If seeing what Earth now looks like and finding out about Android’s creators and past don’t interest you, the demonic screeching certainly will! Here’s what happened on Dark Matter: Going Out Fighting.
“You guys moved on up to grappling?” | The first shot of episode 9 shows Nyx (Melanie Liburd) and Four (Alex Mallari, Jr.) taking a tumble in the hay, as the saying goes. They decide to keep what happened between themselves, and panic a little when Three (Anthony Lemke) later makes a comment about them “really going at it last night.” Three clarifies innocently that he was talking about seeing them sparring in the training room, and Four and Nyx mumble awkwardly about bowstaves and swords.
Five (Jodelle Ferland) finds Two (Melissa O’Neil) still unconscious on the floor of her room. Once Two wakes up in the infirmary, Android (Zoie Palmer) informs her that her nanites are failing, meaning that she is dying. After telling the crew of her situation, Two tells them that she has to go to the headquarters of Dwarf Star Technology (which, remember, is on Earth), where she was made. It’s the only way she’ll be able to find out what’s wrong with her nanites. The rest of the crew decides to go with her, of course, as she’s weakened and needs their help.
The Raza jumps to Earth, and Three, Four, Six (Roger Cross), and Nyx in the Marauder head down to the surface, which looks just like the planet Coruscant from Star Wars. There’s a tall building that Five identifies as a space elevator, which is connected to the space station housing Dwarf Star Technologies.
“It would be perfectly normal behavior for a friend.” | Back on the Raza, Android runs more scans of Two. Two asks Android for a temporary fix, so that she’ll be able to do what she normally can, and won’t have to sit around while her friends risk their lives for her.
Three and Nyx leave the Marauder to do recon, and Four confides in Six that he’s thinking of leaving the Raza. His home planet is about to lose an interplanetary war, and his place is with his people. The only things stopping him are his loyalty to the crew of the Raza, and the fact that without his memories, he has nothing to offer Zairon.
Three strolls into the lobby of the Dwarf Star headquarters, wearing some totally inconspicuous sunglasses that transmit visual back to Five on the Raza. They need to make it up to the space station, which is where Two was created by Alexander Rook (Wil Wheaton). They find that the door to the space elevator requires a retinal scan to open.
Back on the Raza, the crew assesses their options. The only way to get to the space station is through the elevator door, which they’ve already seen is pretty impossible. But Five brings up a file on a Dwarf Star employee named Dr. Eric Waver (Jonas Chernick), who has been working there for over 10 years, and says that they will have to catch a ride up with him.
Android tells them that she’s working on a way to circumvent Dwarf Star’s retinal scan technology, using the infirmary’s repair and reconstruct technology, in conjunction with some of the illegal devices from the storeroom.
“If I’m going out, I’m going out fighting.” | Two tells the crew that she’s going down in the Marauder to find Dr. Waver, and when they protest that she’s in no shape to do so, she reveals that Android had found a way to temporarily boost the power to her nanites. For 24 hours, she’ll be stronger than she’s ever been—but after that, her nanites will shut down completely, and she will die immediately.
Well, we’d better not waste any time arguing! Two, Three, and Six go to Dr. Waver’s house. Waver recognizes Two, or Rebecca, as she was named, and says that he was part of the original team that created her. Perfect. Waver tells the story of how Two was their first successful prototype of a bio-engineered human, capable of self-sustainment and sentience. She was subjected to physical torture designed to push her limits and see what her nanites were capable of. She surpassed all expectations, which, unfortunately, caused the research team to push farther. Waver was a junior member of the team, and was assigned basic tasks, such as feeding her. This contact unexpectedly allowed the two to bond. When Two broke free, she brutally killed the whole research team, who had been about to perform more tests on her, and everyone else on the station. She spared only one person: Waver.
Waver knows by Two’s presence there that she knows about her nanites failing, and tells them that Dwarf Star has created a new, self-sufficient version. However, the new nanites are on the station, and Two will be identified before she gets anywhere near the elevator. Two decides that Three and Six will both go with Waver. There’s still the problem of the retinal scanner, so the gang makes Waver invite two friends over for takeout (some things never change).
“What makes Two special isn’t her nanites. It’s her strength of will, her ability to face adversity and never give up.” | On the Raza, Android walks in on Five drinking hot chocolate. Android informs Five that she has over 20 million taste receptors, so Five offers her a sip. Five reaches for the mug after Android has tasted it, but Android continues to drink it. Five tells Android that she’s worried about Two, but Android assures her that Two will be just fine, and that Two won’t let herself die. Five thanks Android for the pep talk, and reaches for her mug again. Android beats her to it and starts to leave with it. She stops and reiterates to Five, “She’ll be fine,” this time looking like she’s trying to convince herself of that.
In Waver’s house, Two scans one of Waver’s coworker’s eyes with a gadget Android put together, informing Three and Six that it scans the retinas, imprints the unique pattern onto an organic gel, which is then injected under their corneas. The gel will eventually break down and be absorbed by their bodies. Fun.
“Technology, huh?” | Three, Six, and Waver enter the Dwarf Star Technologies headquarters wearing lab coats, and try out their eyes. From space, we see a light moving up a ridiculously long elevator shaft into space, then we see the trio in the station. Waver shows them the new nanites, which look like blue liquid in vials, and tells them that one injection will give Two more than enough nanites. They grab the whole case just to be on the safe side, and are about to be free and clear, when in walk a bunch of armed guards and Alexander Rook. He knows that Two’s nanites are failing, and wants to know where she is. When they refuse to tell him, he has Waver shot and locks Three and Six up.
Two decides to leave the two scientists at Waver’s house and return to the Raza, since Three and Six have been gone too long. Android tells Two and Four that she’s found a hangar bay on the space station that they can use to access it. It’s sealed off, but Android believes that she can adapt the blink drive to the Marauder’s engine, so they can just appear in the bay.
“With all due disrespect…go to hell.” | On the Dwarf Star station, Rook has taken Three to a lab and is interrogating him. He claims he only wants to know where Two is so that he can save her, but Three isn’t buying it. Rook then gives his men the order to “hook him up.” They wheel in a box with windows, full of ribbons of a black, swirling smoke-like substance.
On the Marauder, Two, Four, and Nyx get ready to jump into the hangar bay. They hit the button, and BAM, there they are! Having been told where the nanites were kept by Waver’s two coworkers, the trio sets off.
Guards open the door to the cell that Six is stewing in, and shove Three back in. Three is acting peculiar and looks dazed, but Six is too busy trying to figure out an escape plan to take much notice.
“Would you like to meet the new you?” | Two goes to the room where Three and Six found the nanites, but the case of vials is empty. Rook shows up behind her and tells her that he can’t let her have the new nanites. A door opens, and out strides a tall, muscular man—version 2 of Two. Two fires, but his nanites work too quickly for her to do any damage. She manages to land a few blows on him, but he barely reacts, and throws her across the room.
The door to Three’s and Six’s cell opens, and Six prepares to attack, but Four stands on the other side, bloody sword in hand. Six hauls a still-dazed Three to his feet, and they set off in search of Two.
Two is still getting hurled around the room when the door unexpectedly opens, and Nyx shows up. Rook and his guard leave the room to avoid the spray of bullets, and the man starts flinging Nyx around as well. Then, Three and Six finally show up, having been rescued by Four, and Four puts an end to the man. Two is on the floor, at the end of her 24-hour period. She tells the crew that it’s too late for her, because Rook took the nanites, and loses consciousness. Six quickly draws blood from the man Rook created. He says that it should have the second-gen nanites, which should be able to keep Two alive. There are a few tense seconds where nothing happens, then Two sits up, gasping for air.
The whole crew returns to the Raza in the Marauder. Two assures Five that she’ll be fine now. As the rest of the crew walks down the hallway, Three pauses, and we see the ribbons of black smoke curling through the whites of his eyes.
“We’re family, we take care of each other, right?” | After Two gets scanned by Android to make sure everything is working properly, Six tells her that Three hasn’t been acting like himself. Six goes down to the system control room, where the blink drive is, and finds Three nosing around. Six asks Three what he’s doing, and Three tries to fire on him. Before he can get his gun out of his holster, Two shoots him with a knockout bolt from behind.
Three wakes up in a cell in the infirmary. He demands to know what’s going on, then tries to shift blame to Six. Android says that although Three is awake, his neural activity is more consistent with REM sleep. Two tells Three that Rook must have done something to him, and that she’s not going to let him out until she knows what. Suddenly, the black smoke curls across Three’s eyes, and he begins to convulse. He begins to scream, an inhuman, demonic sound. Two has Android drop the shield that forms the front of the cell, and shoots him with another knockout bolt.
Two decides to put Three into a stasis pod until they can get back to Earth to find out what’s inside him. Despite Three being unconscious, his eyes pop open, and he screams again. Thick black goo streams out of his nose, eyes, and mouth, straight up to the window of the pod. Whatever’s inside him is trying to escape. They drag the pod into a hallway next to an airlock, open the pod, and drag Three away from the goo. They then seal off the corridor in front of them and open the airlock, sucking the thing into space.
“Oh, come on. Did he save my life? Again?” | Three awakens again in the same cell in the infirmary. He asks Two if she’s going to be okay, then realizes where he is. He says he doesn’t remember anything after being strapped into the chair in Rook’s lab. Android confirms that Three’s brain activity is back to normal, and Two tells him that she’ll tell him what happened over drinks.
Android says that if anyone needs her, she’ll be on her charging platform. We then see her wake up in a bed, in a room with lots of windows and a wintery scene outside. Whaaaat?
What was that thing inside Three? What is Alexander Rook doing? Can Androids dream? Tune in to Syfy, Friday nights at 10pm, to get some answers!