The Corridor – Episode 4 begins in the hysteria of Jason Dessen’s (Joel Edgerton) and Amanda Lucas’s (Alice Braga) escape from Velocity Labs. As things continue to spiral, Leighton Vance (Dayo Okeniyl) makes the hasty decision to go after Jason. Elsewhere, Jason and Amanda appear to be in some sort of never-ending corridor with doors on each side. He theorizes they are in some sort of limbo and selects a random door to go through. This leads them to what looks like a very desolate and decrepit New York City. Once outside, an apartment complex crumbles right before their eyes, taking with it several other buildings.

The imposter Jason attempts to bond with Charlie Dessen (Oakes Fegley) while teaching him to drive. Charlie immediately notices the differences in the teaching styles, which the imposter carefully subverts by asking how Charlie wants to finish celebrating his 16th birthday.

Returning to the box to make a quick inventory of their gear, Jason notices that their GPS not only still works but it’s reading the location. He theorizes that this means that while the box remains in the same physical location, the outside world changes around them. After another injection of the serum, Amanda raises the question of where they will end up if they just keep walking. Jason doesn’t have much of a response, only that the universe is infinite. Leighton has now arrived in the corridor as well.

The imposter Jason once again becomes frustrated by his student’s lack of interest. To remedy this, he shatters a glass bottle against a nearby wall. Once he has the room’s attention he announces a pop quiz. His frustration continues to grow as he learns that most of his students (Charlie Holcomb/Reilly Oh/Austin Nelson Jr.) haven’t even brought pencils and paper to class, just their laptops. To the student’s surprise, he wishes them luck and walks out. Outside he is quickly approached by Anthony (Bassam Abdelfattah) who has just received word from Jason’s TA, Violet (Missy Fierro) about Jason’s strange behavior. Their discussion is very brief and ends with Jason quitting.

Jason and Amanda appear to be in the process of testing some theory as they try several doors and check the GPS device. Although the doors lead to very different outside worlds, the GPS holds the same coordinates as the Velocity Labs. Amanda becomes frightened and flees down the corridor after a harrowing experience with a world that doesn’t have an atmosphere. He not only manages to catch her but calm her down as well. He soon becomes anxious when he learns that their current dose of serum is nearing its end. Not only that but they’ll also likely need food and water soon.

Although the next door leads them to what appears to be the inside of the Velocity Lab, they are soon forced back into the box after seeing Dawn Lawrence (Marquita Brooks) shoot and kill another version of Amanda. They continue to open doors until Amanda becomes frustrated and randomly picks a door and sticks with it. Unfortunately for them, it just happens to be some kind of ice age. At one point, she collapses and Jason is forced to carry her to a nearby shelter. Inside he manages to find matches and start a fire. Leighton doesn’t appear to be having any luck either and is becoming equally frustrated.

The imposter Jason visits a very different Leighton at his posh penthouse apartment. It’s soon revealed that Leighton is living off his grandfather’s trust fund. He must also assume that Jason is looking for funding for a project because he tells him that he’s not making the mistake of getting financially involved with friends again. Despite that, Jason insists on showing him something. Minutes later they find themselves at an abandoned warehouse where Jason gives him a dose of Ryan Holder’s (Jimmi Simpson) psychoactive drug and introduces him to the box.

Amanda appears to be appears to be recovering and her learning of the box being snowed in sparks the memory of her family’s winters in Argentina. At times, conditions would get so bad that her father would have to pull aside the road, leaving them stranded in the car. When she says that everything would get white it looked as if the world vanished, Jason asks if she was having these thoughts in the corridor. She says she did because the same trapped/stranded feelings reminded her of those vacations. This eventually leads to Jason realizing that it is their minds/thoughts that control what worlds they enter, just as he had done with the Velocity Labs.

Apparently, the imposter Jason has already learned this because after he and Leighton arrive in the corridor, he tells him as much. When Leighton fails to grasp the concept, Jason spends several minutes more talking to him about meditation, clearing the mind, and breathing. Although their trip isn’t shown, it is revealed several scenes later Jason takes him to see his recently deceased grandfather. Leighton is overrun with ecstasy but soon surprises Jason by erupting into a fit of rage. He apparently doesn’t understand why Jason would trust him with such an incredible invention. Jason not only tells him how close they are in the world that he comes from but he also tells him that he’s here to fix something that he messed up.

Amanda and Jason are literally up to their necks in snow but manage to locate and dig their way into the box. As they do so, a very quick scene shows Daniela Vargas Dessen (Jennifer Connelly) retrieving Charlie for what appears to be some ceremonial event. Charlie appears disappointed but suggests they get going before it gets too dark. This is described a few seconds later when Jason tells Amanda that he just realized today is his son’s 16th birthday. When Daniela and Charlie light a candle in remembrance of Charlie’s deceased brother, he asks Daniela to tell him the story. This leads to her sharing the life and death of Charlie’s twin brother, Max. The story is played out in a back-and-forth style, with Daniela telling it to Charlie and Jason sharing it with Amanda.

The revelation of the story appears to have shaken some curiosity in Jason because he begins to question Amanda about her life with the other Jason. She surprises him by describing him as a hard-edged driven man that wasn’t exactly happy. He then surprises her by telling her that it was her Jason who caused him to be where he is. Although she is the stunned one, Jason asks why the imposter would want to switch places with him. He soon realizes the answer is Daniela and Charlie.

The imposter Jason takes Daniela and Charlie by complete surprise when he returns home with the announcement of quitting his job and buying Max a car for his birthday. Charlie is overjoyed whereas Daniela is not so much so. She’s nearly speechless by the time he tells her that he’s got an investor for his box project and they no longer have to worry about money.

The episode ends with showing a beaten and battered Leighton making his way through the corridor, clutching at a box of the serum. The episode is also dedicated to Arturo Gamino. Arturo was 36 years old at the time of his death and survived by Lenin Guaman, along with his parents Eutimio and Celia, and many adoring relatives. Arturo worked on several feature-length and short films, with the more notable being ‘Candyman,’ Fargo,’ and ‘Utopia.’ Episode 4 was dedicated to him for the huge role he played in helping create the worlds that Jason and Amanda venture through during the episode.

 

Dark Matter Review

Unfortunately, I cannot say the episode was great. It certainly had an interesting concept and traveling through the different world was kind of cool but there was just something about the episode that I couldn’t get into. I always had a feeling that the imposter Jason wanted to reunite with Daniela and Charlie. I was thinking maybe they died in a car accident where he was the driver or some similar tragedy. A lot of the world scenes were incredibly dark; making it hard to even tell what was going on. I’d give the episode a 5 out of 10.

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