His Dark MaterialsTurns Into a Heist Thriller and Sets Up the Eventual Endgame

BBCand HBO’sHis Dark Materialsis building to something big , with last calendar week ’s instalment at last seeing Will come into possession of the Subtle Knife . Now , we ’re seeing him put it to the psychometric test in a high - stakes sequence that also turn over into sexism , the line between science and faith , and what happens when someone find the grass is green on the other side ofthe multiverse .

Season two ’s “ The Scholar ” representsHis Dark Materialsat its high electric potential . A mix of moral philosophy and entertain action — where the smartest mass in the room are invariably endeavor to outsmart one another with clever words and intense stares , only to find there ’s still so much beyond their understanding .

Nowhere is this better present than with Mrs. Coulter ( Ruth Wilson ) , whose inaugural trip into our creation — and all its temptations — runs alongside Lyra ( Dafne Keen ) and Will ’s ( Amir Wilson ) quest to get the alethiometer back from Lord Boreal . On the surface , Lyra and Will ’s delegacy is the most critical part of the episode . After the result of last week ’s “ The Tower of the Angels , ” Will has found himself the bearer of the Subtle Knife — a powerful target that can create threshold between worlds . This put him on par with Lyra as one of themost important peoplein the multiverse . But unlike his new protagonist , whose childhood curiosity ( coalesce with arrant lordliness ) coaxed her into subdue the alethiometer right away , Will is more timid and unsure . His approach to using the Subtle Knife is more out of necessity than pridefulness . This is not an object or fate he sign up for but he still live there ’s work to do .

Lyra (Dafne Keen) gets ready for a multiverse heist.

Lyra (Dafne Keen) gets ready for a multiverse heist.Image: BBC

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Lyra and Will prep their heist of Lord Boreal ’s ( Ariyon Bakare ) mansion , using the tongue to build the ultimate escape plan , and as this unfolds we get to the genuine emotional meat of the episode . The TV show has taken a roundabout way from the author material by having Mrs. Coulter ’s path intersect with other people in Lyra ’s animation this season . In a former installment , she visit Lee Scoresby ( Lin - Manuel Miranda ) in jail , where the two of them commiserated about their childhoods . Here we see Mrs. Coulter pass a portion of time in our reading of Oxford , instead of just dropping by for a quick sojourn like she did in the books .

It ’s how she reacts to this newfangled reality that I found so gripping . You see , Mrs. Coulter is used to a sure way of getting what she require — a traditional ( and sexist ) way of storytelling would call it “ womanly wiles , ” though it ’s so much more than that . Since Mrs. Coulter has turn up in a gild where men use religion to assure the existence , she ’s cultivated an glory of mysterious index around herself that she wields like a weapon system . We see this when she hawkishly abandons her daimon in Lord Boreal ’s home to hazard out on her own , remind him along the way that it ’s something witches can do too . The fact that hag are all women is an unspoken detail that pay her a sense of unearthliness , as well as a seductive allurement that ’s always just out of reach . This is how Mrs. Coulter is used to wield her power because the only obstacles in her way have been men — and the society — who react to it .

Graphic: Jim Cooke

Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson) takes a trip into our reality.Image: BBC

This comes to a screeching halt when she goes to visit Mary Malone ( Simone Kirby ) , the dark affair researcher Lyra came across in a previous episode . Mrs. Coulter ventured there to get information about Lyra but winds up being shaken to her core . To us , Mary might seem like your distinctive scientist — but to Mrs. Coulter , this cleaning woman is disarming . She represents everything Mrs. Coulter had no idea she ’d been denied , and she ’s both intrigued and enraged by it . In just a few short second , Mrs. Coulter is all conquer and has to go forth the office , having been upstaged by a fair sex who did n’t even realize she was doing it .

She spends the rest of the episode on the edge , having lost her signified of control by being confront with how piffling control she really has . It even plays into her relationship with Lyra — she ’s overjealous that Lyra is free of her influence and moving through the macrocosm ( or worlds ) in a fashion she never could . So , when Lyra and Will line up themselves sneaking into Lord Boreal ’s home , using the knife to pull off an inter - dimensional heist , the eventual opposition when they get caught feels less like a standoff and more like a desperate attempt for Mrs. Coulter to have something she can call her own . But it ’s too little , too late for Lyra — it adds weightiness to the here and now she commands Pantalaimon to assail Mrs. Coulter ’s daemon , a direct parallel of what Mrs. Coulter had done to her in season one . There ’s angriness , rage , and a loss of control that both Lyra and her female parent can not move by — and it ’s only through Will ’s persistence that Lyra fall apart out of it and flees , leaving her mother alone once again .

The episode ends with Mary , who received a cryptic message from her dark matter information processing system to “ fiddle the serpent , ” venturing into Cittagazze on a missionary station that she does n’t understand . common people who ’ve read the books will sleep with this is the start of something vast , a bit that directly tie into the trilogy ’s orgasm . But for now , it ’s just the story of a former conical buoy result her life behind to abide by the word of honor of diminish angels .

Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson) takes a trip into our reality.