His Dark Materials: The Break (3x02)

Oh boy oh boy!! It's so fun to be someone who knows roughly what's coming, because shit is already getting wild.

Cons:

So I'm going to have a lot of praise for Ruth Wilson, who plays Mrs. Coulter, in a second, but there was one part in the script that I wasn't as wild about. The moment when Will has Lyra and is about to use the knife to run away and leave Marisa behind... see, this is such a pivotal moment, such a key lynchpin of the story, and I wanted Coulter's behavior to be a little more, what's the word, deranged? Unsettled? As it was, it felt like she was still in almost entirely manipulation mode, playing off of Will's feelings about his own mother to get what she wants. And that's such a key part of Marisa's character, her skilled manipulation, I get that... I just wanted this moment to be used to show the ways in which she's unraveling a bit more. A subtle thing, that I'm having a bit of a hard time articulating, but there it is.

I really like Balthamos in this adaptation but I wish there had been a bit more time with him as he's processing his grief and his purpose in life now that Baruch is gone (RIP, buddy, we hardly knew ye). I recall in the books really getting to watch this angel go through, like, a crisis of faith? It was strange and lovely and painful, and I feel like we didn't get enough time with it here. Maybe as the season goes on we'll fold that concept in better, who knows.

Pros:

I want to walk back my light criticism of Asriel from the first episode, because I'm officially obsessed with how deranged he's being. He's truly just willing to do whatever, torture people, kill children, to get what he wants. And we've always known this about him, but it was so stark and shocking this week when he dismissed Lyra's significance and was willing to essentially use her as bait if he had to. But then again, just like Marisa, there's something more complicated going on under it all. As he rushes off to where Lyra and Marisa are in the cave, his daemon points out that his sense of purpose is shaky as he tries to use the intention craft. He focuses up, says he knows exactly why he's going there. And that's to get the knife, that can kill God. It's all about Will, it's just a coincidence that Lyra and Marisa are there too, right? Deliciously twisty, especially since he shows up after Will and Lyra have already vanished along with their new tiny flying friend Salmakia, to find Marisa unconscious on the cave floor.

With Asriel and Marisa we also get some of the most interesting stuff this show does with the daemon characters. I continue to be a little disappointed that such a key part of the story feels like an afterthought, but with Marisa and the golden monkey, and Asriel and Stelmaria, there's all sorts of juicy stuff going on. Stelmaria is acting as Asriel's conscience, his heart, reminding him not to discount Lyra entirely, reminding him that he cares about other people. And the monkey... well, his silence continues to be chilling and disturbing, as does the strange push and pull between the two disparate halves of this same soul. Watching a daemon smash a rock over its human's head was so intense. Obviously she told him to do it, but if anything that makes it even spookier.

Just... everything Ruth Wilson did in this episode was astonishing. Give her an award, stat. She's so good at playing this muted terror as she realizes Lyra is in danger, so good at toying with Father Gomez to give Will time to enact his rescue plan. I love the way she spoke to Will, how convincing she is. That's such a trend with this show, is that sometimes the shit being said by the "bad guys" makes a hell of a lot of sense, and you want Marisa to be able to stay in charge, fix everything. But she can't.

I'm excited that Lyra is awake now and going to be more actively involved for the last run of episodes of this show. The moment when she stood in front of her mother and said "let me go" was another standout in terms of performance, for both of the actresses.

We get a brief check-in with Mary Malone, nothing much to say there, just trying to move her along to where she needs to be. I have this feeling that some of her material will be vastly reduced, or shoved into one episode for the bulk of it, and while I like the stuff in The Amber Spyglass with her, I do think for an adaptation that has eight episodes to work with, condensing some of her stuff makes a bit of sense.

And then there's Will. MVP, child of my heart, such a good kid. His determination to save Lyra is so steadfast, so moving, that when it actually works and the cost is so fucking high, it comes as a real blow. The breaking of the knife is a real shocker. Even knowing it was going to happen, seeing it there in shattered pieces on the ground made me gasp. This episode did such a good job of building up how badly Asriel wants the knife, how much even the angels fighting in the rebellion think it's an essential piece of the plan. Balthamos lost the angel he had loved for generations, all in service of communicating with Asriel about that knife and its bearer. And in a moment of weakness where Will thought of his mother when trying to cut through to another world, it's broken. Gasp!

I love Will and Lyra lying out side by side, Lyra taking Will's hand. It's this moment of peace, of rest, of quiet grief, as they have to figure out what the hell will happen next. And there's so little control they have, now that they've been parted from the things that gave them their strength: the alethiometer for Lyra, and the knife for Will.

I'm really pumped! These first two episodes, but episode two especially, make me so excited to see how the rest of the adaptation is going to shake out. There's a lot of chaos coming!

9/10