Dark Matter is finally back and it is better than ever before. These episodes were very tightly written and the performances were second to none. The episode smartly backtracked to those frantic seconds that led up to last season’s major cliffhanger that left everyone except the Android in immediate danger. From that point, it broke up the cast into varying combinations that worked so perfectly before reuniting them all at the end. The pace of the episodes was on point and they dropped some pretty major bits of information that seem to be setting up things to come.
What made these episodes even more impactful was the deep emotional tones running through them. Two was a strong driving force throughout the whole two hours as she had to reconcile how her leadership decisions led to everything that happened. And, perhaps most critically, how, in her eyes, her choices led to Nyx’s demise. Nyx is someone that came to mean a lot to her, perhaps more than even she realized, so it’s a devastating loss. In many ways, her reaction to Nyx’s death is deeper and more profound than even when they lost One. It hurt her deep to lose a member of her crew on a mission that she spearheaded. It was all made worse by the fact that she believes Ryo murdered Nyx. To her, that’s a step even beyond betrayal and something that she certainly won’t allow to slide.
It was evident how much Nyx was weighing on Two’s mind when she hallucinated her. Their conversation was deep and even though it was all inside Two’s own head it still perfectly captures the essence of who Nyx was. There is no way Nyx would want Two blaming herself. The conversation led Two to tears, which showed off a whole new side to her. It was a powerful image to see the tears build in her eyes than even more impactful when they started to stream down her face as Two let some of her walls fall away. The acting by Melissa O’Neil here was beyond compare. She was absolutely phenomenal throughout both of these episodes, but this scene won’t be forgotten anytime soon. Also, a big shout out to Melanie Liburd who is going to be immensely missed on this show. These two powerhouse actresses locked into the connection of their characters and rode that colossal connection right through to that wholly unexpected ending. Keep in mind, all of this was going down in Two’s own head, so this was a manifestation crafted by her brain while in its most vulnerable and honest state thanks to an unhealthy dose of oxygen deprivation. In Two’s head, the final goodbye with Nyx involved a gentle kiss that even caught the battle-hardened leader off guard.
That kiss is almost certainly something fans will be talking about. What did the kiss mean? Was Two harboring feelings for Nyx? Or was it simply an innocent parting of ways between two souls who shared a special connection? There certainly seemed to be a lot of Two’s heart involved in that scene. This isn’t a show about romances, but that doesn’t mean that little trysts can’t occasionally develop. Two demonstrated that with both One and Three in the first season. However, this didn’t feel like that. This felt very deep and personal in a way that she never connected with either of the guys. Could there be a lady love in Two’s future? Her past? This is the future, so we can all only hope that the topic of sexuality is null and void and people are allowed to love whomever they desire without ridiculous societal labels. Two is also not your typical human, but even if she was, it’s highly unlikely she’d really care what anyone thought. There is potential for a really cool storyline here in the future. Even if it is just in the short term it could be interesting to see Two with a serious love interest. But for now, it appears that her prime focus will be to avenge the woman that she never got to explore her feelings for. The loss of Nyx seems to have clouded her judgment and left her wearing blinders focused completely on Ryo. Until Two learns the truth, and perhaps even after, it seems like she won’t stop until she avenges Nyx by eliminating Ryo.
While Two lost a chance at some sort of special bond there is another crewmember who might just get an unexpected second chance at a powerful love. That member of the crew is, of course, Three who could be potentially reuniting with Sarah (Natalie Brown) thanks to whatever thing Five is working on in secret. Something so secret that she was even willing to skip out on a family dinner to complete, and that alone shows how important this task is because she lives to have the family all together in a rare moment of peace. Whatever she’s doing with Sarah is surely going to have some sort of big grand payoff. Especially since this was set up way back in the first season it’ll be terrific to finally get some resolution to that curious look Five had after Sarah was thought to be lost when power was lost to her stasis unit. For now, the wait continues, because it doesn’t get any resolution in the second episode, but it’s safe to say that something that big will unquestionably get paid off soon and it could be a very intriguing story to watch.
Three was a little busy fighting to stay alive to worry about Sarah in these episodes, but that is sure to change when he finds out what Five is working on. It’s almost a guarantee that his focus will fall completely on the love of his life if she somehow comes back to him. For these episodes he had some pretty big issues to deal with that didn’t really leave room for much else. Primarily trying to figure out what to do regarding his surprise captor, Lieutenant Anders (Jeff Teravainen), who is miraculously still alive. They may have started out as captor and prisoner, but they quickly found themselves stuck in a position where they had to trust each other. In the end, they each helped save the other and in the process forged a bit of an uneasy friendship. It should be fun to watch future interactions between them. Every time Anders encounters the crew he seems to develop a better understanding regarding them and appears to be developing a soft spot for the Raza crew. The fact he protected Three from the rest of the G.A. says a lot about him and perhaps indicates that he’s starting to question who he works for at a deeper level than he ever has before. It could be very interesting to see him have a proper team up with the Raza crew. Plus that would mean more Anders which would mean more of his portrayer Jeff Teravainen.
What’s curious about Anders is that he’s not been in that many episodes yet he’s a character that fans adore. It’s because even in just a few short episodes he’s shown this remarkable character evolution. A lot of that is in the writing, but Teravainen brings such a depth to the character that it’s hard to not like the guy and root for him to find a path to the right side of the fight. Not to mention the fact that Teravainen has remarkable best buddy chemistry with Anthony Lemke and Roger Cross that makes their scenes so much fun to watch. It would actually be fun to see the three of them off on some crazy adventure together. Though, with that combination, it's pretty much a guarantee that they’d get themselves into some epic trouble. Only time will tell what the future looks like for Anders, but as long as the character is alive the show can keep utilizing the excellent acting skills of Jeff Teravainen, so let’s hope Anders quickly replaces his miraculous jacket that keeps saving his life.
That’s the thing about this show, it has one of the best casts, but it also has insanely gifted recurring stars. Joining Teravainen in the group of elite recurring stars is Ellen Wong (Misaki) and Torri Higginson (Commander Truffault), both of whom delivered stunning performances in this premiere event. Higginson really got to dive into Truffault in the first episode. Surprisingly she ended up being a force to be reckoned with as she helped Five and the Android protect the Raza. Then she turned into a sort of motivating mentor for Two. She even refused to take the debt that Two offered her for getting Five off of EOS-7 before it blew apart. By the way, that was a class act that she went out of her way to grab Five and get the youngest crewmember away to safety.
Then, on the complete opposite end of the things is Misaki who not only murdered Nyx but is doing everything in her power to turn Ryo into a vicious monster and on his current trajectory, she might just succeed. It was actually quite interesting to hear a bit about her background and how she became so ruthless. Ellen Wong delivered a fascinating performance that was stunning to watch. The soft and matter of fact way she has Misaki talk about killing and disposing of her enemies was striking. Wong’s control over every aspect of her performance is what makes this character so mesmerizing. The scene between Misaki and Ryo that ended the second episode was an absolute powerhouse moment of acting by Wong. The way that scene played out seems to indicate that she’s going to be a driving force behind what is sure to be Ryo’s ruthless reign.
While it’ll be hard to watch a former member of the crew take a turn as the ultimate big bad it’s also a brilliant choice. He has intimate knowledge of how the crew works and operates. That was made abundantly clear in the second episode when he knew exactly what they were going to do at every turn. If that encounter is any indication then this season is going to be one big epic game of chess between Two and Ryo. While Ryo now knows that Misaki murdered Nyx, Two and the crew do not. The Android seemed to pick up on his surprise at Nyx being killed, but it’s not clear if she’ll be passing that info along or not. For now, Two is operating on the belief that Ryo is Nyx’s killer and it’s clearly evident that she will be going after him with everything she has. And now that they sort of destroyed one of his research facilities and stole back the Blink Drive it’s almost a guaranteed fact that he’ll be relentlessly going after them to get it back. This season could have a lot of fun back and forth fights between the former allies. Ryo really is the ultimate big bad and Alex Mallari Jr is doing phenomenal work showing all the complex and conflicting sides to Ryo. Under all the newfound darkness is a lot of Four who was a decent enough guy, so there is a very clearly evident conflict between both sides. Watching bad guys turn good is always enthralling, but watching the reverse is perhaps even more entrancing.
The crew is clearly going to have their hands full dealing with Ryo this season, but they have a lot of other things going on. To add to that ever growing list is the fact that they now know Five has a long lost sister. That is sure to come up again at some point this season as Five will surely want to try to find her missing sister. If Five does ever find her sister it would be quite interesting to see the dynamic between the sister and Two who clearly has a very sisterly relationship with the youngest member of the crew. When the station was exploding around them Two said she wanted to find the crew, but what she meant is she didn’t want to leave Five behind. Five was very clearly on both Two and Six’s minds as they tried to get clear in the Marauder.
It is their concern that led to one of the very best quotes of the series, “Don’t do that. Don’t make her a damsel in distress. She’s a hell of a lot better than that.” And bam! That right there summarizes one of the many reasons this show is so special. Not a single character is weak or incapable. They all have their strengths and weaknesses and together they balance each other. Five might be young, but she’s more than proven herself as one of the best engineers around and has turned into quite an impressive young fighter. With Ryo gone it’ll be interesting to see if Two will pick up the slack in training Five. When it comes to Five, Two, The Android and Six have always been the most protective of her. In the second episode, every one of them showed their concern. When Five was in trouble there was zero hesitation for them to be by her side. Even Three, who tries to pretend to be annoyed by her, was properly concerned when they got back from their mission to find Five unconscious. It was a nice touch that they didn’t just try to make the decisions for her. They all understand the impact of losing memories and they weren’t going to impose the Android’s plan on her without knowing she was fully informed. While she has seemingly lost all of her old Das memories it’ll be interesting to see what if any of her Five memories were damaged in the procedure.
One thing is for sure, she’s changing and growing. While the crew was away, Two essentially left Five in charge of the whole ship. She used to be treated like a kid that needed to be protected, but with each season they give her a little more freedom to be the adult she is growing into. However, that won’t stop them from worrying about her. Two was there by Five’s side as she recovered from the Android’s procedure. These two have some of the best scenes because they arguably have the closest bond of all the crew and Melissa O’Neil and Jodelle Ferland absolutely nail the bond. Something that came up at the end of the first episode is that they are all like a family and that seems like it is going to be a big driving force this season as the remaining crew grows closer in the aftermath of all that they’ve been through recently.
They are not only growing as a family but individually as well. Last season felt a bit like a setup season where a ton of things were put into play without too much payoff. It was a great season, but this one seems like the payoff season which should make it very big and exciting season. Perhaps the character poised to grow and evolve the most this season is the Android. Last season started to explore her desire to more fully embrace her human-like emotional side. She even got a temporary upgrade, but she doesn’t need that upgrade chip to be something wholly unique. The Android might appear to be just a standard android, but she is so very much more than that. When she confronted Ryo on the comms there was clearly anger in her voice. When she had to break the news to Two about Nyx there was remorse in her voice. And When she told Five about her diagnoses there was a combination of frustration and anger in her voice that no one had listened to her concerns that led to one of her dearest friends being in danger. This will be the Android’s breakout season, she even gets a name this year, and in the exceptionally talented hands of Zoie Palmer the writers can do just about anything with this character and she’ll deliver beyond expectations.
This is going to be a season of growth as all of these characters have to bond closer than ever to survive Ryo and the impending war. Two isn’t in the clearest mindset with what happened to Nyx and Ryo’s betrayal, so Six has his work cut out to help her stay focused and not lose sight of the bigger issue at hand which is the war. He didn’t exactly win his first attempt at that as Two made a very firm vow to kill Ryo and took very deliberate action to hold true to her vow. She’s got Ryo focused blinders on and it’s going to take a lot to get her focus off of him.
While Two and Six do struggle to agree on tactics sometimes, they can be a terrific team as was evident by their time together on the Marauder. They complement each other very nicely and it’ll be interesting to see these two balance each other as they struggle with everything the Universe throws their way. When Two isolated herself and gave all of her oxygen to Six it was a powerful moment and it was a great symbolic moment of acceptance to show that she was willing to sacrifice everything to save him, a member of her crew. He betrayed them and she let him back on her ship, but there was still a divide, then as they sat by the door talking the gap that his betrayal caused rapidly dissipated. They were back to where they were at the start of the series. Together they can be a powerful team that can find a way to get their family through the hard times ahead.
This season premiere had really cool space battle sequences, poignant emotional moments, and even a few fun comedic moments. The pacing of both episodes was terrific and perfectly put into place several breadcrumbs of things to come. The series premiere was an exceptional introduction to the series and the escape adventure from last season was fun, but there was just an extra edge to this one that made it stand out above its amazing predecessors. There is some exceptional stuff coming this season, so stay tuned for what could go down in
Dark Matter history as one of the best seasons if not the very best. The ride has just begun and it promises to be an exhilerating one.
Don’t miss the next episode when it airs next
Friday at 9/8c on SyFy in the US and Space in Canada.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Co-Creator/Executive Producer Joseph Mallozzi about these episodes and this season as a whole, so look for that interview coming by early next week. He gave a lot of terrific information and teases that I can’t wait to share with everyone.
Hit the comments with your thoughts about the season premiere. Were you as thrilled with it as I was? What did the Two and Nyx kiss mean? Can Ryo ever be redeemed? What is Five doing with Sarah? Will Two hold true to her vow to kill Four? What do you hope will happen this season?
