Light and Shadow
1888 – The Other World
The apocalypse is nigh as Episode 6 of Dark Season 3 begins with adult-Jonas awakening from a bad dream and reading the note left for him from Martha. She tells him not to lose hope and that there’s a way he can save them. As we soon see, the version of Martha that shot Jonas is actually being kept in a cage in 2020.
2019 – The Other World
Martha returns home and drops her blood-stained clothes in the sink and washes her hands vigorously. As she does, Magnus approaches and confronts her over what she’s doing. She tries to plead with Magnus to listen and tells him about the apocalypse but he refuses to listen. Instead, we cut across to Aleksander who runs into problems regarding the barrels in the nuclear plant. As Bartosz arrives, he hangs up and tells him the truth about who he is. A newspaper clipping from the past confirms a murder and Aleksander tells him his real name is Boris Niewald. Charlotte comes to visit Ulrich but Hannah gets there first. She warns Charlotte that Ulrich is hers before walking away. Alone with Ulrich, Charlotte confirms that the penny Helge had and the one in the bunker is the exact same coin. As they discuss the implication of the two coins being the same, Ulrich has an idea. Martha arrives at Bartosz’ house and invites herself in. There, she admits everything and pleads with him to convince Aleksander (or Boris as we now know him as) not to open the barrels. While he tries desperately to ring through, Ulrich confronts Helge and sets him loose from the police station. Ulrich watches Helge from afar as he walks into the caves. He follows him in, deep through the various passageways into parts unknown. As Martha and Bartosz try to stop the future from playing out, the older Magnus and Fran from Our World’s 2020 arrive and tell them Eve lied and she’s going to cause the apocalypse. The only way to prevent that from happening is by going back and saving Jonas from their world. This sets the timeline up on the way it’s always intended to be.
2020 – Our World
Adam approaches Martha and tells her Tannhaus tried to create a perfect world; a perfect paradise. Martha pleads with him to be let go but Adam refuses to listen. Meanwhile, Claudia looks over the map of the nuclear plant she has and tracks down the source of energy. This pulsating white orb looks enticing but just as she’s about to touch it, a familiar voice shouts and tells her to stop. That voice belongs to Jonas. As Claudia starts to understand, she realizes that it’s the God Particle before her and the apocalypse has destroyed the passage preventing Jonas from being able to travel. As he continues on, a bitter Jonas confronts Claudia over why she hasn’t said anything before about Martha’s death. Martha is released from her cage and forced to get undressed. With little time remaining, Adam fires up the machine while Magnus and Fran watch on from afar.
2052 – The Other World
Eve, the older-Martha from that time period and the cut-faced Martha all sit together and discuss Jonas and just how he’s still alive. It turns out there’s a switch point – a moment in time that split reality into two different directions; either Martha arrives to save him and bring him to their world or she doesn’t. Eve rallies her troops – a whole army of travelers working on her side – to try and maintain the world(s) order and make sure the apocalypse comes to pass. As we soon see, all these different travelers arrive at different points to sustain the flow of time.
2020 – Our World
Martha is brought before Adam and he tells her they need to try and destroy the origin – the baby growing inside her – and in order to do that they need the spirit of both worlds. Despite Martha’s pleas, she watches helplessly as he powers up the machine and the dark matter swirls around her.
The Apocalypse – Both Worlds
As the apocalypse comes to pass once again we see that it’s actually The Origin – or Jonas and Martha’s child to be precise – that’s responsible for causing this to pass. Flicking switches and turning up the heat, things reach its dramatic crescendo leaving the future uncertain and unknown.
The Review Write-Up
With the battle lines drawn and the two sides wrestling for control, Dark pulls out all the stops to crank up the tension and set the pieces ready for the final fight ahead. Understanding how both these worlds are intrinsically linked is absolutely fascinating and the truth about the origin now makes perfect sense too. Quite how this fits into the ending of the series though remains to be seen but it seems clear now that he’s the one responsible for the catastrophe engulfing both worlds. There’s lots of unresolved narrative threads still to be deciphered but so far Dark has done an excellent job living up to expectations and delivering a thrilling final season.
