His Dark Materials recaps are back. I hope you hadn’t forgotten about them! I definitely meant to post a recap last week, but I’m human and life got the best of me. If you know me personally, then you know that the end of November is a difficult time for me every year. And with everything else that’s going on in 2020, this year was just especially hard. I watched the show last week, I had my notes, but I just couldn’t find the time or the energy to sit down and actually write the thing. And that’s just the honest truth.
But one week is not the end of the world, right? It just means this week I have two episodes to recap for you, the one from last Monday and the one that aired this past Monday. For my sanity (and yours) I won’t cover everything that happened in these two episodes because who wants to read all of that? So we’ll be doing things a little bit differently this week. I’ll highlight some of the more notable things that happened in these two episodes and offer my thoughts on them. And then next week it will be back to recaps as normal.
His Dark Materials fans, I hope that’s okay with you, and I hope you’ll forgive me! I am loving this show so much.
Let’s take it from the top, yes?
Mary Malone
So one of the most important developments in episode 2 & 3 of this season is the introduction of the character Mary Malone. Mary is a badass astrophysicist and neuropsychologist who is investigating how dark matter affects human consciousness. In these episodes, we also learn that Mary used to be a nun, but she stopped believing in God and so she left. Lyra informs Mary, “They’d never let you do that in my world.”
The alethiometer tells Lyra to seek Mary out at Oxford College, and promises Lyra that she can trust Mary and that she must tell Mary the whole truth. I think Lyra takes this message a little too much to heart, because when she first meets the professor, the young girl basically word vomits her whole story. Which, if you’re new to this whole world of alternate universes, is a bonkers story.
Lyra tries to tell Mary, “This matters so much. You see my friend was killed because of dust. I traveled so far and found myself here… I need to find out about dust because if I don’t find out about dust it’ll be for nothing.” Understand that at this point, Mary doesn’t even understand what dust is. Slow down, Lyra.
In these episodes, Mary and Lyra start working together to learn about how dust works. Mary has a machine that creates symbols a lot like the symbols that are on the alethiometer. Lyra tries to tell Mary how to read these symbols, but even after that, Mary’s still trying to ask her machine “yes or no” questions. Like, have you been paying attention at all? That’s not how this works.
In Mary’s world, what Lyra calls “dust,” Mary calls “dark matter.” Mary tells Lyra, “Sometimes people are afraid of things they don’t understand. Dark matter does sound ominous, but in my experience it’s very beautiful.”
Unfortunately, Mary and Lyra’s work gets cut short because of a run-in with the cops, who are looking for Will. And then there’s Boreal…
Lyra vs. Boreal
This whole storyline made me so angry at Lyra. So in Episode 3, Lyra goes to Oxford alone, even though she’s not supposed to. And she leaves a note for Will which he of course does not see because she puts it in the most obscure place possible. When Lyra gets to Oxford, she almost immediately runs into the police and then accidentally reveals that she knows where Will is. I really did think this girl was supposed to be good at lying, so I don’t know what the deal is here.
Then! She runs away from the police only to end up in the back of Boreal’s car. She met Boreal in Episode 2 at a museum, and although she’d already seen him at Mrs. Coulter’s party in Season 1, she doesn’t remember that he’s a bad guy. I don’t know about you, but I would definitely try to remember all the faces I saw at a certified bad guy party.
But no, she doesn’t remember him, and so she agrees to get into his car to escape the police. Then! When she leaves, she accidentally leaves her bag in the back of his car. When she gets it back from him, she only realizes after the car has driven away that her alethiometer is missing.
I cannot. I just can’t.
She’s supposed to be the savior of mankind or whatever, but she is also just a child making really dumb childlike mistakes.
Yeah, you fucked up, Lyra. A lot.
Then! When Will finally finds out where Lyra is, their big plan for getting the alethiometer back is just… going to Boreal’s address, ringing the doorbell, and being like, “Hey, friend, do you have that golden compass thing? Can we get it back?” Funnily enough, this doesn’t really work as smoothly as they’d hoped. Boreal lets both Lyra and Will know that he knows who they really are, and he will call the cops on them if they don’t do as he say.
Essentially, there’s something Boreal wants that’s in the tower in Cittàgazze, the one with no way in and no way out. Honestly, I can’t remember if Boreal told them if it was a knife or not, because again, I read the books and every now and then I get my wires crossed. But, friends, it’s a knife. As someone who loves these books and has yet to see this part of the story adapted on screen, I have to say I jumped up and down on my couch a lil bit and squealed, “It’s the knife! It’s the knife!” Let me have my fangirl moment. It’s all I have left in 2020.
But yes, in episode 4, I would assume Will and Lyra are going back to Cittàgazze to get that knife in exchange for the alethiometer. Can’t wait to see how that goes.
Will and the Search for His Father
Let’s talk more about our sweet baby angel Will, who frankly deserves a stronger partner in crime than Lyra but oh well. We love Lyra for her strengths and her faults. At the beginning of episode 2, Lyra reveals to Will that she knows he’s a murderer, and oddly enough, Will doesn’t take too kindly to being called that. I know. Strange thing to get offended about, right?
Lyra also tells Will that she wants to find his father. Although Will has always thought is father was dead, the alethiometer says otherwise. The alethiometer also tells Lyra to tell Will that the man who is taking care of his mother is a good person and they can trust him and his mother is safe.
Will tells Lyra, “I don’t know who to trust anymore.”
Lyra says, “I don’t either. People who I thought were safe turned out not to be. But you can trust me.”
Except for when she fucks everything up in Episode 3. But anyway.
As mentioned in my previous recap, all the moments when we get to see Will and Lyra learning about each other’s worlds and about one another? Precious. In Episode 3, our dynamic duo go hide out in a movie theater while they wait for it to get dark so they can confront Boreal. They go see Paddington, actually. Or is it Paddington 2? Let me know in the comments.
Anyway, a couple of things I want to note about this scene that are of no consequence but are important to me, a person who really misses being able to go to the movie theater to see movies:
I really miss movie theater popcorn and I was personally offended when Lyra called popcorn disgusting.
Lyra talking loudly during the movie and Will checking his phone multiple times reminded me of all the reasons I don’t miss going to the movie theater.
I really need to watch Paddington, huh? I’ve heard those movies are delightful.
The Magisterium
The Trump Administration OOPS I mean The Magisterium is in the middle of a big political upheaval. Yes, they are still torturing witches. It seems like they’re super jealous because witches know the mysteries of how to split from their daemons without losing themselves. And as we saw in Season 1, The Magisterium hasn’t really mastered that. And the Magesterium firmly believes “only the authority can know the mysteries of this world.”
But also! The cardinal has “mysteriously” “died” aka was totally not murdered on purpose (he was). And now there’s a vote for a new cardinal (or a new head of the magisterium) underway. Unfortunately for everyone who believes in democracy and a fair election, these people are straight up burning ballots so that the person they want to win will win. Now why didn’t Donald Trump think of that?
Disclaimer: I believe a lot of this Magisterium election plot was made up for the show and wasn’t in the book, and I’m having trouble verifying some of the details, so if I left something out or got some of the information wrong, please do let me know. But be nice about it because I’m doing my best. It’s 2020! Please!
ANYHOW. Remember how McPhail killed Cardinal Sturrock under Mrs. Coulter’s suggestion in Season 2 Ep 1? Yeah, well, part of that whole deal was that Mrs. Coulter promised McPhail that he would get to be the next head cardinal or whatever come election time. So yes, in this case, the election was really rigged.
Now McPhail’s like, “Yay! I’m the dude in charge now! Thanks, buddy.” And Mrs. Coulter is like, “LOL THIS WAS A TRAP YOU DUMMY.” She essentially tells him that now she gets to do whatever she wants because if he tries to stop her, she’ll just tell everyone that he killed Sturrock. McPhail asks if she’s going to go find Asriel. And Mrs. Coulter tells him she’s looking for something far more valuable.
Lyra. It’s Lyra. She’s looking for Lyra. Anyway.
Lee Scoresby and the Hunt for Grumman
Last plot point I want to cover: Lee Scoresby and his hunt for Grumman. Things are getting dark for poor Lee in episode 3. He happens upon a town where he finds some information about Grumman at a very Wild Wild West-y saloon. The information he gets there leads him to a observatory where he meets a guy and tries to figure out where Grumman is. I’m trying to speed through this bit, honestly. So this is kind of how that conversation went, rapid-fire:
LEE: Where is Grumman?
OBSERVATORY GUY: Dr. Stanislaus Grummond is a heretic.
LEE: Oop. Gotta go.
Then observatory guy tries to shoot Lee and misses a whole bunch. Lee shoots one time and… he accidentally kills the guy. The man’s dying words are, “Dr. Grumman is an enemy of the magisterium and so are you.” Lee is very upset about accidentally killing a person, but he did shoot directly at him, so I’m wondering what he thought was going to happen.
Because Lee killed a guy and that’s sort of frowned upon in every universe, he gets dragged right to jail where he is apparently tortured to the point where he can barely get up. And who should come upon him there but… you guessed it. Mrs. Coulter. She’s everywhere.
At first these two try to act like they don’t know who the other person is, but they soon drop the act and get down to brass tacks. Mrs. Coulter wants to know where Lyra is, but Lee tells her, “I’ll never tell you where Lyra is because my life is worth 1/10 of hers.”
At this point, Lee reveals a bit of his backstory. He grew up in an abusive family, and so pain and death do not frighten him. As much as she tries to torture him, it won’t affect him or change his mind. In her response, Lee recognizes respect and understanding. Mrs. Coulter had a similar loveless upbringing. And Lee finally understands that Mrs. Coulter truly does love Lyra… in her weird messed up way. But still. Love.
We’re starting to see the cracks is Mrs. Coulter as she gets closer to finding Lyra. She ends up freeing Lee, and she tells him to keep Lyra safe if he finds her. Then Lee tries to say thank you, and Mrs. Coulter is like, “Ew.” Okay, so she’s still evil.
I’ll be back with a semi-normal recap next week, everyone! So excited to get to THE KNIFE!!!!