Hey guys, Pete here. Today I'm going to take one more look at the ending of Dark
and we'll answer a lot of questions i've seen popping up in the comments of my
videos. initially i thought about doing a big q&a
but as i looked over the list i realized that a lot of the questions
are related. to be clear the ending of Dark is open for
interpretation. there are competing theories which i'll address,
but i have my thoughts about what the ending means and those shape my point of
view. personally i'm okay with differing
opinions. the writers are the only ones that know for sure about some of these
points, and explaining them would ruin the effect they set out to create.
so before we dive in this is your spoiler warning i'm going to talk about
things that happened in the Netflix series
Dark including its ending. if you haven't completed all three seasons then this
video won't be for you. Dark season 3 did an impressive job of
providing answers to all the questions the series asked.
it's a complicated story though and many fans were left scratching their heads
about different details. these can be broken down into categories.
there are some questions that we aren't supposed to know the answers to like
what happened to Woller's eye. questions that we weren't shown the
answers to but can make a solid guess like where did Agnes go when we last saw
her. questions that are supposed to have some
mystery about them like what was going on with Jonas and
Martha seeing the kids on the bridge between
worlds. some things that we did get answers to
but some fans might have missed like what was the point of Noah building the
chair time machine in the bunker. and then
things that really didn't make sense or i don't have a good explanation for
like why did we see Michael and alt Martha show up near the cave
covered in black goo. i'll start with a couple things that we know answers to
and that'll open the door to discuss the bigger picture i've seen the question
why was noah working on the time machine in season one
and why was he killing those kids. part of that was story related
the mystery of it was a good way to hook fans in
and a way to connect the characters and their backstories
ulrich for example is a cop in the 2019 timeline and his brother mads going
missing 33 years prior played a part in him
choosing that profession. it served as an introduction to time
travel and how things were connected remember as a child helge was the first
person to travel successfully through the chair
and then as an adult he was instrumental in helping noah build the
device that his younger self would be transported in.
so the bunker and abductions helped to lay out the non-linear story.
as far as why they needed to build a time machine when others already exist
adam explained this to jonas in season two.
each machine is an evolution of the one before
it and even though this evolution happens in a non-linear fashion
each machine has to be built for the others to exist.
he used the example of not being able to build a car
without first inventing the wheel. asking why noah is building the chair
would be the same as asking why claudia takes the plans to tannhaus so he can
build the box machine. it's also worth mentioning since the
methods of using the children seem harsh that noah is just following the
notes detailed in the triquetra notebook. the
idea that everything is connected helps to answer a lot of similar
questions like why does the unknown trio go around killing people?
they do it because the power plant needs to be built and the accident needs to
happen back in 1986 in order for the time
travel fuel to be created. another example of something similar but
unrelated is why katharina has the same name in the
origin world. in adam's world she was named katharina
because when her mother was young she met hannah who was using that name
and she liked it. this is neat when you put it together
and you might ask if this never happened in the origin
world why does she still have that name. the answer is actually simple adam and
eva's worlds were created from the origin world. it
came first and she was named katharina there
everything that happens in the knot was influenced by the origin world and not
the other way around. you could apply this to other questions
like why did claudia have a child with bernd doppler.
well, age difference aside, they are a happily married couple in the origin
world. they are regina's parents there so they
would be in the knot as well. this brings us to the big
picture questions about how things work in Dark
and the different theories to explain things. if you watched my how to claudia
know video then you know that i was leaning heavily
towards adam and eva's worlds being deterministic systems after
watching the finale. to me it makes the most sense that these
two worlds were created with fully formed timelines
where none of the characters can change anything. a question i heard a lot was
how was claudia able to change things this one particular time
in relation to the ending. in my view she wasn't, it always happens.
everything only happens once but in a way
it's always happening. this leads the characters
to experiencing things as if they're happening over and over.
the idea of an infinite loop and claudia thinking that you know when she talks to
adam it's the first time in my mind it's the
only time though it's not the first time. one of the other popular interpretations
is that what she says about things repeating
is actually happening and that she passes information off to herself
each time she goes through the cycle. in that process she figures things out and
eventually arrives at a point where she has a plan
and she's able to implement it there are clues that seem to back up both of these
theories depending on your perspective. in this
version of events we would have to believe that free will does exist in the
system. that the other characters are just held back by their desires
and doomed themselves to continuing their loops this is a fine way to look
at things and i'll admit to liking the idea that they keep themselves stuck
based on what they want where the idea loses its appeal for me
is when you start filling in the details of how that would actually play out i
don't really want to go down that rabbit hole in this video though
because the details aren't the most important thing here in my opinion
really the only popular idea that's out there that rubs me the wrong way
is the idea that the loop and adam and eva's worlds
still continue after jonas and martha disappear
to me that's contrary to what the ending and to an extent the entire show was
about the creators haven't really revealed too
many details about the ending but they did say this in a hollywood
reporter interview bo odar says that he views the ending as
happy but it can be interpreted as a suicide
mission he talks about the characters realizing they aren't important and that
they can do something good by not being there he
says this gives the other world a huge chance which for him is a very happy
ending even though it feels very sad. Friese
adds questions she was concerned with like do we matter
can we change anything do i actually have free will she talks
about the characters freeing themselves and letting go making for a satisfying
ending to me this adds up to what i saw on
screen and what i described in my claudia video
two characters making a decision to bring the existence of their worlds to
an end in my understanding since time
travel will never be created after the car crash is avoided time is
linear in the origin world once jonas and martha complete their
mission they essentially act as observers they observe that
reality and therefore all other possible states or realities are
off the table the initial timeline where Tannhaus
created his time machine no longer exists and therefore adam and
eva's worlds cannot be formed in that way
they do not and will not exist again one of the reasons
people hold on to the idea that the cycle is still
out there repeating is because of the scene in the bridge between worlds
jonas and martha are separated in the beginning and they each see the other as
a child through a doorway jonas mentions it before they disappear
and so well people think this means it's happened before
since this goes against everything i just said i'm not a big fan of this idea
but then what's going on in this scene as i said earlier i think some of these
things are supposed to have some mystery about them
overall i think this shows their connection and i think this scene exists
outside of time itself in that way it just furthers the idea that they will
always have a connection and with that it isn't
evidence that it was part of the loop there's an interesting theory that's out
there though and even though i'm not sure i endorse
it i like the idea behind it it boils down to this being necessary so
that the seed of deja vu can be planted between these two
it then becomes the thing that draws them together and since this is all
happening outside of time and space there's
potential for it existing beyond the timelines
and worlds we've already seen it's a nice idea and who knows
i think it's interesting that they don't come together and then leave the bridge
until it happens i also think that since they accessed
the tunnel in the split second where cause and effect break down it
opens the door to the connection being bigger than what
we've seen to this point that ties into the next question i heard
a lot which was why does it have to be jonas and marta
if claudia discovered the origin world why didn't she go there herself
i mean i get where people are coming from with this to an extent
it does seem like a lot of extra moving parts to bring into the plan
i think part of this is story related frankly it makes for a better ending
that jonas and martha are the ones to bring this to an
end they are literally the beginning and the end of their worlds
to their credit the writers littered plenty of explanation as to why claudia
thought it had to be them into the story and if you liked the idea
of the bridge being the point of creating the seed of deja vu
then this would actually be essential this one statement
sums it up you two are parts of a whole only together can you return to the
origin world some of the other questions i brought up
at the beginning a lot of people have been asking what happened to Woller's
eye and i hope part of this is just
furthering the joke how he injured it isn't important and
the creators were just playing with our curiosity about it
they decided during season 2 they wouldn't reveal the answer
and used the interruptions in his trying to explain to playoff they even went as
far as making the words right eye a link on his page on the official
website and when you click on it it just hangs like it's loading the page
indefinitely where agnes went when we last saw her
travel is another question i heard a lot since we saw adam give her the newspaper
article about claudia's death i think we can put it together her
actions in season 2 are the only things we know about her story so i think it
makes sense that she traveled to that point in time
another detail that falls into the same category is the question of who built
the gold sphere time machine since adam's world has the box time
machine that tannhaus built we can imagine that he created one in eva's
world too the show didn't provide the backstory
for this or why it's so much more advanced
but at the end of the day him making it is the only thing that makes sense
if we're working from the assumption that the timelines
were created fully formed to account for all the other bootstrap paradoxes
it exists as it is because it does finally the one thing that i don't have
a great explanation for is the scene outside the caves where
michael and martha appeared covered in what looked like
cesium i always thought that the michael scene was included to show jonas's
internal struggles and were likely a vision or
hallucination the creators may have added the marta scene
to show how she is similarly struggling with the new situation she finds herself
in but her being dressed in the same clothing the original
martha wore the night of the party in adam's world makes no sense to me
i think it's probably an effort to show their connection but it's one that
didn't particularly work in my opinion there are a few other questions out
there that will remain unanswered like who were the other people in the
sic mundus photo why were there two different versions of
the conwald family photo in season one and two why did jonas and
helge get transported to different places after touching through the
wormhole but elisabeth and charlotte ended up
together what happened to adam in the reality where he killed eva
and how did noah travel back in time in 2041
after charlotte was kidnapped and with those i will bring this video
to an end let me know your thoughts in the comments
and about any other questions you still have as far as the mechanics of what i
think happened at the ending there's a pretty good thread on reddit
that compiled a lot of the explanations about many of these questions
i'll put a link to that in the description of this video and you can
draw your own conclusions when i first saw it i was glad to see
people were reaching a consensus about some of the things i
was thinking about and i guess if you favor one of the other
interpretations it might give you something to think about
it also mentions the idea that jonas and martha are the souls of marek
sonja inside the knot i haven't really talked about this because i don't find
it very compelling but i've seen a lot of you mentioning it in the comments
it's cool if you want to read that into it but how do you deal with the
inconsistency in how they manifest compared to everyone else also
the actual marek sonja and charlotte are part of tannhaus'
story inside the knot so why would that
connection be necessary i don't know so let me know what you
think please like this video if you enjoyed it and please subscribe to my
channel if you haven't already thanks for watching i will talk to you
soon