His Dark Materials season 3 ending explained for fans allergic to Dust
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His Dark Materials season 3 finale spoilers follow.
His Dark Materials has never been more epic than it was in season three's penultimate episode, titled 'The Clouded Mountain', where one final battle raged out against the heavens.
By the end, Metatron's unjust reign over the Land of the Dead was undone, letting all the trapped ghosts out so they could become one with the living world. Metatron himself was also killed thanks to Asriel and Marisa's sacrifice, which further blurred the lines between good and evil in this world.
Finally, Will used the not-so-Subtle Knife to cut into a crystal cube that had fallen to earth. Inside lay The Authority, otherwise known as the original angel. Will's actions freed The Authority, which in turn destroyed the last remaining aspect of religious oppression this world contained. Well, aside from one extra-religious devotee who we'll get to shortly.
And it's at this point that His Dark Materials finally came to an end with one last episode, 'The Botanic Garden', which turned out to be far less action-packed but no less important than the one that preceded it.
We'd expect nothing less from a finale that's been dubbed "heavy" by Will actor Amir Wilson.
"I think it's a beautiful, beautiful episode. A really, really beautiful episode. And I think people are going to like it."
He added: "The last episode is heavy. It's emotional. I think there'll be a lot of tears and stuff. There certainly was on my part and Dafne's part when we were filming it."
Speaking to Radio Times and other press on the end of their journey Dafne Keen said "It's bittersweet, I'd say. It's sad because of the people you leave behind and all of the experiences we had and all the good times we had on set with all of the crew and stuff."
She went on to say: "But it's really nice to see the story wrap up and be privileged enough to tell it and to get three seasons out of it, which has been an honour."
So much build up! Let's break down this epic, emotional honour of an ending.
His Dark Materials season 3 ending explained
Following the events of episode seven, Lyra and Will's daemons are still nowhere to be found because they're a bit miffed about the way Lyra treated them. And with the Golden Monkey's demise, Lyra believes her mother, Mrs Coulter, must be dead — along with Asriel too.
Meanwhile, Pan and Kirjava are revealed to be watching from afar in the belief that their humans are finally safe now. That's not actually true though, because Father Gomez is still determined to kill "Eve" aka Lyra, unaware that the angels he's put his faith in are no more.
Lyra follows the alethiometer, as she's wont to do, where she eventually encounters Mary, who reveals that Dust and Sraf are the same thing. This confirms the religious fanatics were indeed wrong in their belief that Dust is Sin. Like, duh.
The problem now though is that Dust is leaking from this world, which in turn has had a dangerous impact on the multiverse as a whole.
It's up to Lyra to figure out a way to save what's left of Dust and bring it back to this world. Pan's no help though because he's still ignoring her after she betrayed his trust earlier this season.
The next day, Lyra's feeling lonely-slash-in-love with Will, so she tries to get intimate with him when they end up together in the water. Things get a bit dicey when Father Gomez appears in the distance, ready to shoot Lyra.
Conveniently Thankfully, the angel Balthamos appears just in time to kill Gomez's daemon, and therefore Gomez himself, thereby bringing the Magisterium to an abrupt end.
Undeterred by all this, Lyra and Will make out, fulfilling the "love of Eve" prophecy that's destined to heal the world. Serafina is the first to notice the impact of this, watching the Dust slow down in front of her very eyes. They still need more of a spark to fix things though, so Serafina helps convince the Daemons to finally reunite with Lyra and Will.
However, a happy ending isn't quite in reach because Dust is still escaping out of all the many windows that previous knife bearers (including Will) created. Angel Xaphania reveals that all the windows must be closed except one, which could still function as long as people remain conscious and creative. This show is wild, honestly.
Will knows he has to return to his own world, but they also have to keep the door to the Land of the Dead open so that dead souls can cross over. That means these two new lovebirds must part, sacrificing their love for one another to help bring balance to the universe.
With one last kiss, a storm of Dust is created around them, and then Will heads back to his world with Mary. But not before they agree to "meet up" once a year by sitting on a specific bench that exists in both of their worlds. Even though they won't technically be together, they'll always know that the other is there with them elsewhere in the wider multiverse.
At the end, a final title card reveals that Will and Lyra both stuck to their pact and did indeed sit on their bench together in Oxford once every year until the day they died:
"They kept their promise to each other, going on to live full lives in their own worlds. Will became a medical student and later, a successful surgeon." Classic Will, always good with a knife.
"Lyra went on to be educated at St Sophia’s College in Oxford," the card continues, "where she was taught how to once again read the alethiometer…"
In case you're wondering, Lyra lost that gift because it was tied to the innocence of her childhood, an era that ended when she kissed Will. But thankfully, Lyra was able to re-learn how to read the alethiometer through study, "Which would come in useful one day, when Lyra and Pan would go on to have a further great adventure."
Another adventure eh? "What could that be?" you ask. Well, aren't you lucky, because we had a look through Philip Pullman's source material to figure out where Lyra's journey could continue right here. So maybe this isn't actually the end then, after all...
His Dark Materials airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK and HBO in the US.
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