His Dark Materials – The Clouded Mountain Review

It is finally here, His Dark Materials is showing the final battle between the forces of good and evil with the episode “The Clouded Mountain.”

Metatron has arrived with all his forces at the Republic of Heaven. Asriel and his numbers are outnumbered and the odds for victory seem remote. Asriel’s forces also need to find Lyra and Will and their separated dæmons and get them to another world before Metatron’s forces find them. Luckily Asriel has two advantages, his ingenuity, and Mrs. Coulter’s ability to suppress her good side.

“The Clouded Mountain” was the episode I was looking forward to the most this season. This was due to the battle in the novel being underwhelming since it didn’t go into much detail. A TV episode had the potential to expand and elaborate on this event. It was similar to the Game of Thrones episodes “Blackwater,” and “The Watchers of the Wall” because those were the episodes focused solely on major battles.

Asriel and his Republic did act like the Alliance of Men in Return of the King. The armies of the Republic and Middle-Earth had to act as a distraction to protect important figures from the forces of evil.

“The Clouded Mountain” acted as a way to tie many of the storylines together. Lyra, Will, Asriel, Mrs. Coulter, and Metatron were all in the same location and had the same goal: find the dæmons. It would be difficult for any TV series to bring all these stories but “The Clouded Mountain” managed it.

“The Clouded Mountain” felt like the penultimate episode in an anime series. Many anime series have their big climatic battle or showdown between good and evil in their penultimate episodes. It happened in series like The Familiar of Zero and Battle Girls: Time Paradox. The final episode was usually reversed for an emotional resolution and maybe a parting of ways.

The battle in this episode felt like a fantasy version of World War II. There was a fight on the ground and in the air. Ogunwe’s rebels were a ragtag team with mismatched uniforms, and they were only armed with bolt action rifles. It was like battles in Avatar and Star Wars where the rebels were outmanned and outgunned. Those films had bigger budgets but “The Clouded Mountain” still had strong imagery. It was a great image when Asriel flew up to The Clouded Mountain and he was alone against the mass of red angels. It helped give the battle a bit of scale.

The action was small-scale compared to battles in other fantasy franchises. This was meant to be the ultimate battle for reality and all Asriel could muster was a few hundred men and women with rifles. In the novel, the battle was a lot bigger with both sides having armies and machinery from across the multiverse. The TV show didn’t have the budget for a multiverse-scale battle.

Besides having a large number of angels, Metatron’s powers made him a great threat. He offered Faustian deals to his foes. He promised to make Mrs. Coulter an angel, the first in millenniums in exchange for her service. He offered temptation to Asriel’s soldiers by promising forgiveness if they turn on each other. Metatron had the ability to project himself in multiple locations at the same time which meant he could do multiple actions at once.

“The Clouded Mountain” focused on character development and drama. Asriel had the most notable change. Throughout the season he was dismissive of Lyra but realised how important she was because she freed the dead from the Land of the Dead. His Independence Day-style speech praised Lyra, something he has never done.

The series has focused on the relationship between Lyra and Mrs. Coulter and Coulter’s redemption. Colter’s dark side was on display in this episode. She was willing to use her ability to control the Spectres to protect Asriel’s army but when approached by Metatron she was willing to walk into the Clouded Mountain. She had to use her powers of manipulation against her greatest foe, the most powerful angel in existence.

The episode made some additions to the story in the novels. Some were to add more action, like Asriel fighting Metatron, and others were added for emotional impact. A major change to the story was when Lyra saw what happened to her mother’s dæmon because she saw the monkey help enact Asriel’s plan. Lyra saw the dæmon evaporate, which was different from the novel because Lyra got to know the faith of her parents. There was an emotional impact since Lyra literally reached out to her mother’s soul before she died.

“The Clouded Mountain” was an episode that did take significant liberties with the source materials but within the context of the show because of its emotional and dramatic beats.