Dark Matter - The Box - Review: Think Outside The Box

Spoilers ahead!

This week’s Dark Matter is finally out, and both versions of Jason (Joel Edgerton) are in trouble!

Jason1 is at the bottom of the pit. Captured by Leighton Vance (Dayo Okeniyi), the mysterious man who commands the project involving the (also mysterious) Box, Jason 1 knows his survival depends on people believing he is the Other Jason, the one who helped to build the Box. Everyone in the lab wants to know how he survived the Box, and how he found his way back home when no one else was capable of doing it. 

He pretends to be suffering from memory loss and starts asking questions to discover who these people are and what’s his role in this whole mess. And he knows that Leighton is not someone who can be messed with — after watching the Other Daniela (Jennifer Connelly) dying in front of him, Jason knows that his life will be in danger the moment these people realize he’s not the person they think he is.

Amanda Lucas (Alice Braga) is the first one to notice that this Jason is not the right one. After she tells Leighton about her discovery, Jason is tortured because Leighton needs to know how he got into the Box and found them. When the Other Ryan Holder (Jimmi Simpson) is brought to talk to Jason, we learn that a) Ryan was the one to tell Leighton that Jason was at Daniela’s place, b) Ryan feels guilty because Daniela is dead, and c) Ryan helps Jason to understand (kinda) how the Box works. At last, Ryan is killed off-screen after seemingly being tortured to death by Leighton and Dawn (Marquita Brooks), and Amanda helps Jason escape his room because she knows he’ll be next. They manage to get into the Box before Leighton catches them.

"Are You Happy in Your Life?" — Dark Matter, Pictured: Alice Braga as Amanda, Joel Edgerton as Jason. Photo: Apple TV ©. All Rights Reserved

This part of the episode was dense, but it was nice to get to know more about Amanda and Leighton. These are characters facing some high pressure from the fact that everybody that entered the Box is missing — including their Jason — and people started asking questions (including a detective who wants to know why so many people involved with their company are currently nowhere to be found). Amanda is scared because Dawn killed Daniela, Leighton is scared because he spent a lot of money to make this project possible and everything is going terribly wrong, and they’re both also scared because this Jason could be the answer to his problem but seems to be a problem of its own. Alice Braga and Dayo Okeniyi are great actors, and I’m very interested to see more of Amanda and Jason interacting together in upcoming episodes.

Meanwhile, the Other Jason is dealing with his new life. When he discovers there will be a dinner with family and friends at their house, he needs to find a way to act like Jason1 fast. After all, there’s a lot he knows nothing about, from people's names and their backstories/relationship with Jason1 to small (but very telling) things, such as the name of the hotel he supposedly was obsessed with. Joel Edgerton is so good as the Other Jason, it’s fun to watch him play this part. I still think people will soon start to realize something’s off about Jason, and I’m excited!

Anyway, this episode was fun. We got some new information, some setup for adventurous episodes across alternate realities, some intense scenes... I'm curious about what's coming next! Now let me know your thoughts. 

What do you think about The Box? Feel free to leave a comment with your impressions and theories, and thanks for reading!