Dark Matter Season 3 Episode 3 Review: Welcome to the Revolution
Kathleen Wiedel
at
.
Updated at
.
I confess that at several points on Dark Matter Season 3 Episode 3, I felt I was watching a summary rather than actual content, like an extended "Previously On..." segment.
Was there a hurry to introduce the two new characters and bid a rather hasty adieu to Six? Then there were the little matters of Sarah and Ryo, though not necessarily in that order.
"Welcome to the Revolution" saw the return of The General, the leader of the Procyon Insurrection. You can be forgiven for having completely forgotten about him and it.
The General previously appeared on Dark Matter Season 1 Episode 8 and is still just as bloody-minded. This time, he gave a horrifically condescending and pompous speech to get the workers on his side:
I’ve shed blood. And I have no regrets. Because I fight for the weak. The defenseless. The downtrodden. I fight for the oppressed! And I… will fight for you.
The General
Seriously, that actually worked? Ugh.
Still, if you were super-duper desperate, maybe you'd be willing to buy into that hokey line.
Six stood in the spotlight only we really didn't get to learn anything new about him. And his sudden personal investment in the matter of these workers came across rather forced.
(Did you forget that Six wasn't an actual revolutionary, but a cop infiltrating the revolution? I didn't.)
In fact, the entire situation seemed contrived and painfully predictable. I called that a third party was responsible for the explosion that inflamed the workers right from the get-go.
However, Six head-shotting The General felt undeniably satisfying, as well as the callback to the General's previous fate establishing his habit of traveling by clone. Unfortunately, many other areas of opportunity seemed rushed or otherwise glossed over.
Sure, Six wanted to do good, but here he was suddenly jumping ship and joining up with a group of people he'd literally just met. Weren't they just calling the crew a family on the Dark Matter Season 3 Premiere??
How did the team rescue Six from the booby trap? I don't know, either.
Did the Galaxy invent effective immortality? Because it sure seemed like it, what with the whole "Five downloaded Sarah's digital consciousness" bit.
Did Ryo actually send Misaki away, as he told Teku, or did he really just kill her? And why did he change his stance on the Raza crew and order the bounty hunters to kill them?
Speaking of Ryo: is it just me, or was there a serious Empire Strikes Back vibe going on there with that bounty hunter scene? (This is not a bad thing, mind, just an observation.)
I might also be a broken record for my repeated praise of Anthony Lemke, but just watch him in that final scene when Five revealed Sarah's continued existence. He didn't say a word in the whole scene, but his face spoke volumes.
Sarah's sort-of survival came completely out of the blue, considering she died all the way back in Dark Matter Season 1 Episode 7! (She did cameo as a hallucination in Dark Matter Season 2 Episode 10, "Take the Shot.")
While I'm not sure how Dark Matter plans on handling Sarah in the long run, I cannot possibly see a happy ending for poor Three. Ouch. It's like the universe just wants to kick him in the face over and over again.
Let's take a moment to examine the two new (temporary?) additions to the crew: Adrian Maro and Solara Shockley.
I have to wonder whether Tabor Calchek wasn't originally written with David Hewlett in mind, rather than his sudden replacement. This exchange, in particular leaned toward Hewlett's particular strengths:
Adrian Maro: I’ll stay here and back up the kid.
Five: “The kid”?
Adrian Maro [awkwardly]: Younger… person…
Adrian provided some measure of entertainment, and he managed not to get killed, so that's something.
As for Solara, we got a little bit, a very little bit, of development for her. She's overqualified for the bodyguard job, and there was a bit of a connection/rivalry established with Three, which was cute.
Will these two have more luck than the last two to join the Raza crew, Devon and Nyx? Or those guys Shrike and Jasper that Adrian mentioned?
It just makes me wonder how Six managed to leave the Raza without a sudden case of death, actually!
As a whole, I was disappointed with the material in comparison to the premiere.Obviously, everything isn't going to be a home run, but it's disappointing nonetheless.
Be sure to check out our Dark Matter quotes page for a rundown of some of the notable lines, and share your favorite we missed in the comments below!
You can always watch Dark Matter online, and don't forget to tune in for the next installment, Dark Matter Season 3 Episode 4, "All the Time in the World," slated for Friday, June 23, 2017 at 9 p.m. on Syfy.
So, what did you think of "Welcome to the Revolution"? Were you surprised that Six actually left the Raza? What about Sarah? Will Ryo's plan to steal back the blink drive work?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
