Will and Lyra go on a quest for the Subtle Knife, unprepared for exactly what reaching their goal will mean. Lee Scoresby’s quest to find Doctor Grumman takes a surprising turn. Lord Boreal shows his hand to Mrs Coulter. The Witches plot their revenge against the Magisterium.

After an overall average episode was lifted by one amazing scene last week, this instalment of His Dark Materials is… odd.

For starters we get something I don’t recall in the show before – an opening monologue overlaid on some visuals, which feels as if someone suddenly caught on to the idea that maybe people like me, who hadn’t read the books, might be watching. Whereas I’m grateful for the catch up, it feels unwieldly and oddly welded on to the show. Still, at least now I know what the Subtle Knife is and why it’s important.

Tasked with retrieving said knife for Boreal (who they know as Lotram), Will and Lyra start searching for a way into the mysterious Tower of Angels in the centre of Cittagazze. Here as well, the show gets a bit odd, because for a tower guarding such a powerful secret, it seems surprisingly straightforward to access, and it turns out they aren’t even the only ones there. Then, well, then stuff gets really weird, as it turns out that the Alethiometer wasn’t lying about Will being important – it just didn’t specify exactly why.

Meanwhile, Lee is intent on finding Doctor Grumman, but when he reaches his goal, it isn’t anything like he could have expected or predicted. This is where the show (and presumably the books on which it’s based) really starts to ramp up the not-so-subtle messaging for which it’s infamous in certain circles. It also reveals Grumman/Parry to be a rather conveniently powerful character, with few limits and various abilities that make no sense in terms of the fabric of the show. Like why he has a daemon, for instance.

Boreal makes his move with Mrs Coulter, revealing to her not just that he has Lyra and her friend exactly where he wants them but also some deeper truths about what he’s been up to these last few years. I’m not entirely clear what his agenda is here – obviously he wants the Subtle Knife (which he significantly leaves out of his revelations to Coulter) but aside from that, whatever his agenda might be, what ideology he serves and so on, remain baffling to me.

And then back in ‘our’ Oxford, the show rounds off with Professor Malone and a scene which…well it just feels like another thing the show throws out. As if it suddenly remembered it needs to move along. It’s a series of revelations about Dust/Dark Matter – it’s nature, what it is, what it does and (supposedly) why. For this viewer at least, it felt out of place, suddenly thrust upon the audience and odd. Time will tell, I suppose.

Verdict: Oddly disjointed and with some real curveballs thrown at the audience. 6/10

Greg D. Smith