His Dark Materials - Season 1 Episode 2 - The Idea of North - Live REACTION

Hey, y’all. It’s Thursday morning again, the baby is off to school and my hubby is snoring soundly. You know what that means! It’s HDM time. I meant to get back to it sooner than this, but you know, life. 

The villainess is Mrs. Coulter. Her building is fantastic. They’re taking care to show us that she’s depressed, as if her chosen life as the only woman in this theocratic boy’s club of a higher educational system has taken a toll on her wellbeing. Because, of course, it has. Lyra and Pan are starting to disagree, signaling the struggle Lyra faces. Pan represents her inner voice, so when he dissents and she refuses to listen to him, it shows just how torn she is about Mrs. Coulter.

That’s really the genius of this series. Thanks to the Daemons, everyone can see and, to some extent, hear your inner self. This leaves characters more vulnerable in some ways, because that self is a physical form with free will of its own. Yet, because it is a physical being with free will, characters in Lyra’s world also have an advantage when it comes to warring with yourself: the opposition is not purely hypothetical. There’s an actual, sentient being there to argue with always. It’s a clever story telling technique that results in what I find to be a nuanced and easy to read way to show the character’s true thoughts and feelings, even when they themselves are saying something contrary.

Also, having an actual, physical representation of one’s self would necessitate a great deal of what we would call “self-care.” Can you imagine if we took care of and loved our inner selves like we love and take care of our furry counterparts? What if we were always gentle and concerned about hurting ourselves? I, for one, have a lot of ground to cover when it comes to being gentle with myself; it can probably only help to think of myself in those terms. Probably. I’ll get back to you on that.

Okay. 10 mins of watching and 20 minutes of writing. Didn’t think I’d be getting deep on you, did ya? The Gyptians are getting ready to raid the facility where they believe the snatched children are being held. They’ve apparently been doing surveillance and know which van is the Gobbler’s van and have tracked it back to its lair in the two days since Lyra arrived in London. Time is weird. Moving on! Oh, and surprise: the children are gone. Now we’re asking the right questions. What do they want the children for? We’ll see.

Boreal arrives at Jordan College to ask about the headless guy. The Master stands up to him beautifully. Yeah, you tell him! Boreal then "leaves."

Lyra’s getting a new dress and she hates it, she mentions dust and the monkey gets mad so she lies to Mrs. Coulter about how she knows about it. She doesn't mention her uncle; lying to the woman even though it has been strictly forbidden. Mrs. Coulter doesn't believe her, of course, but she doesn't press it. She clearly knows more about Dust than what she's claiming. 

Ugly crying alert! The Gyptians (I’m not solid on their names yet—we’re only 1.3 episodes in), brought Billy’s sweater back to his mom (Ma Costa) & she’s not taking it well. There seems to be something going on between her and the leader of the hunting group. I’m wondering if he’s Billie’s father, now. Probably not Tony’s, though. Speaking of which, he’s being recruited into the hunting party. And he JUST told his mom he was going out with them next time. How convenient.

Moving onto the Magisterium. This place is creepy for sure. All these men are gross and creepy. This guy’s daemon is a fucking lizard. And the Cardinal’s is some sort of bug…. that’s not ominous at all (/s). Of course, they’re the ones who are behind the snatching of children, via an organization called the General Oblation Board. The Cardinals are getting twitchy about this Board being found out, and the creepy hunched over one is getting threatening. He looks like he’s gonna pass out from impudent rage. Chill tf out, dude. On a side note, I’m wondering where I’ve seen this actor before. He’s slaying it.

Lyra finally listens to Pan about the noises in the walls at night, so she goes looking & finds the monkey in Mrs. Coulter's study. Classic gaslighting from Mrs. Coulter. She can, somehow, be very far away from her daemon. It’s unnatural, according to Lyra, and physically painful. Mrs. Coulter insists that Lyra is mistaken and sends her back to bed. Oh, and spoiler! She’s abusive to her daemon, too. The monkey doesn't seem to talk very much. I seem to be remembering that daemons stop talking at some point? Or talk less outloud, maybe. IDK. We'll see.

Boreal has not left Jordan College, shocker, but is sneaking around in the crypt looking for the disembodied head that Asriel brought back from the North. He finds the skull and determines, somehow, that it does not belong to the scholar Gruman. When he leaves the college, he walks through what appears to be an abandoned greenhouse in Oxford. There, he steps through some sort of tear in the space-time continuum into a world that looks a LOT more like ours. He’s even got a touch screen phone.

It seems a trend amongst these people to either be reptiles or bugs? And Mrs. Coulter is in league with Father McPhail, the lizard. Oh snap! She’s the Oblation Board. But what does Lyra know? Lyra isn’t taking the bait though. So the monkey straight up attacks Pan. Abusive af. Turns out Asriel is Lyra’s father, not her uncle. She’s losing her innocence. This is what the whole thing is about, after all.

Lyra manages to escape Mrs. Coulter and the episode ends with a dramatic cliffhanger, and I’m definitely going to watch the next one right away. What’s another hour? I can’t help it.

So, Mrs. Coulter is the GOB – the Gobblers, get it? Thanks to a conveniently timed appearance from an actress I recognize but can’t name right at the moment. Hold please. Georgina Campbell! I know her from… Krypton! Of course. Now that I’ve looked it up I remember; she’s Lyta Zod, mother of General Zod and lover of Superman’s grandfather, Seg El. I loved that show. RIP Krypton. Against all odds, I very much enjoyed the two seasons of Krypton that SyFy produced. It’s a shame we’ll never get to see what Lobo had in store for us.

Episode 2 of HDM revealed more of the Dust conspiracy than I thought they would. I realize it’s been about 10 years since I read the books, but it seems like that whole arrangement in the apartment lasted a lot longer. Books be like that, eh? Anyhow I’m glad they’re not drawing out the idea that Mrs. Coulter is a good guy. Boreal straight up kills Georgina’s character by crushing her butterfly? That’s brutal.

See? Having a soul that other people can see and touch makes you vulnerable! Are we getting the symbolism? I think we are. After all the priests have daemons that settled, remember, at puberty into creatures we generally regard as repulsive and/or scary, it’s pretty clear which side the author came down on in this theoretical exercise. I haven’t seen any spiders yet, of course. Will there be? I’m not sure.

Lyra’s discovery of the machinery and the mention of The Station in both instances means that the story is moving right along. My feed cut off before the Next Time on His Dark Materials: portion of the finale, if there was one. Before I watch it I’m going to guess that the next episode only covers Lyra’s time with the Gyptians, but Roger and Billy will definitely get to The Station and we’ll get some more clues about what the machinery & Mrs. Coulter are up to.

My resolve to watch the third episode right away is waning a bit, as the crushing weight of my responsibilities calls to me from the clock. Adult things to do! I guess I’ll get on with it, then. Thanks for reading, y’all! See you next time on whatever this this has been about His Dark Materials on HBO. Or, as I like to think of it, the replacement for Game of Thrones we deserve.