The Ending Of His Dark Materials Season 3 Explained

Like many of the best “Games of Thrones” episodes, the penultimate episode of the third season of “His Dark Materials,” “The Clouded Mountain,” has the most satisfying and thrilling action: the gigantic battle between Asriel’s forces and the Authority/Metatron. So it’s left to the series finale “The Botanic Garden” to focus more on emotional drama than suspense. There’s one exception in the form of the uber-zealot Father Gomez (Jamie Ward), who doesn’t have an inter-dimensional smartphone and thus is clueless that the “god” that his Magisterium worships has literally crumbled into dust. Convinced of his own righteousness, he follows Lyra into the world of the Mulefa to kill her before she can become the new Eve.

To our relief, it’s a complete bait and switch: mid-way through the finale, Father Gomez is unceremoniously dispatched by the angel Balthamos (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith). Helpfully, Balthamos explains the thematic underpinnings of the story to Gomez with some choice parting words: “Desire is not sin. Love takes a million forms, each of them beautiful. Each of them worthy.” There is magic in the universe, and angels with the properties of the divine, but in the world of “His Dark Materials,” none of that entails the shutting down of inquiry or the imposition of celibacy like the Magisterium. Even angels themselves fall in love: After killing Father Gomez, Balthamos fades into Dust particles himself to join his dear departed Baruch (Simon Harrison).

In its depiction of the folly of zealotry, its re-interpretation of the “fall” of Eve, and its relatively subtle inclusion of same-sex relationships between angels and humans (like Mary Malone), “His Dark Materials” rejects the pitfalls of religion but endorses the spiritual affirmation of faith.