Dark Matter S2E1 Recap and Analysis: Happily Never After

The following recap contains spoilers for Dark Matter S2E1, “A Quiet Life” (created by Blake Crouch, written by Blake Crouch & Jacquelyn Ben-Zekry, and directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton).

Welcome, dear reader, as we begin to review the second season of the Apple TV series Dark Matter with Season 2 Episode 1: “A Quiet Life.” To be honest, when I heard that there was going to be a second season to this series, my initial thought was that it wasn’t really necessary. Especially having since read the novel, which the first season fully encompassed, ending where it ended.

At least with the original author at the helm, we won’t suffer the fate of certain other shows who tried to carry on past where the source material ran out. Given the multiverse premise, I suppose the implied “and they lived happily ever after” was always suspect. Last season, I was blown away by the twist of having multiple Jasons descend upon his world. Hopefully, Blake Crouch has a few more ideas left up his sleeve to blow us away with this season.

Dark Matter S2E1 - Agent MacNamara gives Jason a thumbs up, both sitting in a police station interrogation room — *Gold star!*

Show Me the Bodies

We start off with a new character, Agent Mitchel MacNamara, who has arrived to the makeshift morgue just as the police are rolling in yet another dead Jason Dessen, much to the coroner’s chagrin. While there’s a little bit of grumbling from the detectives assigned the case, no doubt in the long run, they’ll be glad their boss handed things off to the Feds.

Except Agent MacNamara isn’t a cop, nor is he FBI. He chides this Jason for operating under a false assumption that he’s a member of any law enforcement. Of course, he seems to be operating on some false assumptions himself, thinking that this is the work of some sort of foreign adversary, boldly unleashing a cell of cloned operatives into the city of Chicago.

After a hint at involuntary autopsies in his near-term future, Jason agrees to help Agent MacNamara find the Jason who started this all. We catch a quick flashback that reveals this is the Jason who held Jason 2 hostage in S1E9 and beat the crap out of him. He’s not going to have any qualms about throwing Jason 2 under the bus.

Dark Matter S2E1 - Daniela lies in bed, Jason leans in over her, she is holding his face in her hands — *A good morning*

The Safe Word Is Patience

Switch to Jason 1 and Daniela, waking up to a relatively idyllic life somewhere in the middle of nowhere. It’s been seven months since they arrived and they’ve settled into the quiet life of the episode’s title. Jason has a construction job, Charlie is at school, and Daniela has the day off from the office. Of course, they also have a gun in the sock drawer and they’re establishing daily safe words. They know they’re not out of the woods yet, so to speak.

We don’t even have to wait seven minutes before the literal Chekhov’s gun is fired, and it was quite the tension-filled seven minutes. There are weapons everywhere: an axe, a fireplace poker, a knife. The sense of dread for the viewer was well established, even before the other Jason arrived.

A surreptitious glace at the clock says it’s five minutes ‘til three, when her Jason promised to arrive home to work on the roof with her, but she’s not going to make it. This Jason is impatient, pressing her to make a different choice and promising to “take care of everything.” She’s forced to make a run for the gun, and, eventually, to use it.

Dark Matter S2E1 - Daniela sits in a hotel bathroom crying, her back to the large mirror — *It’s all her fault*

On the Run

Her Jason arrives home and they go to work. Initially, they think they can stay. Just put him in the ground and get on with their lives. Unfortunately, we find out that this other Jason was not just impatient, but also sloppy. He left his stolen car at the gas station down the road, including his notebook with a lot of weird stuff written inside, culminating with their address. An officer stops by to check things out, catches a glimpse of the body, and the jig is up.

The Dessens pop around to a few worlds throughout the rest of the episode. After nearly being separated and killed on tornado world, they lower the bar and just settle for a nice hotel. The respite gives Daniela a moment to have a mini meltdown in the bathroom. It’s been a brutal 24 hours and she repeatedly blames herself for their predicament. Look for that to get worse as the season wears on.

Charlie blames the box though. It ruined everything and this will keep happening. More Jasons will come, and they’ll keep coming. Their Jason has a solution though. He’s going to destroy the box.

Dark Matter S2E1 - Ryan and Amanda stand in a crowd of colorfully dressed people, all applauding — *Polite applause*

Polite Sex World

On another world, Ryan tracks down Amanda in Seattle. Turns out they were both dumped in this exact same world by their respective Jasons. A bit of a stretch, but we’ll allow it.

When Amanda arrived with her Jason, they were caught on video, and Ryan has apparently been keeping tabs on her. He’s been working on Lilac Wings, his version of Lavender Wings that the other version of him invented. He was finally going home, to his life, and then…they moved the box.

Amanda comes back to Chicago with Ryan and they attend the unveiling ceremony in Millennium Park. They commiserate over their shared experience of not being able to connect with the people of this world. Everyone here is so emotionally aware, positive and annoyingly patient. This is not their Chicago, that’s for sure.

Sadly, moving the box from its original location has likely severed its quantum connection to its prime power source and now it is nothing more than the art exhibit the mayor has mistaken it for. Ryan is stuck here forever.

Dark Matter S2E1 - Guru Leighton Vance in white robes looking smug, his white robed followers blurry in the background — *Living the dream*

The Guru

On yet another world, Leighton Vance tracks down…Leighton Vance. This is the Leighton Vance of Jason 2’s world. After having been burned by his partner of 20 years, he’s looking for a new partner. Someone he can trust. At least if he gets burned by himself, somewhere deep down inside, he thinks he’ll get it.

He needs someone to teach him how to quiet his mind so that he can control the box. Thus, he sought after and found a version of himself who teaches a meditation class. A good guy version of Leighton, though still with big dreams. Not as big as his counterpart though. CEO Leighton wants to use the box to do something good, not just in this world, but in all worlds. Guru Leighton is in.

Dark Matter S2E1 - Ryan and his sister sit on the steps outside her brownstone — *Ryan’s sister believes him*

Quick Takes

A couple of quick takes on the rest of the episode:

The song played during the montage of the Dessens going on the run is the aptly named “A Quiet Life” by Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld. Great song, giving off real Leonard Cohen vibes.
The music overall this season is sizing up to be really excellent. I also loved “Mazuka” by Cari Cari, the song that played during guru Leighton’s imagined meditation retreat.
Jason 1 snagged home invader Jason’s notebook off of Officer Stringer before they went on the run. Look for that to show up as useful later in the season.
They are really bending the rules a lot to say that Jason 1 just happened to dump off Amanda in the exact same world Jason 2 dumped off Ryan, out of literally an infinity of possible worlds. I guess we are forced to chalk that up to the similarities between the Jasons when they went looking for a nice, safe world. Then at the end of the episode, Jason 1 winds up there yet again. It’s the crossroads of the multiverse.
Speaking of that, when the Dessens land in Polite Sex world, the box is in the grassy park, not the city plaza where it was moved to. Are we dealing with time shenanigans here? It had been seven months for them since the events of Season 1. Perhaps for Ryan and Amanda, it’s been longer?
In S1E7, when Amanda decided to stay in Polite Sex world, she told Jason 1 that her plan was to move to Seattle, where she and that world’s Amanda were born. A Seattle that was part of a country called Cascadia in that world.
Sure enough, the newspaper Ryan was reading while spying on Amanda is titled Cascadia Today purporting to be “the Cascadian Republic’s largest newspaper” and “founded in 1881.” The Republic of Cascadia was a proposed area of the Pacific Northwest that was nearly established as an independent territory until the Civil War shelved the effort.
We saw the scene of Ryan meeting Amanda in the final montage of S1E9, checking in with all of the characters at the season’s ending, but it played out ever so slightly different. Leaving us to wonder, is this a different Ryan and Amanda then? One of the benefits of doing a multiverse show is that you needn’t be too stringent on the continuity, I suppose.
That montage also showed Ryan working on Lilac Wings.
Amanda asks Ryan, “Do you know me?” Instead of the more typical question one would ask, “Do I know you?” A nice little bit of writing there.
Charlie is separated from Jason and Daniela when the door to the box blows shut on tornado world. Are we now going to get an infinity of the parents trying to find their lost son, for all the possible Jasons and Danielas who were trapped outside the box longer? At least, I think that’s how the rules of this work.
Polite sex world even has “Peace Officers” (the folks walking around in green sweater vests) instead of police officers.
Can I just say, I kind of love Ryan’s relationship with his sister Camilla. Their riffing off each other is super charming.
So, do we believe that former Velocity CEO Leighton Vance really wants to do something good with the box? After all, this is the guy who sanctioned murder and torture to secure his company’s investment in Jason 2’s invention.
There’s a little Easter egg in Velocity’s wallet-less world, where the next kiosk up the sidewalk has an ad for Abandon by Blake Crouch. This is an actual novel in our reality that he released in 2009.
In case you didn’t know, Crouch has had two other novels turned into TV series, Wayward Pines and Good Behavior.

Dark Matter S2E1 - The Dessen family stand before a kiosk on the sidewalk featuring a digital orange cat — *Creepy cat knows everything about you*

Best lines of the episode:

“Why, is it illegal to look like dead people?”
“That’s you. You. You, whoa. That’s definitely you. Don’t show your mom that one.”
“I got two other Jasons in custody. First one to prove how useful they can be stays off my autopsy table.”
“We’re not bad people.”
“Because of Jason 2.” “Because of that a**hole.”
“How about we lower the bar? Just a world with a hotel, so we don’t have to spend the night in the box.” “Deal.”
“We’ve always been alone, forever trapped in a series of middles. Too black to be accepted by our fellow one percenters, yet the brothers on the corner say we talk too white. Too queer, but not gay. Too cocky, too humble. Not trusting, always trusting the wrong people. We’re too much. Never enough.”
“Is this becoming a thing?” “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” “Oh, I think that you do.”
“It’s a world of polite sex.” “Right!?”
“I’ve also reported you to the truancy officer!”

Dark Matter S2E1 - Wide shot of an alternative Chicago, with tall spires, viewed from a grassy park — *The crossroads of the multiverse*

Conclusion

A good start. Nothing too earth shattering has happened yet, but we’ve set up everyone working towards some sort of goal. Find Jason 2. Find a new life. Get back home. Destroy the box. Do good on a cosmic scale.

With Leighton’s encounter with himself, we can bet that we will not only be dealing with a multitude of Jasons out there, but likely we’ll be encountering doppelgangers of everyone who has ever taken Lavender Wings. The possibilities are infinite.

That’s all for this week. Please let us know your thoughts and feelings about this week’s episode, and any theories you have on what’s to come, in the comments below. Remember that TV Obsessive will provide continuing coverage of Dark Matter throughout Season 2 and beyond.

All images courtesy of Apple TV