This one is written way ahead of time because I have a few scheduled and I actually watched this about the last week of February but that’s fine.
Hey, hello, it’s been a couple months, as we’re so very familiar with I’m sure, but if the mood grabs you to write something you absolutely should or else you never will. So, while I’m feeling it, I’m writing it and I am crossing my fingers I’ll want to keep doing so. Pray with me.
I know these should in theory be fortnightly, as is the concept… however, I’m like way way behind, so let’s just go with A Friday for now.
Anyways, guess what we’re discussing? I watched The Rookie and Lucy Chen was my favourite so the next logical conclusion was watching Dark Matter, which I discovered in the same week I started it and watched it very very fast. It’s not that long and it is very good.
So let’s dive in, shall we?
An Introduction (urghhh)
I keep threatening to just stop doing these because I find them tedious and I just don’t- Sometimes I skip them and intend to come back later but I don’t. Complete Comments feel like the one set of posts that should continue to have them, though. Just for general professional vibes I don’t otherwise keep elsewhere.
SO! Dark Matter is a Sci-Fi show that ran for 3 Seasons from 2015-2017, with a total of 39 Episodes. The Pilot premiered in June 2015 and it was cancelled in September 2017. The concept was created by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, which they originally published as a comic book series in 2012. The show was created by Prodigy Pictures in association with Syfy and Space, the channels on which it aired. It was Canadian based and shot in Toronto.
It stars the ever important Melissa O’Neil as Two, alongside Marc Bendavid, Anthony Lemke, Alex Mallari Jr., Jodelle Ferland, Roger Cross and Zoie Palmer as, One, Three, Four, Five, Six and Android, respectively.
They are joined by a plethora of reoccurring cast in that time including the hilarious Enis Esmer, as Wexler, but similarly to Lemke we have met him before in Blindspot. Further cast includes Melanie Liburd as Nyx, and a bunch of others that there is seriously far too many to name but they are all good in their own right.
Briefly: The show is set in a 27th Century future space dystopia and follows the crew of the Raza when they wake with no memory of who they are or what they’ve done… and I could give you more but that would be spoilers.
You can watch it on Prime Video in the UK, and I highly recommend that you do.
Okay, you know the routine by now:
SPOILERS start here.
The Beginning: Amnesia
I watched this entire show in about a week maybe a little more. I had quite a bit of free time. It’s sort of addictive, if I’m being honest. I haven’t pulled late nights like that in a hot minute, and to be honest, I didn’t regret a single one of them. I should’ve been tired and I just wasn’t because this show is so good and also batshit insane I was wide awake and paying attention at 3:30am, and as my life motto has become: NO REGRETS!
So, look, there’s not a lot of it, but a lot does happen so let’s just start with the beginning: Amnesia.
Having basically your entire cast know literally nothing is so funny because neither does the audience or the people playing them and everyone gets to find out together. They’re shocked? I’m shocked, we’re all shocked.
Look, everything you find out about these people is insane, and I say that with so much love. The most frequent thing I said while watching this show was some variation of “this shits wild, I love it”. Sometimes a show just has to be batshit crazy and it is insanely enjoyable.
One of them is part robot! One of them surgically altered his face! One is a cop! At least two of them have kids and two of them are orphans. One of them is the heir to a f**king throne! This shit is wild.
39 Episodes and literally too much happens for me to summarise and discuss in one post. I also fully intend to watch it again in the near future, so, hey-ho, perhaps not the last you hear of them.
That was a mild detour, back to the point. They name each other in the order with which they woke up and this literally never changes.
It’s giving Jane Doe continuing to legally go by Jane Doe even after she 1) Discovered two separate names she used to have and 2) Married Kurt Weller. I’m not saying we have to take our partners surnames but I am saying that if I didn’t have one I probably would… ya know?
Not that it’s at all confusing that all their names are numbers. I was initially saying that sarcastically, but ya know what it’s really not that confusing. There’s a lot of names going on, especially as they still use those names talking to people outside the crew and then there’s some alternate reality body doubles and cases of stolen identities which does get confusing… but ya know as with most Sci-Fi shows don’t think about it too much. I don’t understand half the science they’re making up but ya know what, I enjoyed the show.
Let me summarise the crew for you:
- One: The only one who displays any inclination towards inherent goodness from the top. They think he’s Jace Corso but he’s not! That’s not his face. He had it changed so he could kill Marcus for killing his wife. Jace is displeased.
- Two: Boss Lady. Low-key, she’s awesome as f**k. Deadly and a quick draw. Slight impulse control issues, but a damn good leader. She takes charge with ease. Also… part-robot/grown in a lab. Portia Lin is her criminal identity and Rebecca is her… given name? You will come to fear the mention of it.
- Three: Guns. This is like half his personality. He doesn’t care either way about morality but he sure as hell does like his guns. Marcus Boone committed crimes, presumably with many guns.
- Four: I have been describing Four as Asian because his character fulfils as many stereotypes as you are currently thinking of. He is Ninja, he is heir to a dynasty. This does, however, mean sword fights in space so… no notes. Oh, also, his name is Ryo Ishida.
- Five: Literally a child. Well, 16, but they don’t know that till Season 2. She immediately connects with Six and Two, both of which take on some responsibility of her safety and worry for her. She does tech stuff. She’s an orphan and I forgot her name. She is not wanted, but she definitely did illegal shit.
- Six: Calm. He’s quiet and calm and grounding, and also a f**king traitor. The man is an undercover cop, but it turns out everyone is corrupt as shit and he likes his friends with amnesia so he ditches the cop shit for them, which is great.
- Android: Just the best dang robot you ever did meet. She’s got a lot of heart and desire for connection and she’s just so damn funny. I adore her. She quirky.
And for the sake of clarity, the amnesia is the main mystery of Season 1. Who did it? Because they’re fairly certain it was one of them. I really thought it was One the entire season but it turned out to be Five protecting Six from Portia and Ryo who knew he was a cop and had planned to kill him. The implications of this is that rich billionaire f**k pretending to be Jace Corso was better at hiding his true identity than the trained cop. Oopsie daisies, though, because Five accidentally wiped all their memories. Oh no. They’d be mad when they find this out, but no one really is. Probably because on account of losing all your memories you sort of become a new person.
I do like that Two defaults to leader (and was) because she is like the one adult woman on a ship full of men (plus robot and child) and like sure this was 2015 but like in terms of space shows that is great. Women in positions of power. Absolutely. It also avoids many hurdles for possible sexism in her character, in my opinion. Which to be honest I just sort of brace myself for when watching anything. 2015 was like a whole decade ago now (scary), and like hey keeping track of the cultural climate is hard.
Also I think my brain just like automatically assumes it’s going to be subjected to 90’s/2000’s gender politics and stereotypes when I start anything that’s not aired in the last like 5yrs. I’m still adjusting. Also, ya know, I can love so much about TV and Film… but they still get a lot wrong and continue to do so.
This shows great, though. Five stars, no notes. It has sword fights! In. Space. That alone should convince you to watch it, and if not that, the robot.
So anyway, that’s the start. Amnesia.
The Robot
I did start the show because of Melissa O’Neil and Two is one of my favourite characters in it, she’s very interesting and she’s cool as hell. Everything we find out about her is both fascinating and utterly terrifying, and I love it. O’Neil does a great job portraying complexities in it. She does a great job across the board. Two is awesome, and I am a sucker for a woman who can beat up a man twice her size. So, ya know, she ticks all my boxes. May as well be Daisy Johnson up in this shit. Two is awesome.
Have you met the robot?
Technically she’s an android… and that’s her name. They literally never name her anything other than Android and we meet so many androids with names it’s a little depressing. She’s my favourite, though.
Look, I knew O’Neil was in every episode, because I was not going to start it if she was only in like five, ya know. So like, going through the show I had some reassurances as to who may or may not die, which was weirdly comforting and yet made none of the deaths any less sad, though some of them equally as disappointing.
However, for this I knew that Palmer was in every episode, I also knew she played several people but not the contexts of that, which means I spent the entire show like “If they kill this robot-“. At some point I just sent “If this robot dies, I’m going to cry” to one of my friends. I love this robot!
Saying robot is funnier than android and also avoids explaining the specific technicalities the show goes into and also what the f**k is up with Two who for the purposes of describing to my friends was ‘part robot’ which considering they technically both have nanites isn’t entirely inaccurate.
The robot is just funny, though. I love her. Her attempts at connection, friendship, the way she cares as much as she can. Her love for hot chocolate. I love her. So much. I can’t put into the exact words why I love her so much but I love her so much. All her scenes bring me a smile. Watching a robot grow and develop, these feelings and connections she creates. Ya know, we find out she has these feelings because Five and Portia programmed the necessary code into her… because she is made in the image of Portia’s partner and she wants her to be more… human? The details of Portia to come below.
This robot feels beyond her basic programming. Connects beyond what is expected. She is deeply entertaining to watch.
Lab Grown Human
As said I also love Two and what a backstory that is. Like, I’m sorry she was… made?
It’s fascinating truly. She looks 24-years-old but how old even is she? Like… 5?
Though, I will say, she has an extensive backstory in an undefined amount of time.
Like with the others, they can tell us anything and it’s like sure, this happened somewhere between their birth and now. A rough estimate of about 20-30 years. Plenty of time to work with. Unless you’re Five, in which case it’s exactly 16, but also we don’t know all that much about her that’s not about her being a homeless orphan… so… ya know…
Two, though? GIRL, got up to SO MUCH. None of which has time frames.
She was made by Will Wheaton. I’ve forgotten his characters name, but I think it was the perfect casting so I’m just going to call him Will Wheaton. Not just made by him but we’ll get to that in a second. Made by Will Wheaton at Dwarf Star Technologies, which seem to have proceeded to do nothing overtly shady in the time since… but we’re never told how long exactly, probably for purpose because dates give us something to tear apart. But let’s go with several years so they could build all that shit at the conspiracy site, assuming Two is prototype one, which I am assuming she is.
She is then awoken, treated like a lab rat, then escapes with a trail of bodies left behind her. In the intervening years she has gay domestic bliss with her other creator Dr… let’s go with Shaw. We don’t see nearly enough of this gay domestic bliss but, ya know, knowledge of it was a start. It would have been nice to see more… perhaps we would have had they had more time, but we’ll get to that in a second. How long does this gay domestic bliss last? Unknown, but it seems so peaceful. Then the Doc gets a tumour, is dying and also… they have a gay lovechild??? Just with magic future tech don’t think too hard about it. She can’t use transfer transit but I’m sure mixing her totally normal and in no way irregular DNA with a human was super easy. For sure, for sure. And that child is just with some guy she apparently trusts while she commits a truly insane amount of crimes… For the money! For the child!
What a life Rebecca/Portia led honestly. Girl got up to some shit… and Two remembers none of it. Did Portia like even pause, truly. Girl was busy. I’m sure if we met the child we’d get an idea for how long it’s been, but we didn’t so… I don’t know Two’s like five-years-old, I guess. Actually, I’ve just realised I’m pretty sure Will Wheaton says she’s 24, so let’s assume it’s been four years because otherwise he’s making teenagers and eww. Though, that said, the Conspiracy includes people of all ages… “people”.
Briefly, when Five talks to Portia in her head in Season 2, she says something equivalent to “They treated you like a slave, then hunted you like an animal. Of course, you’re like this, you’ve only seen the worst in us.”… which is a very Jiaying philosophy… but more importantly, the memory they have this discussion in is pre- gay love domestic bliss! Five is like, got Portia nailed down but hold on there’s a reprieve in there. Somewhere between ‘humans are terrible’ and criminal mastermind there’s several months of blossoming gay love. You have interrupted the clear pipeline to jaded and cruel with giving her something, someone to live for. You told us she was happy in spite of Dwarf Star. Then the Doc had a tumour and she had a daughter so she could become the jaded cruel bitch that we know. I guess.
Season 3 tells us Portia had a lot more heart than we thought, which is great. There’s certainly some of those instincts that carried over in to Two. So it makes sense. She’s not just her criminal reputation, and the cruel person we’ve encountered. There is depth that is more than just the trauma she’s turned into apathy. She loves, and everything she was doing was because she loved. It’s not like she could probably sustain a regular job considering, so hey-ho, criminality for cash. Utilises the skills and her specific half-robot abilities to be good at it. Why, the f**k not. Play your heart close to your chest so no one sees too much of your soft side and that is a great reputation to garner in those circles.
But also I have some questions about Alt-Portia. Alt-Portia behaves within the reputation that we know… which implies many similarities… but she also ditches her entire universe and like… why? Sure, the ones we like stole their blink drive, right? I can’t remember if that’s accurate now there was a lot of Blink Drive exchanges about. But regardless, the Raza seemed to be doing well in her universe. Jace Corso’s a bit of a dick who’s apparently superseded her throne, which makes no sense because we know she killed the crew of the Raza who disliked her but whatever. They’re otherwise doing more than fine, and assuming a matching backstory, girl just left her kid and dying partner! I have so many questions unless Alt-Portia didn’t get domestic gay bliss! In which case someone should give her a hug! That poor woman.
The gay reunion is weird, by the way. All Two can say is “I’m sorry” for not remembering which like sure what else would you say? But also that poor doctor. Girl woke up to find her partner had been basically erased from existence, while the face that she loves and loved her so much she could not let her die looks her right in the face and doesn’t even recognise her. Doesn’t know who she is or what they had. I don’t know if the Doctor is in on the android insurrection but I sure as hell think she deserves a hug.
While we’re on Two let’s discuss the lab grown humans, shall we?
They’re hosts, right? That’s what they were built for. For the aliens. That’s the goal. Why Dwarf Star? Who the f**k knows… but this has some scary implications for Two’s existence, doesn’t it?
I mean, let’s just assume Will Wheaton’s goal was for them to be hosts from the beginning, that means Two’s just a trial run, that as far as he’s concerned failed. Failed why? Agency.
You see it, right? I caught it in Season 2. He says the new one is loyal… what he means is drone. That new Lab Grown Man is a drone. Obedient. Two/Rebecca failed because she has agency. That’s some terrifying implications.
Though, that begs the question, did the alien gloop intervene when he realised he wanted a more obedient lab grown human… like a solution to a problem… or was the gloop always the end goal. All the tests we see are about her endurance, which we are shown the gloop needs more resilient bodies. The Lab Grown can out-endure a lot more than humans can. Perfectly made for the gloop.
Whole shits weird, really.
After we discover the purpose of them in Season 3, really, the fact Two is possessed in the finale is absolutely… predictable? Like, of course, she is. That’s what she was made for. Girl, got Hive’d. That’s literally all I could think of, it was the Inhumans all over again. There was no creepy-ass Hive around but the vibes feel the same. Though… Two’s agency in that matter is- uh- less debatable than Daisy’s.
Unfinished
Look, this show was supposed to have five seasons. I haven’t nearly engaged with this as much as I have engaged with the likes of The Rookie or my many other deep obsessions but I did engage enough following that Season 3 cliffhanger to look some stuff up. In that, I discovered it was supposed to have five seasons and you can sort of tell watching it. They’re building up stuff. It’s got that sense. It’s going to get bigger, it is getting bigger and they’ve planned for it to get bigger.
Unfortunately it was cancelled a little early, but what can you do.
For those curious, one of the creators did in fact post summaries of 401 and 402 to his Twitter and then his blog way back in 2017. I haven’t looked beyond that so maybe there’s more, but I did read those and personally they are vivid enough to at least bring closure to some of the most glaring open plot threads in the end of Season 3… in case it would drive you a little mad. It would me. So ya know, that’s out there.
We got crumbs of queerness in Season 3 and I can only dare to imagine how queer the show may have grown to become. I mean if you’re gonna foreshadow and hint at some and tell us there was some big queer stuff happening in the past I have to assume the future would have contained some. Alas… we will never know.
However, with my very limited knowledge of the industry my math says if Dark Matter hadn’t been cancelled we probably wouldn’t have Lucy Chen as we know her. Season 4 would have aired the same year that The Rookie started and if you’re aware your show is supposed to run for five seasons and you haven’t been cancelled I don’t think you would go out and audition for pilots… feels like there would be a potential scheduling conflict there. As I’m writing this my brain is pulling information from somewhere that Melissa O’Neil actually moved to LA for The Rookie. So, ya know, just think about what we wouldn’t have if we did have Season 4 of Dark Matter. Just in case that massive cliffhanger irritates you. Like, Chenford exists because O’Neil and Eric Winter had chemistry, no? If she was someone else we may not even have them.
That said Two is in a horrible place when the show ends so ya know… but Lucy Chen! So…
Gods, I hate it for a show when they get unceremoniously cancelled. I had an inkling from Season 1. The show had a love for the cliffhanger and my suspicion only grew with each Season finale prior. I don’t remember how I knew that it was cancelled but I knew that it was cancelled and as time went on and I did some googling as to exactly how queer Two was… I just knew in my bones. Before I even watched it. Season 3 was gonna end on a cliffhanger. I was prepared and also in no way prepared.
I am a big believer that unless you are sure you’re coming back you should not end on a cliffhanger, but I am also aware that it is occasionally used in order to potentially get another final season. Irregardless of that, from a writing perspective they are a little fun… assuming you get to tell the rest of the story. So like, I get it, as a fan I dislike it, but I get it. Shit happens. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.
And then The Rookie started and that’s what brought me here so, ya know, can’t complain.
To Conclude
There is maybe more to say about this show, and as I rewatch it I am likely to. There is even some discussions to be had with how the memory forms a person and the people they become without it and comparing it to similar plots like Blindspot… another big focus on memory and the person they become without it.
So, ya know, hardly dead in the water.
That said, this post is apparently a 20 Minute read time so I’m gonna call that as long enough.
Thank you for reading if you did, and I hope you’ll join me for any future posts!
As always: feel free to leave a comment or send me a DM on socials.
You can follow me on Instagram at: @thebomff or on Threads at: @thebomff
On to the next!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the images, narratives or characters present or referenced in this post. All rights belong to Marvel, CBS, ABC, NBC, Space, Syfy, Prodigy Pictures Inc. and all other relevant parties