His Dark Materials Season 3 Episode No 2 Recap And Review
His Dark Materials Season 3 Episode 2 Will thanks the angel Baltomos for helping him. Balthamos emphasizes that the bond between angels is strong and that they can sense each other over great distances. In this case, he can feel his brothers getting closer to Asriel.
As for Lyra, she has a bad dream where she crashes into the Land of the Dead.
Ogunwe sees the great armies that Asriel has gathered, including Queen Ruta Skadi of the witch tribe of Lake Lubana with her demon Sergi. It turns out that he is an important part of Asriel’s advice and is actually the one who recommended bringing Ogunwe on board. His soldiers’ reputation precedes him, but Asriel points out that they need more men at their disposal to provoke the Authority. They must force Him to show His face, and when that happens, they will need numbers.
Asriel gets word that Lyra is in trouble and that Father MacPhail and the others are after her. Asriel scoffs at this, writing her off as just a young child, not the fabled Eve of the prophecy we heard MacPhail talk about last episode.
Anyway, after a fight with someone else working for the Authority, he’s interrupted by an angel who slams the earth into the ground. He announces that they have found the God Slayer; A weapon to destroy authority. Of course, we know it’s about Will. Before the angel passes, Will reveals to Lyra that Asriel needs to find the blade before it’s too late. Unfortunately, she happens to be romantically involved with Angel Baltamos, and is devastated when the latter finds out.
An angel working with the Authority, Alarbus, is captured by Asriel, who begins to torture the creature for information, arming Dust for answers. Alarbus reveals that the new Regent, known colloquially as Metatron, intends to rule the Dust and bend all domains to his will.
Asriel intends to encourage his leaders to come out of hiding. And after learning that those in the Kingdom of Heaven don’t even know Asriel’s name, he’s more determined than ever to fix that, and is determined to get them out of hiding.
The clue may be with Dust, and who better than a dust (dark matter) expert, Dr. Mary Malone. He enters a camp where several soldiers are still hiding from the drones hovering overhead.
Meanwhile, Baltamos and Will arrive at the house and find Ama. He knows about Lyra and has actually collected the Sun Root to reawaken her. However, as Will arrives in Lyra’s bedroom, Mrs. Coulter suddenly appears. Coulter was waiting for him and knows he has the knife.
Coulter is well aware that the Magisterium believes Lyra is Eve, and she is quick to point out that they will stop her no matter what. As for Coulter, she keeps Lyra dosed and asleep because she knows her daughter will run away if she wakes up. Despite being convinced by Lyra that he is doing the right thing, Will is reluctant to believe the silver-tongued woman and leaves, unsatisfied with her explanation.
Unfortunately, the Authorities are about to arrive and land on Mrs. Coulter and Lyra’s hideout. Asriel learned of this courtesy of his secret agent and decided to go there himself to stop them. He’s not particularly interested in saving Lyra, but wants to take the God Slayer for himself.
Mrs. Coulter sees the Authority coming and decides to have her Daemon hit the head with a rock, throwing it at Will and claiming to have taken Lyra. The lie is subtle and does little to placate Father McPhail and his followers, especially Father Gomez.
Balthamos decides to follow through on all this drama, believing the whole endeavor to be a human affair, while Will once again tears a hole in reality and leaves. This is of course unbeknownst to Asriel who is still inside. But wait, Will suddenly rips a hole in the fabric of reality and ends up right in the middle of the shack. Why didn’t he do that first instead of buying a boat and getting old to come?
Will rescues Lyra and tries to take her away, but unfortunately Mrs. Coulter’s venomous words cut deeper than that knife could. In fact, it distracts him so much that he ends up ripping the knife to pieces!
Mrs. Coulter, who has very little to her name, grabs Gomez’s gun and holds her captive. That is, until Salmakia, the fairy spy we hear about, stings Coulter and encourages them to follow. When they get outside, the whole place is on fire, but Iorek jumps in to stop the Authority, so Will can go through another hole in reality. As they leave, Asriel appears and realizes it’s too late.
Episode Review
The action begins now in His Dark Materials, and not too soon. Season two does well to drive home the idea of Lyra and Will both being together, with Asriel nicely flirting that line between hero and villain. It is clear that a bigger fight is coming and who will come out on top remains to be seen.
While characters like Mary Malone have had little importance in the plot thus far, this second chapter definitely steps it up. I think that may change moving forward. All that being said, His Dark Materials promises more drama next week and this double bill should be quite the blockbuster!