Dark Matter
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Beware the plagues of locusts!
In interdimensional trespassing, as in showbiz, Nobody Knows Anything.
Though Jason B knows more than anyone else.
To Amanda that means they must wait until their emotions settle.
By which I mean the Box.
You cant lie to this thing, she says.
It occurred to me.
Jason asks her who else from Velocity went into the Box.
The first volunteer, Amanda says, was Blair.
But the Blair Caplan of Jason As homeworld is a lawyer whos friends with Daniela.
Amanda also mentions that the other two volunteers who went into the Box were called Selam and Alex.
Weve not heard their names before, but Ill bet you a fortune in crypto well hear them again.
Sometime later, Jason A and Amanda wake from a nap.
The interior of the Box is now merely that.
Both report having slept deeply and absent any troubling dreams and theyre starving.
So they agree to risk opening the door again.
The place is deserted and the power is out.
Its all creepy enoughbeforethey find a desiccated corpse in a bedroom.
No fucking way, the shotgunner says, recognizing the two intruders caught in the beam of her flashlight.
You came looking for me!
she says, overcome.
Blair B explains that whatever these things are, they devour everything and multiply exponentially.
Amanda asks Blair B why she hasnt tried her luck in another universe.
Blair still has some Lavender Fairy left.
Shes just too afraid to leave.
It was an instinctive response, not a decision Amanda and Jason were running for their lives.
The same could happen to Amanda.
Amanda asks Blair to come with them again, but Blair will not be moved.
She gives the pair her field journal, where shes documented the lessons of her travels.
She tells them what theyre already discovered steering the Box requires a daunting amount of focus.
Everything intrudes, Blair says.
Another Chicago boasts a screensaver-y lineup of skyscrapers that are even taller than the ones in real Chicago.
Here, Leighton A and Jason B contemplate a conspicuously greenscreened-in sunset.
See what I mean?
Jason B asks Leighton.
Its all about keeping your thoughts and your subconscious intentions aligned.
Leighton tells Jason B hell pay him $1 million for every hit of Lavender Fairy he can source.
When they step outside, the experiment appears to have worked.
Jason A recognizes this as the industrial space where Jason B drugged him in the first episode.
This is my world, Jason A says.
… except the streets are empty.
A stray black cat rummages through an unattended coffee shop.
Something is very wrong here, Amanda says.
Jason finds a car with the keys left in the ignition and drives them both to his home.
The Daniela who answers the door has black hemmoraghes in her eyes.
They carried you out, she tells her husband.
She wont let him get too close to her.
Jason A asks where their son it.
Hes still up in his room, Daniela answers.
No ones come to take him yet.
No one answers his question.
Seeing Jasons horror, the doctor tells Jason, The virus spreads through bodily fluids.
Dont wait, the doctor tells him.
The last eight hours are brutal.
They all were, Jason tells her.
Then she takes the first of the five syringes of morphine out of the package.
This would seem to be climax enough for one episode, but there are 15 minutes left!
Back in the Box, Amanda complains that shes sore all over.
Jason A reassures her, The test is negative.
Amanda points out to the bereft Jason that he mustve brought baggage with him through the door.
He asks why he wouldve sought out a world where hed have to experience what he just did.
I think that world taught us a lot about how the Box works, Amanda says.
That makes one of us, Doc.
I cannot reconcile this.
The next Chicago they emerge into has people on the sidewalks and cars on the roads.
Amanda brings them to her mothers horse.
Amanda gives her mom a few words of comfort in Portuguese before they make off with the womans keys.
You gave her hope, Jason reflects as the drive back Boxward.
Then you stole her car.
Then, we get a Zippo-flick sound as we return to the universe of Jason B.
A staffer who recognizes him asks what its like in there.
Its hell, he tells her.
