‘Dark Matter’ Season 2 Premiere Recap: “Welcome to your new home”
And just like that, the badass Raza crew is back in our orbit. Dark Matter returned for its second season with tonight’s aptly titled premiere episode, “Welcome to your new home”. Last season ended with the reveal of a traitor in their midst and the crew captured by the Galactic Authority. This week we pick up nearly where things left off. Fair warning! The show came back full-on crazypants and I mean that in the best way possible. If you thought that the reveal of Six as the traitor last season was a shock to the system, then your jaw must still be on the floor after the final moments of tonight’s episode.
If you have not watched the episode yet, please know that this recap will contain spoilers on some major reveals and one huge WTF just happened moment. Seriously stop reading right now if you don’t want to know what has me dealing with a major case of denial right now.
Man down! I repeat, man down! You guys, the episode ends tonight with the apparent murder of One aka Derek Moss! And his killer is no stranger to any of us or Derek himself, since the assassin is wearing his face. Or rather he’s wearing his assassin’s face. Remember that case of denials that I mentioned earlier? Yea, I got it bad. One was already feeling shaky about his newfound business associates and the murky details surrounding his wife’s murder. Let’s hit pause on that and take it all the way back to the top of the episode. That way I can pretend for a little longer that what we just saw didn’t really happen.
After their arrest, the Raza crew are taken to Hyperion-8, a moonside supermax prison that houses some of the most dangerous mofos in the ‘Verse. Clearly, where else would the infamous gang of badasses end up? Only, not everyone on the crew ends up in general population. Five and One (Derek) wake up in the prison’s staff wing. Much better accommodations. The duo immediate began to puzzling things out just when their crew member, Six shows up and he’s wearing a Galactic Authority uniform.
Six introduces himself as Lieutenant Cal Varek, and he starts dropping all kinds of knowledge to his now very pissed off former crewmates. I turns out Six was deep cover and realized that he needed to land on the side of law and order after discovering his true identity and realizing how he’d fallen in with the group of thieves and accused murderers. Five is understandably heated and lashes out at the big guy.
Six/Cal appears highly conflicted throughout the rest of the episode, questioning whether he did the right thing after all and his own past. He does some digging, looking through his own personal file and finds a classified section. Who else does he go to for help, but the tech wiz that kind of hates him – or rather hates his betrayal of the only family she knows. Still, no matter how upset she might be, Five agrees to help him and is told that her real name is Emily Koburn.
Meanwhile, One/Derek (jeez, it is confusing all of these guys having names rather than numbers now!!) makes bail thanks to the help of his late father’s CEO. One isn’t so sure that he trusts the man, and I’m with him. Dude gives off some serious bad guy vibes. It doesn’t help matters when One tells the older man that he’s not so sure that Three/Marcus Boone is his wife’s murderer. He wants to track down the witness, but conveniently the man ends up dead. One voices his concern to Six/Cal. One would think that with all the shadiness going on around him, One would’ve been slightly more cautious rather than swinging the door open in those final moments and seeing the familiar features belonging to the real Jace Corso. You know, the dude’s face One copied on his quest for the truth behind his wife’s murder. Alas, I don’t think he was wearing a vest with blood packets and then there was that hole in his forehead. One’s dead for sure, you guys.
You said it, Florida Evans! So, how are the rest of our crew fairing? Two, Three, and Four are still in the clink and they meet all kinds of fun new people. Hello, Nyx (Melanie Liburd). Two immediately gets into it with the other woman in a badass throw down in defense of Three’s honor…and food ration card. Nyx later announces that she was only kidding around and makes overtures of friendship. She knows that there’s no way this crew will be stuck in Hyperion-8 for long. Plus, there are some interesting sparks flying whenever Nyx/Two are in a room together.
What’s Three doing when he’s not getting knocked out by Nyx? Well, he finds out that if he gets injured he can end up in the infirmary for a few days. The food’s good and the nurse is cute, so it’s not long before this fool intentionally burns his arm. He backs off of that plan when he finds out that if caught he could be signing himself up for a mandatory stay in the psych ward, complete with electric shock therapy.
Four/Ryo has been just as busy as the rest of the crew. He intentionally starts a fight in the mess hall, just to gauge the guards’ reaction time and procedures. You know, just in case he and his friends decide to escape or something like that. Pulled into a meeting with one of the prison gangs’ top dog, Eric, Four is warned against making trouble or trying to escape. Will he listen? Not bloody likely. Honestly, he better hurry on figuring out an exit strategy because Raza’s crew is in danger from the Warden himself. Why? It likely has everything to do with the file Five successfully retrieves for still conflicted Six. The traitor discovers that he may have made the wrong play in turning in his friends. Seeing as how the Galactic Authority knew about the bombing and did nothing to stop it from happening.
With that shocking ending for One, anything goes at this point. What say you? Do you think we might lose anyone else from our crew before it’s all said and done? Will they spend the rest of the season in the clink working to get out? How long can Two keep the fact that she’s not quite human under wraps? How quickly before they find out what happened to One and avenge their fallen crew member? Talk about back with a bang. Can’t wait to see what happens next. Hit the comments and let me know what you thought of tonight’s premiere.
Dark Matter airs Fridays 10/9c on Syfy. For more Dark Matter news, be sure to check out PureFandom.com
(Photo credits: Jan Thijs/Prodigy Pictures/Syfy)
