His Dark Materials – The Dæmon Cages Review (A Book Fan’s Perspective)

“The Dæmon Cages” sees His Dark Materials go into horror territory as Lyra sees the full scale of the Magisterium’s operation.

Lyra (Dafne Keen) has been captured (again) and taken to Bolvagar, the Fields of Evil. She gets to reunite with Roger (Lewin Lloyd) and she plans to start a jailbreak, knowing the Gyptians are coming. However, her plans are complicated by the scientists taking an interest in Lyra and the arrival of Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson.)

Out of all the episodes in the series so far “The Dæmon Cages” was the most focused. The episode stayed mostly in one location – there were few scenes beyond the facility. This is in keeping with Northern Lights because that novel was mostly told where Lyra was present. “The Dæmon Cages” was a more concentrated episode due to its setting.

In the previous episode, His Dark Materials veered into darker territory because of the death of Billy Costa. “The Dæmon Cages” was even darker because we see what happens to all the children who were severed from their dæmon. The episode opens ominously when a young girl gets called upon and after going into a room a power surge starts. There was haunting imagery for this work when Lyra and Roger saw the dæmonless children who had become apathetic and spoke to themselves. They essentially had a lobotomy, becoming husks of people with nothing to live for. The imaginary of the severed dæmons was distressing. They acted like tortured animals. One was lying on its side struggling to breathe, and another was banging his head against the side of his cage.

At the end of the episode, the dæmonless children were taken in by the Gyptians. John Faa (Lucian Msamati) points out that the dæmonless children might not be accepted by their families which hopefully leads to a look at the social impact on these kids in the next season. But I have a fear that the series might force a happy ending because the Gyptians have taken dæmons as well and they may find a way to reconnect them with their humans.

In one little aspect the series did better than the books. This was the portrayal of the nurse (Morfydd Clark.) In the novels the nurse was described as odd, the show was accurately able to show this because the nurse was absent-minded and distance – in the pre-title sequence, she literally has to be snapped out of a trance. The nurse was docile and submissive and acted almost like a zombie.

“The Dæmon Cage” sees Lyra face off against Mrs. Coulter for the first time since “The Idea of North.” In the novel when Lyra was put in the Silver Guillotine it was a thrilling moment because the scientists break the taboo to capture her and there seemed to be no escape route. It was a surprise that Mrs. Coulter came in to save her. In the series, Lyra knew Mrs. Coulter was at Bolvangar so what happens it was just a question when her mother would come in to save her. Lyra and Mrs. Coulter have a heart-to-heart about why Mrs. Coulter didn’t take care of her daughter and Mrs. Coulter gives Lyra an explanation of why she’s experimenting on children: to eliminate original sin. This was an attack on the ideology of Magisterium, thereby an attack on the church. It was a lie because the Magisterium wants to take away people’s consciousness. The show has been more explicit on this point then the books were at this point in the story.

In the previous episodes, Keen’s version of Lyra has been a more stilted character and her delivery has been wooden. This has been especially disappointing because Keen gave an excellent performance as X-23 in Logan. In this episode, Keen acts more like the character from the novels due to her actions and what she says. She’s started a snowball fight so to cause a distraction and the way she destroyed the Silver Guillotine felt like the kind of thing she would have done in the novel. Lyra tells Roger what she was going to do what she does best: cause chaos. But what she said doesn’t match what she has done in the majority of the series.

An expansion from the novel was the roles of the scientists. There were a clash of personalities and opinions. Dr. Cooper (Lia Williams) was a stern figure who believes in the experiments whilst Dr. Rendal (Amit Shah) was much more doubtful. Dr. Rendal even utters the words “I was just following orders,” which adds to the theme that the Magisterium being more of a fascist organisation.

“The Dæmon Cages” was directed by Euros Lyn, a veteran from the Russell T. Davies era of Doctor Who. The episode had the vibe of a Doctor Who story because it’s dark nature and had a claustrophobic nature. It was mostly set in the tight corridors of the facility. However, Bolvagar was a much bigger facility in Northern Lights. Lyra had to go out into open to move from building to building. The change to the facility was properly budgetary because it was easier to film in a studio. It had a drawback because the big battle between the Gyptians and Tartars was scaled back, especially when compared to the film adaptation.

“The Dæmon Cages” is one of the best episodes in the series so far because it functions as an individual story and its darker tone. The series has improved a lot since the action has moved to the North.