anew.” Ominous. But fun.
Lyra is still mourning the death of Roger, and as we’ll see throughout this episode, she feels personally responsible for his death. Which makes sense. She did hand Roger to her father on a silver platter. Could she have known what her father was going to do? Of course not. But she feels like the alethiometer betrayed her by not warning her.
So in an attempt to go after her father, Lyra enters another world that appears at first to be abandon. I was really excited about the introduction of this world because I really enjoyed this section of The Subtle Knife, and it was exciting to see it adapted for television. But perhaps even more exciting was seeing Lyra and Will meet for the first time. I thought the dynamic between these two characters worked well and was exactly how I imagined it after reading the books. Love them teaming up at last.
Some fun moments between Lyra and Will in this episode: All the moments when Lyra and Will taught each other about one another’s worlds. Will teaches Lyra about showers and omelets. Lyra tries to make will an omelet to show him how much she’s learned, but she leaves all the egg shells in.
Lyra teaches Will about what a daemon is. When Will asked Lyra if Pan needed to eat, it seemed like such a reasonable question. But then Lyra, incredulous, responds, “No, he’s a daemon.” Which… oops. Duh.
Will delivers my favorite line of the episode when Lyra asks him how he got to this world, and Will says, “I followed a cat through a hole in the air.” Which is a vibe. I love what a huge cat person Will is.
I also loved when Pan suggested Lyra and Will should become friends and Lyra responded with, “We already had a friend. He died.” It was sad, because clearly Lyra is still grieving the loss of Roger, the boy that she worked so hard to save for the entirety of season one. But also it reminded me of this moment from Freaks and Geeks:
Basically Lyra
But there’s more going on in this episode than Lyra and Will meeting and being adorable. There’s, like, important grown up stuff happening too, I guess.
Lee Scoresby is teaming up with the witches to try to find a way to protect Lyra. The witches know that Lyra is part of this big prophecy. Mrs. Coulter know that the witches know something, so she’s kidnapped one of them (along with her daemon, because remember witches’ daemons can fly away).
We also get introduced to a new badass witch called Ruta Skadi. Ruta Skadi is the queen of another witch clan. The captive witch is tortured to the point of revealing to Mrs. Coulter the details of the prophecy, including Lyra’s involvement in the prophecy. And guess who’s there to clean up the mess? You got it. It’s Ruta Skadi. And she does it in the most boss was possible. Traveling through the Magisterium’s lair(?) like mist, she kills the captive witch and plunges a knife into the heart of the cardinal before peaceing out without a word. Okay then.
Witches get shit done
This seems like a good moment to note that it seems like witches are capable of a lot, and it’s difficult to understand why they need the help of, well, basically anyone. But okay. Let’s just go with it.
I think it’s also important to note here that discussing the Magisterium in this current political climate without making comparisons to the Trump administration will be extremely difficult for me. So I’m just introducing the idea in this initial recap, but you should probably expect to hear more about this in subsequent recaps. Prepare yourselves.
With that, let’s go back to Will and Lyra, as we finish out the episode with them.
The more time this duo spends in this new world, the more they start to learn about it. Most importantly, it’s not as abandoned as it looks. They run into a couple of children who live there, and the children warn them of the Spectres. They warn will that the Spectres come after children once they reach a certain age, and he should be careful because he’s almost the right age.
When I first read The Subtle Knife, I remember thinking the Spectres were really scary. We see a little of them in this episode, but I’m looking forward to seeing more of them. It’s interesting to note that Philip Pullman has said that the Spectres are representation of depression and self-hatred. So no wonder they’re so scary. Of course, we’re also getting that recurring theme of coming-of-age and adolescence as a time of anxiety and fear of what’s to come. And also a whole lot of disillusionment, for better or for worse. There’s a sense that Spectres are somehow connected to the idea of “dust,” but we’ll get more on that later.
For a clear idea of what this story is saying about adulthood and coming of age, we can really look to what Lyra says to Will about what dust is. She tells him, “Some people think it’s sin, but I think it’s more complicated than that. I think bad people think it’s bad, and maybe it’s good.” Just because something is frightening or unknowable doesn’t mean it’s all bad. I don’t know if we can simplify it enough to say “bad people think it’s bad,” but I would understand why Lyra, based on her experiences, would go there.
This episode, as I’ve mentioned, does a really good job of setting Lyra and Will up as a team. And they are starting to get a sense of a plan. They want to go back to Will’s word to find a professor at Oxford who might be able to help them understand dust.
Although Lyra is wary of the alethiometer, Pan convinces her to use to to find out if they can trust Will. The alethiometer tells Lyra that Will is a murderer. Uh oh. But Lyra quickly adds, “The good kind. Just like Iorek. But there’s something else about him too. He’s connected to this place. He’s got something to do here. I think we both do.” I love that Lyra is the type of heroine who differentiates between “good” murderers and “bad” ones. She doesn’t fully believe in good and evil. She seems to understand that there’s a lot of gray area.
And as far as what she and Will are meant to do in this world, I’m guessing we’ll find out what exactly that is in the next episode! Can’t wait to break that down with all of you next week.