In 2009, a genetically enhanced, 9-year-old female super-soldier who calls herself Max Guevara , escapes along with eleven others like herself from a secret government institution, codenamed Manticore, where they were born, raised and trained to be soldiers and assassins. On June 1, 2009, months after Max's escape, terrorists detonate an electromagnetic pulse weapon in the atmosphere over the U.S., which destroys the vast majority of computer and communication systems, throwing the country into utter chaos.
The first season begins ten years later in 2019, as it follows the life of the now 19-year-old Max as she struggles to search for her Manticore brothers and sisters. In a United States which is now barely more than a Third World nation, she tries to live her life, evade capture, and learn to trust and love. She becomes involved with Logan Cale , an underground cyber-journalist with the alias Eyes Only, who recruits her to help fight corruption in the post-Pulse world, while at the same time she makes a living as a bicycle messenger at a courier company named Jam Pony along with her friends Original Cindy , Herbal Thought , and Sketchy . Other X-5s are periodically introduced, most significantly Zack , the unit leader and eldest brother. The Manticore hunt for the escaped X-5s is led by Colonel Donald Lydecker , who is ousted at the end of the season by the even more ruthless Elizabeth Renfro .
In the second season of the show, the tone changes as Max and Logan bring down Manticore and free all the transgenics within. Two others become main characters: Alec , a fellow X-5 who joins Jam Pony, and Joshua , a transgenic with canine DNA. Max later learns that Joshua was the first transgenic created by Manticore's founder Sandeman. It becomes apparent that Manticore produced many different human/animal mixes as well as other experiments with unique abilities. A major theme in the second season is the discovery of an even more deadly enemy than Lydecker or Renfro, namely a millennia-old breeding cult similar in structure to the Illuminati. This has resulted in humans even more formidable than the Manticore-produced transgenics, and even some with strong telekinetic powers. Ames White , a government agent introduced early in the second season trying to eliminate the loose transgenics, is revealed to be a member of the cult. When a strange message written in Max's genetic code makes an appearance on her skin, it is revealed that Sandeman is a renegade from the breeding cult and Ames White is his son, who is still loyal to the cult and hates his father's transgenic creations with a passion. The second season ends before Sandeman's plan for Max can be revealed.
Planned storylines
In the DVD commentary for the series finale episode "Freak Nation", executive producer and co-creator Charles H. Eglee detailed what was planned for season 3. It was to bring together the storylines of season 1 and season 2 and reveal the mythology of
Dark Angel. As detailed by Charles H. Eglee:
Many thousands of years ago, a comet came through the atmosphere of the earth, and it deposited viral material that killed 97% of the human race. Some people survived that had a genetic predisposition, some kind of antibody or immunity. The great pyramids in Egypt were actually repositories of DNA, preserving the DNA of the survivors. This cult was an ancient blood cult that passed on this genetic immunity to selective members to keep this antibody against the coming of the comet again which was going to happen in season 3. So that they'd survive because they're genetically select. Everybody else on the planet would perish and the members of the cult would be there to rebuild civilization. They would inherit the earth.
Sandeman, Max's creator, out of the Manticore X-5 mythology was a man that jumped from this cult to implement this immunity genetic technology into the rest of human society to save all of humanity. He believed that the rest of humanity deserved the cure. The other cult members deemed Sandeman a heretic and a threat to undermining their goals of rebuilding humanity in their own image.
Max was going to be the savior of the human race. Sandeman finally found out how to give this genetic immunity to everyone through Max. There were multiple ideas of how to spread Max's immunity to humanity, including: an air burst that would spread the antibody and dispersed through the human race and save everyone from the comet or, the immunity would be attached to the viruses associated with the common cold and thus spread through the common cold .
Series writer Moira Dekker also spoke on the DVD commentary that Logan's transfusion that allowed him to use his legs once again at the end of season 2 would begin to fail during season 3.
