His Dark Materials – Betrayal Review (A Book Fan’s Perspective)

The first season of His Dark Materials has finally reached its conclusion and the finale is one of the best episodes the series has produced so far.

Lyra (Dafne Keen) and her friend Roger (Lewin Lloyd) have arrived at Lord Asriel’s (James McAvoy) northern scientific facility. Lyra believes their quest is over and she and Roger can go home – but Lord Asriel hasn’t completed his experiments. The forces of Magisterium, led by Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson) and Father MacPhail (Will Keen) head northwards in a desperate attempt to stop Lord Asriel. Whilst in our world Will (Amir Wilson) goes on the run after accidentally killing an intruder.

The promo for “Betrayal” made it looked like it was going to be an action-heavy episode with a big, climactic battle. This installed fear in me that this episode was going to ignore the personal drama for a spectacle. These fears were unfounded because the focus of the episode was on Lyra, Roger, and Lord Asriel and what Lord Asriel’s intentions were. There was some action embellishment when Lyra and Iorek (Joe Tandberg) run into the Magisterium’s airships when trying to get to the top of the mountain. This sequence wasn’t in the episode to boost the action quota; it was there to show the upcoming war between Asriel and the Authority. Most of this action was seen through Lyra’s eyes and she acted as one would expect a 12-year-old to react –being horrified and terrified by the sight of war.

“Betrayal” is the first episode Lyra and Asriel met since Asriel left for the North and Lyra finding her he’s her real father. McAvoy’s version of Asriel had been disappointing because his version hasn’t been as cruel or cold as the book counterpart. At the end of “The Fight to the Death” McAvoy’s Asriel had an over-the-top reaction to seeing Lyra – he screamed at Lyra and then looked like a paedophile with a creepy smile when Asriel saw Roger. In “Betrayal” McAvoy was a lot better because his Asriel was a more distant figure. Lyra and Asriel do joke with each other but he also looks away from his daughter when she looks at him.

The key moment in the episode was the titular betrayal. In this episode Asriel plans to open a portal between worlds: but to do this he needs the energy of separating a child from their dæmon. Lyra inadvertently brought her friend to his death. This moment incredibly dark and powerful ending to the first novel and the TV does it justice. It starts with Lyra figuring out what Asriel was planning and races to stop him. When Lyra reaches Roger it was a beautifully tragic because Lyra arrived just too late. It was a pitch-perfect moment of darkness and a great translation of the book’s ending. Dafne Keen shines when she has to face Roger’s body and says goodbye to him.

In previous episodes, the Magisterium has been portrayed as a fascist organisation with religious dressing. “Betrayal” fully embraced what the Magisterium really was: an organisation that used religious ideology to justify their actions. For hundreds of years they have used their position to suppress humanity and knowledge. This episode does a much better job at describing what the Magisterium is, it’s just a shame it took to the end of the season to explain it to people unfamiliar with the books.

Asriel’s claims he is fighting against the Magisterium and an even bigger enemy. But he has an actions-justified-the-means approach, hence his willingness to conduct child murder. Despite being on opposite sides of the conflict Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are perfect for each other because of their approaches to better their cause.

Character symmetry also extends to Lyra and Will. Through the episode, Will had been wondering around Oxford and hiding from the police. The dramatic symmetry comes at the end of the episode when Lyra and Will walk through their respective portals at the same time. This is a change from the novel because Lyra enters a different world weeks before Will but the TV series wanted to highlight the similarities in their journeys and their destinies. The showrunners are also planning on speeding up their meeting in the first episode of season two. Admittedly when Will found his portal I thought of The Simpsons Halloween segment “Homer³” when Homer found a portal and said: “I’ll take my chances with the mystery wall.”

One change the TV series made that did rub me the wrong way was the reveal of Will’s age. In the novels, he was 12, the same age as Lyra. The TV series has upped his age to 15 – a pointless change. The show has already established that dæmons that Lyra’s dæmons was about to settle and settling occurs at puberty. Plus this change is going to make the relationship between Will and Lyra a little icky when the TV series reaches the end of The Amber Spyglass.

“Betrayal” captured the tone and theme of the part of the story because it was dark and perilous for everyone involved. This was a near-perfect ending for this chapter and it sets up an even bigger story for the next season.