Diksha Sundriyal
The second season of Apple TV’s ‘Dark Matter‘ wraps up with a tense finale that has the characters running against the clock while they try to close the loop of the multiverse. This entire season, the Dessens have struggled with the fallout of the Season 1 finale, with the many Jasons still out there looking for their family. While Daniela and Charlie choose one version and stick by him, the simple act of traveling in the Box has created a whole new version of possibilities. Jason1’s curiosity also gets the best of him, and as he studies the Box, he ends up finding a way to shut it down for good. However, executing that plan is a different thing entirely, and by the end of the finale, every character feels the impact of his choice. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Is the Box Shut Down?
After their reunion in the previous episode, Jason1, Blair2, Amanda2, and Ryan1 are of one mind on shutting down the Box for good. But before that, Amanda and Ryan need to fix things in the world that is now devastated by a plague a different version of them brought to it. They go to Leighton2 for help, but instead meet Oluko, who hands them over the cure. However, he is also suspicious, so he sends Sandra after them. The quartet assembles at the Box, and it is decided that both parties (Amanda+Ryan and Blair+Jason) have exactly one hour to return to this world. Otherwise, they’ll be forever stuck in whatever world they are in when the Box shuts down. Amanda and Ryan are given a head start, but by the time Jason and Blair are ready to step in, Sandra shows up.
She has a gun and is entirely intent on stopping them. She follows them into the Box, where a fight breaks out, with the gun fired a couple of times. Fortunately, no one gets shot, and eventually, Jason opens the door, hoping to take the fight outside. Given their warring mental state, the door opens to a Chicago turned into a warzone. They land in the middle of a firefight between two factions. In the one-take sequence, we follow Jason and Blair as they hide from the bullets flying around while Sandra follows them. They eventually make it to the Box, but so does Sandra, and then the door is opened to another world. Their mental state is so bad at this point that they land in a world that is in the process of being decimated.
As zero gravity takes over, Blair almost floats away, but she hangs on, while Jason fights Sandra. First, the gun goes out of the Box and then Sandra goes too. With her gone, Blair and Jason focus on the mission again. They have already lost a lot of time, and they only hope it means Ryan and Amanda are already back from their mission. They end up in the Box’s origin world, only to discover that the device supposed to shut it down broke during the fight. Still, Blair fixes it enough for Jason to latch it onto the Box’s mechanism. They don’t know if it will work, but they have no other choice. They set up a 10-minute countdown and face a brief problem when two Velocity employees show up. Finding their window, the duo gets back into the Box.
Do Amanda and Ryan Make It Back?
With time running out, Blair and Jason feel the pressure to return to the right world. In the end, she advises him to think about what he, or rather Charlie, did when he first found that world. It does the trick, and they are back home. Meanwhile, Ryan and Amanda also struggle to find their target world. It takes a few tries, but they eventually locate it. The Box seems to have been covered by a tent, with soldiers and scientists surrounding it. Amanda and Ryan try to drop the bag with the cure and slip away discreetly, but they are seen and held at gunpoint.
They desperately try to explain their situation, but it isn’t until that world’s Leighton arrives that they get the chance to slip by. With just a few minutes remaining, they, too, feel the pressure of choosing the right world. In the end, Ryan focuses on finding Jason again. On the other side, Blair and Jason wait until the countdown is over. Amanda and Ryan don’t show up in front of them. Eventually, time runs out, and Jason checks the Box to confirm that it is dead as a doornail. Happy to have concluded their big mission, they head back to the Village Tap, which is where they’d asked Amanda and Ryan to meet them.
While Blair goes ahead, Jason returns home to call Daniela. Blair arrives at the Tap to find Amanda and Ryan waiting for her. The reunion makes them all ecstatic. However, the celebrations stop when Jason shows up devastated. At home, as he starts clearing the house of his research papers, he finds the letter Daniela left for him when she went after Charlie. All this time, he had no idea it was there, and now he has killed the Box, leaving no way for his wife and son to come back home to him.
Do Charlie and Daniela Make It Back? Where Do They End Up?
Following the events of the last episode, Daniela finds herself in the Box with a different version of Jason. They’ve gotten rid of Agent McNamara, and now they must focus on their individual journeys. The Jason variant asks her about Charlie, which leads them to reminisce about Charlie and Max when they were kids. While Daniela recounts a memory of them, Jason unexpectedly opens the door. It turns out he got her talking about their sons to get her to the exact world where she would find them. She is happy for the help, and they bid each other goodbye. When Daniela goes to the house that belongs to her in a different world, she meets the other version of herself.
Both Danielas talk about their sons, their marriages with their Jasons, and their childhoods. This world’s Daniela has talked to her Jason about her childhood, and she wonders why the original Daniela hasn’t done the same. The alternate Daniela also asks the original to forgive herself for killing a different version of Jason earlier in the season because it was entirely self-defense. In the meantime, Charlie returns, revealing that he has found what he was looking for and is ready to go home now. While he gets his things, Daniela meets Max and is overwhelmed with emotion upon seeing him alive and well.
Still, it is time to return home, and she and Charlie get back in the Box. Charlie prepares himself to open the door, but before he can do it, the Box’s infinity collapses. This is weird because it happens only when the door is opened or when they’ve run out of the drug they need to make the Box work. Neither has happened, and yet the Box is no longer in superimposition. While they worry whether they are in the correct world, they have no choice but to open the door. It is not revealed what world they have ended up in. Since they weren’t already home by the time Jason returned, it is more than likely that they haven’t, in fact, ended up in the right world.
And yet, their mental state was entirely stable while the Box was still functional. They’d been thinking about going home. Daniela’s even resolved to make things work with her Jason. Ideally, this would have brought them exactly where they wanted to go. But for now, there is no confirmation as to where they have landed. If they do in fact end up in a different world, it would be quite a tragedy. Once again, Jason will find himself trying to make the Box work so he can get back to them. It will bring him back to square one and start yet another vicious cycle that might never end, making everything even more complicated and worse.
Is the Pyramid Shut Down? What Happens to Oluko?
While Jason1 and his friends are focused on the Box, Leighton2 and his team have created an alternative in the form of the Pyramid. It is bigger and better, and offers much greater ease of use, especially if one needs to bring a large quantity of things from another world. Leighton2 had every intention of starting it, but now he is not so sure. In the last episode, he takes a trip to the world he believes he helped through multiversal travel. He finds that his intervention destroyed things beyond measure. Back in the Pyramid world, he speaks with Jason2 about his doubts. He reveals how the crop solution fired back in one world, and how another Leighton blatantly profited from the vaccine that was supposed to save his world from a deadly plague.
Jason2 concedes that perhaps it is not such a good idea to make multiversal travel easier. Leighton2 reveals that there is a way to shut down the Pyramid, as he installed a kill switch in case things went wrong. What he doesn’t know is how to shut down the Box. Of course, he has no idea that at that very moment, Jason1 and Blair2 are on their way to kill the Box for good. Still, Jason2 tells him he has a few ideas, and they can work it out. When Leighton2 wonders what he will do if the Box no longer exists, Jason2 says they could always open a bar, as they’d discussed years ago. It is decided between them that this is the best way forward, but when Leighton2 talks to Oluko, things turn out differently.
When Oluko worries he will lose the purpose of his life if there isn’t a Box or a Pyramid anymore, Leighton talks about starting a meditation place. His words also reveal he has already discussed everything with Jason2, which infuriates Oluko. In anger, he hits Leighton2 in the head. He is shocked at his own actions, but instead of helping Leighton2, he chokes the guy to death. By the time Jason2 arrives, Oluko is firing up the Pyramid. Given his conversation with Leighton2, Jason2 is a bit concerned about what Oluko is up to. He notices scratches on the man’s face, but when Oluko doesn’t explain them, Jason2 becomes more suspicious and tries to stop him.
By then, Oluko has already entered the Pyramid and is ready to travel to a different world. Jason2 tries to power down the machine, but it is already too late. When he opens the door of the Pyramid, Oluko is gone. Jason2 frantically searches for Leighton2 and finds his dead body in the office. Saddened by his friend’s death, he has no other option but to have a drink in his name and then cremate him by the river. At the time, he has no idea about what has happened with the Box. Given that Daniela and Charlie are still out there, perhaps the Pyramid’s existence could help them reunite with Jason1. In that case, Jason2 will end up playing a major role in this reunion, which is ironic because he is the reason their lives blew up in the first place.
Read More: Who is Alex in Dark Matter? Theories
You must be logged in to post a comment.