His Dark Materials – The Break Review

“The Enchanted Sleeper” was a strong start to His Dark Materials’ Season Three. It set up a potentially exciting follow-up episode.

Lyra is still being held captive by Mrs. Coulter but the various factions are approaching her location. Will, Balthamos and Iorek Byrnison are on a boat going to the island Mrs. Coulter is hiding on. The Magisterium has also discovered Mrs. Coulter’s location and send a unit of soldiers and airships to capture Lyra. Commander Roke (Jonathan Aris) warns Lord Asriel the Magisterium are after Lyra and he needs to send his forces to receive Lyra and Will.

In America “The Enchanted Sleeper” and “The Break” were broadcast back-to-back. This was fitting since these episodes were a two-parter. “The Enchanted Sleeper” and “The Break” focused on Will’s rescue attempt. Lyra and Will’s journey in The Amber Spyglass was split into a number of smaller missions that went on separately from the war. They didn’t realise how important their actions were because their motivations were personal.

Will attempts to pull off the same trick he did in “The Scholar,” by using the knife to sneak into Mrs. Coulter’s hideout. However, Mrs. Coulter was prepared for this. Mrs. Coulter tries to convince Will to join her and protect her and Lyra. It was an intense conversation between the pair and even though Will knew how dangerous Mrs. Coulter was, he still underestimated her.

“The Break” did a great job at building up the suspense. The first half was about the various factions approaching Coulter’s Island. Will was going to face a double threat, Mrs. Coulter, and the Magisterium. It seemed like there was going to be a climatic showdown but it was twisted because of Will and Mrs. Coulter’s conversation. In the novel Lord Asriel and the Magisterium both sent armies and there was a battle in the mountains. The TV series obviously didn’t have the budget to do this since Lord Asriel arrived during the aftermath of the battle. It was fun to see Iorek plough through a load of soldiers like they were nothing.

“The Break” did have some foreshadowing of events to come. The first involved Lyra’s dreams, with Lyra being on a piece of driftwood in the middle of a lake. Readers of the novel will know what this will lead to. The other bit of foreshadowing involved Will and Lyra lying together after the rescue mission and Lyra holds Will’s hand. This action hints their relationship may be more than friendship.

The episode had some expansions from the source material. The first expansion involved Lord Asriel and his rebellion. His forces capture an archangel that attacked Baruch. During the interrogation, Alarbus revealed that The Authority had a regent ruling in his place and stated that the forces of The Authority want to eradicate freedom of thought. Yet the angel also stated that Asriel was so insignificant that The Authority’s forces hadn’t even noticed him.

This episode did expand on Asriel’s character. Whilst his intention to end all oppression was noble, he was willing to take dark measures to achieve this. He tortured Alarbus to extract information. Asriel stated to his council that he was ready to sacrifice his daughter for his cause. This was more in line with the character in the books since he was a dark, ruthless man, and McAvoy’s performance was a lot better in the first two episodes of Season Three than he was in the first season. The episode seems to be sowing the seeds of conflicts within Asriel’s council. Ogunwe would question Asriel’s coldness towards his own child considering his relationship with his daughters. Alarbus’ told Xaphania about Asriel’s torture which could lead to her doubting the man she sided with.

The other expansion involved Mary Malone and her travels across dimensions. In “The Break” she travels to Ogunwe’s world and meets two teenage girls. This subplot seemed to have been added because the showrunners needed to add to the run time. It was similar to Will meeting his grandparents in “The Cave,” a subplot added for the sake of it.

“The Break” was more of the same from His Dark Materials, a perfectly solid episode that takes some major liberties from the source. It worked exploring the character relationship and building up to the coming conflict.