Episode five of Dark Matter sees the crew of the Raza led on a merry old chase by a princess from the past.
When new crew member Adrian gets a message from Amber, a princess from his time working for Tabor, he learns that she is being held for ransom by an old rival.
Gorin, who is holding Amber, tells Adrian that he would like some valuable files, which had vital information about the Ferrous Corp.
Adrian asks Two and Three for help to rescue Amber from Gorin and Two agrees to help so long as they can have the file on Ferrous Corp.
Ryo Ishida’s court in trouble
Things are not looking good in the court of Ishida and Ryo is learning first hand how frustrating it can be to hold things together.
When a general returns with news of Ryo’s forces being defeated by a rival corporation, it is just the beginning of a real bad day, which culminates in an assassination attempt.
Added to this are the mixed messages Ryo is getting about how he should govern. On one side his old teacher and mentor Teku is saying he should give his people a little more carrot and a bit less of the rod. While his childhood friend Misaki feels that he should be ruling more by fear.
By the close of the day and when his troops face yet another defeat, Ryo chooses fear by ordering a relative of his would be assassin to be made an example of.
Jail Break
Having followed several leads to find the files that Gorin is after, Adrian aided by Five visit a Ferrous safety deposit station to look through Tabor’s old vault. Things go a bit wrong when they are arrested on sight, which means the Android has to use her recently acquired human qualities to break them out.
When they do get a look at Tabor’s stuff, the trail leads them to area of space that is completely neutral and an old outpost where Tabor stored all of his stuff.
Trouble is, this outpost is guarded by a more powerful android than the one on the Raza and he is holding Two, Adrian, Five and Solara hostage whilst insisting that they should wait until Tabor returns.
This means that Three and the Raza’s android have to launch another rescue mission. This time it is more of a subtle rescue that involves the Raza’s android selling Tabor’s android on the idea of an upgrade to his software, which allows Three to incapacitate him with some sort of EMP.
Eventually the crew manage to retrieve the file and the arrange the exchange.
The Exchange
Adrian arranges to meet with Gorin and prepares to exchange the date file for Amber’s freedom, but it turns out to be a double cross. Amber has seemingly been working with Gorin all along to get the file because has has the key that will decrypt it.
Amber ruthlessly shoots Gorin and is about to shoot Adrian, but thankfully for him Solara steps in.
By the close of the episode the crew of the Raze have gotten the file and have decrypted it using Amber’s key.
The file leads them to what seems to be a Ferrous ship yard with births for 70 different ships. But when they investigate it, they find that all the ships have gone.
Agent Zero
Back on the Raza Five is in communication with Six who is missing his company on the ship and reaching out. Six updates her about the work he has been doing with one of the independent colonies. He informs her that things are looking up and they’ll be ready to become truly independent of the various corporations real soon.
Elsewhere the General is reporting into his diary and makes note of the fact that the various independent colonies are advancing faster than he had anticipated. He says that they may have to trigger Agent Zero faster than expected and Six comes up on his monitor.
Final Thoughts
This episode was packed full of stuff that is likely to be brought back into play as we get to the close of this season.
It also proved to be another great episode to let us get to know the two new crew members. The story very much centred on Adrian wanting to rescue Amber, but we also got a nice moment from his body guard Solara.
As ever we are left with a few questions. But the biggest one is what is Agent Zero?
Dark Matter airs every Friday on Syfy at 9/8c