Dark Matter Season 1 Finale Review: The End?

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http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/w8jW71Ghh7VdCa98QLML1g--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3NfbGVnbztmaT1maWxsO2g9ODY7cT03NTt3PT EzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/homerun/cbstv.cbs.com/ccd35e37cc7be5177966a3748d28c698 (http://news.yahoo.com/dark-matter-season-1-finale-160800107.html)Dark Matter S01E12 / S01E13: "Episode Twelve" / "Episode Thirteen" That's it for Dark Matter, guys! At least for 2015. We still don't know if Space and Syfy will be bringing the series back for Season 2, but the way the first season ended, they had better or I will march on down to their offices and then turn right around because I am scared of conflict. But my intentions are there! Dark Matter needs another season not just because the last handful of episodes of the were an improvement over the rest of the season, but because you CANNOT END A SEASON LIKE THAT. It should be illegal and punishable with a wet-noodle slapping. Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, I'm looking at you, and I'm about to drop a whole package of uncooked spaghetti into this pot of boiling water. I say that as a fair-weather fan of Dark Matter—because I genuinely want to know what's next for the Raza crew, especially after THAT—and as a critic, because the way Season 1 ended was kind of a ripoff in that there's absolutely zero closure in "Episode Thirteen." If Dark Matter doesn't get a second season, we'll just have to guess what Six's motives were for turning the rest of the crew over to the Galactic Authority. And frankly, I'm still busy writing my own fanfic endings for Deadwood, FlashForward, The Event, Alcatraz, and Alphas. I don't have time to add another. (Knowing my luck, Space and Syfy will renew the series before this gets published and I'll sound like an idiot.) But before we get to the ending, let's quickly talk about everything else that happened. I liked "Episode Twelve" more than the finale; it felt like an extension of whatever was going on behind the scenes in "Episode Eleven," as things felt bigger and better from a production standpoint. There was also the planet-destroying white-hole technology as a doomsday weapon, another great addition to any science fiction story. Let's also remind ourselves that once again, the guys were cooped up in the ship while the women took care of business—this time Android joining Two instead of Five—and it worked again, probably because the female characters are more interesting than the males. And Two kicking butt and chopping scientists into pieces is always fun to watch, but Android's initial ass-thumping of some drones was the highlight. The stuntwork continued to impress. Even though "Episode Twelve" was just a fun rescue mission with some details on Two's background—she was created by Alexander Rook (Wil Wheaton) and killed a bunch of scientists escaping her creators—it wisely put us in a place where harmony ruled the Raza crew, and the late scene of everyone having a grand old time around the dinner table was a pleasant picture we didn't see much of in Season 1. So of course it was set up to yank all the pleasantries away for the finale. But all in all, another good hour of Dark Matter. "Episode Thirteen" was a whodunnit that pit the crew against each other, a mechanic that Dark Matter should be exploring as often as it can seeing how these six (well, five because Five) strangers are wanted criminals who don't know each other well at all. There was a feeling that intergroup eyebrow-raising was going to happen in the finale right from the get-go, so the set-up of getting there was a little exhausting (did we really have to spend all that time with Five going through the vents to see if the culprit was in there?) and the first third of the episode amounted to very little. It wasn't until 15 minutes of clearing the ship had passed that the Raza crew realized that one of them was responsible for knocking out Android and was a threat to everyone else. Once that got started, One and Two did the name-calling thing that they've been doing all season long, Five was scared of Two because of a secret pre-stasis recording she dug up of Two talking to Four (I think?) about killing someone else, and Four and Six got knocked out early. There wasn't as much tension as there should have been as there was hardly any evidence to hold against any individual character, and wild accusations from old grudges or unconfirmed evidence formed the basis of most of the suspicions. But "Episode Thirteen" did a splendid job of keeping the big secret—who was the rat?—until the very end as an army of Galactic Authority soldiers boarded the ship and gassed everyone else. And out of the smoke was Six walking with the GA while his fellow crew members were hauled off. That's it! That's how it ended. Dark Matter never had any shame about ending episodes on cliffhangers, a technique that is both thrilling and frustrating, but tacking one on to the season finale is another story. Especially when the show's future is in the air. Knowing that Six was the culprit wasn't enough. We need an explanation about why he did it, and where the crew members were being taken to. But instead, "Episode Thirteen" was handled in the same way other episodes were. We can guess about why Six did it—he bargained his own freedom, he made a deal to clear him of his blame for blowing up all those people, he was always a secret member of the GA—but all we got was a fact rather than a feature. That's a tough way to leave Dark Matter for nine months. DARK MATTERS – Four is going to take back his throne once all his affairs are in order. Do we really need that episode? – Three: "I hate cake." – That old man Alex was talking to at the end of "Twelve" wants the Raza crew dead now. They're just making friends all over space!



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