'Dark' Season 3 Episode 5: Why did Jonas have to die and all the other questions fans have in mind
Spoilers for Season 3
Deaths on Netflix's extremely complex plot of 'Dark' are always open-ended. One can't be too sure if a character is dead for good because there's a high chance their older, or even younger self is already travelling through time. After three long years, we finally get to see the origins of what opened in the passage in Winden's caves, thus kicking off a never-ending saga of time traveling loops.
The gigantic universe of the series finally comes to a wrap in this third and final season, but before Adam can untie the knot and transport people to the origin world, his younger self Jonah Kahnwald has to die. Why? Because going beyond timelines, Season 3 of 'Dark' introduces us to alternate realities and split worlds, and in Eva's (grown Martha) world there is no place for Jonas.
Having garnered quite the fame for just the first two seasons being this complex, season 3 truly pulls out the big guns when it comes to all things mindbending and confusing. Nothing can be explained without spoiling the ending, so this is your cue to leave if you don't want the devastatingly perfect finale spoiled. But if you do, you must know about the origin world where the clockmaker HG Tannhaus attempted time traveling and instead of bringing back his dead family, he ended up splitting the original world into two halves: Adam's and Eva's.
When Adam's Jonas meets Eva's Martha from the other world, the two have sex and a child is born out of incest, some time in the future. This child, and his older and younger self, keep traveling back and forth in time and between the two worlds to ensure the nuclear power plant disaster happens, and the apocalyptic loop continues to exist as it is, since that's the basis of his existence.
The child, referred to as Unknown, is also working for Eva, who wants the apocalypse to happen because that's the only way their world gets to exist. The previous seasons have explored what happens in Adam's world after the apocalypse. Adam shoots Martha and right after he disappears, the other Martha from Eva's world appears and rescues Jonas before the explosion can obliterate all of Winden.
This other Martha then takes Jonas to Eva's world, where Jonas is told how Adam has always lied to him about wanting to stop the apocalypse. She then leaves him, but Jonas and remembers the very distinct scar under her eye, along with her alarming reminder of how they are going to cause the end of the world.
So after Eva's little revelation about Adam supposedly lying, when Jonas sees the other Martha get the exact same scar under her eye, his worst fears are confirmed. However, by this time, the two have already had sex, so Jonas marching into Eva's mansion and demanding all the answers only further asserts his intent in stopping the child from ever being born. It becomes clear that Eva's only purpose to bring Jonas to her other world was to get Martha pregnant - thus tying an inexplicable knot, the only way to break which is to end everything.
Once an unsuspecting Jonas has served the purpose, they don't have any use for him. He will only grow to be a hindrance in their plans of spurring the apocalypse. So before Jonas and Martha from two different worlds can come together to untie the knot they each must die in the other's world. It becomes clear why Adam kills Martha, he can't let the two create a baby in his world. But Eva succeeds and kills Jonas because it's only fair. They are perfect for each other after all.
'Dark' Season 3 is available for streaming from June 27 on Netflix.