56 pages • 1 hour read
Blake CrouchDark Matter
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
Jason emerges in an abandoned power plant. Snow is falling outside. On the ground, Jason sees a cracked ampoule and wonders if this is where Jason2 took him the first time he went into the box.
As he rides the El north, he realizes that yes, this is his Chicago. Standing outside his house, Jason can see that the door, furnishings, and family photos are correct—just like when he left a month ago. He sees Jason2 inside, pouring Daniela a glass of wine. Rage flares up in Jason as he remembers everything that Jason2 took from him. He wonders if Daniela and Charlie are happier with Jason2.
Jason checks into the nearby Days Inn and double checks the details of this world to make sure they fit. They do—down to the dent in his SUV and Daniela’s art instructor website. He plans to kill Jason2 and bury him in Kankakee River State Park, a forest preserve where he and Daniela and Charlie used to camp.
Jason goes to a sporting goods store to buy a handgun. He tells the woman behind the counter he needs it for home defense. She shows him a 40-caliber Glock 23 and explains how it works. Jason is uncomfortable around guns and feels like he’s “holding death” (252). He tells the woman he needs to get some cash together and, no, he does not have an FOID (firearm owners’ identification card). The woman looks at him strangely and tells him that he was in the same store two days ago, and they had the same conversation. Another store employee told her that Jason had been in on three previous occasions on the same errand.
The woman is scared because Jason does not remember her. He insists he’s never been in the store before. She tells him to get out and never come back.
Jason gets a taxi and lets the driver pick his hotel; the driver drops Jason off at the nearby End o’ Days. After paying for a night, Jason has $14.76 left. In the business center, he goes online and discovers an email account for “asonjayessenday” (his name in Pig Latin). In an email is a link to a chat with eight other Jasons. Jason is assigned the username Jason9. The chat history is a conversation of all the Jasons discussing how they are planning to kill each other to be with Daniela. Most of them have gone to the sporting goods store to buy a gun, which explains the multiple sightings. They argue over who has suffered most: “Jason5: I saw hell. Literally. Hell. Where are you right now, Jason7? I’ve already killed two of us” (261). Jason7 sends a private message to Jason9, asking if he wants to team up against the others.
Jason panics and goes back to his room. He chides himself for not realizing the inevitability that his choices created versions of himself that branched into other timelines: “Undoubtedly most of those Jasons were killed or lost forever in other worlds, but some […] eventually found their respective ways back to this Chicago” (261). Now he faces a dire choice because except for Jason2, each Jason originates from this world.
Jason’s hotel room phone rings. He answers, but the other end is silent. After he hangs up, the phone rings once more and is quiet. Jason realizes another Jason may be trying to find him. He runs into the hallway and sees another Jason coming toward him with a gun. Jason runs downstairs and out the back door, but another Jason is waiting there with a knife. He manages to escape to a dive bar, but he sees another hard-eyed Jason scanning the crowd. Over an hour later, a deferential Jason passes by; Jason is relieved to find that this one isn’t trying to kill him.
Jason plans to get Daniela and Charlie away from Jason2 before the other Jasons harm them. So far, none of the Jasons have figured out how to make a move on Jason2. How does one outsmart oneself, let alone the most intelligent version? It is the Prisoner’s Dilemma—a game theory describing a paradox in which an optimal outcome is nearly impossible, because it is dependent on predicting the potentially self-serving actions of another with zero communication beforehand.
The deferential Jason is wearing a peacoat, boots, and a backpack. He sits next to Jason at the bar and orders the same drink. They have a conversation about the worlds they’ve visited: They’ve seen many of the same places and made similar choices. This Jason was separated from Amanda in the snowstorm. One of his trips landed him in a man’s basement. The man almost killed him, but the deferential Jason gave him an ampoule. The man went into the box and never came out.
Jason finds it both refreshing and unnerving to share his experiences with another Jason. They talk at the same time and finish each other’s sentences: “It’s like talking to a friend who knows everything about you, but there’s an added layer of excruciating familiarity. Aside from the last month, there are no secrets between us. He knows every bad thing I’ve done” (270). When the Jasons part, they agree not to hunt each other unless it comes down to the two of them. The deferential Jason heads north and disappears.
Jason cannot go back to his hotel room, and since he hid his last ampoule in the bedside bible, he has no ampoules left. With nowhere to go and almost no money left, he heads to Humboldt Park, where he sits under a tree. Before he falls asleep, he realizes that doing random, unpredictable things is the key to beating the other versions of himself.
Jason eats breakfast at a diner, and when he is finished, he smokes a cigar. The waitress and manager ask him to extinguish it, but he refuses, asking with mock arrogance: “Are you all disturbed by my fine cigar?” (277). Finally, a police officer approaches and arrests him. At the police station, Jason requests a phone call to his wife. When Daniela answers, he tells her to bring Charlie and bail him out of jail. She refuses to bring Charlie but says she’ll come.
When Daniela arrives, Jason’s disheveled appearance shocks her. To convince her that she is living with his doppelganger, Jason asks Daniela to call Jason2 on his cell phone; he is currently holding office hours. Jason tells her to ask him about a fictitious trip they took to the Florida Keys last Christmas: Since he only arrived a month ago, he will not know she’s lying. Sure enough, Jason2 pretends to know about the Keys vacation. Daniela is terrified. Jason tells her to call a taxi so they can pick up Charlie.
They go to Water Tower Place, an eight-floor luxury shopping mall in downtown Chicago. Jason explains everything that happened to him, from Jason2 abducting him to the other Jasons entering this world. Daniela and Charlie believe him, and they decide to stick together.
Chapter 14 Summary
Jason and Daniela empty their bank accounts, rent a car, and drive to Wisconsin. The Jasons keep texting Daniela from different numbers, but Jason sees a text from Jason2: “You’re not home, not answering your cell. You must know. […] My time with you has been the best of my life. Pls call me. Hear me out” (298). Jason has them turn their cell phones off. As they drive north in silence, Jason wonders what makes him an individual. All the other Jasons love Daniela as much as he does, all of them have fought through hellish worlds to get there, and all of them want to be with their family.
They drive until they reach a lake house boarded up for the season. Inside, they make a fire and settle in for the night. Charlie assures Jason that Jason2 is not his father, and Daniela insists she wants him, not Jason2. Jason finds Daniela in the master bathroom, crying. She says that all the other Jasons love her and Charlie as much as this Jason does; how can she know which is her Jason? He tells her that he does not have a plan yet, but he will in the morning.
After Daniela and Charlie go to sleep, Jason logs onto an old computer and enters the Jasons’ chat: There are now over 100 Jasons. He (Jason9) tells them that he has Daniela and Charlie, and they are safe. He proposes that they meet at the power plant in two days and hold a lottery for who gets to live with Daniela and Charlie; they will also destroy the box. The Jasons are skeptical and ask what happens to the losers. Jason does not know yet: He needs to finalize the details with Daniela.
In the morning, Daniela brings coffee to Jason, who is out by the lake. She asks if Jason slept with the version of her he met in Jason2’s world. Jason says yes. Daniela asked if she—the one who became a famous artist—was happy. Jason says probably, but like everyone else, she probably had regrets, too. He tells her his plan, and it horrifies her: “You want to raffle me off? Like a fucking fruit basket?” (314). Jason says that he is willing to sacrifice himself if it means keeping Daniela and Charlie safe.
They eat pancakes for breakfast, and it feels relaxed and normal until Jason remembers it may be the last day he spends with them. They go to a roadhouse for dinner, and Jason and Daniela get drunk. That night, they make love as if for the first time.
Jason goes to the kitchen to get a glass of water, and he sees something outside. It is one of the Jasons; he is wounded and dying, dragging himself through the snow. Back in the house, Jason tells Daniela and Charlie to pack. The two go upstairs, and Jason realizes someone else is in the room: the Jason he drank with at the bar, holding a gun. That Jason has already killed four other Jasons. He tells Jason to give him his clothing. Jason attacks him, and they wrestle to the ground. A gunshot fires, and the new Jason drops dead. Above the original Jason, Jason2 is holding the gun. He is clean-shaven and wears Jason’s clothes and wedding ring. Daniela and Charlie walk in on the grisly scene. Jason2 says he tracked Charlie’s cell phone to their location; he does not know how the other Jasons found them.
Daniela asks Jason2 why he did this. He says that he regretted leaving her, so he built a device that could erase regret, one that “[lets] you find worlds where you made the right choice” (326). Daniela replies that you only get one life, and you have to live with the choices you make. Jason2 points the gun at Jason, and Charlie moves forward to stop him. Jason knocks the gun out of Jason2’s hand and stabs him in the stomach with the Velocity Laboratories knife. Jason stabs Jason2 repeatedly. With his last breath, Jason2 gives Jason back his wedding ring and tells him to look in the glove box of his SUV.
When they reach the SUV, they outrun the remaining Jasons. In the glove box, Jason finds a supply of ampoules in a leather pouch.
Chapter 15 Summary
They drive to the power plant. When they arrive, they realize dozens of Jasons came for the lottery. Daniela takes out the gun, then she, Jason, and Charlie, force their way through the crowd toward the box. The other Jasons are angry, but they don’t want to harm Daniela and Charlie, so they let them pass.
Inside, Jason administers the compound to each of them. When the drug takes effect, they walk through the box’s endless corridor. Daniela asks what will happen if the Jasons follow them into the next world. Jason says that Charlie will pick their destination, so that the Jasons will not be able to predict or replicate it. Charlie is hesitant, but Jason tells him they don’t need to worry as long as they’re together. The past month has changed Jason’s understanding of identity; he is the sum of the choices he’s made and the ones he hasn’t made. None of them is cause for regret.
Jason tells Charlie he loves him and is proud of him. Charlie opens a door into a world filled with warmth and light. Jason puts his hand on Charlie’s shoulder, and the three of them walk through the door.
Chapters 13-15 Analysis
Jason’s arrival in his own world opens a new set of dilemmas that lead to the novel’s climax and resolution. Crouch introduces the plot twist that Jason’s actions have created multiple versions of his own self, all of whom are trying to return to the same reality he is. Before this point, the flayed man who walked past Jason and Amanda was the only clue that multiple versions of Jason were using the box. Once Jason discovers the chat room, he realizes that many other Jasons have been using the box, and they all have the same goal.
In the previous chapters, Jason saw versions of himself leading different lives, with or without different versions of Daniela. Because those Jasons inhabited different worlds, he could maintain the illusion that he was unique: He was the only Jason who belonged to his Daniela. The events of Chapter 13 demonstrate that this is not true. Paradoxically, Jason’s actions have created other selves who share his “uniqueness.” This raises the question of why he deserves to be with his family more than the other Jasons. The answer is that he doesn’t; since all of these Jasons belong to this reality, they all have an equal claim to this life. However, Daniela and Charlie want to be with him, the protagonist Jason they know and love. They weren’t unhappy with Jason2, but Daniela and Charlie prefer their own Jason. Jason2 wasn’t a real husband or father; he was a stranger playing a role. Though each of the new Jasons feels a deep connection to Daniela and Charlie, Daniela and Charlie do not reciprocate that feeling.
Daniela accepts Jason’s story when he meets her at the police station. As improbable as the story is, her trust in Jason is implicit. This echoes Jason’s interaction with Daniela2, showing the fundamental connection they share across worlds. Charlie believes Jason, too. Jason’s occupation as a physicist lends authority to his explanations, but more importantly, he and his family share an intangible bond. Daniela says, “It hasn’t been like this since Jason2 came here. You aren’t replaceable. Not even by you” (318). Jason’s doppelgangers are not rivals because, after all, they are only copies. Daniela and Charlie help Jason overcome his identity crisis; he learns to define himself through their love.
In Chapter 14, Daniela rejects Jason2’s rationale for creating the box. His idea that the box can erase regret is a fallacy, as no single choice exists in a vacuum. Daniela states that everyone gets one life to live, and the novel’s events bear this out. Jason2 could never become Jason, even if he continued to live in Jason’s house, with Jason’s family, in Jason’s world. Because Jason2 originated in another reality, Jason’s world can never truly be Jason2’s. Even at the end of the novel, Jason2 does not understand this: His hubris does not allow him to accept that he is wrong. He returns Jason’s wedding ring, symbolizing Jason’s victory over him, only in his final moments.
The novel’s ending promises a fresh start for Jason and his family. After all his travails, Jason has grown to value the people and things he has, and to accept that he is good enough even without professional accolades. Insecurities fueled Jason and Jason2 to second guess themselves. Jason’s journey teaches him to let go of his regrets with the knowledge that the most important moments in a person’s life are not in the past, but in the future.
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