The 'Dark Matter' Raza Crew Try a Jail Break — Together
It's going to get bloody.
As Dark Matter continues its Season 2 march, the former crew of the Raza find themselves in the crosshairs of a burgeoning galactic conspiracy… though they aren’t aware of that little bit of Shakespearian irony, just yet (even the audience is missing some key bits of the puzzle).
While the entire crew might not be in space jail, things aren’t exactly looking up for those members enjoying “freedom”. Six (Roger Cross) is deeply regretting his decision to turn on the crew. Five (Jodelle Ferland) is still searching for her place in the world. Oh, and One (Anthony Lemke) just got murdered by the fella whose face he stole in the first season.
Of course, all that crap is going to have to wait. At the moment, Two (Melissa ONeil) and the crew’s top priority is breaking out of Hyperion-8, the maximum security prison in which they find themselves captive.
This article contains spoilers.
The Sides Align
The show’s producers are keeping the audience on a pretty short leash. We know that some corporate big wigs want the Raza’s crew dead, and we know that the Galactic Authority is interested in pinning the mass murder of 15,000 people on them, but we don’t the “why” for either one. Fortunately for the crew of the Raza, for every person who’s trying to get them killed, there’s someone who’s attempting to break them out, which makes for some interesting partnerships this time out.
As Chief Inspector Shaddick (Franka Potente) continues to hunt for some kind of something to pin on the Raza’s crew, a motley assortment of prisoners are planning to make a run for it when the opportunity presents itself. Outside interests are also interested in seeing our heroes sprung as a map of the entire prisons layout finds its way conveniently into Threes head after a visit from an old corporate friend.
The biggest take away from all of this shuffling of allegiances is that the crew is working together once more. After last season saw the team crumble under the weight of suspicion and paranoia, the team has finally gotten their collective head on straight, which is pretty satisfying. Especially when it leads to the kind of intricately plotted action scenes that make up the third act of the episode.
A Riot in Space
You have to admire both the crew’s ingenuity in engineering an escape so quickly and the writers’ ability to set up the escape so naturally. While the season opener seemed a little bit on the aimless side, it turns out that each crew member’s diverging path ultimately provided one small facet of the escape. Two’s companionship with Nyx, Six’s reluctance over his decision to betray the crew, even Four’s instigation of a cell block riot; every dissonant strand came together at the last minute to help the Raza’s crew get out of their cells of that moon.
Along the way, Six even got a little comeuppance, which was totally necessary for him to get back in the crew’s good graces. Taking a bullet was an act that served to display his now-complete allegiance to the pack of criminals he calls friends.
Potente Steals the Show
As the happy witch hunter Chief Inspector Shaddick, Franka Potente is afforded the opportunity to bounce from calm and commanding to gleefully psychotic in just a few short scenes. Potente, as the woman who’s got a bag full of tricks at her disposal, is a real joy to watch. When bribery doesn’t work, she’ll appeal to your honor. When that fails, she’ll threaten to hand you to your enemies. When that falls short, she’ll just pull out a gun and start burning folks to get what she wants.
It was actually a shame to see the character gunned down by the Android at the end of the episode (even if the preceding fight was extremely dope). However, in a world where one main character is bio-engineered and another has a doppelgänger running around, it’s entirely possible that we’ll see Potente return at some point in the future.
A Return to Normalcy
So, the crew has been sprung plus three new members: the shady old gangster, the new ship’s doctor, and Nyx (who’s definitely got something nefarious cooking). In the chaos of their escape, we didn’t get to find out a bunch about the three new tagalongs, but you can bet their characters will get a spotlight shined on them as the crew of the Raza (or whatever the new ship is called) tries to get clear of the forces hunting them down.
More than anything, this is a transition back into the routine. Kind of. The crew of the Raza is together again, and they’re seriously outgunned and understocked. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
