Sadly, we must say goodbye to another action packed season of
Dark Matter and begin to ponder what next season may bring. With almost the entire crew ending this season in immediate peril, one can’t help but wonder who will and will not survive the premiere next season. Or, and this is where my optimistic hope takes over, perhaps they will all survive. I know it’s wishful thinking, but I’m going to choose to live in a bit of denial for the moment because I really like Nyx and I refuse to believe that she is gone for good. Overall, this was a good episode, but it felt far more like a standard episode than a season finale. It was just lacking that overall grandiose feeling that I’ve come to expect from season finales. I loved the way the first season ended, but this season finale kind of left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. Again, I want to stress that I really enjoyed this episode; I just wanted more from it. On the bright side, everything that this episode didn’t get around to dealing with still has the luxury of being dealt with next season. Unlike last year we won’t be left hanging while we beg for another season.
Syfy has already granted us the joy of knowing that the series will continue on. However, that means that we are now left to wonder what will become of the crew. Who survived? Who didn’t?
This season did suffer on some occasions from an overcrowding of storylines. So much so that plot points set up in the season premiere never really got dealt with in the body of the season. We still have no idea what is up with the storyline behind the murder of One’s wife. We’ve also been left hanging regarding the mystery behind Five’s past. Usually, season premieres launch storylines the show plans to tackle throughout the season, but these two mysteriously got started but for whatever reason never received any follow through. I’m guessing that they will be dealt with next season, but I must admit to being a tiny bit disappointed that they didn’t even get a mention in the season finale. As I stated earlier, this would have been an incredible episode if it were in the middle part of the season, unfortunately, it wasn’t. A season finale needs to bring to a conclusion the overarching storylines of the season while also leaving just enough curiosity for the next season. This episode definitely left us with plenty to contemplate for the next nine to ten months, but it struggled to bring the season to a truly satisfying conclusion. I can’t express enough how much I truly wish this episode hadn’t been used as the season finale. That’s not to down the performances, those were as incredible as expected, or the surprises, because those were awesome, but on an overall scale it just didn’t have enough time to get through all it needed to.
Here’s the thing, I really enjoyed the Four storyline throughout the season. The struggle he was going through was obvious and the rock meets hard place he was in made the stakes feel very real. But, the Ryo transformation part of his storyline would have benefited from launching a few episodes earlier to give his story more time to mature before the season finale hit. There just wasn’t much room to truly explore the changes in him to help sell how he was different. I also think that they didn’t give the Nyx and Four storyline enough screen time to make the emotional stakes feel as poignant as they needed to. We got to see Four’s perspective regarding the relationship more than Nyx’s which made the relationship feel very one sided. That, therefore, caused a slight disconnect when it came time for Ryo to plead with Nyx to join him as his Empress. I love the relationship between these characters, but the lack of screen time definitely made their conversation lose some of its value because we weren’t shown that Four had fallen that hard for her. This isn’t to say anything bad about Melanie Liburd or Alex Mallari Jr., these two have enough chemistry to fuel a nuclear reactor, but more screen time would have definitely helped their storyline hit harder in the season finale. Misaki potentially murdering Nyx will certainly have repercussions if Nyx does indeed die. Should Nyx survive, and I truly hope she does, I hope that before another life or death scenario these two characters are given time to build up their relationship to a much bigger extent. That is, if Four is even allowed back on the Raza every again.
Enough with the critiques, while this episode was lacking the normal season finale feeling, it was still a great adventure episode with high stakes. The crew was trying to stop an all-out corporate war that had the potential to cripple the galaxy, I’m not sure how much higher those stakes could be. Well, okay, so the stakes were extra amplified by the fact that most of the crew were knowingly in close proximity to an unknown explosive device. That definitely raised the stakes ever higher. I loved the overall feeling of the mission to find the bomb. It gave the episode a focus and set up some great moments. In particular, one of my favorite interactions was between Five and Arrian (Kyle Mac). What I particularly loved about this portion of the episode, besides the great emotional implications, was how it touched on the ongoing storyline regarding the android upgrade that is circulating around. This showed a nice evolution to this part of the storyline with Five having a whole new appreciation for the upgrade because of how she saw the impact on the Android. She’s always been an incredibly compassionate character, but I feel like the events of this season made her feel even more compassion for Arrian. I hate that he was killed off because Jodelle Ferland and Kyle Mac had a really good energy together. It would have been very interesting to see a human and android relationship next season. But, I guess it would have risked taking something away from the Android’s storyline if there was another android hanging around. No matter, I still really adored this part of the episode.
Surprisingly I also really enjoyed seeing Commander Truffault (Torri Higginson) back in the storyline aiding the Raza crew. She is an interesting character, it’s obvious that she’s using the crew for her own means, but she also seems to have a genuine soft spot for them. On more than a few occasions she could have left them to their own fates, but she always comes through for them. It was nice to see that Two chose to seek her out in order to stop the corporate war from starting. They’ve come to this odd understanding where they’ll butt heads, yet they somehow always figure out how to work together. It’s obvious that Truffault had an exit strategy in mind to escape the troubled space station. The fact that she took the time to seek out Five and drag her along to some safety zone spoke to her character. Now, there is a very high likelihood that whoever survives this incident will have to pay some hefty price to get Five back from Truffault, but at least the odds are good that Five survived the explosion with her.
Two also has an extremely high likelihood of having survived thanks to her recent upgrade. Of all of them, besides the Android, she’s the hardest to kill. It’ll take a lot more than the vacuum of space or an explosion to get rid of her. Though, should any member of the crew not survive, I’m fairly certain there isn’t a single space in any part of the universe where Four can hide to escape her wrath. I get that he came to her with an opportunity to hand over the drive without conflict, but she made the right call not to give it to him. It’s quite obvious how unstable he is and in his hands, the blink drive is likely to cause all kinds of horrific scenarios. The fact that Four then ordered the station set to blow knowing that his former crewmates were there and may not be able to make a run to safety is even more despicable. I get that Kierkan’s intervention caused the explosion to happen sooner than planned, but twenty minutes was never going to be enough time for the Raza crew to successfully evacuate. I like Four, but Ryo needs to be locked back away for good next season. However, it’s likely he’s the new big bad, even if he’s a conflicted one. I still hold a tiny bit of respect for him because he did try to warn them, but he flat out betrayed people who cared about him and called him a friend so my respect stops at him choosing to warn them. He ordered the deaths of who knows how many countless innocent souls whose only crime was accompanying the corporate delegations. Not all of them, much like Arrian, were evil corporate elite. They were just unfortunately caught up in the opening salvos of the war that Four instigated.
Other unfortunate casualties may very well include Three and Six. We don’t know exactly what happened to Six after he escaped Kierkan’s makeshift cell, he may very well have found salvation somewhere, but the odds aren’t great. Three, on the other hand, was left in a far more precarious position. Seriously wounded there was no way he was escaping the station of his own free will. Cue the miraculous and incredible return of Lieutenant Anders (Jeff Teravainen) who may just turn out to be Three’s ticket to surviving to see another season. I’ve been holding out hope that Anders survived being shot by Six back at the start of the season, so I was giddy with excitement when his face came into focus. I think there is a lot of good in Anders, and he knows that Three is Six’s friends, so I really hope he took it upon himself to drag Three to some area of safety. We know from the alternate reality that the space station isn’t pulverized, so there is a chance that certain areas provided a certain level of safety. What it almost guarantees is that Teravainen will be on the show next season. I know it’ll likely be in a guest starring capacity, but I would be thrilled if they found some way to make Teravainen a series regular. I feel like Anders has such an extreme capacity for an awesome redemption type of storyline. They’ve lost Four to the dark side, so I think it’d be awesome to add to the crew and Anders would be an interesting character. I’m also a fan of Teravainen’s work, so having him join next season in a larger capacity would make me very happy. And if you take into account the fact that Three has more or less become Two’s right-hand man, I think she’d be open to the idea of Anders on her ship if he helps to save Three. At the very least she wouldn’t kill him on sight.
This episode introduced what is likely the first shots fired in the Corporate War that is sure to consume next season. Thanks to Four everything the crew worked so hard to stop has come to fruition. I don’t know if Four can ever be redeemed. Essentially, he is Ryo now, but he referred to himself as Four when he reactivated the Android, so he seems highly conflicted still. The problem is I don’t know that he can ever truly have a place back on the Raza again. Two accepted Six back into the fold, but the circumstances were slightly different. While Six’s betrayal was personal I feel like Four’s was even more personal. I don’t see Two being nearly as forgiving with him as she was with Six.
The best chance Four had of ever finding himself back on the Raza in semi-good graces was Nyx and based off of how the episode ended things aren’t looking god on that side either. I am, however, quite curious to find out how he will react to finding out what Misaki did to Nyx. That was a case of jealousy taken to the most extreme possible. I found it poignant and disturbing that the season ended with the Android holding Nyx’s hand. I feel that if the Android thought there was any hope to save Nyx she wouldn’t just be sitting on the floor alone with her. This is a woman that she has come to call a friend and I think she’d be jumping into action if she had any hope for her survival. I feel like, of all the storylines started early in the season, the one revolving around the Android was the best executed throughout the entire season. The way the writers, and Zoie Palmer, evolved the Android took viewers on such an incredible journey with the character. As was shown during her conversation with Five, the Android is starting to finally accept her emotions and that was an incredible moment. However, that made the ending all the more heartbreaking, because now she is all alone. Her entire crew was on a space station that just exploded and the one member of the crew that was with her is possibly dead or dying. It was impossible to not feel the Android’s fear and anger in those final seconds. Everything she was terrified would happen was coming to fruition and it seemed like she was struggling to figure out what to do in order to help everyone. If even a single member of the crew doesn’t survive, and I’m including Nyx in this, there is absolutely nowhere Four will be able to hide from the Android or Two.
I know that Nyx was a character that some people loved, like myself, and others just didn’t like. But, at the end of the day, she was a member of the crew. Two trusted Nyx enough to hand over control of the Raza to her. They became good friends throughout the season and if Four’s indirect actions caused her death I can only imagine that the retribution will be swift and unforgiving. Between stealing from her, getting her friends hurt, and potentially getting Nyx killed I don’t see any path back for him to return to the good graces of the Raza crew. Then again, this time, last year I didn’t think there was any way for Six to be redeemed and I was obviously completely and totally wrong. Anything is possible on this show so I’m going to sit back and speculate until the new season starts.
While I do have some problems with this season finale it still had amazing moments. As I’ve stated several times now, had this episode just been a normal episode as a part of the body of the season it would have been amazing. I can’t stress this enough, at its core, this is a really good episode, but as a season finale it just kind of fell a bit flat. That frustrates me because I see the potential with this series. I’ve spoken to Joseph enough times to know he has a very clear vision for this series and it’s a brilliant show because of that vision. I’m extremely passionate about this show and to see such a strong season get capped off by something that didn’t quite hit the mark makes me a little sad. This is an incredible show, the writers are insanely brilliant, the actors are ridiculously talented, and the creators are geniuses, but this season finale just couldn’t quite full on hit its mark. It found its way to the outside edge of the target, but couldn’t quite pull off a bulls-eye, and this season deserved a bulls-eye finale.
There was one episode I didn’t love and one that I thought was just okay, but every other episode was right on point. At the start of the season, there appeared to be a very clear vision with a couple great storylines setup. As the season went along I kept waiting and waiting and hoping beyond hope that the next episode would finally tackle those storylines, but the season seems to have simply run out of time and they got tabled for a later date. I adore all the backstory we got this season, the android upgrade storyline was incredible, and the alternate universe and alternate reality storylines were right on point. I just wanted more from this season finale. But, I won’t judge it entirely for what I wanted, but for what it gave us. This was a solid episode with some incredible cliffhangers, so now the wait begins.
Be sure to keep an eye on
SpoilerTV for updates regarding the show throughout the hiatus. As we near the new season I will try my best to do a Season Two in review much like I did prior to the start of this season. For now, hit the comments with your thoughts about this episode. What did you love? What do you wish there had been more of? Can Four ever be redeemed? Will the Android find a way to save Nyx? Will Anders help Three? Who do you think will survive the season?
I don’t remember who, but many weeks ago I remember seeing a comment from someone asking me to rank the episodes from my most favorite to my least, so here it is.
Most favorite to least:
2x10 - Take The Shot
2x5 - We Voted Not To Space You
2x8 - Stuff To Steal, People To Kill
2x9 - Going Out Fighting
2x11 - Wish I’d Space You When I Had the Chance
2x2 - Kill Them All
2x4 - We Were Family
2x6 - We Should Have Seen This Coming
2x1 - Welcome To Your New Home
2x12 - Sometimes In Life You Don’t Get To Choose
2x13 - But First, We Save The Galaxy
2x3 - I’ve Seen the Other Side Of You
2x7 - She’s One Of Them Now
This was much harder than I thought it would be. Be sure to leave your rankings in the comments section.
We must say goodbye to weekly
Dark Matter reviews for now, but I will be back next season for another round of previews, reviews, and fun speculation.
About the Author - Aimee Hicks
Aimee works for a newspaper in North Carolina and has a BA in Broadcasting and Cinema. She has been a TV lover since before she really understood what TV was and has a passion for analyzing performances and theorizing what may happen on her favorite shows. Her interest in television covers just about every genre, but her first love is the sci-fi/fantasy genre. For the 2016/2017 season she will be reviewing Chesapeake Shores, Dark Matter, Frequency, Gilmore Girls, Jessica Jones, Lucifer, and Orphan Black. She will also be handling the Best Scene Polls for Supergirl and previewing several new and returning shows. She also oversees the popular SpoilerTV feature, Performers of the Month (#POTM) which highlights the most outstanding actor and actress from each month. You can email her at aimee@spoilertv.com.
