Dark (TV series)

In 1986, four weeks after the disappearance of Mads Nielsen, a desperate Mikkel is found by police chief Egon Tiedemann, who suspects he has been beaten by the teenage Ulrich. Mikkel is brought to the hospital by Ines, then a nurse, who gains his trust. At the nuclear plant, newly elected director Claudia Tiedemann, Egon's daughter and Regina's mother, clashes with her predecessor Bernd Doppler, who informs her of secret barrels hidden in the nearby caves. Bernd's son Helge, gives Claudia a book: Eine Reise durch die Zeit (A Journey Through Time) by H. G. Tannhaus. Meanwhile, as the town's electricity is flickering, a teenage Charlotte starts investigating the deaths of multiple birds, shy young Hannah has unrequited feelings for Ulrich, and Regina is being bullied and engages in self-harm. A flock of sheep is found dead from cardiac arrest with their eardrums ruptured, and, in an undisclosed location, a man surrounded by clocks tinkers with a brass machine. Mikkel escapes from the hospital and returns to the caves; after breaking his leg, he calls for help.

In 1986, Mikkel is visited in the hospital by a priest: Noah. After having witnessed Ulrich and Katharina having sex, Hannah falsely tells the police that she saw Ulrich rape Katharina, and Ulrich is arrested.

In 1986, Helge, who was working at the plant the night Mads disappeared, is questioned by Egon about his whereabouts. The Stranger explains to Jonas that Mikkel is indeed his father and warns him that taking Mikkel back home to 2019 will result in Jonas never being born. Katharina unsuccessfully attempts to convince Egon that Ulrich never raped her, and Helge and Noah prepare to move Yasin's dead body from a bunker behind Helge's cabin.

In 1953, birds begin to die, and the unidentified bodies of Erik and Yasin are discovered. Police chief Daniel Kahnwald (Ines' father) and officer Egon Tiedemann are puzzled by the boys' odd outfits. Ulrich arrives from 2019 and meets several locals, including newcomer Agnes Nielsen and her son Tronte, who are about to rent a room in the Tiedemann house, and a watchmaker named H.G. Tannhaus, who disclaims knowledge of the book found in Helge's 2019 home. Through the young Ines and Jana, Ulrich learns of the two bodies, and when introduced to the 9-year-old Helge, he believes killing him will save the lives of the boys. He bludgeons Helge and leaves him for dead in the bunker. Later, Tannhaus finds Ulrich's smartphone.

In 1986, Ulrich is released without charges, and Hannah secretly discovers that a newly arrived young man, who calls himself Aleksander Köhler, is living under a false identity. Claudia encounters her dog Gretchen, who disappeared in 1953, alive and well by the caves, and starts to read Tannhaus' book. When Bernd admits that the hidden barrels contain byproducts of a small meltdown, Claudia hires Aleksander to secretly weld shut the door to them. In an argument with Helge (revealing that the abducted boys died from Noah's attempt to create a time machine) Noah states his mission to free humanity, likening himself to the Biblical Noah.

In 2019, Hannah uses her knowledge of Aleksander's past to blackmail him into destroying Ulrich's life. She lies to Katharina that Ulrich wanted to leave his family. Regina discovers the Stranger's research, and Jonas breaks things off with Martha. Bartosz is approached by an elderly Claudia, his supposedly dead grandmother. Later, Bartosz meets with Noah and agrees to join him.

On the night of Mikkel's disappearance, Peter is visiting Helge's cabin when Mads' body suddenly appears. He calls Tronte to the cabin, and Claudia arrives, telling them to move the corpse.

In 1986, the elderly Helge is killed while attempting to stop his younger self by driving a car into him. Jonas has also returned to 1986 to bring Mikkel back to 2019, but Noah and Helge kidnap him. Jonas wakes in the bunker, accompanied by the Stranger, who reveals himself to be the adult Jonas. The Stranger leaves to destroy the wormhole using the brass machine, which Tannhaus has completed from the broken version brought by the adult Jonas and Ulrich's smartphone.

In 2019, Charlotte uncovers a 1953 article on Helge's kidnapping, including a photo of Ulrich. Noah tells Bartosz that Claudia is their main adversary, and that the adult Jonas, unwittingly, is about to create the wormhole.

In 1921, a young Noah and another man are building a passage into the cave that will become the portal. Noah kills his companion on suspicions that he "lost [his] faith". The younger Noah is guided by his older self, a member of a group of time travellers called Sic Mundus led by the disfigured and mysterious Adam. Adam tells the older Noah to retrieve the missing pages of Claudia's diary in preparation for an "apocalypse" that will occur on 27 June 2020.

On 21 June 2020, six days before the apocalypse, things in Winden have grown tense. An investigator, Clausen, arrives to assist Charlotte and the police force with their investigations in the disappearances, which now include Helge, Jonas, and Ulrich. Katharina searches the cave for answers. Martha breaks up with Bartosz, who is now working with Noah. The adult Jonas from the future makes his identity known to his mother, Hannah. Aleksander has his men move a truck of radioactive waste into the power plant.

In 1987, Mikkel struggles to live his new life as Michael with Ines as his guardian. The old Claudia visits her younger self to inform her about time travel, giving her coordinates of a time machine buried in her backyard. Egon is now retired and suffering from advanced cancer, and doubts his actions regarding the dead children's bodies in 1953. He interviews Helge and goes to the local psychiatric facility to visit an old Ulrich, who has spent 34 years incarcerated after being mistakenly accused of murder. Ulrich rebuffs Egon for his naivety.

In 2020, Clausen and Charlotte interview Regina, who is suffering from breast cancer. She discusses the Stranger who was at her hotel during the disappearances and left his belongings, which included pages from Tannhaus' book. The newfound evidence makes Charlotte, who was raised by Tannhaus, question her origins. The adult Jonas informs Hannah about time travel and takes her to 1987, where they see Mikkel in Ines' house.

In 1954, a young and disfigured Helge returns after being missing for seven months but refuses to talk to anyone but Noah, with whom he spent the last seven months in 1987 building a new time machine. Doris cheats on her husband, Egon, with Agnes. The elderly Claudia later meets with Agnes, a former member of Sic Mundus. Agnes meets with Noah, her brother, and tells him the location of the missing pages in hopes of rejoining Sic Mundus. Claudia delivers Tannhaus' book to him and visits her father's younger self and apologises to him, to his confusion. Claudia encounters Noah in the forest, who kills her. Noah retrieves the missing pages and is dismayed by his findings. He lies to Adam about finding the pages. Egon unsuccessfully interviews Helge and visits an unresponsive Ulrich in jail.

An injured Jonas finds himself in Winden at the year 1921, where he is nursed by the inhabitants. He then tries to return to 2020 through the portal, but is stuck because the portal has yet to be built. Noah escorts him to meet Adam, who reveals himself to be an elderly Jonas.

In 2020, adult Jonas and Hannah meet Charlotte and Peter at the bunker and they discuss the existence of time travel, which they also reveal to a sceptical Katharina. The 1987 version of Claudia visits Winden's public library, where she discovers a report on Egon's death; she then travels back to 1987. Clausen interviews Aleksander, who reveals his original surname – Köhler – before he married Regina. Martha, Magnus, Franziska, and Elisabeth visit the cave, where they find Bartosz carrying the time machine. The kids take the time machine and leave Bartosz tied up in the cave. Katharina searches class photos from 1987 and identifies Mikkel, confirming Jonas' claims.

In 1921, Adam discusses his philosophy with Jonas, who is dismayed by the callous person he is to become. Adam tells Jonas about a "loophole" that will change the past and shows him a God Particle that will take him to any time he wants. Jonas decides to go to the day before Michael kills himself to convince him not to do it.

In 1987, Claudia invites Egon to move in with her in hopes of preventing his impending death. The imprisoned Ulrich escapes the psychiatric ward to visit Mikkel at the Kahnwald house. After a conversation, Mikkel realises that the old man is actually his father. Ulrich tries to take Mikkel to the cave but is apprehended by the police. Ines recovers Mikkel and Ulrich returns to the ward.

Jonas travels back to 20 June 2019 to stop Michael from killing himself. Jonas' 2019 self goes to the beach with Martha, Bartosz, and Magnus; Michael has a tense encounter with his child self; Charlotte and Peter struggle with communication in the wake of Peter's affair; Aleksander fears that his past will catch up to him. After witnessing his 2019 self leaving the lake, 2020 Jonas shares an intimate moment with Martha. 2019 Jonas and Hannah arrive at the Nielsen family home on Ulrich and Katharina's anniversary, where Jonas has sex with Martha and Ulrich starts his affair with Hannah. 2020 Jonas reconciles with his father as he tries to convince him to not kill himself. However, Michael states that he is not considering suicide and reveals that Jonas was the one who led young Mikkel into the portal in the first place. After reading his suicide note, Michael suggests that perhaps the real reason Jonas is there is to inform Michael of what he must do and what he must write. The elderly Claudia arrives at the house and convinces Jonas and Michael that Michael must die and Mikkel must travel to the past as a child so that Jonas can be conceived, as his role in the cycle is greater than he believes.

In 1954, Egon learns from the coroner that Claudia, discovered shot to death, had unusual amounts of radiation exposure. They theorize that she kidnapped Helge, but Helge says "he" told her about Claudia, the White Devil. Hannah travels to 1954, gives her name as Katharina Nielsen and asks to see Ulrich at the asylum. Ulrich promises he will leave Katharina for her if she helps him get out, but she does not believe him and coldly walks away.

In 1987, Claudia tries to prevent the death of her father. Egon wonders why Ulrich tried to reach the caves again, but Claudia insists there is nothing there. He realises she knows about time travel and is selfishly using the caves for her own gain. They struggle for the telephone and he falls and hits his head. The dying Egon tells her she is the White Devil. 2020 Jonas arrives and tells Claudia they still may be able to change the events.

Bartosz delivers the final message from elder Claudia to Regina: a picture of the two of them from 1986. Young Jonas explains to Claudia that her elder self taught him how to save the world, whereas Adam wants to destroy it. Wöller tells Charlotte that he helped Aleksander bury the radioactive waste in the power plant and she believes that Clausen entering the area will provoke the apocalypse. Noah reveals to Adam that he found the final pages and tries to kill Adam, but the gun does not fire. Adam says he cannot be killed because that is "not his fate". He then explains that Elisabeth will become Noah's wife and therefore Charlotte's mother. Magnus, Franziska, and Agnes arrive and Agnes kills Noah with his own gun. Young Jonas and Claudia turn on the time machine in the caves, thus connecting the past and future. Young Noah visits adult Jonas and gives him a letter from Martha. Young Jonas and Martha reunite but are interrupted by Adam, who shoots Martha. In the power plant, Clausen forces the opening of the radioactive waste drums which contain rocks soiled with dark matter.

In 1987, the "Unknown"—a time traveler appearing as his child, adult, and elder selves at the same time—burns down the Sic Mundus church, and later assassinates Bernd Doppler in his home, stealing the keys to the nuclear power plant.

In 1888, Franziska, Magnus, Bartosz, and adult Jonas learn about the second world from alternate-dimension Martha in the Tannhaus Machinery Factory. Bartosz tells Martha how they arrived in 1888. The elderly Gustav Tannhaus—H.G. Tannhaus' grandfather—promises Jonas he can create a paradise. Bartosz shows Martha a secret lodge where Heinrich Tannhaus (Gustav's father) attempted to build a time machine to prevent the death of his wife - this lodge eventually becomes the Sic Mundus headquarters. Martha reveals to Bartosz that Jonas is Adam.

In 1987, adult Katharina visits Ulrich in the psychiatric ward and promises to get him out. Tronte's marriage with Jana is strained following Mads' death and Tronte's affair with Claudia. Tronte visits Regina, who he believes is his child, and decides to stop investigating Claudia's disappearance for the sake of his marriage. Meanwhile, the Unknown breaks into the power plant and murders Claudia's secretary.

In September 2020, three months after the apocalypse, adult Claudia is nursing an ailing Regina while working to find a way to save those that perished in the apocalypse. While Claudia is away, Regina is visited by the elderly Tronte, who reluctantly smothers her to death. Peter and Elisabeth look for Charlotte and Fransizka and learn that a perimeter wall will be built around Winden. They encounter the teenage Noah, who is now sleeping in the Winden caves; he says that he will protect Elisabeth after Peter is killed.

In 1888, the Unknown murders Gustav Tannhaus. Bartosz gets into a fight with Jonas, enraged that he did not tell the group that he is Adam. Martha convinces Jonas she can be trusted by giving him a capsule that can activate the God Particle. Jonas attempts to activate the particle, but the power fails. Martha uses the distraction to travel to 2053, where she is revealed to be taking orders from Adam.

In 1954, young Tronte meets the Unknown, who tells him he met his mother long ago and is responsible for his name (implying he is Tronte's father). He gives Tronte a bracelet shaped like an ouroboros. Egon is having an affair with the adult Hannah (living under Katharina's identity) and gives her the St. Christopher pendant. Doris comes to Egon looking for help to find Agnes Nielsen, and later meets the Unknown in the church, who suggests to her that Egon is having an affair. Hannah discovers she is pregnant and tells Egon, who questions whether it is his and gives her money for an abortion. Egon attempts to reconcile with Doris, but she decides to divorce him, which eventually leads Egon down his path of alcoholism. Hannah meets a young Helene Albers—Katharina's future mother—while awaiting an abortion, but reconsiders and leaves the St. Christopher necklace Egon had given to her. Jana is given the ouroboros bracelet by Tronte and begins to fall in love with him, while Tronte has his first sexual experiences with Claudia. The Unknown threatens the Winden mayor into signing the building permit for the nuclear power plant.

Adam has moved Sic Mundus' base of operations to 2053. Agnes and Adam watch the God Particle in safety, and Agnes says she knows the true origin of the cycle. She later enters the God Particle.

In 1987, Katharina tries to free Ulrich and makes a plan to steal a keycard from her mother Helene, who works at the psychiatric facility. She follows Helene through the woods, but a confrontation ensues, which ends with Helene bludgeoning Katharina to death with a rock and drowning her body in the lake. She unwittingly drops the St. Christopher pendant on the shore (where it will later be found by Jonas and Martha in 2019). Meanwhile, H.G. Tannhaus reveals to a teenage Charlotte that she was given to him by two mysterious women shortly after his son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter were killed in a car accident, saying he does not know who her parents really are. An upset Charlotte later meets Peter at the bus station, who arrives in Winden to meet his father, Helge, for the first time.

In 2020, Peter continues to look for his eldest daughter and wife. Elisabeth tries to get him to admit they are dead and refuses to continue searching. Returning to their trailer, she is met by an intruder who ties her up and later tries to rape her. Peter returns and tries to save her but is murdered by the burglar. Elisabeth bludgeons the burglar to death with a fire extinguisher. She goes to the cave and is found by Noah. Meanwhile, Claudia is met by her counterpart from Eva's world, who warns her that Jonas will eventually become Adam and attempt to destroy both worlds to untie the knot of events binding them together. Claudia's alternate self assigns her the task of saving both worlds, and gives her the triquetra journal for the first time.

In 2053, Adam persuades Charlotte to carry out a task for him. She and Elisabeth bid farewell to Franziska and then enter the God Particle.

In 2020, Claudia goes to the abandoned power plant and finds the God Particle in a dormant state. She is met by Jonas, who is apparently still alive. Claudia persuades Jonas to help her restore the God Particle.

In 2052 in Eva's world, Eva explains to her scarred teenage self that Martha's death in Adam's world is the point at which two parallel realities overlap: in one scenario, Jonas is saved from the apocalypse by the alternate Martha and brought to Eva's world, where he is eventually killed; a second scenario exists where Jonas is not met by the alternate Martha and instead lives on in his own world, eventually becoming Adam. Eva says that these divergent chains of events coexist in quantum entanglement.

Martha travels to the day of the apocalypse in Eva's world and tries to seek help from Magnus, who rebuffs her. She then reaches out to Bartosz, telling him that the apocalypse will be triggered by the opening of the barrels in the power plant. Aleksander, ignoring Hannah's blackmail attempt, calls Charlotte to the power plant in an attempt to clear his name with the police. Unable to reach Aleksander, Martha and Bartosz race to the power plant, but are intercepted by the adult Magnus and Franziska from Adam's world, who explain that Eva lied to her. They send Martha on her mission to rescue Jonas from the apocalypse. Bartosz is met by his adult self, who was sent by Eva alongside the other acolytes of Erit Lux (her world's counterpart to Sic Mundus) – Noah (as an adult and a teenager), Claudia, Egon, and the adult Martha – to complete her world's cycle of events. Meanwhile, the Unknowns travel to the year 1986 in both worlds to trigger the release of radioactive cesium waste at the power plant - this is the incident that eventually results in both the creation of the wormhole in the cave as well as the apocalypse. In 2019, Aleksander and Charlotte open a barrel of the radioactive waste at the power plant, inadvertently releasing the dark matter and causing the apocalypse to erupt in Eva's world.

This episode traces the sequence of various events from 1888 to 2053 that complete the cycle of events in Winden. The episode starts with H.G. Tannhaus' explanation of the Schrodinger's cat paradox, which serves as a metaphor for the two branching sequences of events during the 2020 apocalypse – in one, Martha from Eva's world saves Jonas from the apocalypse, and in the other, she is stopped by Bartosz, who was sent by his adult self on Eva's orders. In this scenario, Bartosz takes Martha back to her world to face Eva, who instructs her to kill Jonas when he arrives at the Erit Lux headquarters with the 2019 Martha. Eva scars Martha's face to remind her whose side she is on.

In 1890, Bartosz meets Silja, who was sent from 2053 by Adam. They go on to have two children together in 1904 and 1910 respectively: Hanno (Noah) and Agnes (whose birth results in Silja's death). In 1911, Hannah arrives with a young Silja to stay with Jonas, who has begun to transform into Adam. Jonas strangles Hannah to death and takes Silja in as an eventual member of Sic Mundus.

From 1974 to 1986, H.G. Tannhaus is shown building his own time machine in the bunker, in an attempt to prevent the deaths of his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

In 2023, Jonas and Claudia fail to reactivate the God Particle. Jonas attempts suicide out of despair but is stopped by the teenage Noah. Noah proves to Jonas that he cannot kill himself, seeing as his adult self already exists, and reminds him of his commitment to helping Noah and Claudia restore the God Particle. This effort continues through 2041, by which point Elisabeth has given birth to Charlotte. The adult Elisabeth and Charlotte from 2053 travel to 2041 to kidnap baby Charlotte (who they eventually deliver to Tannhaus). Noah suspects that Claudia is responsible, which leads to his pursuit of the missing pages in Claudia's notebook and his eventual initiation into Sic Mundus by Adam in 1920. Meanwhile, Claudia - who has been deliberately stalling the restoration of the God Particle on her alternate self's orders - kills her alternate self and begins posing as her to keep up appearances to Eva, all the while collecting knowledge about the cycle of events between both worlds. In 2052, the elderly Claudia sends the adult Jonas on his mission to Winden in 2019, establishing the cycle of events that began in the first season.

In 2053, Claudia explains to Adam how he and Eva are tied in an inextricable triquetra knot that has an origin outside both their worlds, and that the two have been endlessly repeating the cycle (which includes Adam's attempts to end it). Claudia directs Adam to prevent the origin in a third, original world – where H.G. Tannhaus created a time machine to prevent the death of his son's family, which inadvertently split his world into the two connected worlds of Adam and Eva.

In 2052 in Eva's world, Eva introduces teenage Martha to her son, the Unknown, and forces her to shoot Jonas as her younger self witnessed earlier, claiming this is necessary to save their son.

Adam returns to Jonas on the day of the apocalypse and takes him to Eva's world, which Jonas is unaware of at that point in time. Adam urges Jonas to prevent the origin with the alternate Martha, for it is their connection that binds the two worlds together. Adam then visits Eva and, to her shock, refuses to kill her as she originally remembers. Eva realizes that the cycle has finally been broken, and she and Adam embrace. Jonas and Martha travel to the origin world through the passage in the cave and successfully prevent the deaths of Tannhaus' son Marek, his wife Sonja, and their infant daughter Charlotte, thus eliminating the pain that caused Tannhaus to create the time machine in the first place. With the origin prevented, Jonas, Martha and most of the other characters are erased from existence along with both worlds.