REALITY TV
TV
MOVIES
MUSIC
CELEBRITY
About Us Contact Us Privacy Policy Terms of Use Accuracy & Fairness Corrections & Clarifications Ethics Code Your Ad Choices
© MEAWW All rights reserved
MEAWW.COM / ENTERTAINMENT / TV

'His Dark Materials' finale sees Lyra and Will embark on journeys through breaches between worlds

When you have parents like Lyra's who needs enemies? In the latest episode, Lyra loses her friend Roger Parlow after being betrayed by her father not long after she has been betrayed by her mother.
PUBLISHED DEC 24, 2019
Lord Asriel and Lyra discuss the nature of Dust and daemons (HBO)
Lord Asriel and Lyra discuss the nature of Dust and daemons (HBO)

Spoilers for 'His Dark Materials' season finale

Adults fall short, especially parents. If there is anything that the first season of the BBC-HBO adaptation of Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' underlines - it is just that. Lyra's (Dafne Keen) status as an orphan changes but the deeply held feeling that she is alone never does. 

And with a mother like Mrs Coulter (Ruth Wilson) and a father like Lord Asriel (James McAvoy), who can blame her? Both are so caught up in their "work" and the games of lies, deceit, and power that surround their actions pursuing 'big picture' theories, that the 'small picture' moments of friendship, camaraderie and yes, love, fall to the side.

The only "fatherly" thing Lord Asriel tells her is that she is "a product of something extraordinary", which is really a compliment to his and Mrs Coulter's genetics than a true understanding of who Lyra is. She might be cunning and charming like her mother and ruthless and daring like her father. But how she uses these qualities makes her "Lyra Silvertongue", a creature who is not of her father or her mother.

And unlike her parents who try to evade their responsibility, Lyra takes on responsibility repeatedly this season, growing each time she shoulders a new burden. In this episode, she shoulders the heaviest burden of all -- the knowledge that her actions have resulted in the death of her best friend. 

Mrs Coulter seems to have finally realized the importance of being responsible and the love that it takes to care for someone rather than manipulating them into loving her. She rejects Lord Asriel's offer to follow her ambitions and "create the new Kingdom of Heaven" with him. She tells him she wants Lyra more than anything (even though their canoodling daemons suggest Lord Asriel comes a close second). But the realization has come too late. Lyra hides from her, too burnt by betrayals -- the most recent being her father, Lord Asriel, sacrificing Roger Parslow to breach the boundary between worlds. 

As Mrs Coulter leaves, Lyra cradles Roger's body and swears she will find Dust before Lord Asriel. Her inner mistrust of adults comes out when Pan says that adults told them Dust was evil but maybe it was not. That maybe "it needed protecting". 

And with that Lyra follows her father into the breach and Will Parry (Amir Wilson), in a scene mirroring hers, finds the breach that Lord Boreal has been using and steps through too. Both have had horrific things happen to them and they have done horrific things, albeit unknowingly. Lyra has led Roger to his death while Will has killed the intruder who broke into his home. They have nothing left for them in their own worlds which makes stepping into the unknown that much easier. 

The last episode has the big 'shock and awe' moments like when the Magesterium troops attack from the air with dive-bombing fighters and their falcon daemons while the armoured bears rally on the ground with their surface anti-aircraft guns or when Lord Asriel opens the breach between worlds. But it is the quiet moments that make you hold your breath as you lean in hoping you don't miss anything important. 

Key among them is the conversations between Roger and Lyra sitting in their little makeshift fort, drinking cocoa. Conversations made all the more poignant in light of final betrayal and death. There is also one interaction, between Lyra and Lord Asriel, where we get to hear their world's version of the Adam and Eve tale. Eve's daemon settles and she starts attracting Dust when she bites the apple to know the difference between good and evil. This makes the Magisterium equate Dust with Original Sin.

Lord Asriel looks at Roger's death as insignificant collateral for the war over souls being fought between 'The Authority' and humanity, with 'The Authority' being a reference to God that wants to keep humanity "in darkness". 

In a neat little set up for the next season, we also see Lord Boreal get information that Grumman's son aka Will Parry will lead the way to the Knife in the "Tower of Angels". Though she doesn't know this yet, Lyra won't be alone for long.  

'His Dark Materials' finale aired on December 23 at 9 pm on HBO.

POPULAR ON MEAWW
MORE ON MEAWW