The Enchanted Sleeper
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Wow! What a tour of the worlds we got this week in the triumphal return of His Dark Materials! New people, old faves, and more await in S03E01 “The Enchanted Sleeper”, which aired on HBO on December 5, 2022. It was written by Jack Thorne and Amelia Spencer and directed by Amit Gupta.
This is Episode 33 and contains the news and our episode breakdown and analysis. To hear our feedback and Bridge to the Stars spoilers segments, stay tuned for Episode 34.
We have two news shots for you! First up The Verge gushes that His Dark Materials’ third and final season is its most ambitious yet! Then we have Lord Asriel himself with UPI as James McAvoy believes that ‘His Dark Materials’ is a ‘ripping good yarn’ that asks important questions.
Then we are back! We return right where we left off, with Will looking for Lyra. He searches through many worlds, and is followed by…angels! Bene Elim they call themselves. They are named Baruch and Balthamos. Will learns they are made of Dust and can travel through the worlds. He asks them to find Lyra, and they do. Balthamos then goes to Lord Asriel, while Baruch journeys with Will to a port town. There they find Iorek Byrnisson trying to free a captive bear. Will offers to fight Iorek to save lives. He uses the Subtle Knife to cut Iorek’s sky armor, which convinces the bear to stand down. They book passage together to head for Lyra.
We don’t know where she is yet, but it’s a weird place where…Roger could be? Or is she asleep? Looks so! And Mrs. Coulter is there! A girl named Ama visits them and is told by Mrs. Coulter that “magic” that put Lyra to sleep. We later see Lyra is being drugged by her own mother! Lyra later wakes and tries to run and hide, but the Golden Monkey finds her, and Mrs. Coulter drugs her again. Ama sees this!
In Geneva, new Father President MacPhail arrives and meets with priests, one of whom is a Father Gomez. He tells Gomez that Fra Pavel’s alethiometer has revealed a new Eve who will bring down mankind, and it is Lyra! MacPhail is waiting on Fra Pavel to find Lyra and it is slow going. Gomez visits France Pavel and “encourages” him to speed up. Gomez then visits MacPhail to reveal Lyra is being held by her mother! MacPhail asks Gomez to lead an army to retrieve her.
In the skies, a strange aircraft that looks like a spider hurtles by – it’s Lord Asriel and Stelmaria! They jump to another universe and crash land. Asriel is looking for a Commander Ogunwe who is imprisoned. Asriel and some tiny flying people free Ogunwe. The Commander takes Asriel to a camp where his band of fighters wages war against an organization called The Temple. Asriel says it is in the service of The Authority and that Ogunwe should join him to fight the true big bad! He later rips open a rift to take Ogunwe to another world!
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