DISCLAIMER: This recap of Dark Matter Season 1 Episode 4, “The Corridor” contains spoilers. Read at your risk.
Last Week on Dark Matter
In the last episode of Dark Matter, “The Box”, Original Jason (Joel Edgerton) finds himself back in lock-up at Velocity Labs where he learns about the nature of The Box, the quantum device designed by Jason2. The Box, in conjunction with the psychoactive drug Lavender Fairy, allows anyone inside of it to enter a state of superposition where they have access to the multiverse of possible realities.
Armed with this knowledge Original Jason and Amanda (Alice Braga) escape from Leighton (Dayo Okeniyi) and Dawn (Marquita Brooks), by running into The Box and closing the door behind them (chopping off evil Dawn’s fingers in the process). When they wake from their drug snooze they find themselves in what appears to be an endless corridor filled with numberless doors. To where or what? That’s what we’re about to find out.
RELATED: Read our recap of Dark Matter, episode 3, “The Box”.
Dark Matter’s “The Corridor”
We pick up where we left off with chaos at Velocity. Dawn screams in pain on the floor with an awful hand wound. Leighton is shaken with the reality that Jason has “Boxed” out of this reality once again. When the three-minute time limit is up and the door to The Box unlocks, he grabs a survival backpack and locks himself in The Box. He intends to catch up to Jason and Amanda. But that’s going to be tricky.
In The Corridor, Original Jason and Amana hurry along the seemingly endless hallway which Orignal Jason theorizes is a liminal space. Which is a manifestation of their minds, a kind of “cross-section of probable realities”. Okay, sure. But the real problem remains, how do they figure out which door leads to Original Jason’s reality?
With the drug wearing off, the answer seems to be to start opening doors and hope they get lucky. When they do, the corridor instantly resolves back into the interior of The Box. But once they exit the device they are not in Orginal Jason’s world, but some blasted, post-apocalyptic Chicago. The air is full of ash and ruined buildings collapse. They just barely escape being smashed under one as they race back to the “safety” of The Box.
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Birthday Blues
In Original Jason’s world, it’s Charlie’s 16th birthday. A day complicated by the fact that he shares it with his deceased twin Max. Jason2 continues to approach fatherhood differently than the original. He encourages his son to run a yellow light and tells him that even though it’s a sad day of remembrance, it’s “still his day”. A nice thing actually, but something easier for a father who didn’t experience the birth of his sons or the death of one of them.
The Rules
In The Box, Jason roots through the backpack. He discovers it comes standard with 50 doses of the Lavender Fairy (they’re down to 48 now) and a portable GPS. A quick read lets them know that the coordinates of The Box never change, just the nature of the world where The Box sits. He also discovers The Box is not The Tardis. There are no controls, no sensors, and no means of piloting. So how does it work? It seems not even Velocity knows. So he and Amanda just dose themselves again and return to the corridor to keep pulling on the infinite number of doors. In another part of the corridor, Leighton is doing the same.
In the original world, Jason2 is back in class as a hard-ass teacher. He breaks a bottle and tells all the students they suck because they are distracted by YouTube, he decides he’s had enough. In his world, he’s a big-time tech disruptor, not a lowly college professor. He tells his boss to take this job and shove it. And he’s not the only one who’s had enough.
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Back in The Corridor, Original Jason continues to figure out the rules of The Corridor by opening doors to one terrible version of reality after another. Amanda however, starts to lose her grip (can you blame her?). Eventually, she loses it, and rabbits out of control through a door and into a raging blizzard. Original Jason races after her. And it’s a good thing because neither of them are dressed for the ice age.
In a harrowing sequence, Original Jason carries the rapidly freezing Amanda to a nearby house where he struggles to keep her warm. In a flash to Leighton, it looks like he’s not doing any better wandering the endless Corridor. He seems well and truly lost. Not unlike his counterpart in the Original Universe.
Take This Job and Shove It
Jason2, fresh from walking out on his job, visits this universe’s Leighton. This Leighton appears to be a hard-partying trust fund kid who has a lot of cash, but not much purpose. That’s exactly what Jason2 is hoping for as he has come to the penthouse looking for an investor. And even though this version of Leighton says he doesn’t do business with friends, Jason2 is determined not to take no for an answer.
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After he takes his spoiled friend to the location of The Box the two of them crack a vial of Lavender Fairy and down it like shots (guess it doesn’t need to be ingested into the veins after all?). And woozy from the gak they enter The Box.
Cold Revelation
In the ice-age world, Original Jason and Amanda make it through the night. They’ve scavenged some winter clothes that were lying around the house they sheltered in. And from the looks of this frozen world, they’re going to need them. Because the evening’s snowstorm has buried The Box.
Later, back in the house, Amanda feels ashamed. She trained The Box pilots how to keep their heads about them, but she forgot to train herself to do the same. She tells Orginal Jason a scary story from her youth when she and her parents got stuck in a snowstorm in the mountains of Argentina. This sparks something in Original Jason who pieces together a new theory about how The Box operates.
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The Box pilot’s thoughts and emotions influence the world they see when they open a door. Earlier Original Jason imagined a version of reality where he and Amanda did not escape Velocity. Then they entered a world where that exact scenario played out. The same is true for Amanda’s memory of a terrifying blizzard that led them to this current world. If they can control their thoughts and emotions, they can control which world they visit. Now all they have to do is find The Box under the ice and snow.
Jason2 demos of The Box technology for Leighton. He too seems to have cracked the secret of Box travel. He also has no idea that back in the Original Universe, a somber Daniella and Charlie are stepping through their yearly ritual of marking the passing of Charlie’s twin brother Max. This brother was born with heart abnormalities and died in surgery as a little boy.
Jason2 may not know (or care) that he’s missing this important family moment, but Original Jason does. In a sad sequence, he tells the story of Max’s birth and death to Amanda inside The Box while Daniella recounts the same story to Charlie.
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Meanwhile, Jason2 and Leighton return from The Box demonstration back into the Original Universe. Leighton is stunned by what he’s seen and Jason2 uses this moment to close the deal. Although he doesn’t have to do much of a pitch. The power of The Box to allow someone to choose another life and correct the mistakes they made in this one pretty much sells itself.
In The Box Amanda and Original Jason finally put together Jason2’s reasoning for abducting Original Jason. He wants Daniella and Charlie for himself. He’s rationalized this crime because Original Jason probably wants to have a life as a successful tech God. Truly, narcissism is a dangerous thing.
An Imposter
Back in the Dessen kitchen Daniella and Charlie prepare a birthday meal. And for the first time start to connect about how much Jason seems to have changed. But before they can compare notes, Jason2 shows up. He blows off the fact that he missed Max’s remembrance (probably because he literally does not remember Max). Instead, he surprises Charlie with the keys to a new car for his sixteenth birthday.
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As an excited Charlie gushes about his new car, Daniella presses Jason2 for how he expects to pay for a brand new car. Jason2 cooly tells her he quit his job and she can go back to painting. He found an investor for The Box. When he tells her that they no longer have to worry about money, it’s clear that Daniella is worrying about a lot more than finances. Like, for instance, who the hell is the man pretending to be her husband?
The episode ends back in The Corridor. Leighton from Jason2’s world still limps along looking for Original Jason and Amanda. Judging from his battered, bloodied, and broken body he still hasn’t stumbled on the secret to navigating the doors. He opens another one to reveal dry, hot, sand-choked Chicago. With his drug supplies likely running low it looks like he needs to figure it out soon.
Catch up on our Dark Matter Recaps, here!
Dark Matter is currently streaming on Apple TV+.
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