Of everything I remember from reading His Dark Materials, no chapter stuck with me quite like this one. After being kidnapped at the end of last week’s episode, Lyra has been taken to Bolvangar, and is reunited with Roger. It’s not quite the happy reunion she hoped for. Everyone in the cafeteria is clearly terrified. Lyra and Roger pretend not to know each other, but their daemons can do a little talking. Roger’s been through a lot. He hasn’t been hurt like Billy Costa, but he’s been through enough that Pan can tell he’s changed. This isn’t a happy place, as we quickly find out. A girl sits next to Lyra, but is soon called away. The nurses take her to a scary-looking machine to perform the intercission—the separation of a human from their Daemon. We don’t see the process, which actually works in the show’s favor. It’s much scarier when we can only hear it happening.
Of all the events from the book I’ve been anticipating, this is the one I was most curious about. The Bolvangar facility horrified and fascinated me when I read the book. It’s when the full scope of what Mrs. Coulter is doing comes to light. It’s also the most harrowing chapter of the book. Going into this episode, I was excited to see how it would expand its depiction of the facility. We get to see some of the internal politics as the doctors worry about Mrs. Coulter’s impending visit. That’s not nearly as interesting as what Roger and Lyra find. During a fire alarm, Lyra starts a snowball fight and she and Roger sneak away. They’re looking for the exit, but they find something else. A room full of Daemons, separated from their humans.
Morfydd Clark (Credit: Alex Bailey)
The episode does a decent job of depicting the horror of that sight, but it would have been much more effective had the rest of the series established the extent of the connection between human and daemon. It’s mostly done OK. It at least established they’re importance, how humans feel things done to their daemons and vice versa. But they aren’t as ubiquitous as they are in the books. The show, to save on budget, has had most people’s daemons off camera. Because of that, we never really feel the closeness that’s supposed to be there. Likewise, the show cut the scene from the book where Lyra and Pan disagree and try to pull away from each other. The pain that causes them gives you a clear idea of how close they have to be to each other. The show, having done neither of those things, misses out on the chance to make this scene really chilling. The next scene though, when they find the kids chanting numbers like robots as the fire alarm sounds, restores a little bit of that horror.
Lyra and Roger develop a plan of escape. Roger works on getting the message to the boys, while Lyra does the same with the girls. When she tells them who she really is, they help hide her from Mrs. Coulter’s inspection. I have to say, the scene of Lyra clinging to the underside of a bed while the golden monkey is inches away from her got my heart racing. That golden monkey creeps me out. Lyra escapes Mrs. Coulter’s notice for now, but before she can get any further in her escape plan, the nurses call her in. They’re going to cut her now. When we see the full machine, it’s clear why the show waited this long to show it to us. With the cold steel design, the dual guillotines, that machine is terrifying. Even having read the books, knowing that Pan won’t be cut from her, I was still scared for her.
Lia Williams, Ruth Wilson (Credit: Alex Bailey/HBO)
As she screams for help, she calls out Mrs. Coulter’s name. When that makes the doctor hesitate, she calls it again, switching to “mother” when Mrs. Coulter comes in the room. When she sees Lyra in the machine, she stops the process and takes Lyra back to her room. Usually after such a harrowing scene we get a chance to breathe. That’s ostensibly what’s happening here, but there’s a tension beneath every line of dialog that doesn’t let up. We know Lyra is only here because she’s desperate. She gets answers out of Mrs. Coulter and it’s all she can do to fight the disgust that rises up inside her. Coulter tells her that Dust is an evil thing that makes adults act sinful. That when children reach puberty, their daemons start bringing in uncomfortable, impure thoughts. They’re developing a technique to sever a child from their daemon before that happens. Coulter says it’s a wonderful thing, but Lyra knows what it does to people. She points that out, but Coulter says the children are making a sacrifice for the greater good. So here it’s all out the the open. The church is mutilating children so that they don’t get impure thoughts when they reach puberty. ARE YOU PICKING UP ON THE SUBTLE SYMBOLISM HERE?
Lyra isn’t fooled by Mrs. Coulter’s words, though. Mrs. Coulter tries to get the alethiometer from Lyra, and even after all this, Lyra knows she should not give it to her. She hands her the soldered-shut container she trapped the spy fly in. When Coulter opens it, the small device flies into her face, giving Lyra enough time to escape and trap Coulter in her room. Lyra sets off the fire alarm and tells Roger and the rest of the children that it’s time to escape. They all head toward the exit, but it’s locked and they are cornered by the guards. Fortunately, the Gyptians show up in time to save them, fighting off the Tartan guards. Another guard almost kills the Gyptians, but Lee Scoresby joins the fray and shoots him. Texans are Texans no matter what universe they’re in.
Morfydd Clark (Credit: Alex Bailey)
It is a little convenient that the Gyptians show up right when Lyra needs them to, but it’s not like they were super far away. It only stands to reason that they’d pick up their pace when they noticed Lyra was gone. I can buy that they’d be near enough for this to happen. It’s a great action scene too. His Dark Materials isn’t known for its giant fantasy battles the way Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones are. We don’t get a ton of them, so the series knows it has to make them count. The camera moves with Lyra through the facility showing us the scope of this battle. It may be in close quarters, but the fighting is happening on multiple fronts. The witch Serafina Pekala even gets in on the action, flying in between fights, killing Tartars and saving Gyptians. If this battle was shot this well, I can’t wait to see how they shoot the big one that’s coming.
They Gyptians recover the kids, but Lyra’s mission still isn’t over. She has to break her father out of prison. That means going further North to the Bear kingdom. She parts ways with the Gyptians and travels ahead with Roger, Lee and Iorek in a hot air balloon. As Lyra sleeps Serafina flies by to ensure Lee will continue to take care of her. She doesn’t offer him any more money though. “You’ve blindsided me with love,” he says. This is the first time Lin Manuel Miranda’s performance has really clicked for me. Last episode felt like the show was trying to force more of a connection than it had been able to build. His acting works well in this scene though. It’s the first time Lee fully drops his bravado and we see how scared he is. He does love Lyra and will see that she’s safe. Suddenly, I like this interpretation of the character a lot more now. Of course that keeping Lyra safe thing has to wait for next week. A swarm of cliff-ghasts attacks the ship. Lee manages to shoot some off, but during the fight, Lyra falls off the balloon. Always gotta end on a cliffhanger.
Lin-Manuel Miranda (Photo via HBO)
There was a lot I liked about its episode, but it was held back by choices the series made earlier in the season. The normalcy and ubiquity of daemons is a difficult element to adapt from the books, but the series could have done a lot more early on. Instead, we get to this moment that should be momentous and scary and it has to make up for all the work the rest of the series didn’t get to. It still managed to do a decent job. Bolvangar is a big moment and I’m glad we spent an entire episode here. The show managed to make the facility as foreboding and eerily sterile as I imagined it would be, and that’s an accomplishment. It might not be possible to make a perfect adaptation of these books, but this series’ high points definitely make up for its shortcomings.
His Dark Materials airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on HBO
- His Dark Materials Season 1 Episode 5 recap
- His Dark Materials Season 1 Episode 4 recap
- His Dark Materials Season 1 Episode 3 recap
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