Humans are claiming to have complete authority to do whatever it is they see fit, yet somehow that’s not quite as terrifying as the actual angels deciding that they need to remind mere mortals that they shouldn’t be presuming that they know as much as they do. It was really Adriel’s fault but we saw the horrified reaction from Father President, who took it upon himself to dispose of Dr. Cooper so that he could launch the bomb, which may or may not have been stopped by Mrs. Coulter’s efforts. Not having dust could be an issue, and Mary already saw what was happening with the talking elephants when she finally managed to decode their language and the meaning of sraf. Lyra’s reunion with Roger wasn’t as warm as she expected, but her enthusiasm for telling stories was enough to compel the many people in the land of the dead to follow her, including a typically scrappy Lee Scoresby. Will’s knife not working because they were too low made some sense since I’d think that the land of the dead would be its one place specifically inaccessible to other worlds, but they may have figured out a solution to that, provided that the dust action doesn’t negate the knife’s power. Whatever the odds, these two kids seem ready to defy them, and Lyra was all about that in this episode when she dared the bird creature to make a ghost of her, which was sufficient to get it to leave her alone.
