After some rough episodes, this is a return to form for Dark Matter. It’s not perfect, but on the whole, it’s a good ride.

There’s a twist that it would be impossible to discuss this episode without spoiling. The twist comes fairly early on, and I won’t spoil the other twists later in the episode, but if you haven’t seen “One More Card to Play” yet and want to come in totally fresh, you might want to leave now.

Cool? Cool.

The episode begins with Two and Three stirring rebellion aboard a Zairon prison ship, but it soon becomes clear it’s not actually Two and Three. It’s Portia and Marcus, their ruthless selves from the other universe.

Yes, the evil universe is back, and they’re about to cause all kinds of problems for the Raza crew.

As mentioned above, this is a return to the kind of rollicking, thoroughly entertaining adventure that Dark Matter is known for. It’s a fun episode, there’s humour, there’s action, there are some good twists, the ending gives us another cliffhanger, and it’s just a good ride all around.

I have to say, I like having Wexler back. I mean, he’s disgusting, but that’s the point. When it comes to “love to hate them” bad guys, there are few better.

It was also interesting to see Ryo continue to lose it, though once again it was too small a portion of the episode.

And once again, Five and Sally steal the show by being completely awesome in every way.

There are still some issues. The new guy continues to irritate, though he’s not in the spotlight nearly so much as past episodes, so it could be a lot worse.

If the ending is to be believed, I’ve gotten my wish, and the new guy is gone. I’m not going to get my hopes up too high, but if he really is gone — or at least reduced to a background character — that can only help the show.

I’ll miss Solara, but if they must be a package deal, he’s more annoying than she was interesting, so this is still a net gain.

Also, I had hoped the return of the evil universe characters might offer some more insight into Portia and Sally’s history, but I was destined for disappointment on that front.

Still, it’s a pretty solid hour of television all told.

Overall rating: 7/10