‘His Dark Materials’ Season 3, Episodes 7 & 8: Recap & Ending, Explained – What Happens to Lyra and Will?

Episode 6 of “His Dark Materials” Season 3 ended with Asriel’s Republic of Heaven about to go to war with the forces of The Authority, aka Metatron. Meanwhile, it seems that Lyra and Will are about to meet Mary. We must also not forget that Father Gomez has begun searching for the serpent to prevent the fall of Eve. But does Eve’s fall stand for sin? Or has it been a way for the Authority to command its control over humans?

Spoilers Ahead


The Great War

The sirens at the Republic of Heaven are blaring. Serafina and her witch sisters, as well as Xaphania and her rebel angels, are on the side of the Republic. Asriel shows Marisa Coulter the device that he will use to destabilize Metatron’s clouds using the dust flow in the abyss via an energy surge. When the Kingdom of Heaven falls, activating the capacitors will weaken Metatron enough to be thrown into the abyss. Asriel wants Marisa to pull the switch on the machine. As his final sacrifice, Asriel will take Metatron down with him. However, it is Lyra who will have to fulfill the prophecies for Metatron’s fall. So Asriel has to buy her time. Later on, Xaphania tells Marisa of her ability to suppress her good side. She will need to use it when the time comes. As the Authority’s clouds approach, Asriel declares war. Moments later, Asriel is in his Intention Craft with Stelmaria and the witches and angels with him. In front of them are Authority’s angels, which outnumber them by hundreds. The war begins. Xaphania senses that Metatron has released the daemon-eaters (“His Dark Materials” Season 2). As the creatures take down Asriel’s soldiers, who are guarding the people on the ground, Marisa comes out of the tower and casts her magic. After attracting the daemon-eaters towards her, she turns them to dust in a moment. Later on, she hears Metatron’s voice as he tries to manipulate the soldiers by offering them a place in heaven. She thus calls out to him. A bridge forms from the tower to the Kingdom of Heaven. She walks in, signaling her daemon to stay back. Meanwhile, Asriel, too, makes his way into the Kingdom using the speed of his Intention craft. Asriel and Marisa are in different spaces inside the Hall of the Kingdom. While Asriel tries to fight off his own image (another of Metatron’s tricks), Metatron reveals his human form (as he once was before he got his powers) to Marisa, who yet again expertly manages to manipulate him into believing that she wants to be under his grace. As a wounded Asriel lies on the ground, Metatron and Marisa look down on him as if they were going to kill him. That’s when Metatron senses the knife-bearer yielding his knife.

Lyra and Will, who are in the Land of the Dead, decide to find their daemons at the Republic (Will has a daemon, too, as told by his father, John Parry). Thus they don’t join Mary but arrive at the Republic. In front of them, the Republic’s forces are fighting the Kingdom’s forces. On the way to Asriel’s compound, Will and Lyra encounter Commander Ogunwe and his troops. Will intends to use his blade to reach their destination quicker, but as per Ogunwe, the Kingdom’s angels will sense it, know that Will and Lyra are not with their daemons, and go after their daemons. Thus, they need to walk. As Ogunwe and his soldiers fight off cliff goblins, Lyra and Will make their way toward the tower. Somewhere else, Serafina finds Pan and Will’s daemon cat and asks them to follow her to the tower in their bird forms. Will and Lyra meet Pan and Will’s daemon in the tower. Will cuts a window to the land of the Mulefa for their daemons.

Metatron has barely come out of the trance of his realization of the Knife Bearer and Eve being present in his world when Marisa contacts her daemon using her mind and tells it to turn on the device at the tower. Lyra watches as her mother’s daemon turns on a machine. The capacitors in the abyss set off, and a huge surge of energy hits the Kingdom in the clouds. As everything starts to crumble around them, Asriel and Marisa try to pull Metatron into the abyss. Finally, a push from Stelamaria does the job. With tears in their eyes, Asriel and Marisa sacrifice their lives for Lyra. Back in the tower, Lyra watches as her mother’s daemon disappears into thin air. Metatron’s angels turn to Dust, as does the Kingdom of Heaven. The dark clouds disappear from the Republic of Heaven. The Great War is over. Will cuts open a window to the world where their daemons are, and he and Lyra then walk in.


Eve’s Sin

While Lyra and Will take a dip in the waters of the land of the Mulefa (the sentient elephant-like beings that Mary has befriended), Pan and Will’s demon cat watch from afar. Pan thinks that Lyra doesn’t miss him anymore, but the cat reassures him that Lyra will love him no matter what happens. As Will and Lyra look for their daemons, the alethiometer reveals that they need to meet someone else. They come across Atal, the Mulefa, who is Mary’s closest, who brings them to Mary. She makes Lyra and Will understand how Dust isn’t a sin but a consciousness that increases with age and experience. She also shows them how the Dust is disappearing from this world of theirs. Apparently, only some kind of realization or discovery can prevent what’s happening and stop the Dust from escaping. She then explains why she left her nunhood after meeting a woman by realizing the ache to love and feeling more alive than ever. She thereby liberated herself from the doubt of being appreciated for being a good girl or shamed for being tempted, as is expected of nuns. These words work like magic on Lyra and Will. Later, as both sit by a lake after taking a bath, Will and Lyra kiss. The sin, as per the Authority and the Magisterium, is thus committed, but the truth is Eve has healed the worlds and retained Dust forever. Nature and hope shall be restored, and everything will be in harmony.

Father Gomez, along with his spy fly, walks into the land of the Mulefa through a window that had been left open. As he carries on his search for Eve and the serpent, Balthamos keeps an eye on him from the skies, following him without knowing why he is there. When he sees Gomez aiming his gun at Lyra and Will, whom Gomez has finally spotted, Balthamos kills him and, in doing so, sacrifices himself. Back at the Republic, Serafina and Xaphania sense the Dust settling. The second prophecy has thus been fulfilled.


‘His Dark Materials’ Season 3: Ending Explained – Do Lyra And Will Stay Together?

Serafina finds Pan and Will’s daemon cat roaming on their own. She gives the cat a name, Kirjava, and brings them to Lyra and Will. They reunite. Xaphania meets Mary and appreciates what she has done as the serpent. It was Xaphania who was speaking to her via the machine at Oxford. Now it is time for Mary to return. Unfortunately, Will and Lyra will have to choose their worlds because any window made using the knife increases the flow of Dust and gives birth to dark forces. Thus the knife has to be broken, and only then will the angels be able to close the remaining windows left open by the knife bearers before Will. Since one cannot live in another’s world for long, it seems that Lyra and Will will have to be separated. Distressed, Lyra consults her Alethiometer, but it isn’t working anymore. There can be enough Dust born out of humanity’s compassion for only one window to remain open, and that is in the Land of the Dead.

After promising to love each other forever, Lyra and Will make up their minds. Mary bids a final goodbye to Atal and the other Mulefas as well. With Serafina’s assistance, Will opens a window to Lyra’s world, and they all walk in. Serafina promises Mary to take care of Lyra like her own sister. She also helps Mary see her daemon for the first time, a Common blackbird. Will and Lyra promise to come to the same spot (where they are sitting and having their final conversation) every year on Midsummer’s Day at midday, in their own worlds. Lyra Silvertongue hugs Will Parry and Mary Malone for the final time, tears rolling down all their eyes. Will opens a window to his world, and he and Mary walk in, along with their daemons. After a final kiss from Lyra, Will closes the window. They shall meet again after they have lived their lives. Will breaks the knife. All the windows in the different worlds close. Lyra returns to Oxford, while Will returns to his mother, Elaine. Year after year, at midday on Midsummer’s Day, they both visit the bench with their daemons where they last spoke to each other, divided by worlds but united by love.

The ending of “His Dark Materials” Season 3 reveals that Will has become a successful surgeon while Lyra has yet again learned to read the Alethiometer at Oxford. It will come in handy for her next adventure. This does mean that another show will arrive sooner or later that will have more of Lyra and Pan’s exploration. As full of possibilities as the world of “His Dark Materials” is, it is not impossible for Lyra and Will to meet. As Xaphania told Lyra, fate is something that sometimes even the most powerful of beings have submitted to, and if fate wants, Lyra and Will shall meet again. 


See more: ‘His Dark Materials’ Season 3, Episodes 5 & 6: Recap & Ending, Explained – Do Lyra And Will Find Roger?


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Shubhabrata Dutta
Shubhabrata Dutta
Shubhabrata’s greatest regret is the fact that he won’t be able to watch every movie and show ever made. And when he isn’t watching a movie or a show, he is busy thinking about them and how they are made; all while taking care of his hobbies. These include the usual suspects i.e. songs, long walks, books and PC games.

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