DISCLAIMER: This recap of Dark Matter Season 1 Episode 6, “In the Fires of Dead Stars” contains spoilers. Read at your risk.
Last Week on Dark Matter
The last episode of Dark Matter, “Superposition”, was all about things coming apart for the Jasons (Joel Edgerton) and the people in their lives. After angering Daniela (Jennifer Connelly) and nearly killing Charlie with nut-filled ice cream, Jason2 sought out therapy from the Amanda in Original Jason’s universe. He admitted to her that his fantasy of what life would be like with a wife and child was not working out as he hoped. He even contemplated stepping back into The Box and walking away from the chaos he was creating.
Things got even worse when he was ambushed by this universe’s Ryan (Jimmi Simpson) who demanded to know how he synthesized the drug that Daniela took from Jason2’s secret storage unit. This resulted in Jason2 coldly abandoning Ryan in an alternate universe.
Meanwhile, Original Jason and Amanda (Alice Braga) were having problems of their own. After gaining skills in multiverse travel, they visited several Chicagos that were close matches to Original Jason’s world. But somehow getting close was even more disturbing than almost drowning or freezing. With their ampoule supply diminishing and their psyches fraying, Amanda decided it was time to change strategies. As did Jason2, who seemed to decide that doubling down on his mess was the way forward. To that end, he followed through on sealing that universe’s Box in thick concrete.
RELATED: Read our in-depth recap of Dark Matter, episode 6, “Superposition”.
Cops At The Door
Dark Matter’s “In The Fires of Dead Stars” begins with Jason2 trying to make things up to his bruised family by… what else… making dinner (again, this family loves to cook!). It’s not going well and gets worse when their food prep is interrupted by Detective Mason of the Chicago Police. We saw a version of Detective Mason in Jason2’s original universe in episode 103 when she visited Leighton while investigating the many missing employees of Velocity Labs. Now this universe’s version of Mason is looking for another missing person… Ryan.
As Mason interviews the couple Daniella seems alarmed by Ryan’s disappearance and even more so when Jason2 cooly admits he was the last person to see him when they had a drink at The Village Tap. He spins a yarn about Ryan, who is sober, suddenly falling off the wagon. But he leaves out the part where he abandoned him in the multiverse like a Quantum gangster.
After the detective leaves Daniella confronts Jason2 with the ampoule she stole from his secret storage unit. Remaining cool, Jason2 tells her half-truths about all of it. He admits to taking Lavender Fairy and keeping secrets, saying he was hiding things out of guilt for “wanting more” in his life. He seems to have covered all the bases, but it’s unclear if Daniella is buying it.
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The Reset
Back in The Corridor, Amanda explains to a skeptical Original Jason that they need a rest. Not only has the constant travel been psychologically damaging, but the constant use of the drug is likely causing damage as well. To that end, she opens a door to the most beautiful Chicago they’ve seen yet. It’s clean, peaceful, progressive, and technologically advanced. Gorgeous skyscrapers climb to the clouds through a pollution-free sky. How did she find this place? By concentrating on the relationships and empathy that she most wanted to see. Even the hot chocolate is better here. And the cups are edible!
The pair spend a lovely day together. It’s intimate, easy, and a little bit romantic. So much so that another couple in a bar mistakes them for lovers. Amanda tells Original Jason that she needs a couple of hours to herself and they agree to meet later for dinner at a restaurant in the tallest building in the city (The Obama Building).
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A Parting
After taking the elevator through the clouds, Original Jason finds a very dressed-up Amanda waiting for him. She’s even bought him a change of clothes. As their dinner winds down, Amanda finally reveals her plans. She’s decided to stay in this world. When Original Jason pushes back, she tells him her reasoning. He is looking for his family, but she has nothing waiting for her at the end of this journey. Her Jason is evil and the heart of the one sitting before her belongs to another woman. In some ways, her presence might even be one of the things keeping Original Jason from finding his family. Amanda is a quantum refugee and has decided to make this perfect world home.
In a heartbreaking sequence that seems to encapsulate the central dilemma of the multiverse, the two say goodbye—a goodbye filled with the fear of being alone and mourning what might have been.
Running Out of Options
Back in The Box, Original Jason reckons with his situation. He’s alone now. And after slipping two ampoules into Amanda’s purse, he now only has three left. After one immediate trip to yet another ruined Chicago, he stumbles into one painfully close to his own. He risks a call to this world’s Daniella, pretending to be her Jason. The conversation is intimate and warm. Even so, he’s an imposter here and this Daniella is married to another man. After spying an identical mask to the one Jason2 wore on the night of the kidnapping, Original Jason hatches a dark plan.
Later that night he slips into his house, then creeps upstairs to watch Daniella sleeping peacefully with this world’s Jason. He looks as if he might be ready to harm this other version of himself. But at the last second, he seems to realize that he’s now reduced to the same level of envy and desperation as Jason2.
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He flees to the kitchen and collapses, but is discovered by his son. But this boy is not Charlie, it’s Max, the son who died of heart failure in his world. Here Max survived, having received a heart transplant. This should be joyful, but this is Dark Matter and every untaken road is full of bumps.
Max is riddled with guilt about having survived while his donor did not. Original Jason tries to comfort him. But the Max of this world has a fraught relationship with his father and recoils at, what seems to him, an out-of-character gesture.
Messier and Messier
Back in Original Jason’s universe, things aren’t going any better for Jason2. Having realized that Daniella is on to him and with the cops on his trail he returns to therapy with this world’s Amanda. After this Amanda pushes back on his whining about the terrible situation he’s created for himself, he takes out his frustration on her by revealing intimate details he should not know about her life. She kicks him out and now, like Original Jason, he too is alone.
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Desperate to mop up the ever-expanding mess he’s made, Jason2 returns home to find Detective Mason waiting for him. She’s still investigating Ryan’s disappearance and informs Jason2 that, after looking at cell phone data, she now can pinpoint Ryan’s last known location in South Chicago – the location of The Box. Though Jason2 remains calm, she is suspicious and implies that she will continue to dig into this case.
This encounter sends an alarmed Jason2 back to The Box where he takes a sledgehammer to the concrete in which he had it encased. He finds a loser version of Ryan in a universe where he’s not a scientist, but an alcoholic auto mechanic. After filling him with booze, he drugs this version of Ryan and brings him back to the Original Jason’s world. He takes him to the apartment of this world’s Ryan and gives the still-woozy version of his friend a wash and haircut, before slipping him into bed. He makes sure to leave Ryan’s cell phone (the one Mason is tracking) on the charger. Jason2 then returns home where, for the first time we see that all of this covering up is starting to crack his calculating facade.
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Last Chance
In another Box somewhere, Original Jason is down to his last ampoule. But before injects it and takes what will be his final trip, he opens up his journal. Taking Amanda’s advice he contemplates the world he’d like to find beyond the door by recounting the first night he met Daniella. It’s all about what he felt and how seeing her for the first time changed everything in his life. Then, filled with this feeling, he injects the drug and opens the door to find… a Box, formerly encased in concrete.
In a moment reminiscent of It’s A Wonderful Life (with the marquee of a movie theatre even advertising a screening of the film) he runs through the snowy streets of Chicago. He enters The Village Tap and is overjoyed to be recognized! He dashes to his house and sees his wife and son in (where else) the kitchen. It’s a moment of pure joy until it isn’t. For the first time since his abduction, he sees Jason2 in HIS house, kissing HIS wife.
Unbeknownst to Original Jason, Jason2 has come home from kidnapping Ryan to lay the groundwork for his scheme. Playing the hero, he tells Daniella that he found Ryan drunk in a bar in Gary, Indiana, and brought him home. He even says he needs to call Detective Mason and inform her that Ryan is back.
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(Another) New Jason
Original Ryan reaches his breaking point. Having finally found his way home, he is determined to recover his life by any means necessary. He finds a gun store and attempts to purchase a firearm only to be informed that Illinois requires a license to purchase a gun. Undeterred he buys some pepper spray and a vicious-looking knife instead. It seems like he’s determined to take out Jason2.
He exits the store, but strangely we linger there. And as the salesperson wipes down the counter, Jason walks back in. In a strange repetition, he asks the salesperson about buying a gun. She hesitates, informing him that just twenty seconds earlier she had this same conversation with Jason. Except, that Jason didn’t have a brace on an injured finger like this one does. That’s because this isn’t Original Jason or even Jason2. This is some other iteration of Jason that appears to be only steps behind the original. It’s unclear how this will play out, but what is clear is that whoever this Jason is, he means business too.
Catch up on our Dark Matter Recaps, here!
Dark Matter is currently streaming on Apple TV+.
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