‘Dark’ Third Season Is Finally On Netflix With An Astonishing Ending

The third and final season of the German series Dark is on Netflix from June 27. Even though you’ll be glad to finally have some answers to this very complex time-twisting tale, you’ll also be sad that such a clever, absorbing and suspenseful series comes to an end. This is by far one of the greatest shows of the moment, and so it’ll be difficult not to make this review into a long list of adjectives synonymous with the word brilliant.

As a short recap, the second season of Dark ended with quite a big cliffhanger. If you still have not watched any seasons of Dark, then be warned the following contains spoilers, although I won’t be revealing the ending. Old Adam had just shot Martha, but while Jonas was clearly distraught by her loss, another Martha appeared from another world with a new round time-and-worlds travelling device.

The third season opens with three characters, of three different ages, we have never seen before. They set fire to Adam’s place, and watch it burn. The first episode picks up where the last episode of the second season left us. Martha takes Jonas to her world, and leaves him there. She tells him beforehand that her world and his tie a knot inextricably intertwined. This first episode explores how this alternate world is different. Winden is still the same, but it is a world where Jonas was never born.

Everything is almost identical, but slightly changed. This is Martha’s world, whereas the other was Jonas’. The way these two worlds intertwine and intersect into a knot is represented throughout the series with the image of the infinity symbol. In this series, everything is repeated to show how all is connected into this neverending loop that needs breaking in order to stop.

The first half of the third season will have you even more confused than the first two seasons put together. However, slowly the puzzle pieces will come together. Theories have been pouring in from fans to explain the series, here the series ends quite neatly and satisfyingly. Some enigmas, however, may remain. Will we, for example, ever find out what Wöller did to his eye, or why he has an arm missing in the other world?

While solving the numerous enigmas and mysteries in this series’ story is what makes it so compelling and captivating, what truly makes this series so brilliant are the questions it raises. This is a story heavily based on philosophical thinking about free will, determinism, and of course time. Opening with an Arthur Schopenhauer quote, this final season pulls you to question whether we each have free will over our lives, or whether everything is pre-determined. Is there such a thing as a destiny that we must stick to, or do we make it up as we go along? What the series shows is that each of our lives is influenced by others, as we blindly follow what others tell us we must do. This is what Jonas does most of the series, pulled one way or the other by Adam, Eva and others.

The series keeps pointing at different subjects that make you want to explore a little further—such as Bartosz’s explanation of a black hole, the story of Ariadne, quantum mechanics, or Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment—and find out how they apply to this particular story. All of these enrich the story further.

Dark is a series that can be watched again and again to unearth all of its mysteries. For example, I’m sure upon second viewing I would be able to decipher why the scratch on the face of other-world Martha changes sides. With all its complexity, confusing family trees and intertwining storylines, this is a series that has you hooked from beginning to end. As we’ve been told many times by the characters: the beginning is the end, and the end the beginning. So now that Dark has ended, lets re-watch it from the beginning again!