His Dark Materials season 3, episode 1 recap: The Enchanted Sleeper

The third and final season of HBO’s His Dark Materials picks up right where the season 2 finale left off. “The Enchanted Sleeper” reveals where Lyra and her mother are hiding, while Will continues to search for her.

His search however might be more difficult than planned when angels seek his aid for the war Lord Asriel is planning.

His Dark Materials Season 3 Episode 1 recap – Lord Asriel

Lord Asriel struggles to fly a very elaborate contraption with his snow leopard daemon Stelmaria. After they survive the crash, they begin their rather violent approach into a prison facility to find Ogunwe.

Lord Asriel will need his help in his war against the Authority itself, which is heaven. Turns out, the stories people have been told about God and the angels are untrue.

God is an angel, and once other angels, led by Xaphania, discovered this, they rebelled and lost. Now Lord Asriel is obtaining a large army to stop The Magisterium, whose influence is in every world, by defeating the Authority.

Ogunwe doesn’t believe Lord Asriel. He and his people have been fighting the Temple, which is his world’s Magisterium.

He has a family that needs him, including a daughter who he believes the Temple somehow controlled. The Temple has been kidnapping their children and sure enough she is showing signs of having been severed from her daemon.

Lord Asriel briefly explains to Ogunwe about daemons and other worlds before showing him himself. Lord Asriel opens a portal revealing the army he’s been raising, which includes help from angels and witches.

His Dark Materials Season 3 Episode 1 recap – Will and the Angels

As Lord Asriel prepares his army, Will continues to search for Lyra as he moves between worlds using the subtle knife. However, he’s not alone as two angels, Balthamos and Baruch, are following him.

They seek the subtle knife, a weapon Lord Asriel will need to win his war. Will is aware of the war, having heard about it from his father before he died.

However, his mission to find Lyra must come first. The angels continue to follow him through “dust” until Will makes a deal with them.

If they can find Lyra, he will join them in the war. Using the alethiometer, they are able to find that Lyra is with a woman, inside a rocky terrain across the water.

Immediately Will knows that this woman is Lyra’s mother. Baruch decides to move ahead leaving Balthamos with Will.

They’ll need to travel by ship across the water. The two manage to reach a town where the ice bear Iorek Byrnison is attacking the villagers for taking one of his bears.

To spare innocent people from Iorek’s wrath, Will challenges him to a fight. If Will wins, Iorek will stop.

If Iorek wins, he can do whatever he likes to the people. Noticing Will has no protection, Iorek wishes not to fight him.

Will suggests that he receive a piece of Iorek’s armor to make it an equal match. When Will shows the power of the subtle knife which easily cuts through Iorek’s armor, Iorek forfeits.

The captured ice bear is freed, and Iorek agrees to help Will find Lyra. Together they get onto a boat heading for Lyra’s location.

His Dark Materials Season 3 Episode 1 recap – Lyra

Lyra is indeed with her mother. The two are hiding in an abandoned church in the rocky hillside, drawing the attention of a curious deaf girl.

Using ASL (American Sign Language), Mrs. Coulter shows the little girl that Lyra is in an enchanted sleep and that she needs to be protected. She asks if the little girl can keep others away and not to tell anyone of their presence.

She agrees. What the little girl doesn’t know is that Mrs. Coulter has been drugging Lyra to stay asleep for fear of who will be coming for her.

Mrs. Coulter’s methods, as usual, are cruel and selfish, however there are many dangerous people out to find her. Father President MacPhail is now in charge of The Magisterium and with that power he seeks to find Lyra, who he and many others have been told through prophecy is Eve.

After speaking with three Fathers about how they would punish a poet of heresy, he decides to speak to Father Gomez in private. Father President MacPhail would like Father Gomez to find Lyra and bring her to him alive.

The task is nearly more than Father Gomez can bear, but he is able to find out that Lyra is with her mother. Angered Father President MacPhail warns the young man about Mrs. Coulter’s persuasiveness and wickedness.

He is to find and bring both back. Father Gomez decides to use a mechanical spy insect to find them.

Meanwhile, Lyra constantly dreams of Roger, as she struggles to save him. She discovers that he is in The Land of the Dead.

Upon waking up in her weakened state, she and Pan try to escape while Mrs. Coulter daemon stands by. Of course, it’s not for long as Mrs. Coulter is made aware of Lyra’s disappearance.

Lyra is barely able to move down the hillside before she is found and drugged once again. What Mrs. Coulter didn’t know was that the deaf little girl witnessed the whole event.

She also doesn’t know that Father Gomez’s insect seems to have found them.

His Dark Materials Season 3 Episode 1 review

Phew, what an episode to start the final season! The show, as a whole from the get-go, has excelled at making viewers question which side they want to be on, as many characters make both good and bad decisions.

We want to hate Lord Asriel for killing Roger in his experiment to prove that “dust” opens doorways to new worlds. At the same time, we can’t help but commend him for wanting to end The Magisterium and revealing the truth about the Authority.

But that does not make up for the poor father figure he has been for Lyra all these years. This is especially noticeable when he looked uncomfortable at the way Ogunwe loves and dotes upon his daughters.

However, our opinions about Mrs. Coulter remain the same. We truly hoped that her daemon was going to aid Lyra in her escape, considering the countless years of abuse it suffers from Mrs. Coulter.

But it seems it cannot and will not act against her. It seems as though Mrs. Coulter is all the daemon knows and has.

The exposition at the very beginning about the rebellion was quick and thorough. We now understand what has been going on behind the scenes, while also understanding how mind blowing this revelation will become for all the worlds.

However, we are still unsure how Lyra is Eve and how everything is going to wrap up cohesively and successfully. All the same, we admire Will’s determination to find her, and we can’t wait to see Mrs. Coulter struggle to fight against a gigantic ice bear.

What did you think of the His Dark Materials season 3 episode 1? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.