His Dark Materials: Tower of the Angels (2x04)

Okay, yeah, things are really a-happening, aren't they??

Cons:

The witches are so far the weakest link for me this season. They're not bad, but just a little bland. They look cool, and I guess they are cool in what they get up to, but whenever the scene switches over to them I find myself underwhelmed. The puzzle pieces are moving towards each other, as the witches are going to go join Asriel, but I don't have a lot more to report than that.

This is the nitpicky-est of nitpicks, but the subtle knife didn't look how I imagined it in my head! I guess I heard 'knife' and thought 'dagger', so I expected the blade to be bigger, maybe? It's fine, it's not ruining the show for me or anything, but I thought I'd point it out.

Pros:

The whole fight in the tower was excellent. They managed to ratchet up the tension without making the fight overlong. This isn't a meticulously choreographed battle between seasoned warriors, it's a scrappy fight between two young people, one of them still a boy, and it results in grievous injury and more than one death, if you count the former wielder's subsequent demise. It was brutal, quick, and intense. I also thought the gravity of the moment was portrayed really well. Will has just gotten himself inextricably involved in a complicated situation that he didn't want anything to do with. There's no backing out now, and he accepts it with grace, even exhibiting some excitement and curiosity about the knife and its properties. But there's a heavy burden on him now, and he definitely knows that too.

The scene where Will touched Pan was so beautiful! I don't know how to articulate this well, but there's something really powerful about the daemons in this story, beyond just the obvious of them being a manifestation of a person's soul. There's something cool about the gendered aspect, the way there is a feminine spirit in some bodies and a masculine spirit in others, but those are often (but not always) different than that of their gender. I know a lot of people have written fic that explores this further, when it comes to nonbinary and transgender people and their daemons. But I think the thing that's really gripping me here is that daemons are a representation of desire and of vulnerability. So when Pan allows Will to touch him, it was because he, Pan, wanted to. Which meant a part of Lyra's soul was open to that vulnerability, even if the actual connection between the two human children hadn't outwardly reached that level. What a powerful, intense moment for them!

And speaking of powerful, intense daemon stuff, I've got to say that Phoebe Waller-Bridge being cast as Andrew Scott's daemon is giving me ALL sorts of feels. I know it's just a meta thing, and not really relevant in terms of the show... but I got a little misty-eyed, thinking of them being joined souls like that, after they could never be together in Fleabag.

I loved Lee Scorseby's continuing journey here! I was thinking about what happens in the books, and I don't think they've really expanded his material that much, barring the Mrs. Coulter thing from last week, but it feels like he's getting more screen-time and a chance to really carry a plot thread of his own. And I think it's working really well, and is totally a good move! He meets Grumman at last, or, as we learn, Jopari (Joe Parry, Will's father). They make a deal to travel together, as Parry wants to find the wielder of the subtle knife so that it can be used in Asriel's war, unaware that the new bearer of the knife is Will. Lee's motives are no less important, although he's thinking in more personal, individual terms. He wants the knife to be used for Lyra's protection. Lucky for both of them, it looks like that's already the case!

I loved Scott's performance of Grumman/Parry... he was incredibly flat in some ways, but it made sense for a man who has commanded magics and traveled so far. He's entered into this preternatural sense of calm communion with the world around him. Lee, happy to be back in the air on their journey at last, is delighted when Parry uses his magics to summon a wind to aid in their travels.

Mrs. Coulter continues to be sinister as fuck, and she and Boreal are on the move, getting ever closer to finding Lyra. Mrs. Coulter is now in Will's Oxford, awaiting Lyra's return for the alethiometer. We'll have to see how that plays out in the next episode! I like how Marisa and Boreal have this sort of seduction thing going on, where they're both attempting to play each other. It's less clear what Boreal gets out of helping Marisa, but there's this sense that he wants to make her happy, at the same time that he wants more practical assets, such as the knife that Will has no intention of giving up.

Mary Malone gives the Cave another try, and manages to talk to Dust/Dark Matter/Shadows for the first time! This scene was excellently done, and honestly chilling... we learn that Dust is conscious, and that it is angels, and that angels have been interfering in human evolution from the beginning. "Why?" Mary Malone asks. "Vengeance," the angels answer. I love what this is setting up. Pullman's anti-religion agenda in the books is hard to miss, and I recall the terrible movie that came out years ago tried to kind of shy away from that explicit part of the message. Not so, here. We're going full-tilt, and things are getting intense. I'm all about it!

One last note on Asriel - I love how absent he's been this season, but how present the specter of him remains. Everyone knows Asriel is up to something. Various forces are coalescing around him. I like the buildup, and I'm excited to see his return... if he even returns this season at all!

I'm sure there's more to discuss, but that's where we'll leave off for now. Will has the knife, and now the next step is to get the alethiometer back from Boreal. From there, they've got to reunite Will with his father, who is even now looking for him, unaware that his son is the knife wielder he seeks! Things are coming together in a big way, and I'm really anxious to see how some of my favorite moments from the books are going to be portrayed in the coming weeks.

8.5/10