His Dark Materials: Betrayal (1x08)

Dafne Keen is going places. She's phenomenal. This show... just... wow.

Cons:

I liked the way the daemons were integrated into this episode; they definitely got better about that as the season went on. But now I have to register a related, yet slightly different complaint...Pan is always in the same damn form. I mean, not always, but enough that it's distracting. I think in the book that was definitely his preferred form, but since it's a very important plot point that Lyra's daemon hasn't "settled" yet, I think some more variety would have been nice, just to emphasize that. Is this a nitpick? Yes.

Also... I missed Lee. A lot. I wish we could have seen more of him, although I understand why time constraints would limit his role towards the end of the season.

Pros:

While I'm not sure I'd ever recommend this show to someone on the basis of its effects/action sequences, I will admit that the final battle scene was pretty cool, with all the moving pieces of the bears, the Magesterium, etc. coming together in one bombastic final confrontation. Bodies are flying around, lights and noise and chaos... and Lyra, running through it all, just trying to get to Roger. I really felt the tension and urgency here.

McAvoy is such a good Lord Asriel. All of his scenes with Lyra are just so intense and layered and amazing. Because he has... affection for her. He freaked out when he thought she had come alone, but if you play that despair through to its obvious conclusion, he freaked out because he was still thinking about going through with his plan, killing his daughter for the sake of progress. He was relieved to have another child to victimize instead. But if Roger hadn't been there? Who knows.

Their conversations, about Lyra being special, about Dust and sin and what science can teach us, are all tinged with this sinister energy for those of us who can see the writing on the wall. Lyra saying she would have been so proud to be Asriel's daughter... that just gutted me. There's this distance between them for obvious reasons, and I think it can be encapsulated in that moment at the very end, where Asriel is asking Marisa to come with him through the bridge in the sky, and Marisa says that she needs to stay in this world, because it's where Lyra is. Asriel asks her: "you want her?" And it's... a polite question, a general curiosity. His love for Lyra is real, true enough, but the idea of giving up what he's discovered for the sake of his daughter is something he can't understand.

I really, really love that this is a story about a little girl who gets pulled in to a crazy adventure, but it's also about the evils of organized religion and this sort of alternate history that's intrinsically tied up with the corruption of the church, and all of that is so clearly displayed and then complicated by Asriel and Coulter as characters. You've got science vs. religion, sort of, but both sides are willing to torture children for their aims. Asriel is doing it as a means to an end, since severing a daemon and child releases the energy he needs to open a portal. Marisa is doing it because she thinks ultimately she's saving humanity from original sin. It's... messed up. Both of them are so wrong, and so evil, and so certain of their own righteousness.

Let's talk about Roger and Lyra's friendship, because... oh boy. They really milked this bond for all it was worth. They really wanted me to feel this one. They have sentimental conversations about how much they've changed and helped each other, and Roger is so supportive, and checking in on Lyra, and then he's so confused and betrayed, and there's time for Lyra to find Roger in the cage, for them to see each other one last time but not time for anyone to say anything... God. It's just so much. So heartbreaking. And Dafne Keen's performance as she cradles Roger's body to her, and contemplates her future with Pan... wow. Just, wow. I don't really have the words for it.

We also spend some time with Will in this episode, as he is on the run after Boreal's men broke into his house. There's not a lot to talk about here, other than the big thing - he finds a portal and steps through it. And we see this, juxtaposed with Lyra walking across the bridge that Asriel created in the Northern Lights. I wavered back and forth with how I felt about Will's story being started here in season one, but as we hit the end of this finale, I've got to say I'm firmly in favor.

There are two reasons for this - one is that the parallel of Will and Lyra both entering this other world through vastly different means is really setting up how important they will be to each other. Both are at an extreme low point. Both feel totally alone, and both are about to encounter something the likes of which they never could have imagined. The second reason is specifically the 'vastly different means' thing. Because Asriel just murdered Roger right in front of Lyra's eyes, desperate for the energy to go into another world and find answers about Dust. And Will? He just... wandered through a weird displaced pocket of air and vanished. It's so quiet, so simple. And having seen Boreal jump between worlds throughout the season, it becomes heartbreakingly clear that Asriel's evil methods are not at all necessary to travel between the realms. The heartbreak of this climax is all the more potent when you realize how unnecessary it all was.

I could really go on and on about this episode, and about Keen's performance in specific, but I'll just leave it here - this girl is killing it, no matter what scene partner she's working with. She's bringing so much nuance and empathy and love and joy to Lyra Silvertongue, and I can't wait to see what she does next.

9/10