This episode provides examples of:
- Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Iorek cites this as justification for his exile and the loss of his throne, as he killed another bear when he should not have.
- Because Destiny Says So: The alethiometer tells Lyra that something mysterious is in a neighboring village, and it will help the Gyptians on their mission, but it won't give specifics, only that they need to go see it. She spends part of the first act trying to convince them to let her investigate it. Eventually, Ma Costa convinces John Faa to give her permission.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Lee is a masterful aeronaut but spends a chunk of the journey in the sled with his balloon being dragged by a snowmobile, while the rest of the Gyptians walk. He makes up the excuse that he has bunions and that someone needs to protect the balloon. He later gets over it and is seen helping push the sledges up a hill.
- The Can Kicked Him: One of the Gyptians is killed in the Tartars' sneak attack while taking a piss.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Lyra kidnapped and taken to Bolvangar, with who knows how may Gyptians killed in the Tartar ambush.
- Closest Thing We Got: Iorek is not a pack animal or a horse to be ridden, but he agrees to act as both when his speed and strength are needed by the Gyptians.
- Cool Teacher: Mr. Fenway, Will's boxing coach. It's made abundantly clear that he cares about his students, and offers to help Will in caring for his sick mother should he need it.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Farder Coram doesn't mince words with Serafina during their reunion, telling her outright that he did not call on her because he misses her (he does) but because the Gyptian rescue party will be slaughtered Bolvangar's defences without her aid.
- Death of a Child: Billy ends up dying in this episode.
- Debut Queue: The opening introduces the audience to Will Parry, the deuteragonist of the book trilogy.
- Empty Shell: Lyra discovers that Billy has become this, after somehow being separated from his daemon Ratter. He's barely capable of speech or movement. She is able to return him to his mother and brother, but he dies soon after.
- Exposed to the Elements: Witches apparently don't feel cold. Serafina is introduced wearing a thin dress in the arctic.
- Fate Worse than Death: Billy's separation from Ratter is seen this way by the characters. He's left an Empty Shell, and most most of the Gyptians are too horrified to even react.Lyra: It's horrible. It's worse than anything.
- Forgotten First Meeting: Invoked by Lord Boreal in his attempt to Gaslight/interrogate Elaine Parry. He pretends to be a colleague of her missing husband, using the name "Charles Latrom" and claims he met Elaine while serving with John in the military, counting on her illness to confuse her enough for it to work.
- Ghost Town: Iorek and Lyra seek out a small fishing village a few hours from the Gyptian path. It's abandoned, except for Billy, who is mostly dead, and yet the power is still on. There is nothing outright dangerous, but Lyra is terrified, and even Iorek is unsettled by it. What's worse is that we are never given an explanation for why it's abandoned, or how Billy got there, or who locked him in the shed.
- Genre Shift: Will's portion of the episode becomes, for this show, a relatively mundane conspiracy thriller.
- The Gloves Come Off: The Gyptians are so horrified by Billy's mutilation at the hands of the Oblation Board that they change their plans. Originally it was just a rescue mission. Now, regarding the Gobblers, they plan on killing all of them.
- Hope Spot: Lyra's been kidnapped, but realizes her kidnappers don't know who she is. Then she sees where she is: Bolvangar. It doesn't matter who she is here.
- Impoverished Patrician: Iorek explains that he used to be a prince of the bears of Svalbard, but was exiled after killing another bear.
- Internal Reveal: Kaisa relays Lord Asriel's imprisonment to Lyra and the Gyptians, and tells them of his efforts to make a doorway between worlds.
- Loners Are Freaks: Will is perceived this way by his peers.
- May–December Romance: Farder Coram's concerns that concerns that Serafina won't like how he's aged become slightly more justified with the reveal that she is over 300 years old, but looks maybe 30. She dismisses the concerns all the same.
- Mister Exposition: Kaisa, Serafina's gyrfalcon daemon, and Thomas, Lord Boreal's hacker, take turns with this.
- Mundane Utility: Iorek, the mighty armoured bear warrior, ends up using his strength to help pull one of the Gyptian sleds (and the tractor that was supposed to pull it originally) up a steep hill. John Faa admits he was wrong originally to doubt Iorek, and he is actually very useful even without his fighting abilities.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: The Alethiometer is now capable of giving Lyra visions as part of her readings. Here, she gets a brief glimpse of an abandoned village in the snow.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Kaisa reveals that Iofur betrayed Mrs. Coulter and is letting Asriel continue his research while imprisoned, despite her request to have it destroyed.
- Opening Narration: Kaisa describes the witch's prophecy revolving around a child who will "bring the end of destiny", and a boy "who's fate is bound with hers".
- Outliving One's Offspring: Ma Costa's efforts to keep Billy alive fail.
- Properly Paranoid: Elaine Parry suffers bouts of paranoia, but they become justified when people begin legitimately stalking her.
- Reality Has No Subtitles: Dr. Cooper and Lyra's Tartar kidnappers have a brief conversation in un-subtitled Finnish.
- Shameful Strip: Lyra is forced to strip down by the nurses at Bolvangar. It's meant to intimidate and humiliate her, but she largely takes it as an annoyance. At least until she recognizes from the coveralls in a nearby cabinet just where she actually is. Then she begins to freak out.
- Social Services Does Not Exist: A plot point. Boreal is suspicious that Will and Elaine Parry aren't getting help from the authorities.
- Suicide Mission: The Gyptians are starting to view their quest as this, as the hard march through the arctic and knowledge of Bolvangar's defences weighs on them. Farder Coram makes an impassioned plea for Serafina Pekkala's help in keeping the upcoming battle from becoming a bloodbath.
- Swiss-Cheese Security: The Gyptians aren't very good about putting out watchmen, and get completely blindsided by the Tartar's attack.
- Tattoo as Character Type: Serafina has tribal tattoos on her neck and arms that resemble the roots of a tree.
- Uncertain Doom: Lyra is knocked out during the Tartar's raid on the Gyptians, and wakes up at Bolvangar. The audience is just as clueless as to who else survived the attack as she is.
- Viking Funeral: The Gyptians give Billy the funeral pyre variation, along with a rousing funeral song.
- You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: John Faa cites the fact that Lyra calls him "Lord Faa" only when she wants something.
