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S01.E06: Episode Six

formerlyfreedom

By formerlyfreedom
in Dark Matter [V]

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formerlyfreedom

formerlyfreedom

Chemical hypnosis and the ship's neural link are used to explore the memories secreted away in Five's subconscious, during which she uncovers the dark truth about Four and Six's violent pasts. She also learns about the circumstances that landed her on the ship and gains some insight into the idyllic childhood of a mysterious little boy.
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Chaos Theory

Chaos Theory

Great episode.  I enjoyed the backstories for Four and Six.  I liked that they were both not exactly what they appeared to be and exactly what they appeared to be.  Now both of them are on revenge trips.   I like Five and her story makes sense as well; at least what we know of it.  A thief and a stowaway not a murderer like the rest.

 

As for the farm.  Wouldn't it be interesting if it actually was Three.  I agree though more then likely it is One's childhood but I do think it would be more interesting if it turned out it belonged to three.

  • Love 8
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mustbekarma

mustbekarma

(edited)

Three was going to throw 5 out of an airlock. First, is he related to Laura Roslin? Second, what a dick. He was going to murder a child. Even if 3 was faking to get 5 terrified enough to tell the truth, I still don't like the man.

 

I'm calling it. 6 is the actual captain of the ship. He stole it, the Raza is his. One's probably a company man sent to neutralize the crew. If two of the crew are basically good people, then I'm not so sure the rest of the crew are evil criminal masterminds, either. I don't see 6 recruiting crew members who would throw children out of airlocks.

 

I think this series just got good.

Edited by mustbekarma
  • Love 3
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thuganomics85

thuganomics85

Certainly an improvement over last week's silly zombie episode. We even got a few answers, assuming these dreams are true.  Four actually didn't kill his father, but it was the stepmom/Empresses and she set him up.  Six used to be part of a resistance, that led to the deaths of 10,000 innocents, which causes Six to snap and kill his fellow rebels.  Five use to be a thief, and that's how she winded up on the ship, and how that boy's body got there as well.  Also, either One or Three use to grow up on a farm.  I know Six and Five joked about it not being possible for Three, so I'm thinking that was him.  I can easily see them taking some kind of "he started out innocent" thing with him.

 

Of course, I'm really curious about how Five is going to be saved from getting shoved out of the airlock by Three.  Unless she found some way to talk her way out of it, I have to think another one of the crew members had saved her, so I wonder who it will be?  It really could be any one of the One/Two/Six trio, unless Four did it for some random reason.

 

Of course, there was the stupid scene where One was trying to figure out why Two slept with Three, instead of him.  I'm glad Two cut past all his hemming and hawing, and told him why.  Of course, it had to be some stupid thing about how there wouldn't be a "connection" with Three, and gives a look at One that basically hints that a "connection" could happen with him, which is lame.  I still don't know your full story, Two, but I'm sure you deserve better then this block of wood.

 

Weird that next week's previews weren't about the next episode, but just one of the generic promos they do for the show in general. Why did they do that?

  • Love 2
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SimoneS

SimoneS

(edited)

Much better episode. Since I was right that Six and Four are good men who were forced by circumstances into becoming criminals and that the dead boy was Two's friend, I am confident that I am right that One/FauxJace is some kind of law enforcement officer planted in the crew. It does seem that I am wrong about Five and Two being sisters.

 

I think that the boy on the farm with two parents is One. The reason that Five said that he looks different is because he was surgically altered. If the boy was Three, she would have easily recognized him.

 

If the card Five swiped was Three's, what was he trying to with it? It seems a dangerous thing for anyone to have and it was probably stolen so maybe that card is what One/FauxJace was after not the crew.

 

The question remains, who wiped their memories?

Edited by SimoneS
  • Love 5
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Ely

Ely

Of course, there was the stupid scene where One was trying to figure out why Two slept with Three, instead of him.  I'm glad Two cut past all his hemming and hawing, and told him why.  Of course, it had to be some stupid thing about how there wouldn't be a "connection" with Three, and gives a look at One that basically hints that a "connection" could happen with him, which is lame.  I still don't know your full story, Two, but I'm sure you deserve better then this block of wood.

I think we as viewers deserve better. I'm pretty disappointed that it turned out exactly how it seemed to be. For a second, looking into One's puppy dog-eyes, I had Dawson's Creek flashbacks. I dont really understand how they could seriously go there so early on in the series. This is such a weak point in the show, it almost makes me stop watching it.

 

I'd love for Three to be the farm boy but seeing as this show gravitates towards the predictable developments, it probably is One and a hint at him having his face altered. And while I'm still whishfully thinking, it'd be a great twist if One and Three were best buds before their memory wipe. And Six the actual captain.

 

I really really like 5. It could be so easy for her to be the most annoying character but the actress does a wonderful job with her. I also enjoy her realtionship with Six.

 

  • Love 4
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MissLucas

MissLucas

We're finally getting somewhere - lots of backstory and world-builing. The later became an increasing problem for me so I'm glad they expanded on that. So we now have an empire that is embroiled in civil war after the assassination of its ruler. We have something called Galactic Authority that gives off a slight whiff of totalitarianism (hard to tell but the rhetoric to GA lady sounded like that) and terrorists who are not exactly lovable freedom-fighters. And then we've got a handful of more or less evil corporations.

 

I enjoyed Two embracing her dark side to scare her handler. From the way he reacted it was clear he bought her badass speech about cutting out his heart. I also enjoyed Six admitting that they're all a bit scared of her.

 

I agree that the farm boy must have been One because Five mentioned that he looked nothing like the guy she knows from the ship. We already knew that Four had not killed his father but he did not - I enjoyed his scenes with Five, they had an interesting dynamic.

 

I'm interested to see how Five got out of the airlock, I may not like Three that much but I don't think he was willing to go through with it. But the memory creates conflict and I guess further down the road it will become important again.

 

That was probably the first time the show really delved into its premise - asking hard questions about its characters identity and also trying to put their story into some sort of philosophical framework. Can you really change who you are if you are given the chance to start afresh? And does knowing your past help you change or force you to fall back into old patterns - like Two did when she threatened the handler? All in all nicely done but I do hope not everybody on this ship turns out to be a goody-two-shoes.

 

(Since I enjoyed this episode so much I'll be generous with the cringe-worthy scene between Two and One and won't say more than: Please for the love of whatever Deity rules their galaxy stop this nonsense!)

  • Love 1
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Raja

Raja

More and more Dark Matters brings Blake's7 memories to the fore. And it seems more enjoyable then those decades old memories. I just wish it had gotten the 8 or 9 earlier timeslot from SyFy.

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Shanna Marie

Shanna Marie

I think my main problem with this show is that it has interesting revelations given in not very interesting ways. Every episode, I'm kind of bored until they drop some new piece of info that I find intriguing and want to know more about. I almost think I'd enjoy the show more in recap form, just learning the new stuff without sitting through it. Like in this case, when they barely even bothered with a framing story as an excuse to go into the memories. I hope they use this memory thing sparingly because it's possibly the least interesting way of revealing the information, pretty much just telling us the backstory instead of having it unfold through investigation or other events. And then after the whole purpose of the exercise being to find a passcode for the vault, we see her overhearing the passcode and yet that doesn't come up in the episode. She doesn't seem to have told the passcode and they haven't opened the vault.

 

I thought it did pick up once we got into Five's actual memories and when Six joined her. The actress isn't really strong enough to portray other characters, so her being Four just came across as a little silly.

 

I'm still undecided whether farmboy was One or Three. On the one hand, she did mention not looking like him, which ties in to the theory that he had some kind of surgery to make him look like Jace, and the farmboy persona fits what we've seen of him post-memory wipe (I noticed that he was acting a lot more like the real Jace in the memories. With the wipe, he's forgotten not to act all "gosh golly gee whiz"). On the other hand, them assuming that it couldn't possibly be Three with the wholesome background could mean that's exactly who it is, which is why he doesn't look like One, and something did go horribly wrong for him to go from that to where he is now. He seems like the kind of character who might get the woobified backstory so he can be the jerk with a heart of gold. If One is some kind of cop, it doesn't seem that anything would have necessarily gone wrong with his life, other than getting his memory wiped while he was under cover and had no way of figuring out who he really is.

 

The One, Two, Three triangle is exactly why I said on the previous episode that attempting to do no-strings, no-feelings sex in that situation is a bad idea. If you have enough feelings for one guy that sex would make things complicated -- whether because it would start a relationship you're not ready for or because it would affect your friendship with him -- then sex with another of the five other people on the ship is going to make things complicated, too. She's acting like a Bachelorette contestant, fooling around with multiple men while supposedly having feelings for one of them, and then being surprised when they're not happy about it and it creates conflict among them.

  • Love 5
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AzureOwl

AzureOwl

If the card Five swiped was Three's, what was he trying to with it? It seems a dangerous thing for anyone to have and it was probably stolen so maybe that card is what One/FauxJace was after not the crew.

 

The card she swiped could not have been Three's. She stole it from a man with a beard, and when she brought the card up as a barganing chip whwn Three was going to air-lock her, he didn't react at all.

 

We're finally getting somewhere - lots of backstory and world-builing. The later became an increasing problem for me so I'm glad they expanded on that. So we now have an empire that is embroiled in civil war after the assassination of its ruler. We have something called Galactic Authority that gives off a slight whiff of totalitarianism (hard to tell but the rhetoric to GA lady sounded like that) and terrorists who are not exactly lovable freedom-fighters. And then we've got a handful of more or less evil corporations.

 

It's not a civil war. With Four on the run and everyone believing that he murdered the Emperor, there is no reason for his half-brother to have any opposition to claiming the throne. I went and checked, and what the-only-news-anchor-in-the-galaxy said was "The fallout from the assassination of Emperor Ishida Tatsuyo continues to be felt throughout C sector as forces from the Principality of Zairon and the neighboring Republic of Pyr remain on war footing."

 

So it seems that either the Empress or her son have decided that the first order of business after ascending the throne is to get into a shooting war with the Pyrians, whoever they are.

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MissLucas

MissLucas

It's not a civil war. With Four on the run and everyone believing that he murdered the Emperor, there is no reason for his half-brother to have any opposition to claiming the throne. I went and checked, and what the-only-news-anchor-in-the-galaxy said was "The fallout from the assassination of Emperor Ishida Tatsuyo continues to be felt throughout C sector as forces from the Principality of Zairon and the neighboring Republic of Pyr remain on war footing."

Thanks for checking back - I just rememberd that things were not looking good back home.

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sjohnson

sjohnson

(edited)

One is not a cool dude. If you want all the leads to be be cool, cooler and coolest, Killjoys is on at nine, though. So i can't see that anybody is really being deprived of anything by his presence. 

 

Three on the other hand is such a jerk we are supposed to think he could airlock a woman for trying to pass for fifteen. I know that's annoying, but please, proportionate punishments! Seriously, the character, much as this kind of BAMF appeals to part of the audience, just doesn't work well in the long run. Witness Pope in Falling Skies. Or Datak Tarr's interminable reign of error on Defiance. I hope that Three was just bluffing and he was the bucolic farm boy (though I doubt both propositions.) This character is the only real misstep they've made. Maybe in the long run making most of the episodes ship-based aka cheaper may leave the characters hanging in a vaccum?

 

This is so heavily serialized I don't know how you can assess an individual episode.

Edited by sjohnson
  • Love 1
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Wynterwolf

Wynterwolf

(edited)

Now that episode, I enjoyed.  And oh look, One and Three were just background noise!  Hmmm, I wonder if there's a correlation. Heh.  Especially since I fast forwarded through the Two/One stuff in the beginning, since I already knew what that was about.  I think though that even Three will grow on me now that's he's been toned down a bit, and I think the actor has gotten more comfortable in the role so he's being a little more subtle now.  But One is still just... no, there's nothing good there for me.  On a shallow note, I will not be at all upset if we get a bit of Four dancing with his sword in every episode.

 

I think that the boy on the farm with two parents is One. The reason that Five said that he looks different is because he was surgically altered. If the boy was Three, she would have easily recognized him.

 

 

Yeah, I think that makes sense.  

Edited by Wynterwolf
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Latverian Diplomat

Latverian Diplomat

 

I thought it did pick up once we got into Five's actual memories and when Six joined her. The actress isn't really strong enough to portray other characters, so her being Four just came across as a little silly.

 

Personally, I thought she did fine. To me, the standout terrible performance was the kid who stowed away with her, though admittedly the writing did him no favors, as he had the always thankless mortally wounded expositioner role.

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xfuse

xfuse

 

The reason that Five said that he looks different is because he was surgically altered. If the boy was Three, she would have easily recognized him.

That might not be it. I met a few grown-ups who I had not seen since they were kids and I didn't know them.

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Amelie06

Amelie06

 

Of course, it had to be some stupid thing about how there wouldn't be a "connection" with Three, and gives a look at One that basically hints that a "connection" could happen with him, which is lame.  I still don't know your full story, Two, but I'm sure you deserve better then this block of wood.

I can't argue with Two's logic on this one. The second she bangs One, he will start writing his wedding vows. At the very least she will have to deal with endless nonsense that nobody has time for.

 

While I enjoyed this episode, I found half of it to be dull. Why did we have to dedicate so much time on Four's back story when we already knew it? I also found Five's performance as Four to be underwhelming.

 

I also thought that the farm boy was more confirmation that One is not Jace, but it is just as likely to be Three's history. He could have some hard luck story about how some evil corporation blew up his farmhouse and set him on a path of piracy.

 

I'm surprised that Six was so cool with the memory he saw. It's bad enough to be a surprise!terrorist. But he murdered more innocent people when he killed his fellow rebels. Fine, one dude was definitely a villain, but what about the others? He murdered the guy that blew the whistle on the other man and was extremely upset. He was clearly not in on the plan and was just as upset as Six, but got murdered anyway. I found that more shocking and upsetting than Six inadvertently being caught up in a plot that killed a bunch of people.

  • Love 2
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Wynterwolf

Wynterwolf

. He could have some hard luck story about how some evil corporation blew up his farmhouse and set him on a path of piracy.

 

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away?

 

I actually thought it was interesting where they ended each memory, we don't know how Five got out of the airlock and we don't know what Six did after the gun was empty.  There were certainly other weapons around if he still wanted to kill himself.  And I loved Four's backstory, I'm actually looking for more of that and I won't be surprised if the Empress is involved with The General.    

  • Love 1
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Mars477

Mars477

Four's backstory is hilariously cliched. Royal upbringing, evil stepmother, framed for the death of his father, and wanted for regicide? I'm guessing he'll be on a quest for revenge as well. It's not like we've already seen that in countless science fiction and fantasy media. That and the oddly feudal/ancient samurai trappings of the Asian dominated space empire is all kinds of fucked up.

  • Love 1
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Wynterwolf

Wynterwolf

This is a Mallozzi show, it will never be anything other than a collection of tired cliches, but I am thoroughly enjoying Alex Mallari Jr.'s interpretation of the, erm... familiar story/character.  For me it's all about cast personality/interaction.  

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MissLucas

MissLucas

 

He murdered the guy that blew the whistle on the other man and was extremely upset.

In Six's weak defense once he had killied the leader the others had all drawn their weapons incl. the initially upset guy.

  • Love 3
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wayne67

wayne67

He murdered the guy that blew the whistle on the other man and was extremely upset. He was clearly not in on the plan and was just as upset as Six, but got murdered anyway. I found that more shocking and upsetting than Six inadvertently being caught up in a plot that killed a bunch of people

 

On my first viewing I thought he merely shot the guy in the shoulder as opposed to all the other guys he shot in the head. I may be wrong though, memory can be a tricky mistress.

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FurryFury

FurryFury

(edited)

Haha, Roger Cross just can't escape being a terrorist. 

 

Finally, an answers episode, but the narrative structure was a mess. Felt more like an infodump than a story. Five wasn't that good as Four, but I still like her as herself and her whole character.

 

Obligatory 'ugh" to the Two/One scene. I want for this subplot to die in a fire. Or be airlocked, whatever.

Edited by FurryFury
  • Love 4
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arjumand

arjumand

Haha, Roger Cross just can't escape being a terrorist. 

 

Finally, an answers episode, but the narrative structure was a mess. Felt more like an infodump than a story. Five wasn't that good as Four, but I still like her as herself and her whole character.

 

Obligatory 'ugh" to the Two/One scene. I want for this subplot to die in a fire. Or be airlocked, whatever.

 

Yeah, once I realised it was going to be all about ONE TRUE LOVE I stopped being a fan. I just wanted "Hey. We are on a ship. We are attractive. Let us fuck. No, it does not have to mean anything."

 

Instead we get whatever the hell that was.

 

And this episode? Oy vey. I felt it picked up towards the end, especially when Five admitted that she really wanted to stay in the farmboy's memories (whoever it was) even if it meant putting her in stasis, because it was the best life she ever had. Which made me feel sorry for her.

 

However, my focus on the episode kept getting distracted by this sound I kept hearing. I'm not sure what it meant.

 

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call me ishmael

call me ishmael

I thought this was a better episode than before especially because 6 was more involved. But of course with a bar as low as last week anything would be a step forward. The 1 and 2 stuff needs to be put away (unless it turns out that the "complications" turn out to be that 2 knows what a clingy mess 1 would be if she is too nice to him). That might be amusing.

I still think that they are throwing too many things at a wall and hoping something will stick. Maybe the General will turn out to be the secret lover of the empress and 3 will be their illegitimate child.

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Shanna Marie

Shanna Marie

I hope the farm boy backstory is Three's. Just too predictable for it being One's.

In a weird, roundabout way, it might actually be more predictable for that to be Three's backstory. It's just so seemingly obvious that it's One's that of course it couldn't possibly be that, so we then expect it to be Three, which means it might be more surprising if it really is that straightforward.

 

It's possibly even more tropey for it to be Three, since the renegade lawless type who seems to be a jerk often has an unexpected background, like he came from an idyllic farm that was overrun, and that sent him down the bad path, while the nice background explains his heart of gold. Then there's the Jayne factor -- he's basically Not!Jayne in this Not!Firefly cast, and it turned out that tough guy Jayne got packages from home containing stuff like a hand-knit hat and a folksy letter from his mom. Given the overall originality of this show, you can just about count on them doing the same sort of thing with Three.

 

Plus, they assumed it was One, which means they'll end up being wrong.

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wayne67

wayne67

I'd like to know what's in the vault. I really hope they get around to it next episode because I'm kind of over the whole poor amnesiacs storyline.

 

Lead a revolution, Overthrow an emperess/emperor, hunt down the shadowy organisation that gave you superpowers. This whole aimlessly floating about it kind of a weak season arc.

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xfuse

xfuse

 

The 1 and 2 stuff needs to be put away

I think it might be. Two and Three having sex came out of nowhere and I hope someone realized that and put that little scene in to explain and bury it.

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Human

Human

I really want to love this show.  The premise keeps me watching.  But six episodes in and there should have been much more movement on the plot.  It feels so stagnant, and it didn't help that they had one of the weaker actors scripted to play the part of other characters.  She just couldn't pull it off.  

  • Love 1
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Mars477

Mars477

(edited)

I really want to love this show.  The premise keeps me watching.  But six episodes in and there should have been much more movement on the plot.  It feels so stagnant, and it didn't help that they had one of the weaker actors scripted to play the part of other characters.  She just couldn't pull it off. 

Yeah, the actor for Five is seriously weak.  There are some young actresses who have serious chops, but Joelle Ferland is not one of them.

 

The "information rate", in plot or character development, per episode for this show is utterly pathetic.  There's no reason why so many initial episodes of a 13 episode season have been throwaway filler episodes.  Considering the limited amount of movement in the serial plot that we've gotten, we really have only three or four episodes worth of content.  Eps 1 and 2 could have been incorporated into a single episode or a 90 minute pilot, and Eps 3 and 5 could scrapped entirely for how little forward momentum is actually in them.  Two takes nasty gut wound while defending the miners in the pilot or she actually is (seemingly) killed and then revives, revealing her healing factor, and Six gets grazed by an incendiary round and gets a nasty chemical burn which puts him in that clinic wasting his time.  And suddenly, we have a much faster paced show.

Edited by Mars477
  • Love 2
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maczero

maczero

I agree that 5's actress isn't strong enough to portray the other characters on the show.  She's decent as 5 but I don't think she's good enough to pull off the nuances associated with the other characters.  

 

It sounds like some of you are getting impatient with the show's pace.  I've decided I'm not going to get caught up in the mystery behind the mind erasing and enjoy it as a "case of the week" show.  I like the characters enough that it's working for me.

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Wynterwolf

Wynterwolf

Yeah, that's pretty much me too.  I'm not watching for the writing or the plot, I'm here because I am enjoying the cast and what they've been able to bring to their basic archetype characters (with the lone exception of One and his 'dual role'... so far I don't like how the actor plays either one of his iterations, but that's what the Fast Forward button is for).  

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Shanna Marie

Shanna Marie

Finally, an answers episode, but the narrative structure was a mess. Felt more like an infodump than a story.

I think that's the main problem. The episode setup was that they may not have enough supplies to make it to the next base, and even if they do make it, they don't have money for more supplies so they might have to sell the ship and split up, even though they don't know who they are and have nowhere else to go. The vault is their one hope for finding something they can sell or trade for supplies, but they don't have the passcode. Five goes through the memory thing in order to see if she can find the passcode in one of their memories. And she does -- she overhears Six talking about using the name of one of his teachers and hears the name. But then when she's been rescued from Memory Lane, there's just a bonding moment with Six. Does she realize she overheard the password? Has she shared that with anyone? Have they tried it on the vault?

 

I think this one kind of maps to Firefly's "Out of Gas," with the framing being that they might not have the resources to survive and the bulk of the episode being origin story flashbacks. Except they forgot to put in the conflict and tension or deal with or resolve the framing story.

  • Love 1
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Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac

(edited)

The One, Two, Three triangle is exactly why I said on the previous episode that attempting to do no-strings, no-feelings sex in that situation is a bad idea. If you have enough feelings for one guy that sex would make things complicated -- whether because it would start a relationship you're not ready for or because it would affect your friendship with him -- then sex with another of the five other people on the ship is going to make things complicated, too. She's acting like a Bachelorette contestant, fooling around with multiple men while supposedly having feelings for one of them, and then being surprised when they're not happy about it and it creates conflict among them.

 

Thank you! This whole thing is extremely stupid, on all sides. One is acting like a love sick puppy and Two is making the stupidest decisions possible for the LEADER of the group.

Edited by Jack Kerouac
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DEM

DEM

What confounds me about the whole ~triangle business is that the writers felt they needed to go there right out of the gate.

 

In general, I feel like most of the relationships are not being developed coherently or naturally.  Ironically, the One/Three progression feels most earned.  With regard to overall pacing, I'm now thinking chaotic is a better descriptor than glacial.

  • Love 3
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Crim

Crim

All Asians are samurai. Forever. Oh, show, why must you do this?

 

My only hope is that the love triangle is on the back burner for now. If it's not, I'll drop the show.

 

Does she realize she overheard the password? Has she shared that with anyone? Have they tried it on the vault?

I was ok with this being handled in the next episode because it flows better to have her tell them and see them trying it in the same episode, which would have taken quite a chunk out of this one. (And, judging by the description for ep 7, it will happen so it's all good.)

  • Love 1
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Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac

All Asians are samurai. Forever. Oh, show, why must you do this?

 

Of course. All Asians are generic space ninjas/samurai. All hispanics are space hard working men (as in, you never see a woman) and all space white guys are cops. Apparently, some time in the future all of these races will get together, work out a division of cultural stereotypes and go from there.

 

It's also the case that ever since Firefly, the future has people randomly spouting Chinese everywhere.

  • Love 1
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AudienceofOne

AudienceofOne

I agree with everyone - this show has some good ideas that it continually ruins through poor execution. Five's memories should have been teased out, not exposited in a long episode of flashbacks. And don't even get me started on the old "her mind is caught and so her body will DIE" trope. It didn't make sense the first 1500 times it was used, still doesn't make sense now.

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CletusMusashi

CletusMusashi

I liked the "building blocks" that they put in place. But as far as this ep's actual construction... 

I've got to agree with the earlier poster who didn't feel that Six had the acting chops to play Four convincingly.

So, if this schtick continues, I will have no choice but to say: I liked the show better when it was called "Quantum Leap."

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