Be aware of spoilers! 

2022/11/03

Although I love season one, for me, season two was definitely an uptick from the first season. The stakes are higher, a traitor in their midst who, after betraying them, helps them again escape from prison. One of them asks the android to help him put back his memories from before they went in stasis, an android who has many human traits already but uploads new illegal software which makes her indistinguishable from humans. Last but not least, a very interesting, strong, beautiful character is added to the cast in season 3, Nyx (Melanie Liburd). A woman in the same league as Two, just as strong, smart, who can predicts someone’s moves when fighting so she always has a better chance at winning that fight. She was accompanied with Devon (Shaun Sipos) but he only lasted 7 episodes, was an okay character but did not have the same impact as character Nyx did.

The second season continues where the first season left of, the Crew of the Raza has been captured by the Galactica Authority, Six being the traitor, Two, Three & Four are being sent into the general population. One and Five are held separately because they really did not belong to the Raza crew because One wasn’t the real Jace Corso and Five, well she was also wasn’t a member of the Raza crew before the stasis error. Also the android is being held, they try to download all the necessary data but android does not cooperate. There is a hierarchy in the prison, Arax is the prison “boss”, Nyx is also a detainee as also Devon who is a medic there. Five is angry at Six for being a traitor while Six still believes he has done the right thing but he more and more begins to doubt that when it becomes clear that the Raza crew is not meant to survive prison. The real Corso visits One and kills him. First episode was directed by Amanda Tapping.

Crew is planning an escape, Nyx and Arax want to go with them, they each have something specific to offer the Raza crew. Traugott Corp want them dead and the warden is more afraid of them than the Galactic Authority. Commander Truffault visits Three in prison and helps them with an upload via the Three’s eyes which gives them the complete map of the facility. The GA try to implicate the crew about the 15.000 death on the planet where the white whole science was tested but no one talks. Six is really concerned now because he realizes his former crew mates are going to get killed and thus he decides to help them escape. He even wants to sacrifice himself but Two takes him with them. Five tells the GA investigator she will command Android to talk but her command is: Kill Them All! Four is being extradited to his home world (which was the plan of the Raza crew), because he doesn’t talk either, a ship from his home world has already been waiting, a shuttle comes to pick him up, His former study buddy is his escort, she has no love for Four. He does fend her off and gets control over the shuttle, which is their means for escape. Alice Reynaud, a unknown woman at this point, has an interest in Five.

The 3^rd episode is a bottle show, same as 3^rd episode of season one. This is not my favorite episode, When android tries to search manually for neural links, Two, Three and Four go down with a bad headache, when they wake up they are the persons they were before memory wipe. Basically there is a fight between the old and the new crew and the old crew acts really annoying! Arax is in contact with Reynaud, when Three is himself again, he accidentally activates a beacon of some kind, which is being monitored by someone.

Reynaud has an interest in Five because she has something Reynaud wants, a key which makes instant interstellar travel possible. Arax steals it from Five’s room but he does not realize that before he leaves the ship to meet Reynaud on a space station, that Five already pickpocketed back from him. Nyx and Two are trying to figure out where the building is that Five has made a sketch of, Two thinks she will find more answers about herself there. Building is on Earth. Three’s old buddies find him on a space station, they convince Three to do an op with them but it backfires when he realizes they have kidnapped a kid and are not planning on letting him live. Android meets another android on the station who acts like a human, he gives her a chip so she can also become more human. Nyx has a gift, in a fight she can predict what her opponents move is, so she is usually one step ahead. She can easily keep up with Four in a sword fight.

Two wants to revenge One’s death. Six, who was put in stasis because he was wounded, wakes up and knows how to get the info they need to find Corso. They need to go to a remote outpost to hack the system there. Android, using the chip she got from the other android, plants the device. She again is needed to find a shady character who has more info about Corso. Meanwhile GA is aware of the data leak. Crew go to the surface where the find Corso, Two kills him even though he has the info who hired him, she’s not tempted and shoots him. Kierken of GA captures Four but again the Raza crew save his ass. On a personal note, I wasn’t sad One was killed off, I would have been angry had Three been killed off, much more interesting character, with way more humor. One was a bit of a whiner.

To get funds Nyx recommends to steal drugs from a certain ship she knows. What she doesn’t tell is that she escaped from this ship and that her brother Milo is still on that ship. It is run by a group of people called the Seers and they use people who have enhanced precognition abilities in order to “predict” certain outcomes. Nyx finds her brother and they escape, the Raza crew is not happy but they understand Nyx. However the Seers find them anywhere they go and Milo tells Nyx that he thinks the Raza crew is meant to be important in the near future and therefore he wants to return otherwise he fears the Raza crew won’t get that chance. Four tells him, not in so many words, that as long he is alive, the Raza crew will be in danger. Milo takes his own life. Nyx doesn’t know this. In the final scene we see Two’s right hand is trembling. Good scenes between Three and Six, because Three still don’t trust Six much!

Raza crew infiltrate Reynaud’s complex with the help of Talbor Calchek. They use Transfer Transit, which the Raza crew have purchased. Three, Four and Five going in, Five cracks the codes and find the adapter which is necessary for the blink drive to work. When Three and Four get captured, Five just kills them and she, as a clone is being picked up by the Marauder. Devon decides to stay behind on the station, Nyx is worried about him because of his addiction and goes with him. While she is waiting for him at the bar, he is being murdered by the Seers. He tells them nothing, doesn’t mention Nyx being on the station, they believe him, but kill him none the less. Raza crew use the blink-drive….

With using the blink-drive the crew end up in an parallel universe where an all-out corporate war is going on. Truffault orders to hand-over the blink-drive but it is melted after the “journey” to another universe. Our Raza crew see another Raza in battle and also get the blame for what the other Raza is doing. Truffault double-cross our heroes but Two has a plan which Truffault hadn’t foreseen. They take the blink-drive from the other Raza crew to get home. In the alternate Raza, Corso is a member but also Wexler and his two accomplices from the first season. When they return to their own universe, they find out that Devon has been murdered. Not my favorite episode.

Episode 9 is probably the best episode when Two is down, her nanites are dying. Two knows where she needs to go to, Dwarf Star Technologies on Earth. Others ask her to skip this one because she is too weak. Of course Rook already knows that they are coming, he does something with Three. Two cannot sit on her hands, the android  gives her a nanite boost which makes her even stronger than before but it will only last 24 hours, after that she immediately dies. Two gets to fight to Rook’s new prototype and she has no chance! Also Nyx tries to help but it is no use. Then Four and Six come in and shoot the prototype multiple times, killing it. For two it is almost too late but Six does a blood transfusion from the new prototype to her so she gets the much need updated nanites. Back on the ship, Six notices a change in Three, follows him to the blink-drive, there he wants to shoot Six but Two shoots Three down. What is inside him is being let out via the airlock. Great episode, the Three / Six banter is wonderful, makes me think about Londo / G’Kar from Babylon 5.

While episode 9 ends with android waking up in a bed, this is also the first image we see in episode 10. The android dreams about a “normal” life, living together with the android she met in the beginning of the season. While the android does a self-diagnostic because of her dreams, the projection android tries to convince the crew to liquidate the android, because she supposedly would be a danger to the crew because of a virus the android supposed to be responsible for. Meanwhile Two, Three and Four all see people that aren’t really there. After Five has investigated it, she comes to the conclusion it most likely was done by Truffault from the other universe as revenge for not getting the blink-drive. Android saves the day and the projection android disappears.

While spending time on a station, Five is being kidnapped while Three is being distracted. A witness tells Three and takes him to the kidnappers hide out. He kills the 4 out of 5 brothers and saves Five. The fifth brother is standing before the door as Three and Five want to back to the station, they shoot each other. Three, heavily wounded, gets caught by Kierken of the GA. He has chased Five away but she returns to save him. Two and the others pick up Three and Five, Four wants the android to put back his memories from before the wipe. (Great scenes between Three and Five)

Four wants to reclaim the throne, and with the help of the Raza crew and the blink-drive, Four, or Ryo, convinces General Drago. Somehow however, it seems that the Raza is one step behind each time. Four thinks he has a solid plan to go back to his home world but again his actions have been foreseen, he is captured. With that in mind Two makes a rescue plan, Five goes another way in the palace and when the others also get captured, it is Five who frees the emperor. The android is also threatening the current empress to release the Raza crew otherwise android will destroy the palace. Emperor stops the killing of the Raza crew and arrests his mother to give Ryo his rightful place on the throne. Ryo’s next order is to kill his brother and the rest of the royal court who was against him. Nyx finds out that Ryo had influenced her brother in killing himself!

There is a conference at EOS 7 and in the alternate reality a war broke out after a bomb explosion. With the help of Truffault, Five and the others go undercover to try and prevent this. Ferrous seems to be the one most likely to want to bomb the station and android also finds evidence to support this claim. Six gets arrested by Kierken, Boone gets beaten by Ferrous guys, leave him for death figuring the bomb will do the rest. Ryo is the last minute addition to the conference, he wants the blink-drive but Two has no intention of giving it to him, but Ryo Ishida finds a way to the their ship, the Raza, uses an inactivation code to cease the android. Ferrous android, who before helped Five against two of Ryo’s men, also had an illegal upgrade, he is the bomb, has remorse and spaces himself to save the station. Boone is saved by Anderson, Six’s old partner, Kierken dies in an explosion, as also Two, which was set by Ryo’s people. Misaki kills Nyx with a poisoned knife. A real shame Nyx is killed off, would have liked to have seen her in season 3.

Final Word:

The more you rewatch Dark Matter, the better it gets, it is a wonderful show with strong characters, almost no filler episodes and some great guest spots, think Wil Wheaton, Tori Higginson and David Hewlett to just name a few. As said, for me season two is definitely better than it’s first. Three is getting more and more interesting, when the show first started he was just a trigger happy guy but he definitely has grown over the course of the first two seasons and I think you can say that for all lead characters. I am excited and also sad that I arrived at season 3! Excited because I have another 13 episodes to assimilate but at the same time, these are the last 13 episodes of Dark Matter…ever, which also makes me sad! Unless Joseph Mollozzi is able to give the show some closure in the form of a miniseries or something.