Mrs. Coulter sees the light as Lyra and Will unintentionally strike the first blow in the war on heaven.
If you haven’t read or watched His Dark Materials, it’s hard to explain how weird it is. This is its greatest strength, I believe, but also its biggest weakness, because while each part is intensely creative, when more closely examined in isolation, these parts can be utterly bizarre. Case in point: I just watched Ruth Wilson, award-winning star of stage and screen, apologize to a sulking CG monkey. Also, the monkey is her soul. What?!
Tonight’s first episode, “No Way Out,” feels as glacially trapped as its title suggests. Having traveled to the land of the dead (and leaving Lyra’s daemon Pan behind), Will and Lyra do a bit of wandering before they manage to find her friend Roger in what they realize isn’t heaven or hell, but the Authority’s eternal prison camp. The dead are, as one might expect, fearful and not particularly motivated to try escaping until Lyra reminds Roger of their exploits together at Jordan College. Remembering his life brings Roger back to life, metaphorically, as well as others nearby, who start telling their life stories, inspiring others to remember, and so on.
Eventually, everyone’s ready to get back to the real world, but it turns out they’re too far down in the underworld—literally, if not also figuratively—and thus begins a slow but steady climb up through caves. Unfortunately, the march also continues through the second of tonight’s episodes, but at least there are appearances by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Lee Scoresby and Andrew Scott as Will’s dad to liven things up. Oh, and there are harpies who remind people how terrible they are, but it turns out they like stories too, so it all works out, even when the multiverse explodes.
Remember the Lyra-seeking bomb introduced last week over in the Magisterium’s world? Well, it’s been completed—it just needs to be powered by the severing of someone from their daemon/soul.
