Everything to Remember About ‘Dark Matter’ Ahead of Season 2

Dark Matter returns to Apple TV next week. The first season followed Blake Crouch ’s acclaimed sci-fi novel very closely, so what lies ahead is uncharted territory for the series. But we can guess there will be more freaky physics—the show is about interdimensional travel, after all—and characters encountering alternate versions of each other as well as themselves.

Given Dark Matter ’s high-concept, layered set-up, a crash course is in order even if you watched season one. With that in mind, here’s everything you need to know about Dark Matter ahead of season two.

Dark Matter is based on Blake Crouch’s 2016 novel of the same name; the author created the Apple TV series. He’s also its showrunner, one of its executive producers, and co-wrote or wrote six out of season one’s nine episodes.

The story follows Jason Dessen, a Chicago physics professor who’s got a pretty good life—he’s married to Daniela, the love of his life, and they have a 16-year-old son, Charlie.

But he can’t shake the feeling that perhaps he’s missing out. He gave up a cutting-edge career and took up teaching when Daniela got pregnant, choosing a less intellectually fulfilling but more family-oriented path instead. His nagging sense of regret balloons when his best friend and former colleague, Ryan Holder, wins a prestigious award for his work.

As Jason trudges home from Ryan’s celebration, nursing sad-sack “what if?” thoughts, everything changes. He’s kidnapped by a masked man, drugged, and dragged into a strange cube. He wakes up groggy and surrounded by people whom he doesn’t know but who all seem to know him .

We soon come to understand that Jason—our Jason, or Jason #1—has unwittingly swapped lives with the Jason from this world, aka Jason #2.

Jason #2 decided to break things off with Daniela when they realized she was pregnant. Instead, he’s spent the past 16-plus years focusing all his passion and energy into building that strange cube, which everyone on Dark Matter calls the Box.

But just like Jason #1, Jason #2 started having some regrets about his choices. So he used his invention, which he constructed thanks to a company called Velocity—which is run by his extremely wealthy former college pal, Leighton Vance—to find a Jason who’d built a life with Daniela and appropriated that life for himself.

Once that premise is established, Dark Matter follows Jason #1 as he attempts to use the box to find his way home, accompanied by Velocity staff psychiatrist Amanda Lucas, who’d been dating Jason #2 in their world. There’s a ticking clock at play since box travelers use a specially made drug to enable their minds to comprehend multiple dimensions, and the pair has only a limited supply.

In the parallel storyline, we watch as Daniela starts to pick up on the weird changes in her husband, who looks identical but has some unwelcome new personality quirks. He’s also lacking some important memories and knowledge, like the fact that Charlie has a dangerous nut allergy.