Dark Matter Family

Jason is a total family man. It's not just that he makes the extra effort to spend time with his wife and son, but that he also seems to enjoy that time more than anything else in his life, time spent doing scientific experimentation included.

It's not easy to raise a teenager—trust us, we were teenagers, too. As we see here, Jason is struggling to navigate his changing relationship with his now hormone-ridden son.

Our Jason gives up his dream to become a research scientist so he can raise a family with Daniela, but Jason2 makes the exact opposite choice. This has a huge impact on his life, leading him to invent a vehicle for multidimensional travel. Pretty cool. Still, it's clear that the guy regrets this decision. He wouldn't have kidnapped Jason otherwise.

Jason2 is a much different father from our Jason. That's unsurprising: he's never been a dad before. Starting your career as a parent with a teenager is like starting a video game on the final boss with the difficulty setting ratcheted up to extra hard.

In one universe, Jason confronts his worst fear: the death of his family. It's horrifying. As the book notes, Jason's fear is rooted in the fact that his mother died of illness during his youth, leaving an emotional scar that hasn't fully healed. He doesn't want to lose anyone else.

Over the course of his travels, Jason realizes that his life isn't a zero-sum equation between being the perfect family man and the perfect research scientist. Instead, it's a wide range of possibilities, many of which don't necessarily include a good home life for his wife and kids.

See what we mean? Jason could have easily stayed with Daniela but balked when he had to take care of his son. Or he could have fallen in love with a coworker and gotten divorced. There are many ways that his idyllic family could be much less idyllic. But the Jason we know is a good guy who seems to have made the right decisions.

As Jason sees parallel versions of himself and Daniela, he starts to understand why Jason2 stole his life from him. He misses Daniela and Charlie—a whole lot—and he'd do anything to get them back, even if that requires doing things that seem straight-up immoral.

Even when Jason returns to his home universe, he's forced to consider killing other Jasons in order to get his family back. A little shady, true, but this further emphasizes his commitment and love for his family. We think. Another question: which Jason should get precedence, and why? Aren't they all technically equal?

Although the army of Jasons want Daniela and Charlie for themselves, they realize that Daniela and Charlie deserve to make their own choice about which Jason they want to be with. If the Jason army didn't do that, these Jasons would be just as much of a monster as Jason2—and that dude is a legit maniac.