Dark Matter (2024) – Season 1 Episode 4 Recap & Review

The Corridor

Episode 4 of Dark Matter starts with chaos in the other world. Leighton is scrambling to make sense of what Jason has done. He steps inside the box, shuts the door, and hopes to follow after our Jason and his Amanda.

Speaking of which, Amanda and Jason work together, walking the endless corridor to try and find Jason’s world. Jason deduces that this is a cross-section to other realities and physically, their brains are interpreting it this way because they won’t be able to comprehend it otherwise.

Anyway, they approach one door and step through to the other side. This world looks completely destroyed. There’s ash over every surface and as they both step toward the front door, they find the building is completely ruined, with ash falling through the giant hole in the ceiling.

They step outside and the world has been completely destroyed. It’s a wasteland, with buildings crumbling before their very eyes. As everything topples around them, they race back inside. They make it to the box, where Amanda points out there are 50 different vials allowing them to travel basically that many times. Or, well, 25 if you split them evenly.

After injecting themselves again, the pair are back in the corridor. At the same time, Leighton also makes it into the corridor and decides to set out and try to find the pair.

Amanda and Jason start jumping through different realities. Unfortunately, Amanda gets spooked by one without an atmosphere and tries to run away. Jason manages to convince her not to, pointing out there are infinite possibilities in the multiverse and they need to start acting soon. They need food and water.

After a close encounter with a hostile Leighton killing a version of Amanda and Jason in one reality, the pair start randomly opening doors. It all seems completely random and without a clear definition. Eventually they happen upon a frozen tundra and decide to try and make a go of it. At least Amanda does anyway. When she passes out from the cold, Jason manages to find a cabin and he starts a fire, determined to keep them safe for the time being.

In the morning, Jason gets dressed up and looks over the world, which is completely frozen. The storm has passed but it’s still a miserable, desolate world. Unfortunately, the box is also gone, given it’s buried under snow.

Jason deduces that the corridor can be controlled… and he believes the mind is the key here. It may well be that the worlds are a reflection of our own emotional state the moment they open the door. So with the storm cleared, and a new day upon them, they work to try and find the box by digging into the snow.

Back in our world, masked Jason continues to act differently to our Jason. He encourages Charlie to be reckless while driving, and walking out on his class. He’s had enough of this “slow death” and decided that this isn’t for him. He’s going to do whatever he wants from now on.

He immediately heads over to see Leighton and the pair catch up. He sees through Jason’s façade, and tells him straight up that he’s happy to be friends but doesn’t want to be investing in anything right now. Jason takes him to the warehouse in order to change his mind, handing over a psychoactive drug. He brings him down to the box and the pair travel together.

After shutting the door, they end up in the infinite corridor. Masked Jason explains how it works, and makes Leighton focus. Jason explains that if he thinks the wrong thing, then they could end up in a world of trouble (pun intended). After traveling to a really beautiful world, they go back to our world and talk.

Jason explains his history, and how Leighton is actually one of his closest friends where he comes from. This is why he trusts this version of Leighton with his biggest secret. Leighton admits he would give everything to be able to move and start afresh somewhere else… and that’s exactly what Leighton needs.

When Jason returns home, he finds Charlie and Daniela in a bad way. Now, this is actually the anniversary of Max’s death and Jason not showing up is big deal. However, he quells suspicions with Charlie when he buys the kid a brand new car. Daniela is shocked, believing they can’t afford this, but Jason is adamant they can – and tells her to start painting again.

The other Leighton finds himself stumbling through the corridor, blood-spattered, battered and holding a box full of vials. He looks out at a world that seems to be the frozen one Amanda and Jason were just in. He stays in the corridor though, shuts the door and decides to press on.

The Episode Review

So Dark Matter returns with another slow episode, one that reinforces Apple’s usual mantra of just releasing these shows without a thought to the number of
episodes or the pacing. This one is so slow which is a completely juxtaposition to the book, which zips along at a flying thriller pace. This poses a significant problem for this because Dark Matter is one of those rare occasions where it should have been greenlit as a movie, not a show, with a much tighter script.

The multiversal trips should be really exciting but unfortunately, this isn’t new territory anymore, and Dark Matter doesn’t do a particularly great job of sucking us into these worlds, especially as the timeline jumps between both Jasons rather than sticking to just ours and allowing the mystery and tension to build as we don’t know what the imposter is doing in our world.

Hopefully the second half will pick up but so far, this one does feel like a bit of a disappointment.