The Box – The episode opens with Amanda Lucas (Alice Braga) learning of the tragic events that ensued during Jason Dessen’s (Joel Edgerton) arrest. Jason has now been returned to his room at the Velocity Labs but is still zip-tied when Leighton Vance (Dayo Okeniyl) joins him. Leighton immediately takes the blame for what happened at Daniela Vargas Dessen’s (Jennifer Connelly) apartment. Leighton says he was ill-prepared for Jason’s return but didn’t expect him to return so in such a confused state. Jason clearly doesn’t to hear him out but manages to ask if he was the one that sent Dawn Lawrence (Marquita Brooks) to Daniela’s apartment. He doesn’t respond.
While enjoying a night out at a lavish restaurant, the imposter Jason and Daniela are interrupted by Barbara Underell (Meghan Maureen McDonough) who is excited about the Dessen’s dinner party. After a very brief chat and Barbara returns to her husband Mike Underell (Jason Huysman), it becomes clear that the imposter Jason had no idea about the party.
Leighton receives a surprise visit from Detective Jamie Mason (Kate Eastman) who questions him about Jason and Blair Caplan’s (Amanda Brugel) disappearances. Leighton is surprisingly revealing about his grandfather founded Velocity and his parent’s death, but he’s tightlipped when it pertains to anything about Velocity’s work. As their conversation continues, Leighton feigns surprise when she shares news of Jason’s visit to the hospital. Jamie eventually asks about Jason’s affair with Amanda and proceeds to question her.
A later meeting with Leighton reveals that Amanda clearly isn’t happy with being forced to lie to the police. She’s even unhappier about the Dawson and the Jason situation. Despite the dispute getting a bit vocally out of hand, they soon find their attention drawn to the live security camera footage from Jason’s room. He’s pleading with them to help him remember. Seconds later, they are in Jason’s room and cut him free but the presence of two guards and Leighton’s ensuing questions suggest that he’s concerned with what Jason might have been telling people about Velocity’s work. Jason claims he doesn’t know anything to tell.
When Jason is shown the actual cube, he remembers the ‘concept’ but claims he was never able to discover how to protect the box from exposure to the outside environment. According to him, this meant that the superposition state kept collapsing. The discovery leads Leighton to suspect that Jason lost his memories before he won the Pavia. Jason not only learns that it was alloy adaptive shielding that did the trick but he wasn’t the only test subject. He just happens to be the only one that managed to make it back. Although recording devices do not work inside the box, Jason is later shown the ambient surveillance footage from the day of his departure and return. Interestingly enough, Amanda apparently tried to speak with him before his departure but was too late.
The imposter Jason attempts to bond with Charlie Dressen (Oakes Fegley) by taking him to a skate shop and offering him an unlimited shopping budget. Jason also uses the opportunity to learn more about the possible guests for his and Daniela’s upcoming dinner.
Jason uses the alone time in his room at Velocity to go through his old research. When Amanda joins him, he questions her about showing up at the box the day he left. This reveals that they had a small fight before his trip. He doesn’t remember but Amanda claims he mentioned something about seeing an old girlfriend. Their conversation also reveals Amanda’s role at Velocity as the resident psychiatrist. She not only mentally prepares the ‘box pilots’ to the best of her abilities but she also oversaw Ryan Holder’s (Jimmi Simpson) drug Lavender Fairy.
As guests trickle into to the dinner party, Daniela tasks imposter Jason with the meet and greet. Although he’s well prepared and even has notes, he has a bit of an awkward time with Linda, GG (Callie Johnson), and Marcus Sakey (Brandon Dahlquist). Things only become more uncomfortable when Ryan shows up with Mindy (Tiff Abreu) and attempts to apologize again for overstepping with Daniela.
Jason at Velocity has a bit of an awkward meeting himself when he’s questioned and recorded by Leighton, who has apparently developed a theory about his memory. Jason clearly becomes guarded and perhaps upset when Leighton theorizes that Jason doesn’t remember anything about his life because it wasn’t his life to begin with. The inquisition doesn’t last long thanks to Jason’s violently lashing out at Leighton. This earns him a few minutes with Dawson before Leighton resumes the questioning. It immediately becomes clear that Leighton suspects Jason learned how to successfully use the box but won’t share. Jason responds by antagonizing him until he’s returned to his room.
Jason isn’t allotted a lot of time with Ryan, but it’s long enough to discover that Ryan’s drug, Lavender Fairy, is the missing piece to piece to take the cube from conceptual to reality. Apparently, the human consciousness and its predisposition to continually make observations would make time traveling an impossibility. However, if there was a way to shut down the prefrontal cortex for a few hours, time traveling would become a real possibility. According to Ryan, that’s exactly what Lavender Fairy was designed to do. It appears that Leighton may have been monitoring or possibly staged this because he shows up with security immediately after they discover this and has Ryan removed from the room.
As the night goes along, the imposter Jason becomes more comfortable with the guests and even gives a touching toast during the meal. His efforts do not go unnoticed as Daniela later thanks him when they are alone. She also mentions how things have been different the past few days. He contributes the change to a ‘life flashing before his eye experience’ that was brought on by nearly being run over after leaving the pub.
After Ryan is hauled off, Amanda shows up in Jason’s room and attempts to help him escape. They soon run into Leighton, which leads them to the box, with their only successful escape option being jumping in time.
Elsewhere, the imposter Jason appears to be watching old home videos and studying what looks like copies of birth certificates. The episode ends with Jason and Amanda waking in the box from their jump. Their location isn’t revealed.
Dark Matter Review
Once the episode got going and got into the theory of time traveling, things immensely became more intriguing. Up until this point, I wouldn’t say the episode was bad but it certainly was bland. Despite this, some of the concepts were a bit far out there and might be a bit too difficult for some to appreciate. I am almost petting that Jason’s escape was staged.
I’m also interested in wondering what kind of ripple effect past decisions will have on future decisions or even if it works like this. When someone time travels do they go back in time, to the future, or is it just like a present-day swap? From what we’ve seen so far, it seems that the imposter Jason traveled to the past from his time. I could be wrong, but either way, I’d have to give the episode a 5 out of 10.
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