Season two of Dark Matter picks up with the Dessens as they settle into a quiet life in a world that finally seems safe until the unimaginable forces them to run once again. As Jason’s (Joel Edgerton) obsession with the Box deepens, Daniela’s (Jennifer Connelly) growing paranoia pushes her to the brink, threatening to tear their fragile stability apart. Elsewhere, Amanda (Alice Braga) and Ryan (Jimmi Simpson) join forces in a desperate attempt to find their way home. With Blair (Amanda Brugel) determined to stop him, Leighton (Dayo Okeniyi) relentlessly chases his grand vision of creating a perfect world.
“Every rich character in filmmaking or storytelling in any way is a cautionary tale to some degree. You can’t have a good story without conflict in some way. I’ll say there are elements of his story. Yes, that is a cautionary tale. I would say our show in general is a cautionary tale about technology and the effects technology has on our world and the effects technology has on the human condition. In season two of the show, we see characters literally dealing with PTSD from using the box. You can call that an analogy for social media, and this PTSD from the psychological effects of being on social media too long and relationships on there and the long-term mental health effects of social media can be a good proxy for the box. So yeah, it’s definitely a cautionary tale for good or for bad depending on how you see it.”
Leighton Vance, the ambitious tech entrepreneur who fronts the high-level research laboratory that developed this revolutionary technology to navigate the multiverse. Vance, too, encounters multiple personas, notably a guru hell bent on dominating the world with his groundbreaking new device. The show’s second season examines the power of good and evil set against this revolutionary new technology. Exploring man’s responsibilities versus human ego and the naïveté and ingenuity that lead to the creation of things that are unbelievable. But, beyond creating them, what’s humanity’s responsibility in using these inventions? The main question of the new season is, how do you put The Box back in its box?
“I think he’s waited, but I just think he’s naive to think that he can somehow control that. I always love using the box or using technology in our actual world as proxies for the box. There are questions that if you ask these billionaire creators, I don’t think they’re being honest with themselves either. Look at AI, for example, in our world today and how it’s completely disrupted everything. Accountants are out of a job. Actors, we’re probably going to be out of a job real soon. AI music is insane, what AI is doing with music. So, what happens when we live in a world where AI does everything for us? People have to leave their house. We have to do something. AI is doing our art, and it’s doing our taxes, and it’s doing everything. What kind of a world is that? Would you call that a perfect world, where we don’t have human challenges?”
“You could even argue that challenges are part of, if not the quintessential thing of, what it means to be a human being: to overcome adversaries and to go through things. So, if you live in a world where it’s perfect and there’s nothing to go through, then are we still human beings if we don’t go through that? What is the human experience? If there’s no pain or struggle, then you can’t be grateful for anything because you don’t know what the depths of losing anything feels like. These are very deep existential questions we talk about constantly when we’re making the show and when we’re writing it or acting it. Ultimately, we just came to a place where these are the conversations we want audience members to have while they watch the show and debate amongst themselves. ‘What is the nature of a perfect world?’ Who knows? I don’t know, and I don’t think I think Leighton is being very naive if he says he knows; he doesn’t know.”
Blair was the first person to go into The Box, enduring a very traumatic journey in Superposition that illustrated how dangerous this device was. When she rejoins Leighton, she’s alarmed that he’s now building something even grander than The Box. Blair’s relationship with Leighton is complicated. She holds a lot of resentment and blames him on account of her experience in The Box. However, this resentment becomes muddied as she still respects his mind, ambition, and fearless heart. Blair wholeheartedly supports Jason’s attempt to dismantle The Box because she believes it is an immediate way to stop travelers from accidentally or purposely wreaking havoc on an infinite number of worlds—and lives.
The second episode opens with a flashback to World #2 and Velocity Lab, three years earlier, with Amanda, Jason2, Leighton Vance, and Blair2 (Amanda Brugel) on the verge of launching the device, which Vance hails as the moment humanity “stepped beyond our finite understanding of reality… and into the infinite.” Leighton begins to realize that the perfect world is an ever-moving target. “Leighton as a Black billionaire who grew up in the ‘80s without many friends, finding acceptance only at Velocity Lab, the company his grandfather Ezekiel founded. He then took the reins and continued developing the company with Jason for more than a decade. The viewer understands him as a complicated person and why he made these choices—the kind of insecurity that leads people to choices they later regret.
For Leighton, each version of himself is spawned out of a pivotal nexus point in his past. “We decided that this nexus moment would be the death or survival of his parents and who raised him. So, each version of Leighton has a different nurturer. Leighton1 lost his parents young and was raised by his grandfather, Ezekiel, who gave him a sense of ambition, purpose, and a focus on preserving his family’s legacy. Leighton is someone with a disposition to always go too far. He is a victim of his own ambitions and, if left unchecked, will always spiral out of control. So, he’s not a villain; he’s just an incredibly misguided individual. It was a fun challenge to humanize Leighton this season.”
“There is a narcissistic nature to Leighton, where he’s like, ‘Unless that version of myself has something I need in order to create the perfect world, I don’t need to meet him.’ He’s very clearcut about the versions of himself he wants to meet. It’s not like, ‘Oh, I want to meet a version of myself who’s taller, more handsome, or more whatever, richer.’ He’s the richest man in the world. He doesn’t have any problems with himself, but he’s more goal-oriented. So, every Leighton he comes in contact with serves a purpose in him creating the perfect world. If they don’t serve a purpose in that, I don’t need to meet him.”
As for Okeniyi, he would love to meet every version of himself. “I want to meet the me who was T’Challa and Black Panther. Who’s the Dayo who got every role Denzel Washington has? When it comes to actors, it just comes down to roles. I want to know who the Black Spider-Man Dayo is. Who’s the Dayo who was in Lord of the Rings? Even though there are no Black people in Lord of the Rings, there’s a world where I’m THE one. It’s always something with actors being a part of this show or that show. I love Silo. I’m like, ‘Can I be in Silo somewhere? Could I have been a Dayo who did Silo instead of See or Dark Matter?”
Dark Matter season 2 is now streaming on AppleTV. To learn more about season 2, check out our full interview with Okeniyi in the video above.
Discover more from The Koalition
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
