His Dark Materials: Season 2, Episode 3 ‘Theft’ Recap and Review

Lin-Manuel Miranda in HIS DARK MATERIALS.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

This week in HIS DARK MATERIALS, we begin to grasp just how far and wide the search for Lyra goes and how valuable she is to all. The episode opens with the witches walking around the charred remains of their home after the Magisterium formally declared war and set their land ablaze last week. Continuing the prophecy they have been predicting, they declare once more that Lyra is more important now than ever and she must be found—cut to Marisa, on a ship, dressed to the nines, en route on her own search for Lyra.

In the woods, a mysterious hooded man whispers into a ring he holds in his hands and calls out for aeronaut Lee Scorseby. Could it be—could it finally be—Stanislaus Grumman, a.k.a John Parry, a.k.a Will’s dad?! Though we do not see his face, it is indeed the man we have been waiting for and his call works as suddenly Lee’s hot air balloon is magically re-routed, presumably leading him towards Grumman.

Lyra, meanwhile, continues hiding out in the Cittagazze with Will. Despite both the alethiometer and her daemon, Pan, continuing to tell her that she needs to help Will find his dad, she cannot stop thinking about the scientist she met, Dr. Malone, and her studies of Dust. Lyra sneaks out of the house, leaving Will a note, and jumps between realms back to his Oxford to fulfill her promise of meeting back up with Dr. Malone.

Immediately upon her arrival, Dr. Malone informs Lyra that the police have already been to her office this morning looking for her. Despite a quick attempt to hide her, the two of them run into the “police officer,” The Pale-Faced Man, and both Lyra and Dr. Malone quickly catch on to his honest intentions. As the three gather in Dr. Malone’s office, Lyra does a fine job playing coy to his questions before accidentally slipping that she knows Will. It is in this moment that Dr. Malone assists Lyra in making a run for it, and as she runs through the university being chased by The Pale-Faced Man, she runs into none other than Lord Boreal, who offers her a ride. Reluctant at first, but seeing no other option, she agrees to get in the vehicle. It takes only a moment for Lyra to know that her instincts were right and she demands he pull over to let her out. He does, and Lyra escapes, only to realize that she left her backpack in the car. She turns to see Lord Boreal holding it out the window, and snatches it from his hands as he drives away. Panicked, she opens it to find the alethiometer missing, realizing it had been Lord Boreal’s plan all along to steal it from her. Dr. Malone, later finding out that Lyra successfully escaped, continues making attempts to communicate with Dust. She thinks she is unsuccessful at first, but thinking of Lyra’s past insistence to try using the I Ching, she finally begins to see a reaction from the Dust in her efforts.

Meanwhile, Lee begins scouting around the town his balloon has been led to and lands at a local watering hole to try to get information on Grumman’s whereabouts. He is eventually led to a Dr. Haley, a man who works at the observatory, and he tells Lee about where he believes Grumman is at. Their conversation goes awry not long after that and a gunfight ensues, where Lee ends up unintentionally killing the doctor in self-defense. He is then captured and beaten by the Magisterium, where he is paid a visit by Marisa. Insistent on trying to manipulate him into telling her where Lyra is, Lee stands his ground and tells her that he loves Lyra like a daughter and will not give her up. “My life is worth 1/10th of hers,” he tells Marisa, who ultimately finds the tables turned on her after Lee finds her weak spot talking about their mutually poor upbringing. Marisa ends up stealing the keys from the guard, freeing Lee from the containment the Magisterium has put him in, and tells her to please take care of Lyra if he finds her before she does. The conversation is one of the highlights of the episode, albeit a bit uncharacteristic to see Marisa so easily weakened and manipulated.

One of the witches, Serafina, sends her daemon to go speak to Iorek Byrnison, who is able to report back that Lyra crossed through the threshold created by Lord Asriel and can be found in another realm. Will, during all of this, continues to have dreams about his dad and believes firmly that he is alive. He attempts to go find Lyra so they can set out looking for him, but he finds the house empty and misses the note she left for him on the table. While searching for Lyra, he instead has an unusual conversation with Angelica, who tells him more about the tower in the center of the town that he has been seeing in his dreams and the tales surrounding it. It is clear that he still does not trust her, and something seems off about the way she willingly surrendered this information, but he takes what he can get and heads back home where he then finds Lyra’s note.

As he crosses into his world, he finds Lyra immediately sitting on a bench and she confesses everything that happened that day, including the stolen alethiometer. Pan helps Lyra remember the business card Lord Boreal had given her at the museum which has his address on it, and the trio decide to lay low until the sun goes down at which time they will go to his house to retrieve it. They hide out at a movie theater to go watch one of the greatest films of all time, PADDINGTON, and it makes for a cute scene between the two where Lyra has popcorn for the first time (it tastes like wood shavings but she can’t stop eating it—accurate) and the blooming friendship between them continues to build as Will admits to Lyra he went looking for her because he had been worried.

Amir Wilson and Dafne Keen in HIS DARK MATERIALS.

After the film, they successfully reach Lord Boreal at his home he drops his act quickly by calling them both by their real names. He provokes Lyra into thinking hard about where they had seen each other before and she finally remembers that she had met him at her mother’s party in London. With the truth now out and all intentions clear, a proposal is made: in exchange for the alethiometer, Will and Lyra must retrieve the knife that, unbeknownst to either of them, is being carried by Will’s definitely-not-dead father. Lord Boreal tells them that he believes the man who has it is hiding in the Torre degli Angeli, the very tower Will had just been speaking to Angelica about, and they reluctantly agree to the terms—not before Lyra throws a drinking glass at Lord Boreal’s head, though.

Overall, the episode was yet another that moved kind of slow and continued to set up the context and build the story rather than provide exciting actions. That being said, the emotional beats that this episode hit were strong and continued to set a solid foundation for the chemistry between the characters.

GRADE: [B+]

With Serafina and the witches now having a stronger indication of Lyra’s whereabouts, and Lee having answers about where Grumman might truly be, do you think things will start picking up in next week’s episode? Leave us your thoughts in the comments below.