The Lost Boy sees our beloved characters move further into the north and this episode is much darker than the rest of the series so far. Danger is rising throughout this episode however what is most noticeable is the introduction to a character that we didn't think we would see until series two.
In this episode, Lyra (Dafne Keen) and the Gyptians have managed to secure the help of Iorek Byrnison (Joe Tandberg) and Lee Scoresby (Lin-Manuel Miranda) and are making their way through the north. However, soon Lyra and Iorek leave the Gyptians to check out a lead given by the all-knowing alethiometer. As Lyra and Iorek and make their way towards the abandoned village, the feeling of dread increases. Lyra is searching for her 'ghost' and what she discovers may surprise the audience. Lyra is determined to show Iorek that she is brave and not a scared child but as she reaches closer towards her ghost, the tension mounts and for audiences this they might not feel as brave while watching at home.
Our ghost turns out to be Billy Costa, the little Gyptain boy who went missing in the first episode. Billy is seen lying, unresponsive in a fishing shed and his daemon Ratter is nowhere to be seen. For the characters in this world, this is a very horrifying sight for Billy to be seen without his daemon. While watching this moment, it is surprising to see Billy in this way and we feel saddened for Lyra as she wanted to save him. This makes us question what may have happened to Roger. However, this moment is upsetting to watch but it could have had a much bigger impact. The reason why it has a limited impact is due to the fact that we hardly ever see the daemons of all the characters. When Billy is returned to the Gyptians, they are shocked to see him without his daemon yet we can't see any of theirs. It would have been interesting to see how the daemons reacted to the loss of Ratter yet we only had a close-up of the daemons during the burning of the body.
Even though, this moment didn't have the massive impact it could have had, the performances from the cast were outstanding, we could feel their pain. In particular, Anne-Marie Duff's performance as Ma Costa was heart-breaking to watch, as she had been searching for her son for a long time and now, he’s been taken from her and he was so young. This is one of Duff's best performances of recent weeks, we understand and feel her pain and the loss she goes through.
Something that did give the impact it needed was the results of Boreal's (Ariyon Bakare) investigations into Major John Parry, the results have led to the early introduction of Will (Amir Wilson). Will is a young boy who plays a key role in the second novel, The Subtle Knife onwards in Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. In The Subtle Knife we are told Will's backstory, that he has a missing father and his mother is mentally unwell. Along with all of this it also tells us about the mysterious men stalking his family. It was surprising to see Will introduced so early, as most of us expected to see him in the next series as then that would follow the novels order. Wilson has done a great job in bringing Will to life and it is exciting to see more of this character in future episodes.
We are left on a cliff-hanger at the end of this episode, Lyra is heading even deeper into the darkness as she has been taken from the Gyptain camp and sold to Bolvanger. In the next episode we will see Lyra take on the Gobblers, hopefully our main focus will be just on Lyra in the next episode as the tension and danger is increasing so we don’t want any distractions from other characters.
