TV Episode Review: “His Dark Materials”: “The Scholar”

This episode opens with Carlo Boreal giving Mrs. Coulter a description of our world, which is extremely accurate—“Their government is more corrupt than ours; their world is built on consumerism, not faith.” Boreal continues to explain how our world operates to Mrs. Coulter, and that includes her getting a makeover so she can blend into our world while searching and waiting for Lyra.

Meanwhile, Will and Lyra make plans on getting back the Alethiometer without handing over the Subtle Knife to the man who stole it. Will practices cutting and closing windows into our world. During their plans, Will and Lyra learn what happened to the older boy who stole the Knife from the Last Bearer; and, he happens to be Angelica’s older brother. The two children and the two adults prepare themselves to get what they want from the other party.

All the while, Cardinal MacPhail is starting to understand what he must do in order to maintain control in his world, as well as the Council of the Magisterium. The “anomaly” is no longer the Magisterium’s main threat to their power: the witches, Lord Asriel, and now Mrs. Coulter are working “against” the Magisterium, and they don’t know what to do.

Mrs. Coulter is the focus of this episode. Viewers learn more about her life before she was a married woman. I’m not sure whether or not this is in the books—I haven’t read The Secret Commonwealth, yet—but, discovering more about Mrs. Coulter’s character, her knowledge and what the social norms—misogyny—of her society (the Magisterium) did to her, brings an understanding to how and why she was attracted to Lord Asriel in the first place. She visits Dr. Mary Malone, where she learns more about her daughter’s character and the life she could have had if she lived in our world instead of hers. This is an essential realization because the audience discovers the numerous restrictions the Magisterium has placed within their world on all its denizens, and what Lord Asriel’s war is all about. 

Dr. Malone is given her task by the Dark Matter—“You must play the Serpent. Protect the Girl and the Boy,”—meaning, the (female) scholar is about to embark on her journey across other worlds, and learn more about Dark Matter. Dr. Malone makes the preparations and she is able to locate another window, and travel into the next world. But, which world does she end up in?

Lyra and Will wait until nighttime to return to Will’s world and steal back the Alethiometer. They have Boreal’s house memorized and they are ready; except, they didn’t expect Lyra’s mother to be there as well. Mother and daughter confront each other, and the two males fight over the Knife. This is different from what happened in the book, but it makes for an interesting scene. Lyra is in the position where she wants to be different from her parents, but cannot avoid behaving like them. Will understands where Lyra is coming from and he tells her she doesn’t have to be like the adults in her life. Meanwhile, what else does Mrs. Coulter know? 

In all, I enjoyed this episode a lot more than I thought I would. A lot of the story for this episode was taken from the book, while the fillers were expansions into character development. The end of the episode had me thinking about an unanswered question about the ending of The Subtle Knife. After all these years, I believe I might get my question answered. Otherwise, all of the characters have their tasks—and their tools—and are ready to do see it done.

My Rating: 9 out of 10.