His Dark Materials season 1 episode 7 review: Meet Lyra Silvertongue
In this week’s episode of His Dark Materials, we finally see the epic battle between Iorek Byrnison and Iofur Raknison as Lyra earns a new name.
Last week’s episode of His Dark Materials saw the thrilling conclusion of the Bolvanger storyline as Lyra had a tense reunion with her mother and worked with Roger and the Gyptians to free the children from the Gobbler’s clutches.
This week, His Dark Materials begins with the aftermath of Bolvanger on a wide shot of the abandoned and decimated prison camp as Marisa takes in the damage. Her daughter has tricked her and fled her once more, and all that’s left at her side is the Golden Monkey. When she elicits a vicious scream, coupled with a thrumming music cue, it is a spectacularly creepy way of showing her desperation and level of rock bottom.
Meanwhile, Lyra wakes up in Svalbard, passed out in the snow with Pan after she’s fallen out of Lee’s balloon. Lyra thinks she’s found Iorek, but it’s another armored bear who’s not so friendly. The bear takes her to Iofur Raknison’s palace, where the steps are lined with blood. She’s thrown in a cell and Pan tells her to check the alethiometer, which tells her Iorek is coming to rescue them.
Lyra is not alone. She’s locked up with a scholar who tells her that Asriel tricked his way out of the cell and next to Iofur’s side.
“I once heard that what Iofur wants most is to be human,” Lyra says. The scholar confirms this is true, and that he wants a dæmon, too. Lyra seizes the knowledge and yells to the guards that she needs to speak to Iofur.
Once she gets out, she tells Iofur that she is Iorek’s dæmon, and that he was the first ever bear to get a dæmon thanks to Mrs. Coulter. Iofur gets upset — he did Marisa’s bidding and was lied to. Lyra tells him she wants to be his since he is the real king, appealing to his vanity.
As we already know, you can’t trick bears. But a key and important distinction is that Iofur Raknison does not think or act like a bear because he so desperately wants to be human, down to the dæmon. He asks Lyra to prove that she really belongs to Iorek, and she says to ask her something only a dæmon will know. He asks her what the first creature he killed was, and she goes into a private place to read the alethiometer.
Only when she’s out of sight does she even begin to show a hint of nervousness. This is when we finally get a glimpse at the amazing bravery and wit of Lyra (aside from the other amazing things she’s done so far). Not many fully grown adults could stand up to a bear, let alone an 11 year old!
She walks back in and bows down, telling Iofur he killed his own father. She strokes his ego some more, saying he must be some kind of new god. Lyra then convinces Iofur to challenge Iorek to a duel, the winner of which will rule over the bears forever and keep her as their dæmon.
Iofur agrees, and after telling him one more time that she really wants to belong to him, Lyra convinces him to let her go see Iorek so he won’t suspect anything. Iorek shows up, and Lyra tells him everything, apologizing for the fight he’s walking into. But Iorek is grateful for the chance to challenge Iofur and win back his throne. “Show him he’s nothing,” Lyra says, and the two bears face off in a vicious battle without armor.
It looks for a moment like Iorek may lose when Lyra goes to comfort him, and Iofur realizes he’s been tricked. As Iofur rears back to attack Lyra, Iorek leaps up and kills him, exploiting his greatest weakness one final time. After, she helps Iorek dress his wounds and he tells her she is one of the bears now as she helped him get his kingdom back. He gives her a new name: Lyra Silvertongue.
Iorek addresses the bears at Svalbard for the first time, telling them that the human ways are over and it’s time to reign as bears again. He walks Lyra out to see Roger (who had just been sitting in the snow the whole time! I’m sure Iorek thought he was safer this way, but Poor Roger. He keeps getting the short end of the life stick.)
Iorek asks Lyra to use the alethioimeter to inquire about Lee, and they discover that he crashed but is safe. He follows up with the Magisterium since Iofur was in their pocket, and Lyra says they’re on their way with Marisa.
Speaking of, all of the Magisterium is going north as Father MacPhail shows up to take over from Marisa. While he wants to completely oust Marisa (I mean, she does keep failing), she worms her way back in, saying she can help since she knows Asriel better than anyone. MacPhail seems to concede, but makes one thing clear: Asriel needs to die.
Back in Will’s London, Boreal watches a video of John Parry on a phone, the same one Will was watching in the previous episode. In it, John mentions that he planned to write Will letters.
Boreal goes back to the Parry house. Will’s mom, Elaine, doesn’t want to let him, but the door is unlocked so Boreal comes in anyway, saying he has urgent information about John. He tells Elaine that he works for British Intelligence investigating objects and that John Parry keeps coming up in the files. Boreal tells her that they might be able to find John — he could still be alive. He also says he knows that John wrote her letters.
Elaine immediately shuts down, saying she doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Boreal tries to threaten her by saying that she’s obstructing an investigation. But Elaine does a good job of standing up to him, saying she sees no evidence that he works for the government, and he’s just one more thing to be afraid of in her long list of fears.
Finally, using one last scare tactic, Boreal lets his daemon slip out and gaslights her, telling her she didn’t see anything, that it was all in her mind — a horrible thing to do to anyone, but especially nasty for someone with a mental illness. Boreal gets back in the car and tells his thugs he doesn’t care how they get them, but he wants the letters.
Elaine goes to Will’s school and tells him what happened and that John may be alive. Will calms her down as they walk back home, only to discover that their house has been ransacked (Boreal’s thugs leave right as Will and Elaine come home).
Will takes her to the wrestling coach’s house next door for safekeeping. He asks him not to call the police so that he and his mom won’t be taken into care. The coach concedes and Will goes back to the house to look for the letters, hugging his mom goodbye.
Thankfully, the letters are still there, safe and sound. Will starts to read them when the door creaks open. He puts them away, turning off the light, and the men break back into the house. Will hides, ready to defend himself, but instead scares one of the men and causes him to fall off the stairs. He takes his backpack with the letters and leaves.
As this episode of His Dark Materials closes, Iorek takes Roger and Lyra to where Asreil is — Iofur built him his own special laboratory. Before they go in, Roger hugs Lyra tight to remind her that, even though she’s brave, he’s there for her. It’s so sweet, it’s almost unbearable (especially for those of us who know what’s to come).
Once inside, we get the long-awaited return of James McAvoy as Lord Asriel, who freaks out when he sees Lyra, who we now know is his daughter, not his niece. “I did not send for you,” he keeps yelling, almost shaking Lyra.
But then his dæmon points out that Roger is there and Asriel calms down, a possessed look coming into his eye as he stares at Roger and asks his butler to prepare the children a hot bath and dinner. Super creepy.
It’s pretty hard to follow up last week’s episode of His Dark Materials, which was so jam-packed full of action and emotion, but this episode did a good job of getting us where we needed to be on a lot of different story beats, just in time for next week’s finale.
Next. His Dark Materials season 1 episode 6: He was just a boy. dark