Each episode of Blake Crouch’s hit Apple TV series, Dark Matter, takes viewers on a wild, thought-provoking ride to alternate universes. But star Jimmi Simpson warns that the upcoming Season 2 finale will unleash a next-level twist no one will see coming.
Season 2’s eventful penultimate episode saw Jason 1 and Jason 2 (Joel Edgerton) meet face-to-face and hash out the past. We watched Charlie (Oakes Fegley) hop in the box solo and travel to a world where he could meet his late twin brother, Max. Daniela (Jennifer Connelly) went on her own solo adventure, hoping to find her son. Agent MacNamara (Chris Diamantopoulos) finally experienced the box’s capabilities first-hand. The OG Jason and Ryan (Simpson) reunited in the same world, as did Blair (Amanda Brugel) and Amanda (Alice Braga). As the four worked on a plan to shut down the OG box, Leighton (Dayo Okeniyi) started seriously second-guessing the technology after seeing the destruction it caused in alternate realities. So what does Dark Matter Season 2, Episode 10 have in store?!
Apple TV’s official synopsis for Season 2’s finale, “No Quiet Life,” reads: “A high-stakes gambit leads to unintended consequences.” The 51-minute episode officially hits Apple TV on Friday, October 30 (or Tuesday, October 29 at 9:00 p.m. ET), but to hold fans over, DECIDER asked Simpson what we can expect from the highly anticipated finale.
“I think one thing I love about Season 2 in general, and in the last episode, is we get to spend time in one of my favorite worlds, because I’m a Luddite and technical stuff confuses me,” Simpson told DECIDER during an interview in our Manhattan studio. “We’re back in the analog world, which is lovely. And then, just like life, you make these great, fantastic plans, and they’re all coming together. But then there’s this one unexpected reality that you couldn’t even possibly prepare for. That’s what we’re dealing with.”
When reflecting on Ryan’s Season 2 journey, which included meeting other versions of himself and seeing his sister die in an alternate universe, Simpson said, “He’s absolutely a guy who’s going to see what he’s done and realize the error in his ways, or the things that he’s done that need his effort to try to get back on track.”
Simpson continued, “While [Ryan] might have been an unwitting builder of the box, he was still an essential element. So even though he’s walking around going, ‘Amanda, you built it,’ at the same time, he’s thinking, ‘And so did I.’ Ryan’s a very open-hearted guy in all forms and wants to do right.”
Heading into the Season 2 finale, it’s clear that the Jason, Ryan, Amanda, and Blair who teamed up in the low-tech world see one way to “do right” — by destroying the OG box. But as we saw at the end of Episode 4, when Amanda and Ryan worked so hard to return to their version of Chicago, only to step into a plagued world, even the most ambitious, intentional efforts in Dark Matter can still leave characters unfulfilled.
“[That was a] situation where the idea that you have that’s going to finally make you happy and satisfied, and you struggle and journey so hard to get it there, but by the time you’ve gone from point A to point B — especially if they are universes away — you’ve changed,” Simpson recalled. “And so now you understand actually a more deeper resonant reason to be alive. And instead of just going home and being comfy, there are still problems to fix. So [Ryan] was truly unsatisfied when he got back to what he thought his dream spot would be [in Episode 4].”
Ahead of the finale, with Simpson teasing “one unexpected reality that you couldn’t even possibly prepare for,” it leaves fans to wonder — whether the four successfully kill the OG box or not — what consequences or problems could leave these characters feeling truly unsatisfied after they arrive at what they thought was their dream destination again.
We’ll have to wait to see what Crouch and the team have in store. But as always, buckle up, Dark Matter fans. Here’s how to watch Season 2’s finale. And if you missed it, be sure to read the rest of our interview with Simpson.
New episodes of Dark Matter premiere Fridays on Apple TV.