'His Dark Materials' Episode 4 'Armour' brings Lyra to the North, the land of armoured bears, witches, and one cowboy aeronaut
It's always the North isn't it, where adventures begin?
In Episode 4 of 'His Dark Materials' titled 'Armour', the Gyptians land in Trollesund, the Northern outpost, to consult with the Witch Consul, an ambassador for the witches. Lee Scoresby, played by Lin Manuel Miranda, and his daemon Hester also land their balloon to follow up on the "rumors of a bear" at the outpost.
The bear in question, Iorek Byrnison, is a panserbjørn—an armored bear—part of a fierce, war-loving Northern bear tribe, who are as intelligent as humans and can talk. Their armor (made of sky iron) is like the humans' daemons, and as integral a part of their being and selfhood as our souls. Iorek Byrnison also has a dimple that anthropomorphizes him on the show, but he is not 'cute' by any stretch of the imagination.
Iorek, tricked out of his armor, is stuck working metal for the humans to pay back a "blood debt" to the Magisterium. Scoresby finds this out as he pickpockets and fights his way across town. He is a troublemaker, as the constable (and the Magisterium's stooge in town) says.
The constable is the one responsible for enslaving Iorek on Mrs Coulter's (Ruth Wilson) orders so that his throne can be usurped by his challenger Iofur Raknison, who becomes the new king of the armored bear tribe. Iofur is more amenable to the Magesterium and Mrs Coulter's suggestions because of his obsession to become human—book fans will know why.
There are enough references in the episode to indicate that the North is where civilization (and the Magesterium's power) have less of a hold. The townsfolk are mistrusting and unfriendly, live hard lives and are not "welcoming of strangers".
But it is here that Lyra impresses the Witch's consul by reading the alethiometer correctly to find the cloud-pine branch belonging to Serafina Pekkala, the witch queen and Farder Coram's (James Cosmo) one-time lover. In return, the consul sends a message to Serafina and advises Lyra to hire the "services of an armored bear".
The consul is also the first to give concrete information about what is happening to the missing children. They have been rounded up at "The Station" in Bolvangar, a remote Northern outpost. He speaks of "intercision" with a barely suppressed shudder. Later, Iorek, in his conversation with Lyra, tells her that he knows all about the "Child Cutters".
Suddenly those weird diagrams Lyra found in the papers in Mrs Coulter's study in episode 2, of a child and its daemon in a machine with a sharp cutter, make a lot more sense now, don't they? Book fans will know that "intercision" is the method developed by Mrs Coulter to sever children from their daemons before they begin attracting "Dust", the heretical substance linked to the Original Sin of Eve, according to the Magisterium.
In between passing on these vital bits of information, the episode mainly revolves around introducing (and rescuing) Iorek and Lee Scoresby. By the episode's end, they are recruited for the fight against the Gobblers in Bolvangar. It is fun to see Dafne Keen's Lyra run circles around adults like John Faa and Scoresby.
Instead of infantilizing Lyra, the show gives her agency. She is more cunning, street smart and capable of strategizing, like a mini-general, than the adults. Farder Coram says as much when Scoresby tries to ignore the "talking child". It is a welcome change from the movie version where Lyra was more passive—more propelled by fate than her own actions.
Serafina's daemon also flies in to pledge Serafina's support, setting the stage for the battle at Bolvangar. The viewers are informed in a bit of expositional dialogue that the near-immortal witches' daemons have the ability to travel far away from their human companions—an ability that only Mrs Coulter has shown in the show till now.
However, since Mrs Coulter is not a magical creature like the witches, it can be assumed that she is an adult who has undergone intercision—it explains a lot about the dynamics between Marissa Coulter and her daemon on the show.
Mrs Coulter, thanks to her spy fly, knows where Lyra is and therefore is her calm, deadly self again when she bests the Cardinal who wants to punish her for her excesses in Jordon College. Turns out she holds the trump card—Lord Asriel has been imprisoned by Iofur Raknison, thanks to her.
Just like she traded the "help" she gave to make Iofur king (by enslaving Iorek) for the capture and imprisonment of Lord Asriel, she bargains with the Cardinal too. She trades Asriel for the privilege of continuing her "Gobbler" project as its head and "one question" answered by the Church-sanctioned alethiometer-reader. Her question is succinct but loaded: "Who is Lyra Belacqua?", the answer potentially opening the key to the prophecy about Lyra that the Master of Jordon College had hinted at in episode 1.
She later also entices Iofur with a "baptism", promising him that he will be the only bear to receive the "honour", if he releases Asriel to her. Meanwhile Lord Boreal is angry about Mrs Coulter getting to ask a question of the Church-sanctioned alethiometer but, for now, he is more interested in what the explorer Stanislaus Grumman (Andrew Scott) had discovered and how he can use it.
His Dark Materials' airs Mondays at 9 pm on HBO.
