Dark Matter season 3 episode 4 review: Three kicks in the feels

Dark Matter season 3 episode 4 on Syfy Friday night started off with a rather funny premise: Seeing Three suffer courtesy of his on a loop. He was effectively in the middle of Groundhog Day, and as a result of that, he has to figure out why he was reliving the same events in different forms over and over again.

This Three-on-a-loop storyline did generate some pretty amazing results, especially when it comes to Three speaking French and singing with The Android. Also, him waking up and pushing people around. This probably was the funniest episode of the show that we’ve seen just because you were watching this poor guy slowly descend into madness.

Yet, there was a surprisingly moving quality to the story as we saw Three combat some of his past demons in the loop, and eventually at one point paid a visit to the digital consciousness of Sarah and made it clear just how much that he missed her. At one point, it looked as though confronting this issue would be a cure for the loop, and even though this didn’t end up being the case, it was still very much heartwarming to see.

So what was the source of the phenomenon? It turns out that it was a mysterious device aboard the ship with a clock face on it, and that wasn’t the only problem since Ash seemed to borrow some powers straight out of The X-Men and suddenly became a thorn in everyone’s side — while also wearing only boxers. Ash wasn’t able to take the blink drive, which disappointed Ryo greatly at the end of the episode.

A twist for The Android

She determined that she was going to be able to resolve the time loop, but let’s just say that her experiment did not go according to plan. When she woke up, she found herself being interrogated over the Android Liberation Front; also, she was completely dismantled. She flash between that and finding herself in another place with another costume (!) that definitely looked like something straight out of a season of Alias. Here, she was told that she had arrived to the future — specifically, to the end of time, which was a dark and very depressing place.

While there, she found herself getting a rather dark, terrifying look at her future. She learned briefly via a much older Five that the Raza crew could be going through hell, and then flashed back into the present. She destroyed the device in order to end the temporal loop — but would that be enough to change anything for the future?

In the end, Three found himself going back to Sarah, and within that moment, finding an element of peace.

The Verdict

How do you make a lot out of a little? This is clearly one of the questions that the writers of Dark Matter had going into this episode, given that this was fairly low-budget given that so much of the episode took place on the Raza and didn’t require all too many costume changes, either (beyond of course the Android stuff near the end of the episode).

While some of visions of the end of time may be a bit too abstract to really wrap one’s head around, this was still easily the strongest episode of the season. It was funny, it was sad, and it was ambitious. The fact that it did all of this without having to use a ton of effects or fight scenes is all the more impressive. Grade: A-.

What did you think about Dark Matter season 3 episode 4? Share now in the comments below!

Meanwhile, head over to this link in the event you do want some further news and insight on where things could go from here on Dark Matter. (Photo: Syfy.)