Three thoughts about Dark

I finished Dark last weekend and I need to write all my thoughts down because surely I WILL FORGET.

This article contains spoilers. And passion.

Thought 1

Three wild loops that I honestly still step through in my mind during idle times.

• Hannah was bullied all her life by Katharina, who went back in time to impersonate Katharina as Ulrich’s wife to see him in prison. She becomes pregnant and meets Helene Albers as a child, waiting to get an abortion. Helene Albers later names her own daughter, Katharina, after Katharina, yep.
• Jonas meets alt Martha and has The Unknown, who goes back in time to father Tronte Nielsen with Agnes Nielsen, who fathers Ulrich Nielsen, who fathers Mikkel, Martha and Magnus Nielsen; Mikkel gets sent back in time and ends up marrying Hannah, and has Jonas. Jonas is his own grandfather.
• Charlotte has two daughters: Francesca and Elisabeth. Elisabeth marries The Priest Guy, and the two have Charlotte. Charlotte marries Peter Doppler, and has Francesca. The crowning jewel of this relationship is when moderately older Elisabeth goes to steal baby Charlotte away from younger new mother Elisabeth with adult Charlotte so that they could send baby Charlotte to live with the clockmaker. A lot was going on there.

Thought 2

More shows need to be written with the end in mind

With three seasons matching the theme of threes in the entire season, each season we saw the introduction of increasingly more complicated information. First, we learn of time travel; then we learned of the three complicating time loops; finally we learned of the three alternate worlds.

Each piece of intertwining complicatedness was introduced in bite-sized pieces so viewers could catch up.

There are also no loopholes found so far, as the entire show was written with the end in mind. More shows need to self-contained like this, instead of letting the ending drag on and end with an underwhelming story.

Thought 3

My belief of “who” was behind the time and world loops also kept changing, and when I thought I figured everything out, I hadn’t. I was “shook” on five separate occasions.

1. I first thought the Priest was behind all of things, and had a negative view of him the entire season despite having most of it debunked. He just had a spooky vibe.
2. Then, we learned about Claudia and her journey into learning about the Winden caves, and how she became one of the two travellers really trying to change things up for some greater reason.
3. Then we learned that Adam was Jonas (the only German phrase I learned from this show was ich bin du) and that in a way, Adam and Claudia were fighting each other the entire way.
4. But that wasn’t true, Claudia wasn’t Adam’s counterpart. He was renamed as Adam for a reason, because there would be an Eve. We learn about how alternate Martha becomes Eve and they eternally loop into trying to preserve vs. destroy the loop.
5. And after all of this, after I thought the season had already reached the ending, we learn about the third world from Claudia. We learn about how the clockmaker was the whole reason behind this, and how neither Adam nor Eve’s world is the original.

It was just a gift that kept on giving.

Summary

1. Wibbly wobbly timey wimey time loops
2. More shows need to be written with the end in mind
3. Dark is a great show that keeps things suspenseful

Additional things to watch/read

1. Reddit user 8R8A8’s analysis of why Dark is not about time travel
2. Youtube Video: Dark events placed in chronological order
3. Youtube Video: 33 things you might have missed on Dark

Lucy (The Egg Girl) usually writes about self-improvement in a more accessible way but sometimes she drops that to talk about the latest tv shows she’s absolutely in love with because we all have to live a little sometimes, y’know?

Come tweet me your thoughts on Dark! While I’m glad it’s over and wrapped up I’m also sad it’s over and wrapped up!