If you’re still in the Dark over Dark, then this Dark Ending Explained is for you. When I finished watching the series, and I’ve got to be honest, at the end of episode 5, I was really confused and borderline worried about whether or not I knew what was going on. Fortunately, the ending turned out to be pretty straightforward though, and I can’t wait to talk about it.
There are a lot of questions hanging over the Dark Season 3 finale. Throughout this article, we’ll be discussing who Regina’s father is, how Jonas ended up looking like Deadpool, how Claudia knew of the Origin World, the point of the show, and a lot more.
There will be spoilers here, so if you haven’t had a chance to check out the season yet, then I highly recommend that you turn it off now and don’t interact with your future self at all.
Dark Ending Explained: What Was The Point?
When you finished Dark, you might have wondered, “What was the point? “Adam and Eva have been at odds with one another constantly because the former thinks that by destroying the origin, he will be able to stop the time loop. Just opposing this, Eva doesn’t want their child to die and thus will do whatever she can to make sure the loop continues.
Adam does accomplish his goal, but he doesn’t disappear, realizing that destroying the origin was not the way to end the loop. Mirroring this, Eva wants the loop to continue, so neither can really win.
In the final episode, we learned that both the dimensions we had seen throughout the season were actually offshoots of an origin dimension. In order to stop this paired cycle of endless misery, Adam and Eva, or rather Jonas and Martha, had to travel to the source and stop time travel from being invented in order to stop their worlds from being created. They managed to do so, but it completely erased their existence and the world, leading to, as Martha said, it all being a dream. This was hammered home by Hannah in the final few minutes, which actually stated that she had what felt like a dream wash over her at one point in which she felt the happiness that the characters gained upon dying.
But what exactly was the point in all this if it was all a dream? Well, the death of the universes actually ties back to why they were created in the first place. That was to save Tannhaus’ son. After a big argument, Marek stormed out into a storm with his wife and their child and was killed during a traffic accident. This made Tannhaus obsess over time travel, and he created a time machine in order to stop them that night and thus save their lives.
So whilst Dark might seem like there was actually no point to it at all, there actually was, and we saw firsthand that these two alternate realities actually did save Tannhaus’ family, even if they did so inadvertently. So Tannhaus’ goal was to save his family, and he managed to do this in the end by creating two worlds in which a pair of heroes would unite and carry out the act for him. This was unintentional, but the ends sort of justified the means, and he managed to achieve his goal in the end, which in my opinion, was the point of the show.
However, the characters in their worlds also wished to end the constant cycle of darkness, and this was reflected in Claudia, who had to watch her daughter die numerous times.
How Did Claudia Know Of The Origin World?
This brings us to our next question, which is, “how did Claudia know of the Origin World?” Well, first off, Claudia is an extremely intelligent woman. Not only was she the head of a Power Plant, but she also managed to navigate the loop several times and used Adam and Eva as chess pieces in a game to ultimately correct everything.
Claudia actually understood the loops and time machines, whereas Adam and Eva didn’t. This is why Adam found it extremely difficult to construct one without being burned. In the same way that you and I can use a phone and computer, I doubt we could actually build one from scratch, which is why Adam and Eva were both her puppets, constantly looking to her for advice.
Now Claudia actually figured out that there was an original world because she realized that Regina couldn’t be traced back fully into the family tree and, therefore, must exist outside of it in another world. Though her father was thought to be Tronte, she knew this wasn’t true, and thus she must’ve been conceived in another way, pretty much erasing the possibility of both the dimensions that she had visited being the true one.
She also realized that though humans tended to think in dualities such as light and dark, day and night, there would actually have to exist a world in which both aspects were together, co-existing as one. The Triketra is pretty much how the timeline actually looks instead of the infinity symbol that we saw Eva understanding it as.
The number three is also laced throughout Dark, such as there is: time jumps of 33 years; the predominant travelers being in a group of three made up of Jonas, Martha, and Claudia; there being three versions of most of the protagonists, such as the younger, middle-aged and older versions; the series being three seasons long and so on. Yeah, she probably didn’t know that last one; however, everything existed in stages of three, and thus, there would have to be the third world.
You sort of have to take a leap of faith with it, but you have to also appreciate that she’d been around these loops so many times that she’d picked things up.
How Did Claudia Come Back To Life?
You might then wonder, “Well, how did Claudia come back to life?” However, if you change these switch junctions, you can reverse something, and this is essentially what Claudia did. As we learn with Jonas, who is killed at one point, there are various switch points that, in time, will loop around in a certain direction before coming back to a specific point and then continuing the loop once more.
This is shown through Martha, who at one point has the option to either save Jonas or not. She was aware that she could do it either way… or Eva’s way… sorry, pun intended, and was aware that there are possibilities to make choices. Adam was unaware of this, and Eva just wanted to continue the loop in which her son lived forever, so she didn’t let him know.
Claudia discovered it too, and it was only upon informing Adam of it in the finale that he realized he could make a choice too.
So basically, Claudia survived because she used the UNO switch card and got herself out of it in the end so she could travel to Adam and tell him the truth. Everything she did was to save Regina, so she may have even let an alternate version of herself die in order to make it so that she could appear in the finale and guide Adam away from continuing the loop. This saves the world and also leads us to the characters getting a happy life.
Who Is Regina’s Father?
Here in the happy life, we see Regina is, in fact, alive and also learn who her father really is. Now it’s given to us in a picture frame, but we actually discover that it was, in fact, Bernd that was her dad. Bernd did flirt with a younger Claudia, and we learn that he later ended up marrying her, which, yeah… draw your own conclusions over that.
However, this has been confirmed on the Dark website, so we now officially know it is the case. It also has to be, as Regina pretty much proved the original world exists through her father, who existed outside of the loop. So, we can confirm it is indeed the case.
How Did Adam Get The Scars?
The next question is, “How did Adam get his scars?” This one is more a sort of draw-your-own conclusion, but there are several clues. Now the reason that this question has been raised is that we were told that Jonas got them because of traveling so much. However, we know that several other characters traveled, and the only real scar that Martha got was the cut on her cheek, which was given to her by a fence and also the one handed to her by Eva, so she remembered her duties.
So, why did Adam have them and not anyone else? Well, at the start of episode 7, we see that the older version of Jonas is badly burned by the machine, and thus we can gather from this that as he was building it, he would’ve received more and more burns trying to perfect the device. I would’ve loved to have seen the moment he ended up going fully Freddy Kruger, but unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to. I guess what we know is a drop, and what we don’t know is an ocean.
Are Jonas And Martha Alive At The End Of Dark?
Now back to the happy ending to just clear everything up. Firstly Jonas and Martha are not alive, and it’s unlikely that the versions we saw will be. Jonas was, of course, created from Mikkel, Martha’s brother who time-traveled, and as we see, things have massively changed in terms of the family trees, so it is unlikely that they will come back.
However, Hannah does state that she plans to name her child Jonas and you can either take this as the character coming back and no longer being trapped in the loop or simply being a tribute. Personally, I lean more towards the former because I’m sentimental, but also, this would be a completely different Jonas due to his father not being there.
What Happened To Charlotte and Ulrich?
Similarly, this is reflected in Ulrich and Charlotte, who are not at the Dinner Table either. Now firstly, Ulrich is not there because he was created due to the time loop. He was the son of Tronte and the grandson of Agnes and the unknown. The unknown was the child of Jonas and Martha, who were his great-grandparents which makes him part of the loop, and therefore, if they aren’t alive, then he can’t be either.
Throughout the seasons, Ulrich is a cheat, and he doesn’t really appreciate what he has and causes a lot of pain and suffering to those around him. So I think in order to have a paradise, he just wouldn’t be there to inflict misery, and it is possible that even if Martha and Jonas are born that he will never be made.
Katharina is not wearing a wedding ring anymore, so the two never get together. Mirroring this, Charlotte does not exist at all in this reality as she was primarily born of the loop, with her daughter Elisabeth becoming her mother and so on. This is why she is not present here. However, it is possible that she still continued in some form or another, like Jonas.
We know that Tannhaus’ family survived, and thus she may have ended up becoming his grandchild still as was in the original world.
What Did The Dark Season 3 Ending Really Mean?
Dark Season 3 ends with the group asking Hannah if she’s thought of any names, and she stares at a yellow raincoat and says Jonas before the screen cuts to black. Now what this means is that the Jonas we knew will still live on in some form or another, as will most of the characters that we’ve grown to know and love.
However, in their dark nightmare versions, such as Adam, it will just be a dream, and the characters will instead get happy lives instead of the torture that they’ve endured for several lifetimes.
Things have changed, but they change for the better, and all of the events that would lead to the murder of children, the death of millions, and more have been taken out of the future because of Jonas and Martha’s sacrifice. They finally broke the chain so that the world could continue without the versions of themselves that we witnessed.
The lights going off and on in the house symbolized that they’d taken us out of the Dark and into the light. Hence the season and series as a whole left Dark as one of the best sci-fi shows ever made.
What Happened to Woller’s eye?
So that pretty much wraps up all the questions except for “What Happened to Woller’s eye?” The character’s continual pauses as he tries to explain how he damaged it have become a running joke throughout the entire season.
It sort of became the Nick Fury of Dark, and many fans have poured over exactly what could’ve caused it and how it came to be that way. Well, I don’t wanna disappoint anyone, so I’ve gone back through all the notes and behind-the-scenes information on the matter and have finally traced everything back to give a final answer on exactly how the character lost it.
So, we learn that it happened in the summer beforehand, and clearly, Woller has covered up exactly what it was and didn’t want people to know. However, finally, finally, we know that it…
Also Read: Is Emancipation Movie Based On True Story? What Will Smith’s Movie Do Differently?
