Warning: This article contains spoilers for the “Dark Matter” Season 2 premiere, “A Quiet Life.”
To paraphrase a famous “Jurassic Park” line that otherwise has nothing to do with anything: “Well, we’re back … in the box again.” Season 1 of “Dark Matter” debuted in 2024 and immediately set itself apart from a crowd of multiverse stories. Rather than an excuse to smash together as many Spider-Mans into one movie as possible, the Apple TV series opted for a more meaningful approach than its superhero competition. Through Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton) and the havoc his alternate-universe villain “Jason2” wreaks, the show explored cogent ideas about regret, nostalgia for the past, and the path not taken — all thanks to the literal mystery box at the heart of the plot, an invention allowing the characters to travel through different realities with nothing but their thoughts (and a whole lot of quantum mechanics).
Season 2 marks an even bolder development, however, for a series that’s always been about breaking boundaries. Blake Crouch not only continues to serve as creator, showrunner, and executive producer, but he’s also adapting his own book. And, this time around, he’s actually crafting a sequel that takes place beyond the pages of the original story … which is as unique a situation as it gets for an author. Yet in order to keep this going, the Season 2 premiere titled “A Quiet Life” has little choice but to make a drastic choice.
Remember when Season 1 ended with Jason, his wife Daniela (Jennifer Connelly), and their son Charlie (Oakes Fegley) escaping their world for a fresh start where they could rebuild their lives together? Well, Season 2 throws that out the window and puts them on the run all over again. And some may find this swerve controversial.
Why Dark Matter Season 2’s ambitious status-quo reset works
For fans of Blake Crouch’s book and Season 1 of “Dark Matter,” Season 2 will inevitably require a bit of a mental adjustment. While not necessarily a happy ending, considering all that befalls the Dessens and the complete abandonment of everything (and everyone) they know and love, the finale did strike an optimistic note that our protagonists would be okay in whatever new and unfamiliar world they walked into.
Well, there goes that plan.
The premiere episode takes its time establishing what this trio has been up to during the intervening seven months since they moved here, while playing with our expectations that something is destined to go down sooner or later. That happens when another version of Jason somehow arrives, upending their lives all over again and forcing an already-traumatized Daniela to take extreme measures to protect herself. This gut-punch twist can’t help but undo everything about Season 1’s satisfying finale, as the Dessons scramble to escape the authorities, collect their son, and scurry back into the dreaded box in search of another safe haven — if there’s even any to be found.
But here’s why this is actually the best thing for “Dark Matter” in the long run. With their original plan now up in smoke, the Dessens know they’ll need a much more permanent solution. As of yet, they also aren’t aware that the mysterious Mitchel MacNamara (Chris Diamantopoulos) is currently investigating the many Jasons running around in their previous world. Taken together, it’s clear that Crouch and his writers won’t merely repeat what came before and are building to something explosive. Expect Season 2 to remain one of the riskiest shows on streaming TV right now.
New episodes of “Dark Matter” stream on Apple TV every Friday.
