Dark Matter
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Guess whos coming to dinner?
Dudes had a lot on his mind!
Their dinner is delayed by the reappearance of the Chicago Police Departments Detective Mason.
Ill confess that Ryans canonical sobriety is a detail that had eluded me before now.
Resolved: Ryans A and B are sober.
Even so, I was puzzled why this Mason was so suspicious of Jason B here.
All of this is because ofhis feelings, you see, which is, in fact, the case!
Daniela asks him to stop using the drug, and he agrees.
She warns him that Velocity had established that Lavender Fairy is habit-forming.
It doesnt make much sense, but then shes been right more often than Jason A has.
AndthisJason, unlike the one Amanda was sleeping with before this strange odyssey began, is a good listener.
Strolling along Lake Street, they buy a pair of hot chocolates from a street vendor.
The cups the beverage is served in are as delicious as the drink.
Amanda departs, asking Jason A to meet her there in two hours.
She gives him a parting kiss like theyre a long-established couple.
Shes bought a slick new suit for him, too.
Shes moved that he remembered.HerJason wouldnt have.
but grew up in Sao Paulo and moved to Chicago at 17.
She also went missing two years ago.
Its perfect, Amanda says.
She intends to stay.
Shes already used the vanished Amandas identity to get a new passport using facial recognition and a retinal scan.
She invites Jason to remain in this paradise with her, knowing hell refuse.
(I asked this questiontwo episodes ago.)
Their farewell kiss is a real one, passionate and tender.
That night, back inside the Box, Jason checks his remaining stash.
Three ampules after he stealthily dropped a pair into Amandas purse.
(She refused to let him give them to her.)
Maybe his sadness at parting from Amanda steered him to this bummer world.
Standing outside their home, he calls her from a burner phone while watching her through a window.
I took so many moments with you for granted, he says.
She promises him a night in, for which shell wear my sexiest sweatpants.
I would really love that, Jason A says.
But he knows this isnt his Daniela, and Joel Edgerton plays his heartbreak at this fact beautifully.
Recoiling from the brain-breaking sight, he retreats to the kitchen, where another mind-blower awaits him.
Charlie, Jason A says.
Yourotherson, the kid says to his old man, whos dressed like a cat burglar.
Its Max, the twin who in Jason As world did not survive past infancy.
Back in Jason As universe, Jason B is in Amanda As office for another therapy session.
Hes cheating, of course she doesnt know that another version of her was his lover.
she throws him out.
As he arrives home, Detective Mason is waiting on his doorstep.
Jason denies having accompanied Ryan there.
Mason implies that shes looking for CCTV footage that could prove he lied to her.
But again, her suspicion seems motivated by nothing.
Why hasnt Detective Mason come to check out this warehouse already since Ryans phone went offline here?
Why didnt Jason B come up with a less reversible method of sealing up the Box?
Will the perpetually side-eyed Detective Mason be fooled by this?
Leaving Ryans place, Jason B has what sure looks like a moment of self-doubt.
He describes his first sight of Daniela and their first evening together.
Im leaving a world today where our boy made it, he writes, where Max is alive.
He admits he was tempted to stay there and steal that Jasons identity.
We can be grateful he hasnt taken up songwriting, but this hoary solipsism is just the ticket.
As he emerges from the Box, the Village Tap looks right.
The wine bar looks right.
Matt, the Village Tap bartender, recognizes Jason, and Jason embraces him out of pure joy.
He runs for home, past the Logan Square Theater.
Damn, that cat is inevitable!
We just did this, the clerk sighs.
Jason is adamant hes never set foot in this store.
Weve got dimensionally displaced Jasons on the same damn block.
