His Dark Materials: Malice (2x06)

This was by no means a bad hour of television, but it felt like a lot of setup, a lot of spinning wheels, and maybe less of an epic feel than the same moments I remember from the book. Let's dive in.

Cons:

There are many ways in which it feels like the scope was shrunk down for the show, from what was portrayed in the books. Since this was filmed before COVID, I don't really understand why some of these limiting choices where made. In the books, when Will and Lyra are attacked by the child citizens of Cittagaze, it's a protracted chase sequence and they end up climbing a tower and the witches swoop in at the last possible second. Here, it's just the two sisters instead of a whole gang, and they scramble up to the roof, then the witches arrive. In the book, there are a dozen or so witches, and here we see three or four. In the book, Boreal's death comes at a campsite where Mrs. Coulter is staying with him in the nicest tent, and they are surrounded by a whole crew coming with them on the hunt for Lyra, thus showing the influence and power that Mrs. Coulter is giving up by abandoning her supposed protectors. Here, it's just the two of them. All of these things combined make the scope feel smaller, the world feel smaller, in a lot of ways.

And then on the flipside, the episode somewhat has the opposite problem as well. Instead of telling a focused, narrow story, we're spread far and wide, checking in with Lee and Jopari, with the witches, with Coulter and Boreal, Will and Lyra, and... the Magisterium. I want the Magisterium scenes to work for me, but they have consistently been the least interesting in the whole show. When they were drawing out the reveal of Lyra as "Eve" I was rolling my eyes, just waiting for them to get through all the slow, sonorous speechifying and back to the action.

Oh, and another thing... I can't remember from the books, but don't Serafina Pekkala and Lyra meet before this moment? When she showed up and they talked, and I realized they were seeing each other for the first time in the show, it didn't have the impact that it should have. Frankly, the witches overall have been the biggest disappointment for me, in terms of translating what I liked about them from the books. See, the vibe is supposed to be that they never get involved in political and human affairs, and this is a moment when they're making a big exception. The way it comes across here, they seem like bit players, and every time we check in with them, I'm not as gripped as I want to be.

Pros:

I'll keep saying it, but if they were only able to get one thing right this season and it was Will and Lyra, they would have chosen correctly. I love the friendship and care between the two of them. Serafina tells Will that Lyra is his responsibility, just as Lyra thinks of Will as her responsibility. But they also genuinely trust and respect and care for one another, and they're in this shit until the bitter end. So good.

While I might have wished for some changes to the Mrs. Coulter and Boreal stuff, I did ultimately still think this was a clever and intense continuation from where we left them last week. When the monkey and the snake approached each other while Coulter and Boreal spoke, it was just such a great building of tension. And Mrs. Coulter revealing, once again, that Lyra is her only true priority, worked as such an expression of her power. See, Boreal offers her tepid "equality" here, claiming to think of her as his equal in all things. He definitely picked up on what was bothering her in the last episode. But Mrs. Coulter doesn't want what a man can hand her, magnanimous, and motivated by lust. She just wants her daughter, and Boreal's limited ambitions and poor planning made it harder for her to achieve that goal. Hence... she doesn't need him anymore. Time to get him out of the way. So chilling.

I'm getting vibes from Lee and Joe Parry lol. I mean, not really, but kind of. They have this funny, nearly flirty, energy to them, that adds a lot of comedy but also heart to their scenes together. I loved the moment when Lee, a jovial man who is nevertheless in a stressful position, asks if the Shaman can magic them up some fire. Jopari pauses, closes his eyes as if to call on magical forces, and then produces a box of matches, tossing them to Lee, who smiles and rolls his eyes. It's just fun, okay?

And like... knowing where it's all going, I will say that the "elements converging" stuff worked best for me with Lee, his balloon whirling through a storm, while Andrew Scott makes the bad guys explode behind them. That made me hyped for the thing that's going to happen in the finale, at the same time as I am of course dreading it.

This is a departure from Mary's character in the books, that she's sticking around to help the kids instead of heading straight for another world, but I think it works really well! The scene where the feral child asks Mary for a hug, and both of the girls just want someone to tell them to wash and look after them... that was really heart-twisting, and it works so well for Mary, a woman who has so much love to give, who was so nurturing to Lyra immediately, but who also has a bigger mission that she shouldn't ignore. What a great addition!

So that's where I'll stop for now. This episode wasn't as good as the last. I definitely think when the plot threads get spread too thin, we start to lose some of the magic of the show. Fortunately, the performances are enough to ground me and keep me coming back time and again. I can't believe next week is already the finale!

7/10