‘Dark Matter’ Season 2, episode 5 is the best kind of filler episode

We love a good standalone episode.

From The Last of Us to BoJack Horseman there’s a rich tradition among prestige TV shows of episodes that can pretty much be enjoyed by themselves, even if you aren’t that familiar with the show itself.

With Season 2, episode 5, “Love and Be Loved”, Dark Matter joins the ranks. So what happens, why does it work so well, and what does the episode mean in the show’s larger context?

What happens in Dark Matter Season 2, episode 5?

At the end of Season 1, it was revealed that the world-hopping antics of Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton) had inadvertently spawned hundreds of other Jasons. All of these Jasons were similarly displaced and trying to get back to their original world and family — but only one Jason could claim their old life. In a surreal sequence at the series’ end, Jason, Daniela (Jennifer Connelly) and Charlie (Oakes Fegley) walk through a sea of these other Jasons to the box (Dark Matter‘s multiverse portal), all of whom have come to say goodbye.

Season 2, episode 5 follows one of these “other” Jasons. We watch as this Jason uses his last remaining multiverse capsule to travel to a world in which his mother is still alive, but the version of himself in that reality died as a child. Jason moves back in with his mother and starts making chairs, slowly recovering from his grief at losing his former family and life. He reads a lot of books, and helps two other Jasons who have stumbled into the same world. Finally, he meets a book store owner called Maria (Angela Sarafyan) and strikes up a relationship.

Following the death of his mother, Jason moves in with Maria. While going out to get supplies he bumps into this world’s version of Daniela, who gives him advice on his choice of flowers. Rather than following her, though, Jason seems content to return to his new life. We get the sense he’s finally moved on.

Back at the house, Maria finds his notebook in a moving box — the same one he wrote in before using his last capsule to travel to this world.

“I have lost everything,” the last page reads. “The love of my life. My son. My home. Please just let me find a world where I can love and be loved.”

What does the ending mean?

It’s a bitter-sweet ending, but ultimately a hopeful one. All the other versions of Jason are completely lost and grief-stricken at the end of Dark Matter Season 1. The Jason we follow in Season 2, episode 5 is even suicidal at the beginning. But the episode shows that a fresh start is possible for him, and therefore for all of them.

The episode’s final moments are the real key, as we watch Jason removing the hair tie he keeps wrapped around his wedding ring finger. We know from Season 1 that this was something Jason did to remind himself of his marriage to Daniela. But in this world, this Jason has found a way to move on from a life he can’t return to. Even seeing another version of Daniela doesn’t shake his newfound love for Maria — it just gives him a form of closure. Finally, he’s able to put away a core remnant of his old life and look at what’s in front of him.

Dark Matter Season 2 is streaming on Apple TV, with new episodes dropping every Friday.

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