Dark Matter: Season 2, Episode 4 Review

Jason 2 and the attempt to justify the unjustifiable

One of the episode's most important scenes is the conversation between Jason 2 and Amanda 2.

The series finally allows Jason 2 to explain, at least partly, why he did everything he did.

The smart decision is that the episode does not treat this explanation as an exoneration.

He talks about depression and envy, and about seeing other versions of himself who had not achieved his level of success but were nevertheless more satisfied with their lives.

That matters enormously.

He was not envious of better versions of himself.

He was envious of happier ones.

Jason 1 became the clearest example: a man without the same scientific success, but with the family and life Jason 2 wanted for himself.

Amanda sees Jason 2's real problem

The best thing about the conversation is that Amanda does not fall for Jason 2's attempt to reframe his actions as the result of a lost love.

She knows him well.

And she confronts him with a much harsher truth:

Perhaps he ran away from her because she knew who he really was.

She saw his flaws and weaknesses, so being with her no longer allowed him to preserve the ideal image he wanted to have of himself.

Daniela in the other world, however, offered a chance to begin again with someone who did not know his history.

This is an excellent reading of the character.

Jason 2 does not simply want a better life.

He wants a life in which he can be the version of himself he likes.

The problem is that, instead of becoming that person, he stole another man's life.

Does Jason 2 deserve a second chance?

Here, the episode enters interesting territory.

Jason 2 accepts responsibility and asks for a chance to repair the damage he caused.

Amanda accepts that he may be able to do so.

Then he receives the substance that allows him to use the Box again.

To me, this is a deliberate choice designed to make the viewer uncomfortable.

We know what this man can do with the Box.

Giving him freedom to move through the multiverse after everything he has caused seems extremely dangerous.

But the episode wants to explore a larger question:

Is admitting a mistake enough to deserve another chance?

Personally, I am not yet fully convinced that Jason 2 has changed.

I do not think the episode wants us to be convinced too quickly, either.

It simply opens the door.

His actions, rather than his words, must now prove whether that change is real.

Ryan 4 finally returns to his own world

Ryan 4's storyline is shorter, but offers some relief amid the chaos.

The group uses Jason 2 to return Ryan 4 to the world where he belongs, but even this homecoming is not entirely certain.

That perfectly captures the problem with the Box.

Even when you arrive somewhere that looks right, how can you be sure it really is the right world?

That is why Ryan 4 goes to the bar before going home, looking for someone who can recognize him and confirm that he has returned to his actual life.

It is a simple scene, but it shows how thoroughly the multiverse destroys a sense of certainty.

The same house is not enough.

The same street is not enough.

You need someone else to tell you: yes, I know you.

Ryan 1, Amanda 2… and the surprise awaiting them in paradise

After returning Ryan 4, Ryan 1 and Amanda 2 decide to go back to the ideal world we encountered before.

The decision makes complete sense.

They need a safe place to regain their balance after all the pursuits and chaos.

But as soon as they arrive, the CDC arrests them without a clear explanation.

This is an excellent ending to their storyline within the episode.

The series reminds us that the phrase 'ideal world' has become extremely dangerous.

Every world contains something we do not know about.

Whenever the characters think they understand a place, a new element overturns their picture of it.

Leighton 2 has become something very different

The episode takes Leighton 2 in a very interesting direction.

He is no longer simply the man who helped create the Box.

He now appears to have a personal mission across the universes.

We see him helping a world devastated by a deadly disease, delivering a cure and then leaving instead of staying and becoming attached to another version of his father.

This makes Leighton more complex.

He is trying to use the Box in a way entirely different from Jason 2.

Jason 2 used it to take someone else's life.

Leighton seems to want to use it to repair worlds.

But the real question is:

Does he have the right to do that in the first place?

Who decides that a world needs fixing?

For me, this is one of the episode's most compelling ideas.

Leighton 2 now almost sees himself as someone capable of improving the universes.

But having the ability to enter another world does not mean you understand every consequence of interfering with it.

We have already seen the seventies world experience an unnatural technological leap with the appearance of the microprocessor.

We still do not know which version of Leighton was responsible.

That makes his project more dangerous than it looks.

Perhaps it begins with saving people from a disease.

But where does it stop?

Does he transfer inventions?

Does he prevent wars?

Does he change history?

The series began with Jason wanting a different life. Now someone is treating entire universes as projects that can be modified.

Jason 1 confronts Leighton 2

The meeting between Jason 1 and Leighton 2 is brief but crucial.

Jason 1 knows that Leighton helped with the project that ultimately led to this catastrophe, so he immediately responds with hostility.

Leighton tries to distinguish between inventing the Box and Jason 2's misuse of it.

This raises a strong moral question:

Who is responsible for the disaster?

The person who made the tool?

Or the person who used it badly?

Leighton almost apologizes on Jason 2's behalf, but Jason 1 does not care.

He is easy to understand.

For him, this is not a scientific debate.

This thing tore his family apart and left him fleeing between different worlds.

The Box returns… despite the attempt to get rid of it

The most frightening element of Jason 1's storyline is that the Box is no longer just a machine that can be dismantled.

He takes it apart.

Then it returns.

This changes the nature of the problem entirely.

Previously, you could say:

Close the door.

Destroy the Box.

Run away from it.

Now none of these solutions seems sufficient.

It is as though the connection to the multiverse has become permanent.

That is precisely what begins to break Jason psychologically.

Charlie is the only one who wants to stop running

One of the loveliest things in the episode is Charlie's position.

When the family begins considering another escape, he simply refuses.

He has finally started to build a life.

He has friends.

He has a job.

And he can see a future in which he might settle down.

For Charlie, the idea of his original world is beginning to lose its meaning.

He does not want to return.

He does not want a better world.

He just wants to stop running.

This matters because Jason is the exact opposite.

Even when he has the opportunity to stop, his mind returns to the Box.

The illusion of stability begins to collapse

The episode becomes more psychological in its second half.

Daniela starts seeing someone who resembles Jason and imagines that he is another version of him.

Jason falls into the same trap, almost assaulting an ordinary man because he thinks the stranger is another version of himself.

The series presents a terrifying idea without needing monsters or chases:

What if you could no longer trust your own eyes?

In a world containing infinite versions of the people you know, every familiar face can become a threat.

Are Jason and Daniela suffering from living in a world that is not theirs?

The episode leaves the explanation for what is happening to them open.

Is it simply a psychological disturbance caused by accumulated trauma?

Or does remaining in a world where a person does not belong have a deeper effect?

What is happening to them may be connected to the effects of traveling between universes, but the episode does not settle that possibility. It remains an interpretation open to discussion.

I think leaving the answer uncertain for now is better.

The psychological possibility is powerful enough on its own.

Jason and Daniela have spent a long time doubting every version and every world.

It is natural for their fear to persist even when no real danger is in front of them.

Daniela sees her father again

One of the most painful moments belongs to Daniela.

After Charlie leaves for college, her new life begins to quiet down.

While running, she accidentally finds herself near the bakery where the father of this world's Daniela works.

Her own father died a long time ago.

Suddenly, she has the possibility of seeing a version of him.

This is the real cruelty of the multiverse.

The Box does not merely offer new worlds.

It can offer you the people you have lost.

But they are not really your people.

That makes grief more complicated, not less.

Jason returns to the real addiction in his life

When Daniela comes home, she discovers that Jason has once again returned to studying the Box.

He offers a justification that sounds reasonable on the surface.

He does not want to travel.

He does not want to discover new worlds.

He says he is trying to find a way to disconnect this world's Box from the other universes so that he can protect his family.

Daniela sees something different.

She sees a man who will never be able to stop.

Jason always has a new reason to return to the Box.

At first, he wanted to escape.

Then to return to his family.

Then to destroy the Box.

Now he wants to understand how to disconnect it from the network.

The problem is not the objective.

The problem is that the Box has become the center of his life.

Jason and Daniela's separation is the episode's most important event

For me, the episode's most important decision is neither Ryan 4's return nor Leighton's journey.

It is Daniela's decision to separate from Jason.

This conflict has been developing for some time.

Daniela asked him to choose between the Box and his family.

On the surface, he chose his family.

The episode proves that he never truly made that choice.

Physically, Jason is there with her.

Mentally, he is still inside the Box.

That is an intensely painful point in their relationship.

Daniela is not leaving him because she has stopped loving him.

She is leaving because she realizes she cannot force him to give up something he is not ready to let go of himself.

Has Jason become more like Jason 2 than he thinks?

There is an irony here that I really liked.

Jason 1 has spent a long time seeing Jason 2 as the man who let the Box destroy everything.

But what is Jason 1 doing now?

He cannot stay away from it either.

Of course, their motives are very different.

Jason 1 wants to protect his family, while Jason 2 used the Box to satisfy his desires.

Yet the episode confronts us with an uncomfortable question:

Does the problem lie in the person using the Box?

Or does the Box convince everyone who approaches it that they have a legitimate reason to continue?

For me, this is one of the episode's best ideas.

The seventies world is no longer a safe haven

Previous episodes made the seventies world look like a new opportunity for the Dessen family.

A place where they could settle down, far from everything.

Episode four destroys that idea.

Technological interventions have taken place in this world.

The Box has returned.

Leighton has reached it.

And Jason and Daniela are psychologically unable to cope with their new lives.

The world is not the problem.

Even if you find the best possible world, you bring the person you have become with you.

That may be the harshest lesson everyone learns this season.

Writing and pacing

The episode is very crowded.

We have Ryan 1, Amanda and Jason 2.

Then Leighton.

Then the Dessen family.

Then time jumps to Charlie's college years.

Despite the number of storylines, one idea connects them:

Can anyone truly start again?

Ryan 4 believes he can by returning to his own world.

Jason 2 wants a second chance.

Leighton wants to repair the universes.

The Dessen family tries to settle in a new world.

In every case, the past returns in some form.

This gives the episode a strong thematic unity despite its many characters.

Strengths and weaknesses

The biggest strength is certainly Jason and Daniela's storyline.

Their conflict is no longer just a science-fiction problem.

It is a marriage problem, with the multiverse providing its outward form.

Daniela wants a life.

Jason wants to solve the problem first.

The trouble is that there may never be a moment when he can say the problem is over.

The conversation between Amanda and Jason 2 is also one of the episode's best parts, deepening our understanding of his motives without trying to absolve him of responsibility.

Leighton's storyline opens up enormous possibilities for the future, especially his plan to repair the universes.

The main weakness, though, is the sheer number of storylines.

The episode moves between many characters and ideas, some of which get less time than they deserve.

Ryan 1 and Amanda's arrest at the end also functions more as a hook than as a development we can properly assess within this episode.