Dark (TV series) / Season 1

Season 1 of Dark
Episodes	10
Country of production	Germany
Initial release	December 1, 2017 on Netflix
Season 2   ▶
► Episode list

The first season of the German science fiction - Mystery series Dark was the program of the streaming portal Netflix added on December 1 2017th The shooting took place between October 2016 and April 2017, interrupted by a four-week Christmas break.

action

The first season mostly takes place in 2019. Additional storylines take place in 1953, 1986 and 2052.

Pedigree of the central families Doppler, Tiedemann, Kahnwald and Nielsen at the end of the first season. Dashed lines indicate adoptive relationships.

Episodes

No. ( total )	No. ( St. )	Original title	Initial release	Director	script
1	1	Secrets	1st December 2017	Baran bo Odar	Jantje Friese
Michael Kahnwald committed suicide in the small German town of Winden on June 21, 2019 . His mother Ines Kahnwald hides his farewell letter before anyone can read it. On November 4, 2019, almost four months later, Jonas Kahnwald, Michael's son, returned to his school after psychiatric treatment. There the teenager meets his friend Bartosz Tiedemann again, who is now with Martha Nielsen, with whom Jonas was in love before his absence. A classmate named Erik Obendorf has been missing in Winden for two weeks. He was known at school for trading marijuana . The investigation into the missing person is led by the Winden police under the direction of Charlotte Doppler and Ulrich Nielsen, the father of Martha and her two brothers, Mikkel and Magnus. Ulrich is married to the headmistress Katharina Nielsen, but has an affair with Jonas' mother, Hannah Kahnwald. While the police investigations into the Erik Obendorf case brought hardly any new information to light, Bartosz, Jonas, Magnus, Martha and Mikkel went to Erik's secret drug hiding place in front of the Windener Höhlen not far from the local nuclear power plant. There they meet Franziska Doppler, who had already found the drugs. After a dispute over the rightful owners of Erik's drugs, the teenagers are startled by an eerie noise from the caves. When their flashlights start to flicker, they flee the forest in a panic. When they arrive at the meeting point, however, they discover that Mikkel has disappeared. The next morning, a child's corpse is discovered in the forest wearing clothes from the 80s. However, Ulrich can rule out that it is Mikkel. In the meantime, Erik has been chained to a chair in an unknown location that is furnished like a child's room and is apparently part of a frightening experiment.
2	2	lying	1st December 2017	Baran bo Odar	Jantje Friese & Ronny Schalk
Ulrich begins to suspect that the disappearance of Erik and Mikkel could be connected to the disappearance of his brother Mads 33 years ago. While searching the Windener Höhlen for his son Mikkel, he comes to a locked door that apparently leads to the nuclear power plant. His request to search the nuclear power plant, however, is rejected by the nuclear power plant boss Aleksander Tiedemann, Bartosz's father. Ulrich meanwhile excludes Erik's father Jürgen Obendorf as a suspect. After the autopsy of the boy found dead, Charlotte is informed that he had died 16 hours earlier and that his eyes, both eardrums and ears had been completely destroyed. There was red earth on his clothing, but not where it was found. Later in the day the lights flicker again in the wind and dead birds fall en masse from the sky. Meanwhile, a stranger checks into Regina Tiedemann's hotel, who is Bartosz's mother. In conversation with his parents Jana and Tronte Nielsen, Ulrich tries to find out what happened the night Mads disappeared. Ines assures him that Tronte was with her that night, knowing full well that he was not. In the evening, Mikkel finally manages to leave the Windener Höhlen. When he arrives at home, however, when he looks at a newspaper lying in front of the door, he realizes that that day is November 5, 1986. At a time that is still unclear to the viewer, a masked person is dragging the dead Erik through the forest.
3	3	Yesterday and today	1st December 2017	Baran bo Odar	Jantje Friese & Marc O. Seng
In 1986 the sudden appearance of Mikkel is investigated by the police chief of Winden, Egon Tiedemann. He suspects the young Ulrich, who has been dismissive of authority figures since his brother's disappearance. He confronts Egon with the fact that the police have not made any progress in their search for Mads. Mikkel is being treated in hospital for minor grazes. He doesn't talk to anyone there, only nurse Ines Kahnwald can gradually gain his trust. In the meantime, Claudia Tiedemann (mother of Regina and daughter of Egon) takes over the management of the previous boss and founder Bernd Doppler. He informs them about secret barrels that are stored under the nuclear power plant in the caves. Bernd's son Helge, who is employed in the nuclear power plant, gives Claudia the book A Journey through the Times by HG Tannhaus on arrival . After all electronic light sources have flickered in winds, the teenage girl Charlotte investigates the mysterious bird deaths. The young Hannah is in love with Ulrich, who is with Katharina and does not notice Hannah's interest. Regina is bullied at school and shows self-harming behavior . A little later, dozens of dead sheep with their eardrums broken are found in a field in Winden. Meanwhile, Mikkel breaks out of the hospital and goes to the Windener Höhlen. There he breaks down in despair and calls for help. In 2019 Ulrich is desperately looking for his son in the caves. When he arrives at the locked door (from episode 2), he hears muffled cries for help, but is unable to communicate with Mikkel.
4th	4th	Double life	1st December 2017	Baran bo Odar	Jantje Friese & Martin Behnke
In 2019 Jonas found a map of the Windener Heights with numerous notes and markings in the attic of his house. Meanwhile, Charlotte tries to establish a connection between the dead boy and the mass dying birds with similar injuries. A possible link to birds observed after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster could be a clue. At the same time, Charlotte suspects a connection with her observations from 1986. Her marriage to Peter Doppler has broken up since she knew that he had secretly met with the trans * sex worker Bernadette. She also finds out that, contrary to his testimony, Peter was on the go and not at home the night Mikkel went missing. As part of her research, she drives to an old forest hut with the Doppler name tag . There she finds red earth on the one hand, as it was on the clothes of the found dead boy, and on the other hand an old bunker. Before she can take a closer look at the bunker, however, she receives a call that Ulrich broke into the nuclear power plant. Franziska tells Magnus that she wants to leave Winden. A short time later, Elisabeth is also missing. She is the deaf sister of Franziska and Peters and Charlotte's daughter. In the local nursing home, Peters repeated his father Helge, who had dementia, several times that he had to stop Noah. At night he breaks out and is picked up in the forest by the police who are looking for Elisabeth. A little later, however, Elisabeth turns up at home unharmed and reports on her encounter with a mysterious man named Noah. He gave her an old pocket watch with the inscription "for Charlotte". The next morning, Elisabeth's school friend Yasin meets a stranger with a hood on the street who tells him that Noah sent him.
5	5	Truths	1st December 2017	Baran bo Odar	Jantje Friese & Martin Behnke
Mikkel returned to hospital after his escape from hospital in 1986 to treat his injuries. He receives a visit from a priest who introduces himself as Noah. Meanwhile, Hannah observes Ulrich and Katharina having consensual sex in the school building. She then accuses Ulrich of rape, as a result of which he is arrested without knowing who accused him. In the winds of 2019, panic is gradually spreading among the population after Yasin, the third boy, has disappeared without a trace within a few weeks. Charlotte openly accuses her husband Peter of complicity. Ulrich ends his affair with Hannah. The stranger who lives in Regina's hotel asks her to send a package to Jonas, as he has to leave town for a few days. In the Winden cemetery he meets Jonas and tells him at his father's grave that he once saved his life. Meanwhile, Bartosz meets Erik's drug supplier. It is the same unaged person who Mikkel had visited in hospital 33 years earlier. Jonas later receives the stranger's package, which contains a portable lamp, a Geiger-Müller counter tube and his father's farewell letter. In this, Michael writes that on November 4, 2019, he traveled back in time to 1986 and was raised there by Ines. After meeting Hannah, the two married and had a son: Jonas. Mikkel Nielsen became Michael Kahnwald.
6th	6th	Sic mundus creatus est	1st December 2017	Baran bo Odar	Jantje Friese & Ronny Schalk
In 2019 Regina received her cancer diagnosis . Ulrich learns that his father Tronte had an affair with Claudia Tiedemann during the time Mads disappeared. The developments lead to more and more arguments and conflicts within the von Mikkel family. After Ulrich learns that Regina had last seen Mads 33 years ago, he confronts her in her hotel. She admits that she hated Ulrich at the time because he and others bullied her . However, Ulrich also learns that she had nothing to do with Mads disappearance and the rape allegations against him, but that these were actually brought up by Hannah. In forensic medicine, Ulrich finally realizes that the dead boy is his brother Mads, who disappeared without a trace 33 years ago. Meanwhile, Jonas fails to tell his mother about his father's farewell letter. Together with the equipment that was previously in the package, he sets off into the Windener caves. Using the clues from the stranger on his map, he finds a passage that is bordered by metal doors. The doors have a triqueta engraved as a symbol and bear the Latin inscription Sic mundus creatus est (in German: This is how the world was created). He goes through and leaves the cave. During the passage, all electric lights flicker in winds again in both 2019 and 1986. In the bunker next to the forest hut, Peter Doppler and Tronte Nielsen follow the flickering and compare it with a list in which the exact time of the flickering is already entered. The list is part of a book with a triqueta on the cover. From search posters with the picture of Mads, Jonas discovers that he is in 1986. On the way he meets his 14-year-old future mother Hannah and her father Sebastian.
7th	7th	Ways of the cross	1st December 2017	Baran bo Odar	Jantje Friese & Marc O. Seng
In 2019, Helge wakes up in the nursing home when he dreams of a scene from his childhood where he was in the same room as Erik later with a serious head injury. The police received a search warrant for the Windener nuclear power plant with some delay. In the caves accessible from the power station, Charlotte found the spot where Claudia Tiedemann visited the storage facility for the secret barrels with radioactive content in 1986. Although there are no more barrels there when Charlotte arrives, she discovers remains of yellow paint and a door that is welded shut. Ulrich meanwhile finds the notes of Egon Tiedemann, who investigated the Mads case in 1986. As a result, Ulrich's suspicions now fall on Helge Doppler, who apparently did not appear for an interrogation in 1986. He visits him in the nursing home and pressures Helge when he says that he has seen Ulrich before and that he could change the past and the future. Because of the brutal nature of the questioning, Ulrich is suspended from duty. A little later, his wife Katharina confronts him about his affair with Hannah. Charlotte finds out that the caves lead both under the nuclear power plant and to the old forest hut that belongs to her stepfather Helge. She goes there again. In the bunker she finds pieces of wallpaper from children's rooms. Ulrich drives to the nursing home again at night and discovers an edition of Tannhaus's time travel book in Helge's empty room, as well as a chain of pennies that was hanging around Mads' neck, who was found dead in 2019. While Ulrich follows Helge, who is again breaking out of the nursing home, through the forest to the caves, he speaks to Charlotte on the mailbox that he now knows that Helge is the kidnapper of the children. In 1986, on the instructions of his boss Martin, Egon questioned the nuclear power plant employee Helge, who was on duty when Mads disappeared. Egon makes an appointment for an interview and notes that he was wondering why Helge did not use the forest path on the day of the kidnapping. The stranger warns Jonas that he shouldn't bring Mikkel back to 2019 because Jonas would make his own existence impossible. Meanwhile, Katharina tries in vain to convince police chief Egon that Ulrich did not rap her. At night, Noah and Helge dispose of Yasin's body from the bunker behind Helge's forest hut.
8th	8th	What you sow will be reaped	1st December 2017	Baran bo Odar	Jantje Friese & Martin Behnke
In 1953, the bodies of Erik and Yasin were discovered at the construction site of the nuclear power plant. The boys' clothes irritate the police officers Daniel Kahnwald and Egon Tiedemann. Ulrich leaves the cave and meets u. a. Agnes Nielsen and her son Tronte who want to move into a room in the Tiedemanns' house. Ulrich goes to the shop of the watchmaker HG Tannhaus. He does not yet know anything about the book A Journey through Time , which Ulrich shows him. In the shop, Ulrich learns from an overheard conversation between Tannhaus and the young people Ines and Jana that two children's bodies have been found. He starts looking for young Helge. Believing that he could prevent the children from disappearing if he kills them, Ulrich attacks 9-year-old Helge and seriously injures his head. Assuming that he killed him, Ulrich leaves him in the bunker of the forest hut. A little later, Tannhaus finds Ulrich's smartphone, which Ulrich and his jacket had left in the watch workshop. In 1986 the stranger visits HG Tannhaus, who explains his theory about time travel through wormholes. The stranger assures Tannhaus that his theory is correct and that such a wormhole actually exists and allows people to travel 33 years forwards or backwards. He gives Tannhaus the job of repairing a defective machine so that the stranger can destroy the wormhole in Winden. Tannhaus already has the same machine in an earlier version.
9	9	Everything is now	1st December 2017	Baran bo Odar	Jantje Friese & Marc O. Seng
In 2019, Aleksander is blackmailed by Hannah with information about his true identity. She demands of him to destroy Ulrich's life. While cleaning the stranger's hotel room, Regina discovers his research on winds and their inhabitants. Bartosz receives a visit from his grandmother Claudia, who was believed dead. Jonas separates from Martha after learning about time travel and knows that Martha is his aunt. Bartosz meets with Noah and joins him. 1986 Egon lets Ulrich run again after the unfounded allegations of rape. Hannah finds evidence in the forest that a young person who recently moved to town, Aleksander Köhler, is really called Boris Niewald and lives under a false identity. Claudia runs to her dog Gretchen, who ran away from the Windener Höhlen in 1953. She begins to read the book A Journey through Time that Helge had given her. When Bernd finally admits that the secret barrels contain nuclear waste from a nuclear accident, she instructs Aleksander to weld the door to the warehouse. Meanwhile, Helge and Noah get into an argument in which it becomes clear that Noah uses the children for experiments with which he wants to construct a time machine. His mission is the liberation of humanity. 1953 Helge is missing after the attack by Ulrich. Noah - who has not aged between the three time levels - offers Helge's mother, Greta, church support. Ulrich is arrested as a suspect and confesses to murdering Helge. Old Claudia enters the clock workshop of HG Tannhaus and asks him to build a machine for her, for which she gives him the blueprints.
10	10	Alpha and Omega	1st December 2017	Baran bo Odar	Jantje Friese & Ronny Schalk
In 2019, the night of Mikkel's disappearance is shown in a flashback. Peter is in his father Helge's bunker when suddenly Mads's corpse falls to the ground through a wormhole out of nowhere. He calls Tronte before Claudia shows up and tells them to get rid of the body. Jonas is kidnapped by Helge and Noah after he had previously decided to travel back to 1986 to bring Mikkel back into the future. Helge also traveled to 1986 to change the past. However, he dies trying to kill his younger self in a car accident. Jonas wakes up a little later in the bunker, where the stranger reveals himself to be his older self. He leaves the teenage Jonas behind to destroy the wormhole. He has the machine with him that Tannhaus got up and running with the help of the broken machine of the adult Jonas and Ulrich's smartphone. In the present, Charlotte finds a newspaper article from 1953 in the police archives in 2019 that reports on Helge's kidnapping. Attached is a photo of the suspect: Ulrich. Noah tells Bartosz that Claudia is her worst adversary and that grown-up Jonas will not destroy the wormhole but create it in the first place. After Ulrich's failed murder attempt in 1953, Helge wakes up in the bunker when the wormhole created by the adult Jonas opens in front of him. The young Jonas sees the same wormhole in the bunker in 1986. When the two touch, Helge is promoted to 1986, while Jonas wakes up in the future in 2052, where he is knocked unconscious by an armed youth.

Web links

• Dark in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Start of shooting of the first German Netflix original: "Dark". Press release. In: media.netflix.com. October 18, 2016, accessed June 29, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Baran bo Odar: THAT'S A WRAP! After 151 shooting days, 6 months of shooting, endless locations and endless rain season 1 of DARK is done! Now sleep! In: Twitter. April 8, 2017, accessed August 10, 2020 .