Warning! Spoilers ahead for Dark Matter Season 2, Episode 6, “What the Universe Is Made Of.”Dark Matter, originally a 2016 book by Blake Crouch and now an Apple TV sci-fi series with Crouch in the showrunner’s chair, has been brilliant so far. After Season 1 masterfully adapted the standalone novel, Season 2 has moved on to new narrative pastures. As such, previously unseen corners of the Dark Matter universe are being explored, and pre-existing concepts from the source material are being fleshed out in exciting ways.
However, Season 2 has made a particularly bold alteration to the book’s lore. For multiple episodes, it has frustrated and confused me. The change felt like a blend of unnecessary retcon and a stark oversight. Dark Matter‘s canon has always worked in a surprisingly consistent way. As such, Season 2’s new approach to traversing the multiverse came across as a mistake more than anything else. Thankfully, Episode 6, “What the Universe Is Made Of,” brings everything together and allows it to make sense again.
‘Dark Matter’ Season 2 Made the Multiverse Too Easy To Explore
One of the biggest differences between Dark Matter and other multiverse stories is that Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton) and the other Box pilots struggle massively to accurately jump between specific realities. It’s a core element of the canon. Those who head into the massive metal cube require copious amounts of psychological conditioning and training, and even then, it’s no guarantee that they won’t just get lost among the countless realities. There are a select few who are pretty good at it, but it’s not an exact science.
Furthermore, Dark Matter’s multiverse has always been depicted as so impossibly vast that the chances of crossing paths with others who are also traveling between worlds are almost zero. So, when Dark Matter Season 2 started making it so that Box pilots just happened to end up in the same worlds as each other, I took notice. It went against almost everything that the show and the source material had established about Dark Matter canon. Thankfully, it turns out the current run of episodes hasn’t forgotten how the lore works. There is now an explanation for this change.
Quantum Entanglement Is the Reason Behind ‘Dark Matter’ Season 2’s Lore Update
Dark Matter Season 2 has already answered one of the biggest questions I’ve had since reading the book. The Box seems to just appear in universes where it was never built, which always felt a little too convenient. The show has now accounted for that by explaining that the Box and all its multiversal counterparts are bound by quantum entanglement, a concept that Jason explains in layman’s terms in “What the Universe Is Made Of.” In short, the Boxes are all connected due to their unique and intentional design that allows humans to be taken to other realities. As it turns out, it’s not a concept that strictly applies to the Box.
During a conversation between Jason and Blair (Amanda Brugel), Dark Matter strongly suggests that all the Box pilots themselves are also entangled – and not just with the various copies of themselves. “Maybe we’re drawn to the Box by connections formed through the choices that we’ve made,” Amanda says. It sounds a little like a mix of sci-fi patter and a pseudo-confirmation of fate in Dark Matter lore. I’m not sure I entirely like it, but it does at least prove that Blake Crouch and company haven’t just decided that multiverse-hopping is suddenly easy to do. There has been careful thought put into things, and the reveal also explains why only a handful of Dark Matter characters have been making the journey between realities.
- Release Date
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May 7, 2024
- Network
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Apple TV+
- Showrunner
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Blake Crouch
- Directors
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Jakob Verbruggen, Alik Sakharov, Roxann Dawson, Logan George
- Writers
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Blake Crouch
