The newest TV show from Apple is here, in the form of Dark Matter, which is a twisting sci-fi story based on a book by Blake Crouch.
The story follows physicist Jason Dessen, who's kidnapped from his happy-family set-up and deposited in a world he doesn't understand or recognize. He has to find his way home while working out who he truly is.
If you're interested in the show, you should check out our guide on how to watch Dark Matter, because this article is for people who've already seen it: it spoils everything that happened in the debut episode!
So here's our recap of Dark Matter episode 1, entitled "Are You Happy in Your Life?"
A happy family
We start with Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton) waking up in the morning besides his wife, Daniela Dessen (Jennifer Connelly). Over breakfast he helps hs son Charlie Oakes Fergley) with some trigonometry homework and he makes his wife a cup of coffee for the road.
He lets Charlie drive him to work and en route, his friend Ryan (Jimmi Simpson) calls Jason to let him know that he (Ryan) just won the 'Pavia Award'. Jason is happy for his friend but seems sad that he didn't win it.
At his work as a physics lecturer, Jason explains the Schroedinger's Cat experiment to his class. At the same time Daniela is at her job, as an art gallery curator, and she tells a friend about her triathlon training. The friend just thinks she's trying to avoid her family.
At the same time, a mysterious figure in a dark passageway enters a storage room filled with lots of tech. He does some scribbling, and we find out that it's a rugged-looking version of Jason! He looks ready to inject a strange vial of something purple.
A bad night out
That evening, Daniela and Jason are being very affectionate while the prepare dinner, until Daniela notices lots of missed messages on Jason's phone. Turns out Ryan is hosting drinks to celebrate his award and invited Jason, though evidently out of jealousy Jason didn't show up. Daniela forces him to.
Jason goes to the bar and meets Ryan and lots of his friends, who seem to look down on him for being a lecturer. Later Ryan reveals the other reason he invited Jason: he's starting a neurotech company and wants his old friend on board... however it's in San Francisco, not Chicago where they live. Jason seems reticent but promises that he'll check with Daniela.
On his walk home, Jason gets a call from Daniela but he ignores it. Then he's accosted by a masked man with a gun, who takes his phone and forces him into a car. The masked figure asks him who he was with that knife, and when being told it was Ryan with a job offer, he asks whether Jason took it. Jason explains why not.
The masked man takes them to an industrial-looking area where he makes Jason strip down to his underwear. Jason makes an attempt to escape but it's unsuccessful. The masked man injects him with something and makes him put on some different clothes.
As Jason is losing consciousness, he asks who the masked figure is. The man asks him whether he's happy in his current life, and when being told that Jason is, he tells the physicist to hold onto that happiness through the next few days. Then Jason fades into unconsiousness.
A worse hangover
When Jason wakes up, he's being poked and prodded by people in hazmat suits and masks: they examine him, cut off his clothes, shower him and perform tests on him.
Later, Jason wakes up in a locked, though comfy-looking, room. Eventually the door opens and a woman named Amanda (Alice Braga) enters; she hugs Jason before it becomes clear that he doesn't know who she is. Amanda tells him that he's been cleared: he has no radiation, biohazards or diseases, and can thus leave quarantine.
Amanda leads Jason into a small questioning room with someone Jason does recognize from long ago: a scientist called Leighton (Dayo Okeniyi). Lots of people are watching the trio in the room, and they applaud as Jason enters, much to his confusion.
Leighton tells Jason that he's the Chief Science Officer of their company, and that he's the "only one who returned" from somewhere. He's been gone for 14 months and 10 days.
He is, of course, very confused by all this. They ask him what he remembers from directly before waking up, and when he mentions that he was with Ryan, some faces wrinkle. Further questioning makes Jason agitated.
Jason is led to another room but he suddenly runs away, slipping away from guards until he gets outside the building, finally avoiding pursuers to get into the city. He takes a cab and returns back to his home, while also examining the items he has on him: primarily, some keys.
At home, Daniela looks concerned that Jason still hasn't arrived home.
Finally, Jason gets home with his keys... only to find that it's Amanda waiting for him, not Daniela! And the entire furniture of the flat is different. Jason is disturbed and runs around the house, calling for Daniela and Charlie, and sees the Pavia prize in his name, as well as pictures of him posing on magazine covers that he doesn't remember. Amanda tells him that he doesn't actually have a wife, and as a car pulls up with some dark figures, Jason once again runs away.
We return to Daniela: the person in the mask goes into Jason's house... and it turns out to be another version of Jason! He's very affectionate toward Daniela, who's concerned that he didn't respond to her phone calls and texts. Using information that the kidnapped Jason provided, he tells her about Ryan's job offer. Later, they sleep together. This whole time, the "new" Jason seems very affectionate towards Daniela, as though he hasn't seen her in a long time.
