By episode three we know that Mrs Coulter is the head of the General Oblation Board – the Gobblers who have been stealing children up and down the country, including Lyra's best friend, Roger – and her villain status graduates from a sentimental orientation to a tangible one. We discover how closely her spitefulness influences her intentions and how much joy she gets from being sincerely awful. The smirk as she throws Roger's handwritten letter to Lyra into an open fire, minutes after telling Lyra that she doesn't know where he is. The condescension in her gentle pat of a seat indicating the head of the Magisterium sit next to her, moments after he attempted to fire her. The fevered excitement in her eyes as she sends dangerous and illegal surveillance devices after Lyra, who has escaped her supervision. Halfway through the series, we have Mrs Coulter as an extraordinarily ruthless, power-hungry bulldozer whose sophisticated demeanour masks a sinister energy that we've only experienced whispers of. There's humanity and empathy for her backstory yet to be released but for now a brilliantly chilling potential lingers around the forthcoming episodes. God help anyone in her path when that malevolence is fully realised.