Dark Matter is back! With Season 3 now up and running, here’s our recap of episodes 1 and 2.
In the season two finale we learned that the corporations were meeting to try and talk their way out of corporate war.
These plans were soon broken up when a bomb exploded and took out the ESOS 7 station.
The Season 3 opener picks up moments before the station blows up and we see Commander Truffault help Five make a getaway so they can get the Raza.
Dark Matter Episode 1: The beginning of corporate war
Upon managing to contact the Raza, Five is told by the Android that Four aka Ryo Ishida has nicked the Blink Drive — a device that allows the ship to literally blink from one section of space to another, which effectively makes faster-than-light (FTL) travel a thing of the past.
The plan is to find Six, Two and Three and pick them up. But the plan is put on hold when Ferrous Corp starts attacking them.
The missing crew members
Elsewhere in space Two and Six are drifting in a shuttle; their mission to try and stop the plot to disrupt the talks a failure.
All Two and Six can now do is try and repair what they can and make contact with the Raza.
Three meanwhile is planet-side and a prisoner of Anders, a police officer belonging to the Galactic Authority.
Three knows that Anders was a colleague of Six from his prior life as an enforcement officer and quizzes him about what Six was like.
From what we know about the characters so far, only Six and Four have their full memories back.
In the tail end of Season 1 Six betrayed the crew of the Raza by tipping off the Galactic Authority to their whereabouts, but wound up helping them escape at the start of Season 2 because he felt that justice wasn’t being served.
Three has since had a few issues with Six over this, which is why he is quizzing Anders.
Back on the Raza, Five, Commander Truffault and The Android receive a communication from Two and Six.
They are asking to be picked up and inform the Raza that they only have minimal life support back on their shuttle.
The Android and Five inform Two that they will be delayed due to them being under attack from Ferrous Corp.
A fighting chance
Upon learning that it will take aw hile for them to be rescued, two pushes Six into a compartment of the shuttle and transfers most of the remaining life support into the compartment to give him a chance.
For her part, Two thinks she will likely manage to survive due to her nanites, which enhance her abilities.
The court of Ryo Ishida
Back on his home planet, Four is now fully embracing his role as Emperor Ryo Ishida.
Having sabotaged the ESOS 7 conference and having stolen the Blink Drive from the Raza his plans, which are to take advantage of the corporate war, are only starting to form.
One of his first acts is to release his mentor from prison and offer him the role as royal adviser, which is something that Ryo’s close childhood friend Misaki Han-Shireikan, Commander of the Imperial Royal Guard, does not approve of.
Anders and Three become allies
Back on the planet, Anders has Three prisoner and hears what he thinks is the Galactic Authority and goes to meet them.
Unbeknown to Anders, it is a left over drone who is on a mission to kill him and whatever else is moving.
While Anders is fighting the drone, Three manages to break free and comes to Anders’ aid.
When the Galactic Authority actually does turn up, Anders does not give Three away and goes back with them, which allows Three to hopefully stay alive until he can be picked up by the Raza.
Raza wins a battle, but not the war
While trying to fix the Raza, Five and The Android end up having to engage in a gun battle when a shuttle containing troops from the Ferrous ship boards.
Between them they manage to dispatch the soldiers fairly easily.
The shuttle provides Commander Truffault with a means to destroy the Ferrous ship that has been attacking the Raza.
With help from Five and The Android she remotely pilots the shuttle back towards the attacking ship and overloads the engines to the shuttle once it is close enough, thus taking care of the attackers once and for all.
Being better is so much harder
While still drifting in space, Two and Six are surviving on fumes. But Two is now beginning to hallucinate and sees Nyx, who they believe was killed by Ryo, although she was actually poisoned by Misaki Han-Shireikan.
The hallucination of Nyx says she has just come to say goodbye, but the two women bond and Two talks about how she and the others have been trying to redeem themselves since waking up from stasis.
The episode title is cleverly worked in here when Two says the line, “Being better is so much harder.”
The rescue
Having escaped destruction from the Ferrous Corp, the Raza — captained by Five and The Android — manages to rescue Two and Six, and as they leave they get a communication from Anders who gives them the location of Three.
The crew is in essence reunited, but Two has a mission for them — which is to stop and kill Ryo Ishida.
To that end they agree to rob and pillage other systems only as a means for survival to aid them in their mission.
Episode 2: Let’s get the Blink Drive
Episode 2 begins with Five in a dream state. She is reliving the memories of Ryo Ishida via the mind probe to try and find a clue as to where he has put the Blink Drive.
Before long she gets the location of a scientific station hidden in a nebula. When she awakes from the dream state Five tells the others that the Blink Drive is most likely at the Lankars station.
Two gets The Android to set a course for Lankars station so she Three and Six can use the shuttle to board and retrieve the Blink Drive.
Politics of court Ishida
Back in Ryo’s palace, Misaki gives a terse warning to the new royal adviser that she is not to be messed with.
Ryo, while checking the progress of his scientists at Lankars, learns that his former crew mates have attacked the station.
He takes immediate action by sending one of his clones to the station in order to look into the situation.
As Two and Three board the station, Six stays on the shuttle.
Learning that Lankars has been boarded, Ryo’s clone orders the head scientists to activate the Blink Drive.
Null Space
While on the Raza, The Android and Five see Lankars station disappear from view.
As they investigate they pick up on some odd readings and The Android uses this information to try and send a signal.
Meanwhile Five has passed out while trying to lend aid to The Android to bring her plan to fruition.
It turns out that Five is having flashbacks to her past.
Back on Lankars station the head scientists have figured out that they have been thrown into a form of null space.
Ryo orders them to figure out how to fix it and goes off in search of Two and Three.
Things get worse when the scientists realise that the pocket of null space that the station is trapped in is closing in on them, which means that there is only a little time before the station is crushed into nothingness.
It doesn’t have to be like this
Ryo meets Two and Three in a corridor on the station. They try and talk him down and say it doesn’t have to be like this.
They tell him that they can fit the Blink Drive to their shuttle and get him and all his scientists home.
Ryo does not want them to have the drive so turns them down and says the scientists will have honorable deaths for the Ishida empire.
Seeing that Ryo is not going to budge, Three and Two shoot him and share in some mutual disappointment when they realise it was a clone.
After a little time, Two and Three manage to catch up with the scientists and try to talk to them.
The head scientist endorses their plan, but his lab partner isn’t convinced.
When Two and Three head over to the part of the station where the other scientists are, the head scientist’s lab partner brutally murders him.
Having learned that all the scientists have died because of the null space, Two and Three rush back to the main lab in order to retrieve the Blink Drive.
When they get there they find that the head scientist has been killed and his partner has taken the Blink Drive.
Six leaves the shuttle in order to help Two and Three retrieve the drive from the remaining scientist.
Unfortunately this scientist is not prepared to co-operate and would rather die. This leaves Two, Three and Six with no choice but to kill her.
Having now retrieved the Blink Drive, Six manages to get it all hooked up to the shuttle and picks up on a signal, which has been concocted by The Android.
Two tells Six to set a course for the signal and they manage to travel out of null space and reconnect with the Raza.
The dilemma of Five
Now back on the relative safety of the Raza, The Android informs Two that Five has a degenerative brain disorder, which is caused by too much use of the mind probe.
The only way to remedy it is to erase any memories that Five has lived through the mind probe.
Two asks if there is any way that Five’s memories of the Raza can be saved. Android says she will do her best.
While in dream state Five is aware that Android is erasing memories that the probe has given her.
She is talking to an old man called Banes who taught her everything she knows about engineering. She tells Banes that her memories of him will be erased in due course.
When she awakes, Five tells Two that all the memories from the probe are gone. All but one.
In the final moments before she awoke, Banes gave her a clue to her origins — telling Five that her mother and father were from a wealthy family.
Dark Matter: Questions we’re left asking
1. Is Ryo Ishida the same version of Four that we met in the show’s first season?
In the second season when the crew first tried the Blink Drive, they were thrown into a parallel universe where they went up against a darker version of Four.
Could that version of Four have returned with them?
2. How will the conflict between the corporations be resolved and how will the Raza play a role in that?
3. Having now learned that Misaki killed Nyx, will Ryo kill her?
Dark Matter airs Fridays at 9/8c on Syfy.