I wondered how His Dark Materials was going to fill out a whole other episode. Last week’s bear battle took the story right up to the final pages of The Golden Compass and even skipped ahead to the beginning of The Subtle Knife.
Sure, there was one big moment left to cover, but would it really make for an hour’s worth of story? His Dark Materials hasn’t gotten everything right when it comes to adapting the books. The lack of daemons onscreen caused major problems for it over the season. But one area where it excelled is in expanding on the original material. That’s where this episode really shined.
Finally reunited with her father, Lyra is continually disappointed by the fact that he’s nowhere near as thrilled to see her. With basically the entire book behind it, the finale is free to really explore Lyra’s relationships with the people around her now. She even starts to get a smile out of him before he catches himself and ends the conversation. Ouch. That doesn’t feel good. He doesn’t even want the alethiometer, and we realize that Lyra was never told to bring it to him. It was just something she figured she had to do. He at least tells her to keep it, which is a step up from her mother.
This episode made me sad that Lord Asriel is really only in the first and last chapter of the book. The whole thing is a wonderful adventure, of course, but James McAvoy is so perfect in this role, I’m sad we didn’t get more of him. He hits that perfect balance of awesome and terrifying. As we’re watching him, we feel like Lyra. Simultaneously in amazed and scared of him. He will teach us amazing things, but he will also snap and hurt a child at a moment’s notice. Remember, when Lord Asriel is first introduced, he threatens to break Lyra’s arm. That fear makes him fascinating, even as we grow increasingly worried for Lyra and Roger.
James McAvoy as Lord Asriel, Dafne Keen as Lyra. (Photo Credit: HBO)
We also get a good long scene with them. They spend so much of the story separate from one another, and I like that the show took the time to develop their friendship like this. When they meet in Bolvangar, they picked up almost back where they left off. Their friendship feels real and familiar, which is so important for this episode to work.
Here, we see them sitting in a tent, having a sleepover, and they’re just two kids. It’s a great scene. A little moment of rest and humor between the ominous foreshadowing that preceded it and the battle to come. We also start to see the beginnings of romantic love developing between them. Roger tells Lyra he’s glad she changed his life. She warns him she may keep on changing it. It’s sweet, and it makes you really root for these kids even if you know what’s coming next.
Lord Asriel, made to feel like he at least owes Lyra some kind of goodbye, wakes Lyra up in the middle of the night. He decides he should do a little bit of parenting. He explains why he’s fighting The Magisterium, and what he intends to do.
As we saw in the first episode, there is a city in the northern lights. He wants to build a bridge to it so the world can see whatever The Magisterium wants to keep secret. He also expresses surprise that Mrs. Coulter is the one who stopped Lyra from getting cut at Bolvangar, and mentions that when a child is severed from their daemon, a massive amount of energy is released. That information seems important, huh?
Dafne Keen as Lyra. (Photo Credit: HBO)
The next morning, Lyra wakes up to find Roger and Lord Asriel gone. When Lord Asriel’s assistant tries to stop Lyra from following, she figures out what he’s going to do. He’s going to cut Roger from his daemon and use the energy to build a bridge to the other world. She calls Iorek to take her up the mountain and he brings the rest of the bears with him. The Magisterium forces are closing in on Lord Asriel as well, and Iorek wants them ready for battle.
The show has one final battle scene before us as the show ends. It looks spectacular. Airships are raining bullets on the bear army, and the bears respond with fire hurlers. As an airship explodes in the sky over Lyra, it’s the most spectacular image we’ve seen on this show yet. And it’s kind of unneeded. Like, we spent the bear fight focused on Lyra. We diminished the daemons’ presence because of budgetary issues, and this is what you put you’re effects budget toward? A fancy explosion that, while admittedly cool, isn’t even close to the emotional climax of this episode?
The performances are really what make this finale shine though. I can’t fault the battle for being cool-looking, especially when the show gives the right amount of weight to the emotional reveals and character journeys that are really important here. The cast is fantastic in this episode, and their strong performances send this first season out on a high note.
With the battle largely winding down, Lyra and Iorek race to the mountain as Lord Asriel plans to cut Roger. Even knowing how the story ends, I don’t think I blinked once during this sequence. It’s so well done and Dafne Keene plays Lyra’s futility, sorrow, and determination so well.
She makes it to Roger’s cage just as Lord Asriel brings down the giant blade. Lyra calls Roger’s name as the explosion of energy blows her back. A bridge of light appears between the city in the sky and the ground, and all the fighting stops. In this one moment, the series finally feels as magical as I’ve wanted it to all season.
Ruth Wilson as Mrs. Coulter. (Photo Credit: HBO)
Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter reunite, and it’s a surprisingly effective scene. Possibly because we’re seeing two very good actors giving it they’re all here. At this point though, we’ve come to know them pretty well. Their goals are different, but come out of a similar desire.
As Lord Asriel tries to convince her to explore the world beyond the bridge with him, we finally see why they were attracted to each other in the first place. The only difference is Mrs. Coulter wants to be with Lyra. Despite everything she tried to do, she does love Lyra. And that’s interesting because this isn’t a redemptive moment. She’s still a villain. The show knows that her love is just as dangerous as Lord Asriel’s indifference.
Lyra hides from Mrs. Coulter until she leaves the mountain, then cries over Roger’s dead body. All the work this episode put into developing their relationship makes this scene absolutely gutting. She laments that she wasn’t able to say goodbye or even sorry.
This is the betrayal Sarafina Pekkala hinted at a few episodes ago, and it hurts. His Dark Materials struggled a lot with adapting this material for the screen, but none of those struggles were present in this episode. If nothing else, it gives me hope for the next season.
Lyra and Pan decide to find Dust and protect it from both The Magesterium and Lord Asriel. They step forward into the bridge. At the same time, Will Parry, on the run after killing the intruder in his home, finds a strange portal in a garden and steps through it. We don’t see where either Lyra or Will end up.
That’s when The Subtle Knife really starts, after all. For now, they’re both stepping forward into the unknown. And I can’t wait to see what new worlds we’ll explore next season.
His Dark Materials airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on HBO.
Previously on His Dark Materials:
- His Dark Materials Season 1 Episode 7 Recap
- His Dark Materials Season 1 Episode 6 Recap
- His Dark Materials Season 1 Episode 5 Recap
from Geek.com https://ift.tt/2Zqh7zw
via IFTTT
0 comments:
Post a Comment