'Dark' season 3 should bring all the show's multiple dimensions and parallel timelines together in one grand finale
If you have to sum up the German series 'Dark' in a sentence, it is a show about a quaint German town that is home to a nuclear power plant and has residents with some really complicated interpersonal relationships – complications that go back generations. The dysfunctionality of the town and its many distraught interpersonal relationships should actually make the show easy to consume.
Instead, the show is about murder, time travel, treachery, tyranny, power, paradoxes and secret societies that will put your mind in a tizzy. Twists, both exciting and frustrating, take over the entire second season of Jonas Kahnwald's (played by Louis Hofmann) quest to find out how the town is connected to the nuclear power plant and time travel.
Netflix's first-ever German production series gained massive popularity all over the world after the series first came out in 2017. Although it took a while to pick up the pace – which was also mostly done by word of mouth marveling at the sci-fi brilliance of creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese – 'Dark' changed the game of the time-traveling genre.
The second season ended on a mindboggling cliffhanger and it is now revealed that major characters of the show can now not only travel through time but also through dimensions and worlds.
We see Jonas try really hard to try and avert the apocalypse in Winden. While he couldn't successfully do it, he finds himself going back to his home to find Adam (played by Dietrich Hollinderbäumer) who shoots Martha Nielsen (played by Lisa Vicari). Adam then tells Jonas that Martha's death was necessary for the teen to become him [Adam] in the future.
After Adam leaves Jonas to mourn over Martha's body, it is implied that the events would be taking place once again and that the apocalypse is inevitable, just like it was in the previous cycles.
But that's not the last of it. Just when we thought all hope was lost, Martha (well not technically Martha, but someone who very much looks like Martha, Other Martha) shows up in front of Jonas.
"I'm not who you think I am," she says, without providing any helpful information. "What time are you from?" Jonas asks her as she sets off a spherical golden device that begins to whir and give off light. "The question isn't from what time, but from what world," Other Martha answers. As they leave, Jonas's house blows up.
A big question that also exists in the third season is just how safe or potentially dangerous is Other Martha and her alternate world. It also raises questions about how time works in their world. Gauging from the technology she used, it looks like Other Martha's world is much more advanced than Jonas' world, but what this means and how it would turn out is uncertain.
At the moment, 'Dark's biggest mystery – after Other Martha, of course – is what exactly does Old Claudia plan to do? Firstly, we aren't even aware of her intentions. Secondly, several Jonases have claimed that she is lying and Adam says she is an agent of the shadows. But Old Claudia herself claims that she is a member of the light and hopes to stop the cycles and the world from ending.
While there is not much we can tell about her so far, she is the only one who knows her plan and it looks like her story will come to the spotlight in season 3.
There was no doubt that the second season of the sci-fi thriller was going to pull us deeper into the pit of mystery, the good news is that the makers have already started work on season three, the final season of the show.
If you haven't caught up on the second season, here's a trailer to offer you a little insight into the show:
