Picking up where we left off yesterday – let’s continue our rundown of Dark Matter‘s third episode..
1) So somebody in this room wiped our memories and probably killed that kid.
TWO comes clean about what she’s learned – the fact that someone did, in fact, upload a program into the stasis pods that targeted their memories. This not only suggests someone among them was responsible for their collective amnesia, but also strongly suggests that many of their memories may now reside in FIVE’s subconscious. Then, they suddenly drop out of FTL and the Android announces there is something wrong with the ship.
Some pretty major revelations! Sure, but the aspect of this scene that has garnered a surprising amount of attention is the fish tank in the background. Gorgeous but, alas, not an actual fish tank. You’ll notice in this episode, and moving forward, that the screen at the back of the mess changes, cycling through a variety of different Earth-based nature videos – a little touch of home for our distant crew.
2) Dead bodies, hacked stasis pods, now this? There’s a whole lot of things going wrong on this ship.
The Android informs them there’s a problem with the ship. THREE suspects sabotage or, at least, a sabotage of the ship’s diagnostics – and he wastes no time pointing the finger of blame at our resident tech monkey, FIVE. Big brother SIX predictably rises to her defense and, again, we get a taste of how the various shipboard alliances and relationships are shaping up (something we explore over the course of this episode, this entire first season, and beyond).
I love these types of scenes that include the entire crew but, truth be told, they are incredibly challenging to shoot. Not only does the director have to cover seven different characters, but he/she also has to keep the scene dynamic. No easy task, particularly given the fact that exposition drives a huge chunk of this scene.
3) No, not the door. What’s behind the door.
Thought we’d forgotten all about the mystery door, huh?
In an obvious attempt to win himself an ally – and possibly get himself inside – THREE shows FOUR the big metal door. Anthony Lemke and Alex Mallari Jr. are great together here and I especially love this scene because it offers up a rare glimpse of FOUR’s dryer than dry sense of humor.
4) We’re bad company.
SIX is really the only other crew member capable of going toe to toe with TWO, and he does so here – a follow-up to their initial clash on the bridge. Only three episodes in and fractures are beginning to show. And, by the way, he’s not wrong about the dangers present on the ship – and the fact that it’s no place for a “kid”. As for his stab at TWO’s reasons for keeping FIVE around…well, we’ll have to wait and see.
5) It’s chocolate protein pudding day!
The crew sits down to a new-fashioned lie detector test compliments of the ship’s Android who monitors their physiological responses for tells. I noticed a few people who watched this sequence commented along the lines of: “Why are they taking turns answering each question?! It doesn’t make sense!” Dudes, seriously? The jumping between the various crew members answering the same question is a visual conceit, a fun shorthand that touches on everyone’s responses without having to cycle through each individual session. The sequence, edited by the marvelous Teresa Hannigan, is accompanied by a terrific score compliments of Brad Pinkerton.
Coincidentally (or not!) the episode aired on Friday, June 26th which, it turns out, WAS Chocolate Pudding Day!
Maybe the kid IS psychic!
6) We’re not asking.
2, 4, and 6 pay 3 a visit so they can ask him to take the lie detector test. He refuses because, as he puts it, he doesn’t “trust that robot”. If you devised a drinking game in which you’d have to do a shot every time THREE uses the term “Android”, you’d go very thirsty. What’s of particular interest in this scene is the fact that FOUR is among the trio who strong-arms THREE, reinforcing the point he made earlier during the training room sequence: He wants answers, dammit! 7) If you shoot him, you may skew the results.
Hey, you know who I love? The Android. She’s a blast to write for because she’s a delightfully humorous character – played by a delightfully humorous actress (Zoie Palmer). After informing the crew of the potential pitfalls of shooting THREE, she proceeds to grill him…
And, just when we start getting some answers, the proceedings are interrupted by another shipboard emergency. This one worse. MUCH worse!
Some Dark Matter-related links to check out: Ratings – http://www.tvwise.co.uk/2015/06/dark-matter-opens-big-for-syfy-uk-with-nearly-400k-viewers/ Whoa! An incisive analysis of the show and its characters. The author picked up on certain story elements others have missed. A very interesting read: http://tv-remote-viewing.com/2015/06/27/dark-matter-walk-on-the-wild-side/ Another very interesting read: http://www.philpercs.com/2015/06/syfys-dark-matter-and-moral-aspects-of-personal-identity.html “In the show, the memory loss serves as a plot device to allow formerly evil characters to explore a newfound goodness. But, more than making for an interesting show, if my intuition that this is a plausible response in this situation, I think this suggests something deeper about us.” Melissa O’Neil (TWO) interviews Anthony Lemke (THREE): http://www.space.ca/show/dark-matter/episode/melissa-oneil-interviews-anthony-lemke/646421/ Anthony Lemke (THREE) interviews Melissa O’Neil (TWO): http://www.space.ca/show/dark-matter/episode/anthony-lemke-interviews-melissa-oneil/646418/
I actually was laughing loudly about >If you shoot him, you may skew the results.<< Really liking the series, developing so great. Thank you!
Wow, seriously? On the one hand you have to appreciate that they are talking about it, even if it is a criticism, because frankly, there are a plethora of ass-kissers out there, especially in the science fiction blog communities, who won’t criticize a single thing about it (even if it is a constructive criticism) because, you know, the president of Syfy is going to take time out of their busy schedule to call them to register a complaint about blogs with negative comments in them.
But it is hard on Twitter to understand intent sometimes in 140 characters, and hopefully they were just asking because they weren’t familiar with nuances like that.
I love the idea of a virtual fish tank. Calming without all the mess.
And I’ll pass on the chocolate protein pudding. But if you had to do any flavors of puddings within protein pudding, chocolate would be the best one.
Still need to watch the episode so I can’t add any thoughts. Meant to between my dinnertime and late night pet sit but Patrick had a seizure at my client’s house so I was stuck there with him until Jeff could get out to help me get him in the car to come home because he was unconscious by that point. I don’t take him that often and had a weird feeling (maybe I was catching a pre-seizure vibe from him) when we went in. It was pouring rain and I left the seizure bag in the car so I could get him in the house without being completely drenched. My one side of my brain was like, “Maybe that’s a bad idea” and the other side was like “we’re only going to be in there for 20 minutes–it’ll be fine.” But it was about a month since his last breakthrough seizure and we are usually on a once-a-month schedule for them. It’s become second nature to me after all these yeas to take care of them, but with my orthopedic issues, trying to get a 6 feet tall, 150-pound deadweight kid in the car in the pouring rain was not a pleasant though. So the dogs enjoyed having me there for a full hour. WIN-WIN. And oh yeah, I went in for a follow up on my left shoulder impingement syndrome, and the doctor said, we need to take an x-ray of your neck. I have cervical spondylolisthesis at all levels, cervical radiculopathy and at least a dozen bone spurs. Well, that certainly explains some things. He wants to do PT (I have had PT now since November for various body parts, but I haven’t gotten a break yet from the cycle of PT overall) And we’ll see how I do. If I don’t respond well, then he’ll do an MRI to check for disk herniations. Joy. Sorry I’m in a bad mood.
@ PBMom – Hang in there. Poor Patrick. Hope he has recovered. Does it take long to get over a seizure, or is it over as fast as it comes on? Hope your aches and pains lessen too.
@ Tam Dixon – My mom is still in the physical therapy nursing center. We thought she would get out last weekend but they decided she needed to stay a couple more weeks. I visit her at least 5 times a week, taking her clean clothes, personal stuff, hot coffee, and her favorite snacks, etc. Found out they were expecting her to do things that she never even did at home. I don’t want to “spring her from the joint”, I want it to be their idea. But I may have to have another talk with the social worker.
My Dad misses her terribly. He just wants her home. I go over there 4-5 times a week keeping an eye on him. Cooking and laundry on the weekends and get him “easy” things to eat for during the week. Homemade dinners that he just has to warm up. Now he has started sitting in his chair in his shorts and undershirt. I told my mom and she just rolled her eyes.
I’m starting to think there is a bunch of people living behind the big door. The door is protecting them. The ship is taking them to a new planet and ONE thru SIX are in charge of getting them there. But something happened while they were in the stasis pods and they lost their memory. I don’t think FIVE is suppose to be there, but she snuck in somehow. You know how she likes to explore.
I like the fish tank. I just thought it was there to sooth nerves. You should make something crazy happen in there every now and then. A fish fight or something.
The lie detector test was a lot of fun. It was well done. I liked the way it was spliced together. And I remember thinking the music was perfect for that scene. The Android is so much fun! Zoie Palmer is awesome as an android. Maybe even better than when playing a human being!
The Golden Boy really came through with this episode.
Maybe FIVE and the boy are really aliens, and they discovered the boy and killed him immediately, but they lost their memories before they could kill FIVE. Now FIVE is living among them, like that movie The Thing. Who the heck is FIVE!! It’s starting to bug me.
Yes, what Ponytail said about the lie detector tests. Well, done, Much more interesting than just watching one person get grilled.
Fish tank is SOOOOO earthling. I did not remember/still do not remember (might have had my memory wiped too) that the sleepers are earthlings.
But that said, I do like it/like to see it. Nice.
We’re moving offices at work soon and as we will be fitting out the new office from bare walls we’ve been asked what cool things we’d like. A number of people have asked for a large fish tank. In lieu of that I’m going to suggest three large TVs showing underwater scenes.
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OK, is the pudding made from protein extracted from chocolate? Or is it chocolate flavoured protein? While the latter might be palatable I have my doubts about the former.
Funniest moment… when Four was in that scene with Three asking him if he could open the door… long pause… then Alex says “No”, turns around, and walks away. That had me laughing.
The Chocolate protein pudding day line made me smile. There were a few lines that made me 😆 Thanks for that! Looks like you need to make some decisions soon about moving. 😉 What kind of place would you look for in Toronto?
PBmom: Sorry about your day. I hope Patrick is better now! Hang in there and feel free to vent anytime. I don’t know what some of those medical terms were that you used but they sound painful. Hope you feel better soon too!!
Ponytail: I pray they are back together again soon! They raised a good daughter. I’ve never met them but they sound like wonderful people. {{{Hugs}}} to you on this stressful time. If they are going to stay in their house, can they afford some kind of help? You know, like house cleaner or someone to cook for them?
Gforce: What a wonderful view! I hope you’re building a porch? I’m not sure how common porches are in the North but down here, it’s a way of life!
JeffW: Thanks for taking us along on your trip. It was fabulous!
@Scott – If TV characters never say anything without subtext, then FOUR’s “no” can’t mean just “no”.
@Ponytail Wow. That is a lot of caregiving. You are a wonderful daughter. Please don’t forget to take care of yourself because if you don’t you’ll burn out very quickly. I share this from experience. On a funnier note, I wonder if Jeff would ever feel that way about me. I often envy older people I see holding hands or you can just see it in the way they are with each other that they have this connection that is so beautiful and they treat each other as if they are the only thing that matters in this world. I just can’t complete with video games. (Giggles). Maybe when we move Patrick to a group home in 2018 Jeff and I will find the time to be able to reconnect and light that fire again. I hope your mom and dad are reunited soon,
@Ponytail As far as Patrick, his seizures are bilateral temporal lobe seizures. They don’t look like the generalized seizures you see on TV where the person drops to the ground, shakes for 30 seconds to a minute and then comes out of it. When Patrick’s seizures start, they tend to not stop until we intervene with Diastat (rectal Valium() The key to his faster recovery from his seizure is how quickly we notice it to the time we give him the Diastat, to when it finally kicks in and stops the seizure. We’ve had one seizure last as long as 16 minutes and we were ready to throw him in the car and go up to the fire station 0.5 mile away (but I found out subsequently they don’t have Valium to give him–they only have cardiac meds they can give people and they have to call an ambulance which generally takes 15-20 minutes–which is good to know). Geez. The FD people who were called to Patrick’s school bus when he had one on there said that our town does not have enough ambulances so they get called in from Houston. I have some unlisted YouTube videos I use for training purposes so people can actually see what they look like (like school people, babysitters, etc.). Here is one. They all look a little different. https://youtu.be/rrteU5YxlkI When he had his 16 minute seizures (and I say 16 minutes from the time we notice it until the time it ends, as a lot of times we are coming into the room or checking on him when he’s already in one), the next day he had a migraine that required a 5 mg hydrocodone pill so it was so painful for him and it took him about a week for those headaches to go away. Then after that, within 2-3 weeks he will have another breakthrough one,. He is on 3 different seizure medications (one he takes 3x a day, another 2x a day and the other 1x a day). They pretty much have them under control, but he has these breakthrough ones. Oddly enough, after he has them, for 24-48 hours he has this period of time where he does things he normally doesn’t do. We might hear him speak very clearly which shocks us. Or he will do a task we’ve never seen him do before. The neurologist said it acts like a computer reboot–you know when the computer just has too much going on in the brain and it seizes up and then you turn it off, turn it back on and it clears out. When he had a 4-5 minute seizure I only had to give him migraine relief pills (the OTC ones) for a day. But the one thing that is a constant is that after his seizures, he will sleep for 14-18 hours. With this one, he had the seizure at 5 p.m. on Tuesday and he did not wake up until 10 a.m. this morning. The seizure requires so much energy from the body to happen. It’s exhausting for him.
@TamDixon and @Ponytail Thanks for your kind words about my ailments. I’d just like the universe to give me a break and stop finding things wrong, but I also guess this is what it is like to get older. What the medical terms basically mean is I have lost the curve in my spine because my spinal levels are collapsing down upon each other because I’ve lost that cushy stuff (the meniscus). Not bone-on-bone yet, and not sure if I have a herniation, but he said we’ll start here with PT and see what happens. No way I’m having surgery on my neck even if that was presented as an option. The bone spurs are bony projections off of other bone. They can be benign or they can cause problems.
@Gforce It’s so exciting having a house built. Jeff and I, while planning our wedding, would drive up here (45-minute drive up and back) to see the progress on the house every week. I would never suggest doing both at the same time. Wayyyyyy too stressful. We were just looking at the picture again recently; it was a nice flashback for us.
@JeffW Definitely have been enjoying all your pictures and updates. Can’t wait to hear if you listened to any of my musical suggestions. I did overload you with quite a bit!
I kind of sided with THREE in that I suspected the Zobot of causing the ship’s “failures” as a method of affecting some sort of desired outcome that she wanted. I still don’t think I’m wrong, to an extent, because those interlock lights she used to expose the coil-part-thingamajig were all green. I’d think if one of those components were actually bad, it’d show up red or something. Plus, I don’t remember the camera explicitly showing a new part going in so we could contrast it to the old part for a “viewer verification”, of sorts. I could’ve just missed it, though.
After taking in the Android’s habits, tendencies, mannerisms, and personality, I’m beginning to theorize that the Android may have been the one to erase their memories in some form of an Asimov-ian Three Laws “logic takeover”. By that I mean that she thought and thought about the purpose of the Raza and her crew, and decided to hit the reset button in their brains, in a way, because while her job was to protect them, she knew they’d end up dead if they kept doing what they were hired to do.
Of course, the teaser for episode 4 kinda throws a wrench into that idea…..for the time being, anyway.
-Mike A.