Here we go with another week of His Dark Materials, this is getting interesting!
I felt like I couldn’t fully pay attention to what was happening in this episode due to me having a headache on the left side of my face like my eye couldn’t stay open. Anyway, we get to see more of the Gyptians in this episode, but not before we are treated to Mrs. Coulter searching the college and having it ransacked in search for Lyra; a decision that the Magisterium isn’t exactly pleased with.
Mrs. Coulter starts to really show her cruel side with this tactic as she tears up the sheets in the room that Lyra once occupied and then sends the spy flies which only one reports back.
The Gyptians live on houseboats and travel a lot. They have continued to follow the trail of the missing children, but just when you think they have found them, the children are moved again. It also appears their boats have a lot of hidden compartments given they were able to hide Lyra so well in one of them when Gobblers came to search the boats.
I must admit that it is much easier to follow Lyra’s usage of the alethiometer pointing to each symbol as she learns how to read it. I am hoping that the books can tell me more about what each symbol means and how it pertains to the questions and answers. Now, she appears to pick it up quickly.
We still don’t know exactly who Boreal is looking for and why, but this episode notes that one’s identity in the two different Earths can have two different names. This subplot still hasn’t grabbed my attention so far.
Finally, with Lyra having had enough of being trapped without any progress towards where Roger might be, she attempts to leave until Ma Costa reveals to her that her mother is in fact, Mrs. Coulter is her mother who had an affair with Asriel. I struggle to decide where this was a good climax or not. But when the episode ended with her and company setting sale North at last, it made me excited because I know exactly what was coming next!
The strongest part of this episode was when Tony and Benjamin try to find out more about where the children are being taken and what is being done with them. They search Mrs. Coulter’s apartment and she kills Benjamin. So, in this world, if you die, your daemon turns to dust.
Not the most powerful episode out there but decent, I’m giving it a B-.
Stayed tuned next week for the next episode!
👽Emily
Monsterlady's Diary 