The Botanic Garden
Episode 8 of His Dark Materials Season 3 starts the final ever chapter in the paradisiac world Lyra and Will have moved to. After everything, Lyra heads into the water to cool off and relax but the two daemons are nowhere to be found. The memory of the Golden Monkey disappearing still haunts her. Lyra believes Mrs Coulter is dead and has the strangest feeling that Asriel is gone too.
What happened to the Mulefa?
Pan and Kirjava watch from afar and believe that they’re safe. Of course, that’s not strictly true. Father Gomez is still on the hunt and determined to kill “Eve”, seemingly unaware that Metatron has been stopped. Anyway, the altheiometer points Lyra in the direction they need to go, where they follow the noise of the mulefa. One stops – Atal of course – and guides them across to where Mary is.
Mary shows them that Dust and Sraf are one and the same, and that this is not Sin after all. It’s just part of everything that is. The Mulefa were in balance with the Dust but with it disappearing, flooding out of the world, it’s completely destroyed the equilibrium of the multiverse. The only way to save it is to use creativity and make some sort of discovery to drive it back to this world.
Are Lyra and Pan reunited? How can Will and Lyra save the world?
That night, Lyra tries to call out for Pan, wanting to speak to him, but her Daemon is still keeping a distance. Unfortunately, that distance is forever being shortened by Father Gomez, who’s nearing their location. In fact, he spots Lyra and Will from afar he next day, as the pair end up together in the water.
Will doesn’t take Lyra’s hint as she gets closer to him, but there are more pressing matters at hand. High up, Gomez has his gun ready to fire at Lyra. Balthamos appears and crushes Gomez’s Daemon, unwilling to let him kill her. The Angel disappears after this, as Gomez is stopped and the Magisterium is finally defeated.
Lyra and Will eventually end up kissing, with the prophecy fulfilled as the “love of Eve” heals the world and allows nature to prosper. Serafina watches from the camp in awe as the Dust seems to slow down and it seems to be just the spark needed to bring balance back. Serafina next visits the Daemons and encourages them to get back to their human counterparts again.
As a result, Lyra and Pan are reunited, with Lyra telling her Daemon she loves him. As for Will, he’s also reunited with Kirjava and the pair touch each other’s Daemons.
How do Will and Lyra need to save their worlds?
Xaphania arrives to see Mary and points out that thanks to her the Multiverse is now saved. Her tale about love the night before Will and Lyra was the trigger. Xaphania breaks the news that Mary needs to go back to her world, while Will and Lyra learn, heartbreakingly, what they need to do. They need to return to their own worlds and can’t be together anymore. It’s the only way to stop the flow of Dust from leaking out and to restore their worlds.
Unfortunately the Alethiometer is no help, given it freezes, partly because Lyra is now growing up. As for Will, he needs to return to his world and break the knife, that way the Angels can interject and close up all the wounds through the different worlds. As the pair part ways, Lyra promises to reunite with him once more in the Land of the Dead when their lives have ended.
Mary Malone also prepares herself to leave, bidding farewell to Atal and the other mulefa. The quartet head through Will’s portal and find themselves back in Lyra’s world at Oxford. Mary urges Serafina to watch over Lyra, given how hard this will be. In exchange, Serafina helps Mary reach inside and see her Daemon, which appears in the form of a black alpine chough.
How does His Dark Materials season 3 end?
Eventually it comes time to say goodbye, and Will walks through to the other side of the portal, closing it up with his knife but before that, exchanging one final kiss together. Eventually Lyra and Pan are left all alone, as are Will and Kirjava. Will is reunited with his mother while Lyra enters Oxford again.
Years pass and true to their word, Lyra and Will both meet at the bench once a year. Will goes on to become a medical student and later a successful surgeon, while Lyra is educated at Oxford and taught how to read the alethiometer. Narration informs us that apparently this is going to come in useful for Pan and Lyra heading off on another adventure… but that’s a story for another day.
The Episode Review
His Dark Materials bows out with an emotionally charged finale, one that does a good job closing out all the loose threads and bringing this fantasy series to a close. The ending does hint that there could be a sequel following this but we’ll have to wait and see what the combined HBO/BBC production crew decide to do with this.
Either way though, His Dark Materials has been a really solid watch and this final season has been a turbulent ride that finally brings the journey to a close. It was certainly emotional to see Lyra and Will separated, although this episode was far from perfect.
The situation with Father Gomez sticks out, over almost as quickly as it began. It almost felt like a last gasp Hail Mary to throw in a bit of late drama when it really wasn’t needed.
That quibble aside, Mary’s purpose is finally shown, along with her actually seeing her Daemon too, which is a nice touch. Not only that, but the show manages to round out all the big plot points and draw everything to a satisfying conclusion.
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Episode Rating
(4)
Please read the books. Will and Lyra can’t be together because:
If Lyra and Pan go to Will’s world, they will fade, as daemons aren’t outside the body in Will’s world and therefore can’t survive. If Will and his daemon go to Lyra’s world, Will would have to leave his mother and that’s something he cannot bring himself to do. Each opening to another world leaks Dust..which creates Spectres of the grownups and kills that world, leaving just children. That can’t happen. All worlds must be closed except one-and having been through the world of the Dead, Lyra and Pan know the Dead souls need somewhere to go—hence the only opening is from the world of the Dead to the Beach Lyra and will escape to. Therefore, Will and Lyra cannot have a window connecting each other’s worlds to sustain an in-person relationship. Will and Lyra agree to this and sit on the same bench in each other’s respective world’s on a specific day each year to remember each other.
I was devastated by the ending where Lyra and Will must return to their own worlds. If Will’s father was from Lycra’s world why can’t he go to hers if he is a mixed world offspring? Seeing them on that bench in their own worlds every year was so upsetting! I only read the Golden Compass. After all the drama, near death escapes and the push to have their love heal the worlds, the ending seemed cruel.
It was emotionally draining to see Will and Lyra having go back to there own world After all they went through I have not read the book but I think I’m going to I was kind of disappointed but it is what it is and if they do do a sequel I hope it has a better ending Love to see Lyra and will back together again
I enjoyed most of this last chapter but have a problem. It surprised me that out of nowhere and quite rapidly Lyra and Will are told that they will be separated. As an audience member, that had not read the books, I felt rushed by this lack of a build up to one of the most important unions being ripped apart by new information.