Diksha Sundriyal
Apple TV+’s ‘Dark Matter’ began with Jason Dessen being torn away from his life and into a world that he’d only ever tried to conjure in his head. The “what if” scenarios were a normal thing to play out in his mind, but when he is actually thrust into a path that he chose not to take fifteen years ago, he realizes the true value of what he has in his current life. To get back to that life and family, he crosses all sorts of worlds that contain different versions of his life. After much toiling, he eventually figures out the way to come back home, but once there, he discovers the true extent of his situation.
Jason Crosses Paths With a New Variant of Himself
When Jason I first realized he was in an alternate universe, he believed that every different version existed in a different world. He understood the difference between his life and Jason II’s life, but he was limited in his imagination. In the seventh episode, when he finally comes back home, he starts thinking about how to get Jason II out of the way without a fuss. He goes to a gun shop to get the tools that can help him with it, but then, the moment Jason I steps out of the show, we see another Jason enter. This is the exact copy of the Jason we saw moments ago, which is why even the people at the store are baffled by it. They explain it away as twins, but Jason has no twins.
A subtle detail to show us that this Jason is not the same as the one who left the store moments ago is that he didn’t have a brace on his finger. The Jason I we have been following so far didn’t have a brace on his finger either. This means that this new Jason is neither Jason I, whose journey we have been following, nor Jason II because we just saw him at home with Daniela and Charlie. This confirms that this is a new variant of Jason, but he has nothing to do with Jason II, Jason III, Jason IV, or any other Jason from a different world.
How Dark Matter Book Explains Many Jasons Theory
Having a different version of yourself in a different world is understandable and acceptable, but what happens when several versions with the same life as yours pop up in the universe that technically belongs to all of them? The idea is a bit difficult to digest but not entirely untenable. Here’s how Blake Crouch explains it in his novel on which the series is based. BOOK SPOILERS AHEAD
Choices are the crux of the story in ‘Dark Matter.’ Each choice opens the possibility of a different version of a person, and the versions who made significantly different choices met different outcomes or, due to other factors, were pushed into a different possibility are the ones that Jason meets in the different worlds the Box leads him to. However, in all of this, Jason forgets that once he leaves the box, he is no longer a spectator.
The Box works on the science that all means of observation have to be removed from the scene. Outside observation is removed by the walls of the box, which even keeps the radiation out, let alone other humans. The person inside the box removes themselves as an observer via the Lavender Fairy drug that suppresses the prefrontal cortex. If one or both of these conditions is removed, the person turns into an observer, interacts with their surroundings, collapses the quantum state, and becomes the instigator of new possibilities. So, whenever Jason and Amanda open the door to a new world, they are removed from the confines of the box, even if the drug is still in their system, which means they are now participating in the reality around them. This is a major factor that Jason didn’t consider while building the box.
Through this concept, the entire journey of Jason I through the box is seen in a new light. Take, for example, the version where Jason I and Amanda escaped her world and entered the box. This was the version that successfully escaped, which created another version that didn’t escape and was killed. In the same vein, every time Jason I and Amanda opened the door to a new reality, they made choices in that reality which created more versions of him. For example, in the seventh episode, when Amanda chooses to stay in the world she handpicked for herself, she asks Jason I to stay with him. He chooses not to and goes back to the box. In the same instant, a new version of Jason I (call it Jason I.I) is created, who chooses to stay with Amanda in that world. In the same vein, there would be a version of Amanda who didn’t choose to stay in that world and continued on her journey with Jason.
In this scenario, the new Jason produced is the version of the original Jason who had the same life and the same choices that Jason made before he entered the box and started interacting with other worlds. Once his interactions with the other worlds began, new versions of Jason I (who have nothing to do with Jason II or any other Jason in any other world) were created. So, technically, all of these Jasons were married to Daniela, had Charlie as their son, were professors at Lakemont College, and were kidnapped by Jason II and sent to his world.
Taking a step further in this direction, we have to imagine the sheer number of new Jason I created with every choice he makes. For example, there is a world where he considers killing a different version of himself, taking his place, and living a life with Daniela, even if it is not his original world. The version that we see chooses not to go forward with this devious plan, but this means there is another version who did it and stayed in that world (like Jason II did). This means that every choice that Jason I made in a new world bred a new version of him who has the same claim on his life because they are basically the same and have branched out from the recent past. Seeing that there were 50 ampoules, divided equally between Jason I and Amanda, Jason I took at least 25 trips before he ran out of ampoules and finally reached his world.
At first, one might think that 25 is the number of Jasons that will appear in the next episode, but then, there is no limit to the number of possible Jasons that have been created by the 25 different worlds and the many interactions there. Not to forget the Jasons who opened different doors and visited different worlds and their versions as opposed to the journey we see in the TV show. In short, there are an infinite number of Jason I that could come back to claim the life that originally belonged to all of them. The question now is, who decides which Jason I gets to have it?
Read More: Dark Matter: How Does the Interdimensional Travel Box Work, Explained
