NOC Recaps ‘Dark Matter’ S2, E3: Wreckage

I may have started this whole Pearl Jam thing on a lark, but after watching this week’s Dark Matter offering, titled “Everything Beautiful, Everything Terrible,” I’m wondering if Blake Crouch and company had the same idea and are actually influenced by the album too. Hence, the featured image for this week’s recap above. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

To coincide with the third episode of the season, let’s dig into the third track on Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter: “Wreckage,” arguably Pearl Jam’s biggest hit in years. When the song was released, Eddie Vedder said it was inspired by the political division in the country in the aftermath of the 2020 election. At its heart, though, the song is about regret and trying to make meaning out of what has been destroyed. And like the tracks on the album before it, it’s a perfect companion to the themes of Dark Matter the show. Jason is “combing through the wreckage” of what his alternate self has destroyed, after all.

Combing through the wreckage
Pouring through the sand
Surrounded by the remnants
What we could and couldn’t have

Those lyrics are literally the Dessens. Anyway, on to this week’s recap…

Starting at the beginning of the ep, and we’re in another flashback to three years ago. Unlike last week’s episode, this scene appears to be happening on Earth One. Jason has gathered his former colleagues and scientist friends¹ at his favorite bar to catch up but also theorize about the multiverse. This leads to a discussion about the unintended consequences of sweeping technological change — referencing how the invention of sailing ships led to both exploration and colonization. Or how the internet was designed to connect people but has arguably divided individuals more than uniting them. This meaty conversation on ethics is intercut with Blair2’s inaugural voyage inside the Box.

The scientists’ conversation echoes my takeaways from last week’s opening flashback. Namely, despite how well intentioned Leighton and Jason were when they invented the Box, they could not forsee how this new technology would corrupt them.

This game of winner takes all
And all means nothing left
Spoils go the victor
And the other left for dead

It makes you wonder what drives these CEOs (or presidents) to burn down everything just to rule over the ashes. But alas…

After the opening credits, we’re back in the retro universe, and MacNamara’s private dick office. He’s joined by his sister Sheila who appears to be the CEO of MacNamara Tech. Turns out she’s hired her brother to investigate her company’s biggest competitor: this world’s Leighton. Even in an analog world, Leighton Vance is destined to bring microprocessors and portable phones to market first.

We also learn there’s been a significant time jump since the end of last episode when MacNamara discovered the Box that brought the Dessens to this world. He fills his sister in on how he witnessed Amanda and Ryan disappear into the Box, and we understand why he was so suspicious last episode. For the past several months, he’s been surveiling Jason as he’s tried to figure out how to destroy the Box.

Meanwhile, the Dessens have finally adjusted to life in this world in their new identities. Jason even moves the family out of the hotel and into an actual apartment. Charlie is also loving this new life where he’s made new friends and can brag about the “underground” music he listens to — like Tyler, the Creator or Billie Eilish — because those artists don’t exist in this reality². Interestingly, Hollywood is mostly unaltered because most of the VHS tapes on the shelf are instantly recognizable — though Charlie lingers on a copy of George Lucas’ The Adventures of Luke Starkiller instead of Star Wars³.

While Charlie flirts at the video store, the elder Dessens are at home decorating a tree for Christmas. Daniela can finally see a future here, and Jason gets a little choked up knowing they can finally blow up the Box and move on with their lives. At the DMV, Daniela runs into this universe’s Blair — after experiencing trauma-induced visions of alterna-Jasons.

Visited by thoughts
On another darkened week
How even every winner
Hits a losing streak

This must be the losing streak Ed’s singing about because I am questioning our lead character’s choices. So far, everything was coming up roses in this universe as long as the Dessens keep their heads down. Rather than pretend she doesn’t know this Blair, Daniela decides to engage with a familiar face (remember, Blair1 was her best friend on Earth Prime). She doesn’t even act like she’s just a doppelganger, she just straight up lets retro-Blair believe she is Daniela of this world. They even make dinner plans! So much for lying low in this universe.

Back at the abandoned school, Jason is having a hard time destroying the box. Eventually, his curiosity gets the better of him and rather than blowing it up, he starts to deconstruct it in hopes of learning more about it. Building a machine that can traverse infinite realities was always his life’s dream, and he can’t help wanting to know how it all works.

The mistakes we all make
And perfectly repeat

Is Jason1 doomed to repeat the mistakes of Jason2? More on that in a bit.

Later, we follow Leighton as he emerges from the Box in a plague-ravaged world — presumably the same one Jason and Amanda found last season. This time, though, Leighton comes with a vaccine and a cure that was developed through his Council of Leightons. After sharing the medicine, he visits one of the sick in their hospital bed and flashes back to his childhood on Earth Two. The man in the bed is the same man who raised him and recognized his genius at an early age. Well, at least it’s a variant of that man. Leighton is moved to tears seeing a version of his grandfather looking weak and frail.

You get the sense that Leighton isn’t a villain at all. He truly wanted to use the Box to save lives. Sure, he had to take a few lives to get there, but I’m sure he’s feeling regretful about it.

Two people who probably don’t give a shit about how Leighton2 feels are Ryan and Amanda. We catch up to them inside the Box. After months of trial and error, this final door they open actually leads them to Earth One! To be sure, they go to Ryan’s apartment, and sure enough everything seems right. Even the award he won in season one is displayed prominently on a shelf. They did it! They got Ryan back to his world! Of course, this being Dark Matter, our heroes can’t possibly have a happy ending⁴.

Just when Amanda and Ryan think their journey is over, a naked Ryan variant emerges from the bathroom, and it’s hard to tell who’s more shocked. If you don’t remember from season one (and who can blame you if you don’t), Jason2 kidnapped a — less smart — version of Ryan and brought him to replace the Ryan of this world. The authorities thought he was insane and had him committed. I guess everything worked out in the intervening years⁵ and “mechanic” Ryan has just been living his variant’s life ever since.

To explain everything, Ryan X calls Jason2 to the apartment, and everyone — including this viewer — are very confused about what’s going on. It also doesn’t help that Agent MacNamara from the season premiere has been following Jason2 for some time now and is staking out Ryan’s apartment. MacNamara’s clone theory gets supercharged when he sees multiple Ryans interacting. Before the agents can move in, the Jason who was arrested in the premiere has a change of heart and grabs a gun off an agent. See, he was working with MacNamara because he just wanted revenge against Jason2. When he sees Amanda and the Ryans will get caught in the dragnet he sends a warning shot to alert them.

We’re then treated to a lengthy car chase through the streets of Chicago that is straight out of The Dark Knight. Literally. Like in the Nolan film, MacNamara chases the Ryans and Jason2 and Amanda through the underground labyrinth of Lower Wacker Drive. And I kept waiting for the Tumbler or the Joker in a semi to show up.

Eventually, JasManda and the Ryans make it to the Box and are barely able to escape MacNamara and his agents — who we learn work for DARPA. So like the P.I. in the retroverse, the MacNamaras all have some tangential connection to experimental tech. So naturally, leading them to the Earth One Box is probably not a good idea.

Back in the retro-verse, Daniela and Charlie have a heart-to-heart about the choices that led them to their current situation. While Charlie is adjusting to their new reality, Daniela is still experiencing the effects of multiverse-induced PTSD. Afterwards, a sleeping Daniela is woken up by Jason, but he can’t remember their safeword. Of course this leads Daniela to reach for the Jason-killing handgun until Jason finally recalls the right word. Instead of having to remember a stream of obscure painters, the family decides getting tattoos is the best way to keep track of who’s who.

Some time later, after Daniela sends Charlie off to prom, she visits Jason at the Box work site and realizes he hasn’t been destroying it at all. Recognizing Jason2’s obsession with the Box rearing its head, she confronts his desire to study the very thing that destroyed all of their lives. She basically tells him one of the couplets from “Wreckage.”

If you’re feeling the leaving
I can’t make you stay

This argument is just the thing to snap Jason out of it and he proceeds to dismantle the Box for good. After dinner with Blair (I still can’t believe they’re okay with having a relationship with a person who knows this universe’s Dessens, but whatever. I’m sure this won’t bite them in the ass), Jason and Daniela have post-coital pillow talk about what’s left of the Box.

Reader, when Joel Edgerton recited that dialogue, I instantly Leo-as-Rick-Dalton-pointed at the screen so fast, you wouldn’t believe it. Again, I’m probably the only person on the planet making the Dark Matter / Pearl Jam connection, but I also don’t believe in coincidences. Someone in the writers room listened to the album and wrote a whole season of television based on it. I just figured it out. I must be a genius.

Anyway, Jason tells Daniela he needs to go back to the school one last time to finally dispose of the Box’s — ahem — wreckage. When he gets there, though, it seems the Box is fully intact. Did Jason lie again? Actually, no. It seems another Box has respawned in its place, which can only mean one thing — someone from another reality just entered this one.

Panicked, Jason races out of the school, desperately trying to get a hold of his family. When no one answers, he rushes home to make sure another Jason hasn’t already taken his place. Fortunately, nothing strange has happened in the Dessen household since he left in the morning. Charlie, though, notices a familiar face outside the family window: Leighton Vance? But which one? Tune in next week to find out.

Until then, we’ll be holding out… holding on, and combing through the wreckage of this episode!

New episodes of Dark Matter drop every Friday on Apple TV.

1. I get the feeling that these are acutal physicists making cameos, but alas I’m not smart enough to actually recognize anyone. ↩︎
2. When Charlie mentions Nirvana, I wondered if that meant grunge never happened or if the scene never spread outside of Seattle. I’m sure Pearl Jam exists, though. ↩︎
3. Eagle-eyed viewers might catch Spaceballs on the shelf too. Wonder what Mel Brooks was satirizing if there isn’t a star war to parody? ↩︎
4. Not to mention it’s only the third episode of a 10-episode season. ↩︎
5. I’m not actually sure how much time has transpired between the seasons, tbh. ↩︎