We’re more than halfway through the first book of His Dark Materials, and the show finally decides to give us at least some real answers. The episode opens by answering a question the series hasn’t answered yet. What exactly is the prophecy surrounding Lyra? Why does everyone want to either help or control her. The opening narration doesn’t give us anything concrete. Just that she’s destined to “end destiny.” It does at least tell us why everyone’s being so secretive. If she knows what she must do, she’ll fail at it. Yeah, still super vague, but at least it finally gives us a reason for all the secrecy. More than halfway through the series.
The narration does something even more interesting though, especially for fans of the books. It mentions a boy destined to walk alongside her. To help her in her journey. It shows a young boy in our world. Those who read the book know immediately who this is. It’s Will Parry, and he normally doesn’t show up until The Subtle Knife. This is the part of TV adaptations I look forward to. When a book is adapted to the movie, the question is always what will they cut? When it’s a TV show, they generally have more than enough room to tell the book’s story. We then get a much more exciting question. Where will they expand? We’ve already seen the show explore the connection between this world and ours. We’ve seen Lord Boreal use it to his advantage. Now, it’s expanding on Will’s story. It’s a smart move. By the time he and Lyra meet next season (I’m assuming), we’ll already know and care for both of them.
(Credit: Courtesy of HBO)
Will is a boy who’s father disappeared when he was little. He splits his time between school, boxing and caring for his mentally ill mother. She comes across to everyone, even her own son, as paranoid. The thing is, though she is suffering from some mental illness, she also has a very legitimate reason to be paranoid. Lord Boreal stops by asking about her husband. She definitely knows more than she lets on because his questions worry her. Later, when they’re eating, she notices the rug and table have been moved ever so slightly. The Magesterium has been rummaging through the house. Fortunately, they don’t seem to have found what they’re looking for. Will finds her digging an envelope full of letters. They’re from his father, she says, though she won’t let him read them yet.
Knowing that she’s right but won’t be believed makes these scenes so uncomfortable. Everyone, including Will, will write off her worries as symptoms of her illness. Even though we know Will will fiercely protect her if anything happens, he doesn’t even know to suspect that something might. That’s what makes it so creepy when his mother wakes up in the middle of the night to find a stray cat. Is it just a cat, or is it someone’s daemon? When she looks out the door and sees a scary-looking man watching her house from the car, I got legit chills.
This was an effectively scary episode all around, as Lyra’s journey reached a point I’d been curious about since the first episode. As the Gyptian party travels further North, John Faa asks her what the alethiometer says lies ahead. It gives her an answer, but it also points her to a nearby fishing village. It appears to tell her there’s a ghost troubling the residents there. They don’t want to let her go initially, but a conversation with Serafina Pekkala’s familiar, and a visit from the witch herself, convinces them. Serafina also has a tearful exchange with Farder Coram where we learn they had a son together, whom they lost. Farder says he still thinks about Serafina every day, and you really feel for him. Even for these smaller roles, the show’s cast is phenomenal.
Dafne Keen (Credit: Courtesy of HBO)
The next Morning, Lyra rides Iofur to the fishing village. Normally a bear wouldn’t allow a human to ride him, but he trusts in the alethiometer, and this will be faster. When they get to the village, there isn’t a single person in sight. Even having an idea of what was coming, I was creeped out. The alethiometer points Lyra to the scariest-looking house and everything about the scene feels wrong. Lyra argues with Pan about whether or not they should go in, and you can hear the fear in both their voices. She forces herself to go in and finds Billy Costa, unresponsive and wearing strange clothes. His daemon is nowhere to be found.
This is the same change from the book that the 2007 movie made, and I can see why the series chose to repeat it. It’s the only way to make the scene hit has hard as it does in the book. When you read the book, you really get to know the connection humans have with their daemons. It describes how painful it is to be more than a few feet from them, how wrong it is to have someone else touch them. They’re a natural part of the world, so seeing any boy without one is strange and disturbing. A movie or TV show has no way to establish that same connection, so it has to up the emotional stakes. It’s not any boy, it’s Billy. Half the reason the entire crew is out here. They found him, but he’s been hurt. They take him back to the camp where he dies in his mother’s arms.
I was surprised by how much this affected me. The show plays the mix of relief and horror and grief so well that even though I knew what was coming, I was still close to tearing up as Ma Costa held her dying son, and told him it was ok to go to his missing daemon. I was kinda hoping for fewer lines from Lee Scoresby here. He tries to comfort Lyra, saying he’s proud of her and explaining for us that at least now they know what the gobblers are doing to these children. At this point it’s like, dude, who are you? You’ve been little more than comic relief so far and now you want this big emotional moment with the main character? I know he becomes important later, but I guess the arc here doesn’t feel as natural as I’d like it to.
Anne-Marie Duff, Dafne Keen (Credit: Courtesy of HBO)
The Gyptians hold a funeral for Billy. Lyra sobs as John Faa chants and they burn the body. It’s a beautiful and heartbreaking scene. I thought after everything it had just shown us, the episode would end, but no. It’s not going to let us off the hook without one more bit of horror. That night, some unseen figures kill the man keeping watch. Pantalaimon hears something and they go outside to check. Lyra sees the dead body, but is knocked out from behind and taken to an industrial-looking facility. She gives her name as Lizzie Brooks before being taken to an examination room. They even try to touch Pan, but he changes to a bird and flies away. That he’s still able to change is apparently something they’re happy about. They take her to an exam room where they make her strip naked and everything about this feels wrong. Lyra knows she’s in trouble, but can’t do anything but comply. Then she sees the clothes they’ve prepared for her. They’re the same clothes Billy Costa was wearing. She’s been taken to Bolvangar, and these people want to cut her away from Pan.
One advantage this series has over the Golden Compass movie is that it doesn’t have to tone things down for children in a movie theater. As a joint project between the BBC and HBO, it can be just as scary and horrifying as the books were without trying for Lord of the Rings money. I was so nervous going in that they would try to soften this part of the story somehow, but they didn’t. It’s an important part of the story. It’s the part where we learn exactly what the Oblation Board is doing to kids and it creates a sense of dread that drives the next part of the story. The show took its time to give us context and make sure this scene communicated exactly what it needed to. That gives me high hopes for next week’s episode. Things only get more dangerous from here, from what I remember.
His Dark Materials airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on HBO
Previously on His Dark Materials:
- His Dark Materials Season 1 Episode 4 recap
- His Dark Materials Season 1 Episode 3 recap
- His Dark Materials Season 1 Episode 2 recap
from Geek.com https://ift.tt/33JOSvZ
via IFTTT
0 comments:
Post a Comment