His Dark Materials (2×02) The Cave Review

For our review of the last episode of His Dark Materials, click here.

Synopsis: Lyra and Will head to Oxford for answers. The Magisterium is faced with a choice. (HBO)

It’s time for Will to buy into what’s going on as things are about to get dusty while a war is about to emerge between the Magisterium and the witches. That’s a lot of pressure on Lyra’s shoulders.

The Cave saw Lyra and Will head to the latter’s version of Oxford. This proved to be a learning experience for her as this new world, arguably one closer to our world. Despite the fact that much of it looked the same, it was very different. As Will had to check in on his mother, Lyra went on her own on her search for a scholar that could help her with dust. Meanwhile, the alethiometer told her how to find the scholar she was looking for (and not lie) and that she should help Will find his father (she also ran into the man working for Mrs. Coulter that had been following Will for much of last season).

Lyra found Dr. Mary Malone (Simone Kirby), a physicist studying dark matter or rusakov particles, something Lyra knew to be dust (though her casually mentioning being from another world didn’t seem to faze Malone). It was important for her to learn. Malone had developed a computer system known as The Cave to amplify the signal from these particles, getting somewhat of a response when hooking herself up. Lyra showed Malone her alethiometer but little did she know, that it essentially worked the same way as her Cave. However, once Lyra got hooked up, the results were off the charts. The particles began to communicate in the form of pictures similar to those on her alethiometer with the message being that Malone was important as she had something important to do and she would have to make the connection herself. Their time together was cut short as Lyra had to meet up with Will.

Will texted his mother. His plan was to acquire the remainder of his father’s trust. Unfortunately being a minor, that would be difficult. However, he had another option in the form of the grandparents he didn’t know he had. Upon meeting, they were skeptical of his motives though they had motives of their own which led him to leave. There was clearly some bad history surrounding Will’s father’s disappearance. Meeting back up, Lyra introduced Will to her alethiometer to convince him that they needed to find his father who was allegedly not dead (but he didn’t want to leave his mother).

After the death of their leader, the Magisterium must decide their response. Meanwhile, the witches had to decide their response as many believed their mission should be to help Lyra. Their attempt to broker peace failed. Ultimately to continue her power play, Mrs. Coulter convinced the new leader of the Magisterium to launch an attack against the witches (the attack was cut against the funeral of the old leader). Finally learning that she was in another world, Mrs. Coulter set out to find her.

The dust reveal was a great one and hopefully the season will explore that deeper but however far Lyra goes, Mrs. Coulter will find her. Ruth Wilson makes for such a compelling villain. It’s still unclear what is going to happen but she will definitely be in the middle of it.

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.