Dark Matter S2E2 Recap and Analysis: Moving Forward, Moving Backward

The following recap contains spoilers for Dark Matter S2E2, “A Perfect World” (written by Blake Crouch & Jacquelyn Ben-Zekry and directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton).

Welcome, dear reader, as we continue to review the second season of the Apple TV series Dark Matter with Season 2 Episode 2: “A Perfect World.” For Leighton Vance, the perfect world is to be molded through application of the best technology. Now that he has mastered the box, his ambitions have grown beyond his own world. He intends to be the rising tide that lifts all boats, sharing technology between worlds via other versions of himself.

Meanwhile, the Dessens are making a fresh start by stepping backwards into the technological past. A world where NASA never went to the Moon, so not only are there no snooping little cat avatars, there’s no internet and no computers even. This is their version of a perfect world. Once Jason destroys the box, they can move away from Chicago and truly be safe.

Dark Matter S2E2 - Blair stands at a workstation, with Leighton, Amanda, and Jason slightly out of focus in the background standing behind her — *Blair is doing her job*

Standing on the Precipice of Greatness

We start with a flashback to three years ago. The box is being fired up for the first time and it’s a celebration. Leighton gives the team a speech where he lays out his vision for how they will use the box for good, albeit kind of a selfish good. He wants to find other worlds where they have cured diseases, reversed climate change, crushed poverty, and ended war. They will visit those worlds, find the best technology and brightest ideas, and bring them home.

Of course, that was prior to having his chief science officer and co-founder disappear into the box for 14 months, as well as losing Blair and two other pilots. Those dark times brought out a darker version of Vance. It’s almost like Leighton is a bit of a chameleon, even unto himself. Sometimes the good guy, sometimes the bad guy. Maybe polite sex world Leighton is right and he would be sorry that a version of himself killed a version of Amanda.

Present day Leighton has found the secret sauce by working with other Leighton Vances. He has apparently learned how to quiet his mind and master the box, starting a “doctors without multiverse borders” technology trading network across realities. Building not just one perfect world, but a multitude of them. He’s actually doing it, and he’s doing it with versions of himself.

Dark Matter S2E2 - CEO Leighton and guru Leighton sit on a couch in front of Ryan Holder with his back to us — *Not glitches in the simulation*

Different Choices, Different Lives

When we first returned to present day Leighton, it was with guru Leighton in his mind palace again, envisioning himself inside the box, seeming to turn it on and off again at will. That was interesting. If his student is able to make return trips to specific worlds, back and forth, what might the teacher himself be capable of?

During their training, Amanda explained to Ryan that her Jason told her that other realities are all around them, and if their conscious was more fluid, they could reach out and touch them. The drug achieves this state by turning off the region of the prefrontal cortex that generates consciousness. Oluko mentioned during the job interview that he went on a journey to access deeper levels of consciousness.

All of this makes me wonder if they are setting up guru Leighton to be the bad guy of this season. Maybe the writers were doing a little foreshadowing with that line in S2E1 where CEO Leighton said that if guru Leighton ever backstabbed him, at least he would understand. All of the Leightons are ambitious. Oluko is no exception, as shown by his other mind palace vision last episode.

Dark Matter S2E2 - Jason and Daniela to the left looking humorously at Charlie to the right at the library — *Well, in the time…before time…*

With this Ring

The Dessen family steps out into a new world that seems to meet all the criteria Charlie listed out. This world is technologically behind because JFK lost to Nixon and then Nixon defunded NASA. They have microfiche in the libraries instead of computers. Phone books instead of cell phones. They even have paperboys. Charlie may have just brought them to the perfect world.

Daniela is still showing stress around the seams though. During an impromptu date night, Jason asks her how she is with everything. She tries to laugh it off and reply that she’s fine, but it’s also pretty clear that her mental well-being is hinging on Jason’s plan to destroy the box. She feels that they’ve got enough things ready that he doesn’t need to be waiting for IDs and such.

Thinking all is well, the big lunkhead tells her he couldn’t imagine going through all of this with anyone but her. Which is of course exactly the problem on her side, because there are a bunch of someone elses that she could be going through all of this with. She’s met them. She even killed one. They’re all out there desperately trying to find her and take Jason 1’s place.

Then he gives her a hair band ring of her own to really drive the point home. A string around her finger to never forget the Jason she killed just a few days ago.

Dark Matter S2E2 - Amanda and Ryan stand in the doorway of the box, silhouetted by the glowing aurora behind them — *Heading out*

Making Things Right

Amanda is experiencing a little bit of multidimensional PTSD herself. The flashback scene showed us a discussion she had with Blair about becoming the first human in superposition. Working with Ryan has opened up old wounds for her, the feeling that she failed Blair and the other pilots. Even though when they found Blair back in S1E5, she assured Amanda that it was her choice and that Amanda was the only reason that she had survived this long.

Following in the same footsteps, Ryan has to move his timetable up and forego further training. The city is upping surveillance on the box, but more importantly he sees the pain all of this is causing Amanda. He also shows her the video of Jason 1 stepping out of their box, leaving both to think despairingly that he never made it back home. Amanda decides to come with Ryan because she needs to make some things right.

Dark Matter S2E2 - MacNamara sits at his desk in his office, holding his chin in thought — *A detective with a mystery*

Dealing in Weird

Jason 1 visits a guy that he’s been told about who can help them get new IDs, and it’s none other than Mitchel MacNamara. Only in this world, he’s a private detective. Because of Daniela’s run-in at the school with someone who knew her, Jason also asks MacNamara to run a little background check on him and his family. It’s weird, but he deals in weird.

MacNamara delivers the goods on both requests, but after Jason leaves his office, he pulls out several photos he kept for himself, including one showing this world’s Jason walking around on the streets of San Francisco. Presumably at the same time Jason 1 has been walking around Chicago. This is much more interesting than counting the money.

When Amanda and Ryan arrive at the hotel, we see McNamara standing on the sidewalk outside watching the place. He’s apparently also been staking out the box, because the next day, after Amanda and Ryan show up and disappear into it, he’s right behind them wondering where they disappeared to. Now two Mitchel MacNamaras are hot on two Jason Dessens’ trail.

Dark Matter S2E2 - Zoom out of the box in the abandoned school pool, the Dessens walking around it — *So far, so good*

Quick Takes

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

They are really playing fast and loose with the rules in this episode, as Ryan and Amanda check in to the exact same hotel on the exact same world that the Dessens are staying at. The interdimensional hostel as Ryan puts it. Not that it wasn’t fun seeing Ryan walk into one door and Jason walk out the door directly across.
On a similar note, in a world with such a drastic change to the timeline as Nixon defunding NASA, let’s be real, Charlie would have never been born. Even Jason and Daniela might not have been born, or at least not met and married. Honestly, this is getting into Sliders territory the way they are abusing the science of it all this season.
To be fair though, Jason visited their world and now Amanda and Ryan have visited his. Maybe this isn’t just the writers just being cutesy with the multiverse stuff, but instead there is going to be some in-universe explanation as to why the travelers keep coalescing around the same worlds. We’ll see.
While CEO Leighton Vance seems to really be getting around, we have yet to see him go back to his original world, the world of Jason 2. In the flashback, Leighton sounds particularly poignant when he gets to the part of his speech about worlds that have ended war. We never really explored much of Jason 2’s world, could it be war-ravaged beyond the bounds of what we have seen so far?
Ryan gets a high five from Amanda after their first successful test of Lilac Wings. Jason has to settle for a low five with Daniela on her scoring a job cleaning rooms. Nice little parallel there.
Guru Leighton tells Ryan that he goes by Oluko, which means teacher. He is referring to the language of the Yoruba people, an ethnic group spanning Nigeria, Benin, and parts of Togo.
So, the box reappeared in the grassy park on polite sex world. No time Shenanigans after all. When Jason 1 stepped out of the box, it apparently instantly jumped back to the park from the city plaza where it had been moved, reconnecting to its quantum power source. Interesting.
What do we think, folks? Are we shipping Ryan and Amanda here, or what? Ryan’s sister certainly was in the last episode. I’m starting to warm up to the idea.
Ryan and Amanda’s experience ending up at the zoo reminds us that everyone contributes to the world that opens up behind the door, not just the person manning the door. Given that, it’s a miracle Daniela’s state of mental turmoil didn’t disrupt Charlie’s selection of this perfect world. Or did it and we just haven’t gotten to the bad part yet?
In the final montage of Season 1, we saw Blair embarking away from the mutant murder hornet world and back into the box, so it’ll be interesting to see if Ryan and Amanda don’t bump into her somewhere along the way.
Apple TV has an official podcast for this series, hosted by co-writers Blake Crouch & Jacquelyn Ben-Zekry. This is must-listen material. For one thing, they keep track of all the numbered Jasons and all the numbered worlds. They reveal that the scene with the AI cat avatar had many more Easter eggs in it than the one I pointed out. They actually refer to guru Leighton as “guru Leighton”—cool that I nailed that one. And they interview the show’s stars Joel Edgerton (Jason) and Jennifer Connelly (Daniela). All in 44 minutes.

Dark Matter S2E2 - Amanda stands with her back to a kitchen island, brandishing a butcher knife at someone in front of her — *A little defensive*

Best lines of the episode:

“I don’t know, I did my job. Did you all do yours?”
“OK, is this how your planet makes first contact?”
“Have you talked to anybody about that?” “What, the PTSD I got from multidimensional travel in a magic box?”
“Oh, and maybe less stupid s*** like racism and global warming?” “That’d be nice.”
“Please don’t mess with the safe word. Freaks me out.”
“Is that weird?” “I deal in weird.”
“Yeah, but one of those things has to be your desire to give him a swift kick in the dick. Come on.”
“In every world, they always take cash and never ask questions.” “Oh, nice. Like an interdimensional hostel.”
“I need a chemist.” “We.” “We…hear you’re the best.”
“I just want to introduce you to the Leighton Vance of this world. It’s OK. He’s been helping me and I’m sure he’s not the one that tried to kill you.”
“Guess I couldn’t persuade you to give homeschooling a try?” “That’s like literally the most uncool thing you’ve ever said.”

Dark Matter S2E2 - MacNamara in his trench coat stands inside the empty box, stunned look on his face — *Where did they go?*

Conclusion

Some interesting developments this week. Leighton Vance is tripping between worlds, seemingly really trying to do good out there in the multiverse. Ryan and Amanda have set out to find their way back to Ryan’s world for a little justice. Jason 1 and family are settled into a new world, but both Daniela’s deteriorating state of mind and Detective MacNamara’s curiosity are looming as future threats.

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