DARK MATTER — “Welcome To Your New Home” Episode 201 — Pictured: (l-r) Anthony Lemke as Three, Melanie Liburd as Nyx, Melissa O’Neil as Two, Alex Mallari Jr. as Four — (Photo by: Jan Thijs/Prodigy Pictures/Syfy)
Dark Matter’s first season cliffhanger left us hanging with the crew of the Raza being carted off by Galactic Authority as a result of being betrayed by Six.
The season two premiere (Welcome to Your New Home (this season the eps have titles!) begins with Two, Three and Four going through contamination as they enter a high security prison on an airless moon. Things can only get better from there, right?
While Two (Melissa O’Neil), Three (Anthony Lemke) and Four (Alex Mallari Jr.) are cooling their heels (or trying not to get them chopped off), One (Marc Bendavid) and Five (Jodelle Ferland) are in the prison’s staff wing and they are not happy about Six’s actions.
Six tries to persuade them that he’s done the right thing – he was originally a GA undercover agent and they were criminals, after all – but the pair are not buying it.
DARK MATTER — “Welcome To Your New Home” Episode 201 — Pictured: Alex Mallari Jr. as Four — (Photo by: Jan Thijs/Prodigy Pictures/Syfy)
Meanwhile the others are facing some trying times in their new home – two different factions try to enlist them (and by enlist, I mean threaten and/or beat them) and this leads to out meeting Nix (Melanie Liburd). Nix fights Two to a draw before the two are zapped by a guard and tossed into solitary – where we learn something really crazy about the prison.
Then there’s the posh type who seems to be after Five and has the power to make things happen – even when the prison’s warden (Carlo Rota) has other things (like the Raza crew’s deaths) in mind.
To top things off, Andrea (Zoie Palmer) is being ordered to upload her memory of everything that’s occurred on the Raza since she became the ship’s android. Good thing she has a mind of her own – unless ordered by a crew member…
Between the warden’s intentions and the interest of Nix and Arax (Michael Dupod), things look dicey for the crew of the Raza – even if One has been liberated by an unexpected appearance by a lawyer for the company it turns out that he owns, and Six is a GA officer.
DARK MATTER — “Welcome To Your New Home” Episode 201 — Pictured: Anthony Lemke as Three — (Photo by: Jan Thijs/Prodigy Pictures/Syfy)
Naturally, Two, Three and Four decide they have to break out of jail – just as a new threat (Franka Potente) arrives…
Written by Paul Mullie and directed by Martin Wood (both Stargate franchise veterans), Welcome to Your New Home adds new layers to the series. New antagonists and (possible) allies; new circumstances for a group of people who don’t remember their criminal pasts and have only performed any new criminal activities for a greater good – and some pretty cool action set pieces (it’s a prison ep so there’s got to be a prison riot, right?).
Dark Matter’s second season premiere ups the ante for everyone while giving us, yes, another cliffhanger (though this one is much cooler than previous one’s we’ve seen…). It might not be Eric Frank Russell or E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith, but it’s definitely within the same section of the galaxy.
Oh, and the price of betrayal looms in the ep’s dying minutes…
Final Grade: A-
P.S. After three weeks of close in blindness, I’m back. Didja miss me?