His Dark Materials Season 3 will mark the third and the final season for HBO Max’s fantasy drama and fans are all hyped up to see how the show wraps itself up. The well-loved fantasy drama is based on the trilogy of novels of the same name by Philip Pullman and is produced by Bad Wolf and New Line Productions, for BBC One and HBO.
The star cast of His Dark Materials features Dafne Keen as Lyra Belacqua (who is essentially the protagonist of the series), Ruth Wilson as Marisa Coulter, Will Keen as Father Hugh MacPhail, Gary Lewis as Thorold, James McAvoy as Lord Asriel Belacqua, Ruta Gedmintas as Serafina Pekkala, Amir Wilson as Will Parry, Jade Anouka as Ruta Skadi, Simone Kirby as Dr Mary Malone and Andrew Scott as Colonel John Parry/Stanislaus Grumman.
His Dark Materials Season 1 Recap
In season one of His Dark Materials, which lays the foundation for the show, we are introduced to all the important characters. Our protagonist s Lyra Belacqua, an orphan growing up as a ward of Jordan College. With her, is her daemon called Pantalaimon aka Pan, who intially starts in the show as an ermie. Daemons are beings in which the person’s soul can exist outside their bodies. In this parallel universe, Lyra is the subject to a prophecy that will change the world but, all young Lyra ever wants to do is have some fun.
However, when her uncle, Lord Asriel comes to Jordan College to talk about ‘Dust’ which is called the physical representation of sin and declares about his quest to go to the extreme North to uncover the secrerts of Dust, Lyra is convinced that she will be taken with him but, he does not. Meanwhile, Lyra’s friend, Roger goes missing like many other children and people are blaming it on the Gobblers. During this time, she meets Mrs Coulter, who offers to take Lyra under her wing and to the city under the ruse to find Roger. But, when she starts living with Mrs Coulter, she discovers that she is a part of the GOB aka gobblers and is responsible for the disappearing children.
Mrs Coulter happens to be working with The Magisterium who form a very important part of the His Dark Materials universe. They are the religious body who do not want more research on Dust and are kidnapping children. The purpose of this kidnapping is to cut off children from their daemons, so that Dust aka sin cannot settle onto them and they can always remain pure and innocent. On discovering the truth, Lyra escapes with the help of her Alethiometer that was given to her by the principal of Jordan College- this is a magical device that can answer any question through the symbols on it and, yes, Lyra is a natural expert at reading this device.
With the help of the gyptians, where she comes to know the truth about her parentage that Asriel and Coulter are her parents, Lyra sets off to find Roger and all the other missing children as The Magesterium along with Mrs. Coulter look for her. During her journey, she meets armoured bear Iorek and helps him get his armour back and also helps him get back his kingdom from where he was exiled by his brother. She also meets Lee Scorsby, who helps her in this journey. Finally, Lyra is able to find the GOB centre and manges to destroy it and escapes with Roger from the place.
She vivist Asriel in the extreme North with Roger. But, Asriel might not be the ideal parent or person to rely on because once Lyra goes to sleep he takes Roger and his daemon to the top of the Northern mountain and kills him by cutting off his daemon. Lyra wakes up and goes to find Roger but, is unable to save him. The daemon getting cut from its human creates a surge of energy which opens a dooryway to another world. Mrs Coulter with Magestrium support also reaches the scene but, when Asriel offers her to join him, she refuses and Asriel steps into the unknown world. Lyra too goes to the next world in hopes to avenge Roger.
As these this happen in the main universe we are a part of, we simultaneously also meet Will Parry, a human from our world. His missing father is a person common to both his and Lyra’s world and he is missing. To find his father after being threatened by a man hired by the Magesterium from Lyra’s world, Will discovers a doorway to the other world and steps through it. He is on a mission to find his father John Parry.
His Dark Materials Season 2 Recap
In His Dark Materials Season 2, we see Lyra and Will meet for the first time as they both end up in the city of Cittagaze. Lyra and Will are both looking for their fathers for different reasons but, the city of Cittagaze, where the two coincidentally stepped in completely empty. Although, they find two girls called Angelica and Paula, who tell them about the Spectres that haunt the city and feed on humanity when humans reach their adulthood. The two go to Will’s world where Lyra visits Oxford researher Mary Malone.
Here, Lyra discovers after talking to Mary that the Dust from Lyra’s world is the same as Dark Matter from Mary and Will’s world. As teh two discuss, Boreal’s men attack Lyra in Mary’s office which leads her to Boreal who gives her a ride after which Lyra finds her alethiometer missing. In exchange for the alethiometer, Boreal strikes a deal with Lyra and Will suggesting that they get him the knife in the Tower of Angles in Cittagazze. When the two go to twoer, the encounter Giacomo Parasidi, who is the bearer of the knife. Will fights for the knife but, loses two fingers and becomes the knife bearer.
The knife is able to cut portals between two world and on realizing how powerful it is Lyra and Will decide to not trade it and keep it instead. Meanwhile, Boreal meets with Mrs Coulter to give her Lyra. But, Lyra distracts Boreal and Will retrives the alethiometer with the help of the knife in Will’s world. The two escape to Cittagaze and Mrs Coulter and Boreal follows them. But, they are attacked their and then saved by Serefina.
Also Read: When and Where Will His Dark Materials Season 3 Episode 1 Release?
We also have Mary communicating with the Dust which are angels she realizes and is taked to save the girl and boy- Lyra and Will, one can assume. She enters the city of Cittagaze protected by the angels. In Cittagaze, Mrs Coulter escapes the spectres by suppressing her humanity and ends up poisioning Boreal for hindering her ambitions. On her villianous game, Mrs Coulter tortures a witch and gets to know the prophecy that Lyra is the second Eve who will bring the second Fall of Man and also discovrs Lyra’s location with the witches.
The witches, on the other hand, prepare for war. They helped Lyra somewhat during His Dark Materials Season 1. But, in seaosn two they play a more imporatnat role. The witches are also looking for Will’s father it seems. As they prepare, two witches are captured by Mrs. Coulter who is on the hunt for Lyra and before she can fully know about the prophecy, Ruta Skadi (the witch queen), the withces are killed alon with other memebrs on the ship. Due to this, the newly appointed head of the Magesteruim- Father MacPhail declares treson on the witches. This leaves the witches angry and they vow retribution. Ruta Skadi and Serafina Pekkala attack Magisterum airships and go to look for Lyra.
The Ruta Skadi tries to find Asriel for the upcoming war and hears her cliff-ghasts how he needs the subtle knife bearer to win the war. Lee, on the mission to find John for the witches discovers that he is alive. He ends up finding John Parry, now a shaman called Jopari. He is out to find the subtle knife called Esahaetter and give it to Asriel. The two are pursued by Magesterium ships which is when John uses his shaman powers to take them down. But, unfortuantely, in this battle Lee ends up dying.
After this episode, we see John summoning for his son and being united with Will. He urges Will to fulgfil his destiny as knife bearer and then they can head home but, the Magesterium men shoots John as he shares the moment with his son. Before his last breath, John tells Will to find Asriel through the help of the witches. In some remote world, Asriel is being pledged to by the witches for the war against Authority. We see Mrs Coulter captured a drugged Lyra at the end of His Dark Materials Season 2. In the post credits scene for the season, Lyra calls for Roger in an unknonw location.
His Dark Materials Season 3 Trailer
His Dark Materials Season 3 will air on December 5 on HBO Max. You can watch the first two seasons of His Dark Materials, here.
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