NOC Recaps ‘Dark Matter’ S2, E6: Waiting for Stevie

After last week’s emotional six-year detour through overcoming grief and loneliness, we’re back with the main storyline of Dark Matter season two with the episode “What the Universe Is Made Of.” This time, though, we start with Daniela spending her time alone, redigesting past regrets, oh.

Eagle-eyed readers — or die-hard Pearl Jam fans — might recognize the lyric I was referring to in the aforementioned sentence was from one of the band’s deeper cuts¹. And that’s because the producers of Dark Matter are playing along with my Pearl Jam bit because the entire cold open this week is scored to their 1996 classic, “Present Tense.”

If you’ve been following along with these recaps, you’ll know that I’ve been going track-by-track on their 2024 album (also called Dark Matter) as we progress through the season. This week, we’re on to the seventh song off the album, “Waiting for Stevie²,” but the use of the 30-year-old song off No Code is just as relevant to Daniela’s state of mind at the beginning of the episode.

After leaving Jason a few episodes back, we catch Daniela taking a bus to a cabin outside the city. I think we’re supposed to assume it’s the same cabin they sought refuge and a “quiet life” in at the beginning of the season, albeit in a different dimension. And just like I did when Jason said “wreckage” in the episode I paired with the song of the same name, I practically fell out of my chair when the opening riff of “Present Tense” started playing two minutes into the episode!

“Present Tense” is all about being mindful of the present — being inspired by what you observe around you, which makes sense if Daniela is using this time away from her family to clear her head by reengaging with her art.

Do you see the way that tree bends? Does it inspire?
Leaning out to catch the sun’s rays… a lesson to be applied

But more importantly, the song’s about letting go of the past and forgiving yourself. Two things Daniela desperately needs to do. She’s in this state not just because what she’s experienced with Jason has been tramautic, but because she also blames herself — by killing the alternate Jason in a cabin very similar to the one she’s in now — for the predicament they find themselves in.

You can spend your time alone redigesting past regrets, oh…
Or you can come to terms and realize…
You’re the only one who cannot forgive yourself

Even though this entire scene is scored to the 1996 Pearl Jam song, the one from 2024 is also relevant.

The next track on Dark Matter the album, “Waiting for Stevie,” is also about a person who feels isolated and needs inspiration to get back in touch with herself. It also foreshadows Daniela’s need to get out of Chicago to do so:

Would have to take an act of faith
To find relief and escape the blame
Words follow her down, needs to shake ’em off now
This godforsaken town, don’t deserve her anyhow

After the credits roll, we’re back in Chicago where it seems Charlie is also starting to feel adrift. He’s at a college party one night, looking upset, and the next morning at work at Amanda’s diner, he still seems lost. At the diner, Jason sits at a booth, waiting for Charlie’s shift to end when he hears a familar voice. He finally meets this universe’s Amanda.

They have a nice talk and share each other’s origin story. Jason tells her he used to be a physicist, and she reveals that she wanted to be a doctor³ when she was younger but ended up running the family diner when her bipolar mother threw away their savings — and her college tuition — to buy a restaurant.

Speaking of “redigesting past regrets,” Jason telling Amanda he used to be a scientist is also doing a lot of work here. After one and a half seasons, it might be hard to remember which Jason is which⁴, but the main one we’ve been following, Jason1, was the one that gave up the scientist life to be a husband and a dad. That’s the life Jason2 tried to steal away.

But regret has a funny way of creeping back in. We saw a glimpse of this when Jason started obsessing over the design of the Box instead of destroying it in episode 3. This episode, we’re starting to see just how much he misses being an important scientist, but more on that later. For now, we have to solve the Blair mystery!

Also in episode 3, I went on a rant about Daniela engaging with that universe’s Blair after randomly encountering her at the DMV. If the Dessens were to keep a low profile in this world, they shouldn’t come into contact with anyone who knows or remembers the family that moved to California — this will also be a problem later this episode, too! Therefore, I was very against Daniela engaging with, much less becoming friends with, Blair. Suffice to say, the Dessens Stewarts and Blair have maintained their relationship ever since. So much so that she comes to the diner to meet Jason for a casual coffee.

She gets Jason to give a mini lecture about quantum entanglement to her and Eduardo using quarters as props. As he’s explaining, Blair catches a look at Amanda behind the counter, and we’re starting to wonder which version of Blair this really is. For what it’s worth, a lot of the same message boards that couldn’t figure out which Jason was in last episode were quick to presume the Blair of the retro world was not who she seemed. That theory is proven true.

After Jason mistakenly introduces Amanda with her Earth 2 surname, it’s clear that this is the Blair from that world too. After Amanda and her son walk away, Blair shows Jason an ampule vial and confirms she’s the Blair we met last season from the murder hornet world.

Back at the Dessens’ apartment, Blair and Jason marvel at the odds of them even crossing paths in this universe, though Blair reveals that when she finally got in the Box, the one world she wanted was one without an internet and where she could be anonymous.

This is where I call foul again, though, because as much as Blair wanted to be anonymous here, it turns out she isn’t quite. She’s still an engineer and quite well known, inviting Jason to join her at a fundraising gala where he can hobknob with other professors and scientists. This is only going to fuel Jason’s identity/midlife crisis. Meanwhile, Charlie continues to struggle with his mother’s leaving, even though she calls, he’s never around to receive it⁵.

Oh, you can be loved by everyone
And not feel, feel love
You can be told to not give up
And still not hear a word from above

Speaking of Daniela, she’s been using this time at the cabin to get back to her artist roots: fixing old frames, painting birds she helps nurse back to life, being inspired by the way a tree bends, etc. It seems she’s starting to find herself a bit, but something is still missing.

Then one day, a man shows up at the cabin and it’s her father, played by veteran actor and Yellowstone star Gil Birmingham.

Calling on a messenger
Awaiting on a face
That she could trust, a messenger
For her love, her love

I don’t know if this casting was intentional, but having Jennifer Connelly playing the daughter of Gil Birmingham — who has indigenous and Spanish ancestry — brought back major A Beautiful Mind vibes, at first. For those who may be too young to remember, Connelly won her only Oscar playing real-life physicist Alicia Nash in the Academy Award winning film. Her portrayal is often cited in Hollywood’s long history of whitewashing since Nash was Salvadoran. Having Connelly seemingly playing another Latina character⁶ is too much of a coincidence to ignore. Later, though, it’s revealed that Vargas is her stepfather, but the callback to Connelly’s whitewashing history is already made.

All that said, the scenes between Connelly and Birmingham are wonderful. You can feel the anguish in Daniela as she connects to a father she thought she’d lost. Papa Vargas also knows his daughter intimately and can tell something is bothering her. It’s like they’re entangled, quantumly. As much as she wants to spend time with him, Daniela knows she needs to get back to her family. But the pull is too strong, and she ends up staying a few more days with her father, reminiscing and painting together. It’s all lovely until the phone rings while Daniela is out on a walk. Vargas thinks he’s having a stroke because the person on the other line is Daniela, calling from San Francisco. How can his daughter be in two places at once? Our Daniela calms him down and offers to explain everything.

Meanwhile, at the gala, Blair introduces Jason to the lifestyles of rich and famous scientists and inventors and reveals she’s famous in her own right as a successful Black, female engineer. Though it does beg the question: what happened to the original Blair of this universe? How is Blair able to have such a high-profile in this universe without calling attention to her doppellganger? Also, I thought she came here to be anonymous?

It doesn’t help matters when we learn that this gala is being hosted by the Vance Foundation. Is Blair colluding with this world’s Leighton? Is this world’s Leighton connected to the multiverse in any way? She assures Jason that Leighton has never been seen at these events so he shouldn’t worry. Of course, the minute she says that, guess who shows up to the party.

After spending the evening mingling with the life he never got to have, Jason decides he wants to be a world-renowned scientist after all. He’s basically becoming Reverse Jason2, wanting the life that his counterpart had. Blair, who knew Jason2, isn’t helping since she’s basically encouraging Jason to embrace this side of himself. Talk about “redigesting past regrets.”

For each of the Dessens in this episode, the refrain from “Waiting for Stevie” keeps echoing.

You can be loved by everyone
And still not feel, not feel love

They each undoubtedly love one another, but right now, no one can feel it. Daniela is away, Charlie is struggling, and Jason is starting to pine for a life he couldn’t have — a feeling that started this whole debacle in the first place. They’re all loved, but can’t feel it.

I also can’t help but think it might be a tad bit unethical to be the kind of scientist that “publishes groundbreaking papers” when your knowledge of technology and theory outpaces your peers by decades because you come from a world with advanced tech. It’s kind of like Biff going back in time and giving his younger self the Sports Almanac in a way.

Later, Leighton approaches Blair and reveals he, too, is not of this world. He is, in fact, Leighton of Earth 2 as well. But, is he the Leighton that we’ve been following all season, the one who’s creating a multiversal council of variants? It’s unclear. He doesn’t seem to recognize Jason and actually seems surprised to encounter a fellow multiversal traveler. Or it could all be a ruse. We’ll have to find out in later episodes, I guess.

Some time after the gala, Jason is having celebratory birthday pizza with Charlie. He can tell his son is still feeling down and offers to rent a movie. When he refuses, he offers to retrieve Max’s ashes so they can do their annual ritual honoring his deceased twin. Charlie declines, perhaps it’s too difficult to engage in family traditions when you feel your family is broken. Instead, Jason tells Charlie about the time he visited a world in which Max was alive. Charlie lights up, finally, and wants to hear all the stories about his brother. For the first time, Charlie seems himself again.

The next day, Blair visits Leighton at his estate — which again begs the question: where is the Leighton of this world? We know the Vances exist here, remember MacNamara was charged to investigate Leighton but couldn’t find anything untoward. Plus, we’ve seen advertisements in the background for Velocity Tech and the first ever home computer. Was this alternate Leighton all along? Is he an offshoot of the one we’ve been following all season? We learn he’s been on this world for two years, but is that before or after he confronted Jason in front of their apartment (when he promised to never visit that world again)?

Anyway, Leighton wants to show Blair his latest project. After generating the funds and resources necessary, he takes Blair through an underground labyrinth to a secret lab. Set to Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes,” we cross cut between Blair and Leighton’s underground trek and Jason at home typing out his groundbreaking paper on quantum entanglement. We also follow a hooded figure to the abandoned school and the Box that brought the Dessens.

The hooded figure turns out to be Charlie with an ampule, presumably searching for the world with Max. Leighton and Blair finally reach their destination, too. Looks like Leighton has built another, bigger Box. And Blair closes the episode with a single line that speaks for all of us: “What the fuck?”

1. Can “Present Tense” really be considered a “deep cut” when it’s been prominently featured in such high profile projects as ESPN’s Michael Jordan doc, The Last Dance or the HBO adaptation of The Last of Us? ↩︎
2. Fun story behind the song’s title: Eddie and Andrew Watt wrote the song while working on Vedder’s solo album, Earthling. They had gotten Stevie Wonder to play harmonica on the album, but a scheduling conflict caused him to get to the studio hours later. While they waited for the music legend, they combined riffs they were working on independently into the song that became “Waiting for Stevie” on Dark Matter. ↩︎
3. Maybe a universe-hopping psychologist, even? ↩︎
4. If you’ve spent any time on Dark Matter message boards, you’ll know that even the most dedicated fans can’t keep their Jasons straight, as evidenced by how many people didn’t realize last episode was an entirely different Jason. ↩︎
5. Such is life in a world without cell phones. ↩︎
6. I had to rewatch episode four to catch that the store Daniela saw on her run was Spanish for bakery. So the possibility she was playing a Latina character was laid two episodes back. ↩︎