Spoilers follow for the first season of Dark Matter.
First, a reminder of where the story left us. Based on the novel of the same name, Dark Matter follows Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton), a physics professor in Chicago who is living a relatively normal and contented life with his artist wife Daniela (Jennifer Connelly) and teenage son Charlie (Oakes Fegley). In another world, a different version of Jason decided to forgo that family life in pursuit of his dream, which was apparently to build a gigantic box that allowed people to travel to other parallel universes. But that alt version of Jason ultimately wasn’t satisfied with the life he had, and used the box to travel to a world where he and Daniela were together. He then kidnapped himself, abandoned that version in another world, and proceeded to take over his life.
Things did not go as planned for alt Jason. Daniela eventually realized that something was wrong, Jason prime fought his way through multiple worlds to get back home, and by the end of the season, an army of Jason variants had descended on the same version of Chicago in hopes of reuniting with Daniela. At the end of the finale, the original Jason, Daniela, and Charlie had made their way into the box in hopes of finding a new world where they could live out a normal life in peace.
Still with me? Well, good, because things only get more complex from here. Dark Matter is obviously a high-concept sci-fi thriller, but in season 2, it really pushes further into its premise, exploring all of the wild possibilities. Jason and his family are living like multiversal nomads, traveling to different worlds in search of a home, and this lets the show get into the nitty-gritty of how the box works and the rules for traveling between worlds. It’s an inexact science: You can’t just go wherever you want. Instead, your destination is dependent on your mindset when you open the door. So if you’re scared or stressed out, get ready for a postapocalyptic version of Chicago.
This premise leads to some really great moments. The Dessens, for instance, are going through a situation that no family has ever gone through, which puts all kinds of strain on their relationships. But the show is often at its best when it moves away from the main story. One episode explores several years in the life of a random Jason variant who simply tries to build a life for himself in a quiet world. It’s a melancholy short story that reminds me of the “Long, Long Time” episode of The Last of Us. It doesn’t try to push the story forward or inundate you with revelations; instead, it shows you the human impact of this technology. There’s a similar episode that introduces a sort of waystation that various multiverse travelers visit over the years, and one that involves Charlie seeking out a long-lost family member in another world.
But getting to these moments means being okay with being confused, and that’s because season 2 really ratchets up the complexity primarily by introducing a whole bunch of new characters, most of whom are variants of existing ones. That means a lot of Jasons, Danielas, and Charlies, of course — the original alt Jason who started this mess features prominently — but also their friends and coworkers like chemist Ryan (Jimmi Simpson), psychologist Amanda (Alice Braga), and the well-off Leighton (Dayo Okeniyi) who is bankrolling the whole thing. There are multiple versions of each, spread across different worlds, all of which are involved to some degree in the larger story. It’s a lot to keep track of, and the show often doesn’t help much in differentiating the variants so that it’s clear who you’re actually watching. At one point, the main Jason and Daniela get tattoos so they can clearly identify each other. On top of this, season 2 jumps around in time quite a bit, further putting a strain on your ability to follow narrative threads.
That kind of knotty storytelling is perhaps unavoidable with a premise as convoluted as Dark Matter’s, but season 2 shows that series can also do a lot when it slows down and explores human-level stories, as opposed to racing toward the next big set piece. The second season attempts to balance both kinds of storytelling — it even ends with what feels like some Christopher Nolan–inspired action — which means that in order to experience the show at its best, you’ll have to resign yourself to not understanding everything.
Dark Matter season 2 is streaming on Apple TV on August 28th.