Dark Matter: In the Fires of Dead Stars Show Only

June 12, 2024 6:04 PM - Season 1, Episode 7

Jason and Amanda visit a breathtaking world. To hide the truth from Daniela, Jason2 takes desperate action.
posted by Kyol (13 comments total)

I mean I kinda feel bad for Amanda, but I get it, that's the tension the story had to resolve there. And the ending is interesting - are all the various Jasons coming home to the one world accidentally? How many will be there? But also that BadJason's cement wall lasted all of like what, 3 days before he had to break it down to kidnap GreasyRyan? Well planned, buddy.

I dunno how much of Perfume Genius' Queen's lyrics made it through to the show, but I had to laugh.
posted by Kyol at 6:08 PM on June 12

Hopefully Jason3 doesn't get the bright idea to pop over to Indiana to fulfill his desire for a weapon.
posted by wierdo at 8:02 PM on June 12 [1 favorite]

How is it that the box was only walled up for a single episode? What a waste of a dramatic end of the previous episode.

The appearance of a third jason did, i have to admit, keep me wanting to watch, though.

A little easter egg in this episode: the curvy tower in the clouds in the Chicago-Utopia-Universe is a reference to the cancelled Santiago Calatrava project, "the Spire". I really wanted that thing to get built when I lived in the windy city.
posted by dis_integration at 7:21 AM on June 13

And I was sorta hoping the other kidnapped Ryan would run into Amanda and Jason, but I assume there are many parallel perfect Chicagos.
posted by Kyol at 7:48 AM on June 13 [3 favorites]

Oh, I didn’t realize it was a Jason3. I was trying to remember where Jason1 or Jason2 had hurt their finger.
posted by snwod at 1:25 PM on June 13 [1 favorite]

So why don't all the Jason and Amanda's run into each other in the tunnel, or at least see the back of their heads as they sprint to another door far far down the infinities. When they got to the nice world I was totally wrong with my first guess of "gotta be a scary, dangerous under current". Nice that she's the one that gets a fairytale off jump.

I recall I enjoyed the book, it had clever moments. There is probably a multiple worlds story that really works a layered metaphors for this version, but this is not quite there.
posted by sammyo at 1:27 PM on June 13

Oh, I didn’t realize it was a Jason3. I was trying to remember where Jason1 or Jason2 had hurt their finger.

yeah, I was busy looking at the scar on the bridge of his nose and completely missed the bandage on his hand.
posted by Kyol at 2:02 PM on June 13

> Nice that she's the one that gets a fairytale off jump

Jason 1 slipped her some vials without her seeing, so I'm guessing the Neo-Chicago from that "what the world would be like if X" meme is not going to be her final universe.
posted by dis_integration at 2:37 PM on June 13

My guess -- judging mostly from the tonally out of character (to my eye) cheesy montage-like send-off the show gave her -- is that it's just about leaving the door open for further complications in a second season (or at least in audience imaginations for the rest of this one).

As is, I don't see how she could possibly find Jason1's world on her own, vials or not, right?

(Actually, now that I think of it, depending on how Jason's storyline pans out in the next couple episodes, I wonder if a second season might be primarily Amanda2's story, with those two vials enough to jumpstart whatever would happen next for her.)
posted by nobody at 11:08 AM on June 14

> As is, I don't see how she could possibly find Jason1's world on her own, vials or not, right?

This little sci-fi mechanic seems pretty negotiable for Story reasons. Like, Bad Jason has no trouble at all going to any exactly universe he wants to, even with a passenger in tow who has no clue what is happening and is probably pretty damn scared by the whole thing. Plot will prevail in all things here: like how Amanda was able to find her counterpart in the universe, get a passport, all in a few hours, and they also seemed to have money that worked in Neo-Chicago, because it can't have been a money-free socialist utopia if Jason's counterpart in that universe was an insurance salesman. I'm just trying to not try and make this all make any coherent sense. There are two episodes left. To me, that means Amanda is coming back this season.
posted by dis_integration at 11:20 AM on June 14 [2 favorites]

Yeah, when I saw there were two episodes left in this season, I really wondered how they'd manage to pad it out. Like, it feels like basically they only need one episode where Jason1 gets back with Daniela1 and they kick Jason2 to the curb, but with the addition of Jason3 looking for Daniela3, and I mean it's not like, what, they can just kill Jason2... And Jason1 is out of the drug, so he couldn't even drop Jason2 off in the box, close the door behind him, and Amontillado Jason2 to any other world.

So, I mean I guess there's enough content for 2 more episodes. I still dunno how they could reasonably make a second season without turning it into an entirely different show, though. But that's why I'm not a Hollywood writer!
posted by Kyol at 2:28 PM on June 14

because it can't have been a money-free socialist utopia if Jason's counterpart in that universe was an insurance salesman

I kind of got the sense that it was in fact some kind of money-free post-scarcity utopia and the writers are literally just not smart enough to connect why an insurance salesman would be unnecessary in a society primarily guided by empathy or whatever. They thought [Insert Extremely Boring Job] and moved forward without scrutinizing it much; it is emblematic of the way the entire show's writing is sort of hastily duct-taped together and mostly bad.

Barely watchable, poorly written mid-tier content, at least to me. Book was better!
posted by windbox at 8:44 AM on June 16 [1 favorite]

I'm glad this thread told me there was a Jason3. That makes a lot more sense than Jason2 suddenly deciding to buy a gun and coincidentally showing up at the shop 20 seconds after Jason1 leaves...

Does this mean that Jason1's decisions are still creating multiple realities even after he started jumping with the box? And thus thousands of thousands of Jasons are about to show up at the same place?

I'm enjoying this show but I don't know if it can stick the landing.

Also Jason looks like grimdark Jason Bateman sometimes and I keep expecting Ron Howard to break in with a narration.

still dunno how they could reasonably make a second season without turning it into an entirely different show, though.

I vote for Ryan1 (Trying to escape aurora Chicago) as the main character of a completely different Season 2...
posted by mmoncur at 11:15 PM on June 23