His Dark Materials: The Abyss (3x06)

Man, I got super weepy with this one.

Cons:

I felt like of all the emotional gut-punches in this episode, the one that wasn't as effective for me was Will and his dad. I think this goes back to an error in judgment from the second season. See, in the books, Will and Jopari never get to have a conversation as father and son while they're both alive. This is the first time, in the land of the dead, that they're getting to talk. But here in the show, they got to have a big chat and a slow death scene at the end of season two, so this additional scene just didn't really add all that much? I mean, don't get me wrong, always glad to see Andrew Scott, but other than his hint about how Will belongs in his own world, and instructions on finding his daemon, it felt devoid of the emotion I was wanting to feel.

I should say an overall weak point of the season has been the Gallivespians. I think they might be kind of weak points in the books too, but I remember feeling a deeper sense of connection to them such that when there were moments of tension and action, or even tragedy, it mattered to me. In the show, if you replaced all the Gallivespian characters with literal drone cameras that flitted around after the human characters, I'm not sure it would make any real difference.

I'll also say that while I liked the harpy moment, I think my knowledge of the scene in the books was doing a lot of heavy lifting. The whole idea of telling the harpies stories is pretty trite, but in the books it's more about feeding them the truth, and them feeding on something freely given rather than just forcing something out of the dead souls. There was a bit of nuance flattening here that was too bad, because otherwise I felt the episode did a pretty good job with the land of the dead stuff, as did the last one.

Pros:

But, okay, look. I did some crying with this one. First you've got Marisa, who continues to be the real highlight of the show (some might argue she's taking screen time away from Lyra, actually, and while I don't disagree with that argument, I'm choosing to focus on what I like about what we see, not just lamenting what we don't.) The cold, detached way she plays her grief, when she comes to tell Asriel that their daughter is dead... oof. And then of course the scene with her daemon that I'm sure is going to be a standout for a lot of people. The extended metaphor of self-harm being played out with her character is honestly really well-executed in my opinion, and this culminating moment where she offers an apology to her daemon, and thus extends herself some grace, was quite lovely.

Obviously my pre-existing affection for Lin Manuel-Miranda makes it easy for me to love Lee Scorseby here, but my god do I really love Lee Scorseby. Such a sweet pure love he has for Lyra, and the way he sees what Will and Lyra are to each other, tells them to look out for each other... and then he's gonna go be with his Hester... I cry... I don't care about Roger quite as much but I thought he and Lyra's goodbye was also quite touching, just on the strength of the actors' performances.

Like I said, the whole "tell them stories" moment didn't 100% land for me, but I did think the harpy design was cool, and Lyra nearly dying was harrowing: loved seeing Will lose his shit when he thought she was about to die. That's the good stuff right there.

Meanwhile with Mary Malone, the buildup to her relevance is finally going to be revealed, as we see Lyra and Will emerge into the world where she's been staying with the mulefa. She has stuff to tell them about Dust, but more importantly she has stuff to tell them about... feelings. All will be clear in time.

I can't believe that in a week I'll be done with this show! In preparation for my final thoughts, I'll say that while this show certainly can't match the artistry and brilliance of the books, I find myself greatly enjoying getting to see some of the moments I remember play out in this form.

8/10