The Botanic Garden

I thought maybe the final episode of His Dark Materials would end in a crescendo. Even top the fireworks of the previous instalment.

In fact it was a lot subdued as it tried to tie up the remaining loose ends.

What it did was to show why Mary Malone was such an important character. Even though she was in the periphery for a lot of the time.

Writer Jack Thorne brought the essence of Pullman's writing to the finale. Subvert the Adam and Eve story.

Mary Malone is the serpent, her love story persuades Will and Lyra to kiss. The original sin reinvigorates the dust everywhere in all the multiverse.

The banishment is that both Will and Lyra could never live in the same world. Forever destined to be seperated.

At least Lyra was reunited with her dæmon while Will gained one of his own.

I did think the end was a little messy. A bit like the The Return of the King, it could have ended earlier.

Already you can find reviewers who were frustrated with this episode, but I think it deserves a little more credit, just a little. One problem is that it could have just ended with the previous episode, which would leave some questions and hanging plot points, but I've gotten used to series ending like that by now. It's a regular occurrence now when funding another season is possible, but not certain. I also think the writer(s?) were nervous about the anti-church, anti-religion tone, and felt they needed to sledgehammer in the messages of romantic love, including same-sex love, and other secular warm fuzzies. I kept waiting for someone to be killed or at least seriously injured in this episode, and without totally spoiling, let's just say you'll be waiting a long time if you had the same expectations. It might have been better just to leave the audience uncomfortable with the message against organized religion ringing loud in the end, basically as the previous episode did. Other than that, it was fairly well done and probably truer to the Amber Spyglass, which I haven't read, but know it anticipates further writings at the end. (If the other books do get green-lit for filming, I expect an entirely, or nearly entirely different cast, at the very least). Apparently many readers were also frustrated at the third and final book, so you can probably assume that this episode has the same faults, and it was probably the best possible depiction given the source material. If you go in with low expectations, it probably won't be so painful. Personally, I was so glad when the ending finally came just so it would be over with.

Lyra and Will walk through the world where Mary Malone looking for their daemons and hunted down by Father Gomez. They stumble upon Mary, who tells them a love story why she gave up being a nun. Lyra and Will feel desire for each other and later they meet Pantalaimon and Kirjava. Their act stops the flow of Dust and save the worlds. But there is a price to pay.

"The Botanic Garden" is the last episode of this awful Third Season of "His Dark Materials". The First Season tells the story of "The Golden Compass" (2007) with many details and is great. The Second Season is reasonable and not so good. However, this Third Season and the conclusion of the plot is terrible and a waste of time. Dafne Keen and Amir Wilson are expressionless and show no chemistry, and the love scene is ridiculous. Will had no daemon but when he crossed by boat to the world of the dead, he left his soul behind that now it is a daemon. Rule of the game. But he becomes a doctor in a world where there are no daemons. It is funny a surgeon operating a patient with a cat (Kirjava) in the waiting room. The subplot with Father Gomez is absolutely unnecessary. Mary's romance is also unnecessary the way it is. She could act like a serpent in a different way. The conclusion of this juvenile series is one of the worst I have ever seen. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "The Botanic Garden"

Bruh... what the heck was that!?

Right away when the angel and witches were "explaining" their "reasons" on why Will and Lyra must separate and rewrite their own worlds, I sensed a lot of nonsense.

I agree %100 that the angles pretty much did not want anyone but themselves to travel the worlds and not the knife bearer. Despite the fact that Will had closed his portals, somehow the issue is that previous knife wielders have left their own portals open, (but I don't get why or how this is issue toward the angles, who admitted that they can close the portals all by themselves and could have been doing that all along anyway, but to do so the knife must be destroyed to make their jobs easier, which doesn't make sense).

Then again, wasn't this the knife bearer's entire POINT. To close the portals of the worlds, but the angles come out of nowhere and go "oh yeah, we could've been doing this all along, but...yeah. That knife's gotta go!"

The truth was that the blade itself was a threat to them and they wanted it out the picture.

So suddenly people who travel to other worlds cannot reside in those worlds, because they're daemons would get sick and die. Okay...somehow this is a rule that's never been mentioned before. And we have little to no evidence to support this being the case.

I can go on but all I've got to say is that this ending felt more like the angles who are in charge after Metatron's defeat are solidifying their own power in the new regime.

As someone who watched all three seasons of "His Dark Materials" but hasn't read any of the books, I felt like I was watching a show that wasn't prepared to meet me halfway, but happy to leave me confused and underwhelmed until the final couple of episodes.

With Lyra (Dafne Keen) now being kept safe by her mother, Mrs Coulter (Ruth Wilson) Will (Amir Wilson) tries to use the knife to search for her, however, he's under pressure from two angels to join Lord Asriel's (James McAvoy) army. Will find and liberates Lyra from her mother, who is taken in custody by Asriel's forces but not without cost, as the knife breaks as he tries to use it. When Lyra has recuperated, they set to fixing the knife as she wishes to use it to bring Roger (Lewin Lloyd) back from the land of the dead.

I'm going to say again, I've not read "His Dark Materials" at all. I get that the series is beloved and for some people just seeing it brought to life will be enough, but that's not the position I was in, not at all, and I really don't feel that this season, and the show overall did enough to explain to me what it was actually about. So, I spent the first season going "This is well made, but I've no idea what's going on" and the second going "This is well made, but there's plot here for maybe two episodes rather than seven" I've spent season three going "This is well made, but it's going to end soon, and I still don't feel like the story has started". I suppose, what I was expecting was the promised war between 'god' and his forces, against Asriel and his. I was expecting most of the season to be this, and in actuality Lyra wanders off on another side quest, and the war takes maybe a quarter of an episode.

I do think the visual effects and the performances are quite good and I really liked Ruth Wilson throughout (probably a bit more than I was supposed to) but if you asked me to sum up Lyra's story, or what the show was actually about, or what each character's motivations were, I wouldn't be able to. Despite how well made it is, in retrospect I regret investing my time in it.