Mumbai: Dark Matter, based on Blake Crouch’s 2016 novel, explores what our lives would be like if we made different choices. It presents the seduction of being able to undo a decision.
When Jason Dessen’s (Joel Edgerton) life is stolen by another version of himself from a different universe, his life is turned upside down, as are the lives of those around him — including his wife Daniela (Jennifer Connelly) and teenage son Charlie (Oakes Fegley).
Season 1, like the book, played out like a thriller — a sci-fi version of The Odyssey — as Jason tried to get home to his family, ending with Jason1, Daniela and Charlie escaping the many versions of Jason (a new Jason branching out of every decision he made).
The Consequences of Choice
The worlds are opened up in Season 2, where we get a real-time sense of the consequences of the characters’ decisions. When one thinks of interdimensional travel, one usually thinks of the fun stuff. Dark Matter explores the not-so-fun side of those choices.
There is an element of PTSD involved. There are the killer hornets that Blair (Amanda Brugel) lets into one world and the black iris plague brought by Amanda (Alice Braga) and Ryan (Jimmi Simpson) that decimates another.
Leighton (Dayo Okeniyi), who looks at travelling the multiverse as a way to create the perfect world, also sees the effect of his choices in the famine brought about by his genetically modified shade-growing crops.
Design as a Compass
Despite the many versions of each character, the show is not difficult to follow on an instinctive level, and that is thanks to subtle clues in the sound and production design.
For instance, the technologically less advanced world that Jason1, Daniela and Charlie live in has more organic music and colours. The progressive world, or the “polite sex world,” on the other hand, is shiny and dreamlike.
There are wild visual swings as well — the zero-gravity world in the season finale, the beautiful light in the Way Station library, and Daniela’s father’s cabin. While there was a physics consultant for the show, quantum theory is the engine powering Dark Matter, which is essentially about regret, love and belonging.
Two Stand-Out Episodes
The two standalone episodes, ‘Love and Be Loved’ and ‘The Basic Oneness of Everything,’ present a change of pace and a mesmeric meditation on the human condition.
‘Love and Be Loved’ sees one of the Jasons contemplate suicide before travelling to a world where his mother, Ellie (Linda Bove), is alive — but he died there at 16. A very literary episode, quoting Proust and J.R.R. Tolkien while being largely silent, is moving. When Jason brings a homeless Jason home, it can be looked at as an act of self-care and learning to forgive oneself. There is also a case for a character killing a version of themselves that could be looked at as a rejection of self.
‘The Basic Oneness of Everything’ sees a Chicago destroyed by a dirty bomb, with neighbours turning on each other in an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust. The box crashes into this world, into the house of a tough Navy vet and nurse, Laurel (Margo Martindale), who is also broken. In this world, we see the positive effect of multiverse travel, where the travellers — including a spaced-out Leighton — get Laurel to come out of herself.
The discussion in ‘The Everything Beautiful, Everything Terrible’ episode encapsulates the core philosophy of Dark Matter, using the invention of ships as an example: while allowing for travel and discovery, it also introduced colonisation, slavery and disease.
The Performances
The acting is of the highest degree, where the different versions of the characters are indicated not by obvious things but by the nuances of how certain experiences would change the way a person looks and feels.
Connelly brings strength and sorrow to Daniela, who realises before Jason that things cannot go back to the way they were. Chicago is also a character, with the many versions of the Windy City presenting different aspects of the same place.
The Verdict
The finale ends with a cliffhanger, and in the companion podcast with fellow writer Jacquelyn Ben-Zekry, Crouch talks about how he always envisioned Dark Matter to have a three-season arc. We can live in hope.
Dark Matter is currently streaming on Apple TV+.
