Dark Matter Episode 1.05 Episode Five

The Raza crew is eating a typically disappointing meal and bickering about having no money. Three suggests they use their talents to rob the Ferris Corporation, which Two finds interesting. One starts to say that he thinks it's a terrible idea when Three gives him some major body language to remind him that he has to go along with everything he says now. One obliges.

Five asks if they should check out the vault (the giant door that Three and Four have been hiding from everybody), which she discovered while exploring the vents. While they try to figure out how to unlock the door, The Android summons them to the bridge as she's received a transmission from someone who claims to know Two.

A gaudily dressed guy who acts like Quentin Tarantino (played by David Hewlett of Stargate Atlantis fame) tells the gang that he set up the job with Ferris and he's pissed at them for screwing it up. Ferris wants their heads, they have no political protection and they're going to be in big trouble because of their histories... unless they do another job for him for half their normal rate (whatever that is). He hires them to salvage a freight ship that had some sort of catastrophic meltdown, leaving no survivors.

Later, One goes to Two's bedroom and finds Three - sans shirt - with her. More than a little jealous (and surprised), he swallows the awkwardness and asks if she wants to prepare for the salvage mission.

The crew enters the derelict freighter, which has about six hours left of life support. Two insists they get to work finding the booty, though Three wants to explore first to see if there's any extra contraband lying around that they can pilfer and sell. One and Six back him up.

Back on the Raza, Five shows The Android the computer chip that she found in the room with the dead boy. The Android tells her that it's not a data storage card but "part of some larger system designed to access pockets of extra-dimensional space." Trippy. Five requests that The Android not tell the others what she found, as she may not trust the crew as much as she once did.

Back on the freighter, One and Three find a wall that's been warped possibly because of its direct exposure to space. As Two connects to the computer system, Four and Six find several dead bodies with their throats slashed... and one guy who looks like his eyes have been gouged out. Four deduces that whoever killed them did it intentionally and violently... with bare hands and teeth. Is it really a good idea for them to be on this ship?

One and Three end up in some strange part of the freighter where there's interference on their communication devices, so they can't hear Two's order to evacuate. One thinks that the interference may be due to radiation exposure and wants to get back, but Three poo poos him, sure that the ship contains riches. Three reminds One that he has dirt on him so he better follow his lead, and One warns him that when you blackmail somebody you have to be careful not to push them too far.

Finally, One confronts Three about his affair with Two. Three, ever classy, says that he didn't even have to get her drunk because she came on to him. Three tells One that his "sensitive" routine will go nowhere with Two. One isn't convinced.

Suddenly, Two is attacked by a zombie-like dude who takes a nasty bite out of her neck! Luckily, Six shows up and shoots him a ton of times. The wounded Two asks The Android to access the ship's logs and tell them what the hell is going on with this damn place.

The Android informs the gang that most of the ship's command logs were destroyed in the explosion, but she conveniently found a portion of an audiotape containing the ship's first officer describing a contagious virus that broke out on the ship, turning its crew into monsters. The virus was not airborne but transmitted by fluids like blood and saliva. Four and Six get Two back to the Raza, where she's put into the quarantine chamber.

Meanwhile, One and Three find a seriously gnarly woman eating a bloody severed arm. After Three shoots her a bunch of times, he and One get trapped in the ship's basement. While One fumbles with wires trying to get a door to open, more cannibal zombies come after them. At the nick of time, One gets the door open... only to discover that Three has accidentally shot some kind of important, air-spewing pipe. There's a massive explosion and One and Three seem to lose gravity. One holds out his hand for Three and drags him into the next room, where they (perhaps) regain temporary safety.

As Six heads out on the shuttle to retrieve One and Three, The Android informs Two, Four and Five that the crew of the freighter went to a planet under galactic quarantine. It was previously the home of a pharmaceutical research facility working to create an immortality serum from the planet's trees, which live for tens of thousands of years. Instead they created "one of the most deadly viruses humankind has ever seen" (ain't that always the way?). Two is infected with the monstrous virus, the symptoms of which typically appear within three hours of contraction... and for which there is no apparent cure. Four offers to give Two an honorable death, to Five's dismay. Two refuses - she doesn't feel anything, and wonders if she received an incorrect diagnosis.

In the shuttle, Six finds the location of One and Three and tells them to go deeper into the freighter to find the nearest exit. Less than a minute later, The Android tells Six that life support in that area of the ship is failing, oxygen levels are critical, and the boys will die if they're not rescued in the next ten minutes.

One and Three find their exit blocked by a bunch of zombies who are fortunately weak from the area's lack of oxygen. In order to avoid using bullets and risking another "accident," One and Three try to walk right past them, planning to kick them if they act up. At that moment, The Android taps in to the freighter's emergency life support devices and restores oxygen to the area. The results ain't pretty, and Three has to go gun crazy again. Eventually, they manage to get to the shuttle, and One makes the call to blow up the freighter before it brings its virus to civilization.

Five hours later, Two still doesn't show any symptoms of the virus. The Android scans her again and, rather miraculously, she comes up clean. She's released from quarantine, though everyone's still a little uneasy around her.

Later, Two tries to seduce Three, but he's not up for getting naked with someone who almost became a flesh-eating zombie. She goes back to her room and takes off her bandage to find that her seriously nasty neck wound is totally gone! Is she superhuman? Or a mutant? Or is this all a dream? Stay tuned!