His Dark Materials- Seasons 1 and 2 Explained

HBO granted me early access to His Dark Materials Season 3, and it was fantastic. I'm sure some of you have re-read the books and re-watched the first two seasons recently, but if not, I've put together this video as a refresher for the first two seasons. His Dark Materials Season 1 was adapted primarily from Book 1, known in North America as the Golden Compass and other places as the Northern Lights. The story began with Lord Asriel dropping off Lyra at Jordan College in Oxford, where she was granted scholastic sanctuary. Twelve years later, Asriel came to the college to request further funding for her explorations in the North, and at this time, Lyra did not yet realize that Asriel was her father. Asriel showed them a photogram of an adult and a child taken with a special emulsion. That photogram displayed an elementary particle known as dust falling down on people and clearly more dust collected around the adult than the child. Asriel then showed them another photogram of a city in the sky, suggesting that there were other worlds. Asriel was not the only person interested in the topic of dust. His former lover was a woman named Marissa Coulter. Marissa Coulter was the head of a division within the Magisterium called the General Oblation Board. Marissa wrongly assumed that dust was the physical evidence of original sin. Since dust did not collect around children as much as it did on adults, she believed that they could save children from sin by separating them from their demons before dust collected on them, a process known as intercision. As a result, the General Oblation Board kidnapped children, they brought them to the North to a place they called the Station, and they severed their bonds to their demons. That is, until Lyra and her companions stopped them. Since Marissa Coulter was the head of the General Oblation Board, she went to Jordan College and took Lyra under her wing so that Lyra would be safe from the kidnappings. They flew down to London, and Lyra was so enamored by Mrs. Coulter that Lyra often forgot that her best friend Roger had seemingly been kidnapped by the Gobblers. Over time, Lyra grew suspicious of Mrs. Coulter and her demon, a golden monkey who could somehow separate from Mrs. Coulter. At one point, in a rage of emotion, Marissa told Lyra that Lord Asriel was her father. Later on, Lyra snuck into Marissa's office and found documents about the General Oblation Board and a facility called the Station. On top of that, an investigative reporter told Lyra that Mrs. Coulter was the head of the Oblation Board and they were the people stealing the children. As a result, Lyra and Pan escaped, but not for long. She herself was captured by the Gobblers. Luckily for her, the Gyptians had also gone down to London in search of a missing child. Although they did not find that child, they were able to rescue Lyra from the Gobblers. Since Marissa is a very powerful woman, the state police went out looking for Lyra, and they almost found her. Afterward, Ma Costa told Lyra that Marissa Coulter was actually her mother. They then began a journey north to rescue their children. The first place that they stopped was a poor town called Trollesen, and they picked up several allies there, including Lee Scoresby and York Bjornason. On top of that, a demon named Kaisa told Father Coram that if there was a fight, Serafina Pekela and her witch clan would be on their side. On their way up to Bolvanger, the Alethiometer told Lyra about a ghost, so she and York peeled off to go to a nearby fishing village. When they got there, they found the missing Gyptian child, Billy Costa. But Billy no longer had a demon. This was when Lyra and the Gyptians finally realized what the Oblation Board was doing at Bolvanger. Later that night, the camp was attacked, and Lyra was captured and taken to Bolvanger. Lyra kept her identity a secret by pretending to be a girl named Lizzie, and that almost got her killed. Since the scientists didn't know who she was, they placed Lyra and Pan inside the intercision machine, but Marissa Coulter recognized Lyra and stopped the experiment just in time. Then the Gyptians showed up. The Gyptians fought the Bolvanger guards, and they were able to rescue the children and their demons with the help of Yorick Brunesson, Lee Scoresby, and none other than the queen of the Lake Anaar clan herself, Serafina Pekela. The second to last location in Season 1 was Svalbard, home of the bears. Yorick had been exiled after having lost his temper and killing a bear. The new king was Joffre Ragnusson. Joffre was a very strange bear. He wanted a demon so that he could be human. Marissa Coulter exploited this weakness to get Joffre to do her bidding. As an example, Joffre imprisoned Lord Asriel. Since Asriel was not only Lyra's father, but a friend of the Gyptians, they began to travel there so as to free him. On their way, Cliff Gass attacked Lee's balloon. Lyra fell off, and she was taken prisoner by the bears. Lyra was worried that the bears would kill Yorick when he showed up, so she came up with a plan. Lyra told Joffre that she was not a human. That she was actually a demon. That she was Yorick's demon, but she wanted to be Joffre's demon instead. Lyra said that the only way that could happen was if Joffre defeated Yorick in single combat. In other words, she tricked Joffre into a contest of champions so that Yorick at least had a fighting chance versus one bear as opposed to them all. Despite Joffre being the bigger bear, Yorick was able to win through some deception of his own, after which Yorick became the King of Svalbard, King of the Bears. You're no longer Lyra Malacqua, but Lyra Silvertongue. Now, the ending. The Alethiometer told Lyra that both Mrs. Coulter and Asriel wanted something, and Lyra incorrectly assumed that the Alethiometer was referring to itself. Therefore, Lyra's final mission was to find Asriel and give him the Alethiometer before Mrs. Coulter arrived and took it by force. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a huge mistake. Although Asriel had technically been captured by the bears, he had tricked them into allowing him to continue his studies at a remote location of his choosing. Asriel's goal was to open a bridge to another world, but in order to do that, he needed a significant amount of energy. Asriel figured out that a sufficient amount of energy was released as a result of the process of intercision, so all he needed to open up a bridge to another world was a sacrificial child. And to his dismay, Lyra showed up to his door with Roger. Asriel tricked Roger, brought him up the mountain, and separated him from his demon. When Marissa came upon Asriel, they and their demons embraced, and Asriel tried to get Marissa to join him. Marissa thought about it, but she decided that it was more important to find Lyra. As a result, Asriel walked into the other world alone. Lyra decided that if the adults thought the dust was bad, then it must actually be good, and she needed to learn more about it. With that, Lyra, a child of prophecy who was destined to bring about the end of destiny while in another world, turned away from the world that she and Pan have been born in, looked towards the sun, and walked into the sky. Meanwhile, a boy named Will Parry from yet another world followed a cat through a window of his own. So who was Will, and why did he walk through that window? Will's father was a man named John Parry. In his youth, John Parry had been a marine. After that, he became an explorer. During a blizzard, John unknowingly walked through a window from Will's world into the world of Chittagotzi, and he was unable to find his way back into his own world. The world of Chittagotzi was a world with specters who fed on the souls of adults. Specters fed on John Parry's companions, but John was able to escape into a new world, Lyra's world. There he became a scholar as well as a shaman. Lord Boreal found out who he was and where he lived, but his son Will escaped Boreal's men and followed a cat through a window into the world of Chittagotzi. Three hundred years prior, a guild of philosophers became curious about the smallest of atoms, and they forged an instrument known as a subtle knife. In the hands of the right person, that knife could cut through the very fabric that joined the worlds. However, there was a major problem. When the knife was used to open up windows, a strange evil force crept out from the shadows. To make matters worse, a mass flood of specters entered the city when Asriel opened up his window. Lyra came across Will in Chittagotzi, and although they had a rocky start, they became allies. First, they went back to Will's world so that he could check in on his mother and Lyra could find out more about Dust. Lyra met a physicist named Mary Malone who had been researching dark matter with computers. Lyra determined that dark matter and Dust were the same thing. In other words, the alethiometer and the computer did the same thing. Lyra met back up with Will on an important bench in his world. She told him what the alethiometer did and used it to determine that his father was still alive. They spent the night back in Chittagotzi, but Lyra woke up first and went back to Will's world without him so as to speak to Mary Malone again. Afterwards, Lord Boreal convinced her to get in his car for a chat and although he let her go, he stole her alethiometer. Charles didn't actually want the alethiometer though. What he actually wanted was a subtle knife. Charles told Will and Lyra that he would give the alethiometer back to them if they got him the knife from Chittagotzi. So Will and Lyra went into the tower and they fought a young man named Tulio. They won the fight and Will became the bearer of the knife. The former bearer taught Will how to use the knife and Will used it to help Lyra get back her alethiometer. During their heist to reclaim the alethiometer, Lyra was shocked to find out that her mother was there in Will's world. How did that come to be? At the end of Season 1, Lord Azrael had tried to get Marissa to join him, but she said no since she was more concerned with finding Lyra. Over the course of Season 2, she went all out. First, she tortured a witch in an attempt to find out what Lyra's role was in the prophecy. Unfortunately for her, Ruta Skadi killed that witch before she spilled the secret. Ruta also stabbed Cardinal Sturrock, so Marissa seized the opportunity to secretly kill him so as to open up a spot for Father Macphail to rise in his place since Marissa felt as if she had more influence over him than the prior Cardinal. Father Macphail then ordered the bombing of Seraphina Pecola's homeland as a show of force, winning him the vote for the new Cardinal. Marissa's focus, however, was on finding Lyra. Since the Magisterium had captured Lord Azrael's servant Thorold, Marissa questioned him and he told her that Lyra had also gone through Azrael's window into another world. Marissa then found and captured Lee Scoresby and interrogated him, but she decided to let him go since it was obvious that he loved Lyra very much. Meanwhile, Boreal manipulated Lyra in an attempt to get Will and Lyra to fetch him the Southern Knife. In other words, Lord Boreal had endangered Lyra's life, and Marissa Coulter did not appreciate that. After Will and Lyra stole back the Lithiometer, Marissa lured Boreal into Chittagotzi, absorbed everything he knew about it, and then she killed him with poison. Unfortunately for her, she was unable to find Lyra, since Will and Lyra had already left Chittagotzi with Seraphina Pecola. So how did Seraphina find them? When Lord Azrael opened up the bridge, the magnetic poles shifted and that affected the bears' food supply. As a result, the bears began to migrate. Seraphina's demon found Yorick to tell him that the Magisterium had bombed Rudaskadi's homeland. During that conversation, Yorick told Kaiza that Lyra had gone through Azrael's window. So that was how the witches found out where Lyra had gone. When the witches flew through the window, Rudaskadi saw a group of angels, so she flew after them so as to find Lord Azrael. Meanwhile, Seraphina set out to find Lyra, and she did just so. Seraphina found them, and she brought them to a group of witches who performed a healing spell since he had lost two fingers when fighting for the knife. Their next step was to reunite him with his father. John Perry had spent quite some time in Lyra's world since he was unable to get back to his own world. Over that time, John had become a shaman. In other words, John was able to perform some seemingly supernatural feats. The first thing that he did was use Lee Scoresby's mother's ring to summon Lee to him. Then they flew off to find Lyra and the bearer of the knife. While they flew through Azrael's window into the world of Chittagotzi, Fra Pavel consulted the Illithiometer, and it told him that Lyra's destiny was to play the role of Eve. In an attempt to prevent that prophecy from unfolding, the Magisterium sent out soldiers to kill her. John Perry summoned wind to help blow them faster, but it was not enough. The zeppelins caught up. John summoned a storm as well as animals, but even that was not enough. The final zeppelin shot them down. John's goal was to find the bearer of the knife, whereas Lee Scoresby's goal was simply to protect Lyra since he loved her like a child. Ultimately, Lee determined that Lyra had a better chance of living if John was able to find the knife bearer. So Lee selflessly stayed behind and fought, allowing John to escape. All for the sake of Lyra. And now, the ending. An angel told Mary the role that she would play. The angel also instructed Mary to find the entrance, deceive the guards, and save the girl and boy. Mary was unable to find Will and Lyra, but Will's father did find him, albeit briefly. Meanwhile, Marissa Coulter used her manipulative powers to convince the spectres to work for her. That allowed her to travel safely through Chittagotzi. Marissa then found Lyra and captured her for the third time. Long story short, Will is the new bearer of the subtle knife, Lyra is destined to play the role of Eve, and Mary is destined to play the role of the Serpent. They have enemies such as the Magisterium and its servants, as well as even more powerful enemies that have yet to be revealed. But they also have powerful allies. Allies such as Yorick Burnison and the Panzerbjorn, Seraphine of Pecula, Ruta Scoti, and other witches. They have angels, they have Lord Asriel, and above all else, they have each other. Roger. What is this place?