Top 5 Burning Questions About The Dark Finale On Netflix

Dark with its series finale in Season 3 achieved a feat only a few shows have managed so far – a satisfying ending. You can read more about what we thought of the finale on Netflix here. However, what we know is a drop, and what we don't is an ocean. The show has left some burning questions unanswered. Here are the top 5 questions and plot threads we want resolved, like NOW…or in 1953, or 1986 or even 2052.

 What's the deal with "The Unknown" kid?

Season 3 reveals that the war of the universes (Adam v Eva) was fought because Eva/Martha loved her child – "The Unknown". Fair, because love, attachments and secrets are the cornerstones of Dark's expansive mythos. Yet, there's so much we should know about a pivotal figure like 'The Unknown'/Origin. One of my rare, personal gripes with the show is his dehumanization; he exists in the show as little more than a plot point and boogeyman.

His appearances in threes is perhaps symbolic, or maybe designed to give viewers the chills. It could also be that his child version is meant to see his future actions so that the present can carry them out and the older version can repent and/or understand the choices. That being said, it is the weakest link in a show that offers very few weak links.

We want to understand who he is, how was he raised and why we should (and Eva/Martha) care.

Another sub-thought – if Eva/Martha was capable and ready to destroy one universe to preserve The Unknown's existence, then why would she finally agree to let Jonas break the loop and destroy both universes, and thereby their child too?

What does the rest of the post-apocalyptic world look like?

It is both brilliant and frustrating how the show keeps everything within the borders of Winden – including the apocalypse. We are shown glimpses of the post-apocalypse town from the early days in Season 3 and we also experience it in Adam's universe in 2052. Eva's universe shows a drastically different version, with a desert landscape in the same timeframe and venue. We also know that the town was walled-in by the military, in Jonas' universe we see drone and helicopter fly-bys.

So did the entire human society collapse because of the God Particle incident? If yes, then what was the organized military doing evacuating Winden in the early days after the dark matter explosion? Was the apocalypse contained within a geography like Chernobyl? If yes, then why were whole two universes at stake here?

THE NATION WANTS TO KNOW!

What drove Stranger to become Adam? How did he disfigure his face?

We know that all our fan theories about Adam not really being Jonas were thrown out of the window in the final season. We aren't complaining. However, how did he get his face disfigured? Was it due to his failed time travel experiments at Gustav Tannhaus' warehouse? Or was it something else. We've seen Claudia and Eva move in and out of universes multiple times without similar disfiguration kicking in.

So what went wrong with Adam?

There's also the larger question of what might have happened to turn Jonas into Adam eventually – because even till the end, both versions of Jonas do not show the same nihilistic character traits as the future Adam. Was there a watershed moment that the showrunners have kept from us? That's a character arc we may never see fulfilled, and I suspect we are poorer for it.

Time Travel we get, but who made the universe hopping quidditch ball?

Now this is something I personally may have missed; but a lot of research has resulted in no significantly convincing answer. The apparatus, built by H. G. Tannhaus, is a clockwork device that creates a wormhole which opens portals 33 years into the past and future – and in S1 and S2 we see it being used to traverse across time. At the end of season 2 we see Alt-Martha come in and take Jonas away to Eva's universe. So, the question remains – who in Eva's universe created that Quidditch ball-like device that Alt-Martha uses? The follow-up, unanswered question then remains: why does it only allow access to the two worlds in the knot – and not the originverse, which forms the triqueta?

Does H.G. Tannhaus never invent time travel in the origin world?

During the finale it is revealed that it was the death of H.G. Tannhaus' son, daughter-in-law, and infant granddaughter that inspired him to create the time machine that splits into Adam and Eva's universes. When Jonas and Martha break the knot by saving Tannhaus' family and therefore his "inspiration" for inventing time travel, Dark's eventual plot is resolved. It's a satisfying end, if not a perfect swansong.

But here's the thing, if Tannhaus was already tinkering with the concepts of time travel in the originverse – who's to say that he doesn't go ahead and finish his work. Tannhaus is a scientist, and in the originverse, probably from a long line of scientists and time travel enthusiasts. So there is a possibility that Martha and Jonas just delayed the inevitable.

An inventor must know what's in the ocean, right?  What if Tannhaus' curiosity still gets the better of him.

What if what we see as the continued originverse, with all the unconnected (to time travel) families alive, isn't just another, mildly unfamiliar but darker, loop? Remember that Hannah's deja-vu not only hints at a darker future, but also that the people in the party toast to a "World without Winden!"

Oh right, then there's that yellow raincoat near the door.  

We have tons of other questions too, but these are our top 5. What are some of the burning questions you have – or maybe you already have the answers?

Let's discuss in the comments!