His Dark Materials: Lyra and Her Death (3x04)

There's a weakness in this episode that I think carries over from the book too, maybe, but I think the problem is exacerbated here... let's discuss.

Cons:

I know how this story ends, so I get why Lyra is headed for the land of the dead. I know how it all connects. But the story we've been told thus far... Lyra going after Roger when the cost is so extreme, just doesn't quite fit. The heart-rending scene with Pan where she's leaving him behind would work a lot better if a) the audience understood why Lyra going to Roger was more important than staying connected to her very soul, and b) if the daemons were better represented throughout the show. As it was, the performance from Dafne Keen was phenomenal, but the buildup did not lead to this moment having the impact you would want it to, because in the back of your head you're just going... Lyra, don't leave him, then... I'm sorry, it's sad that Roger died, but you can't actually help him now, so why are you doing this?

I feel like I'm repeating myself a lot, but the pacing of this final season of the show feels off to me. Like, you've got Lyra making this detour into the land of the dead, but she's still got a bunch of shit to do before the end of the story. And then even more egregious, Mary is just meeting one of the interesting creatures who are going to teach her so much. We're halfway through the season, and still it feels like so little progress has been made! This might be borrowing trouble from how the book is structured, but it felt like less of a problem to me there.

Pros:

I have to go back and re-emphasize my praise for Keen's performance this week, despite my issues with pacing and such. This was a heavy episode for her. The quiet determination to get to Roger is touching, and I liked all the stuff with her Death. Such a comforting conception of the afterlife, but then there's still the great unknown beyond, where your guide cannot come with you. Nor can your soul. It was pretty heart-wrenching watching her leave Pan behind, feeling his betrayal. Her scream of pain, Will trying to comfort her... all of this was pretty stunning.

I'm a broken record again, but Mrs. Coulter really is stealing this show for me. She's back at the Magisterium, and this may be the most I've ever been interested in the inner workings of those characters, the political machinations. I won't give a breakdown, but suffice to say, Marisa tries to play people off of each other, tries to exploit desire and weakness and cowardice and doubt, and honestly, she does a pretty good job. But the church gets one over on her: they take a piece of Lyra's hair, which they're going to use as basically a homing beacon. They're building a bomb that will be powered by the severing of a daemon and human, harnessing that huge amount of power that's caused at the moment the cut takes place. And who's going to power the bomb? Well, Marisa and her daemon, of course.

Dun dun dunnnn.

It feels like everything is heading towards a climactic point, but a lot of it is so disconnected with Lyra's decisions and journey that I'm waiting for those things to snap into focus too. I'm still really enjoying this season. I'm excited to see more of Mary Malone: hopefully next week?

8/10