Adam and Eva
1880’s – Our World
A man holds Charlotte’s watch close to him at the start of episode 3 of Dark Season 3, telling a young version of Tannhaus we know that “no one is ever truly dead”. In that very same carriage years later, our cut-lip man arrives and confirms he’s a traveler too. As he sits forward menacingly, he brandishes that same familiar murderous string held in his hand last time. Back at the factory, Bartosz returns with Martha and immediately confronts Jonas over his lies and what Martha told him. As he walks away however, Bartosz screams at him and reveals to the group that this older Jonas is going to turn into Adam in the future. In the aftermath of this, Martha and Jonas talk in private with Jonas admitting that Tannhaus attempted to change the cycle in the past and bring his dead wife back. After this story, Martha hands over the last sliver of liquid she has in her time travel contraption, setting up the path of Jonas trying to create the time machine in the past. With this in his possession, Jonas powers up the machine and watches as lightning crackles overhead. As the black goo interacts with the machine, it produces that same familiar energy field we’ve seen before. When the power cuts out however, the energy that sustains it has gone. While they’re distracted by this, Martha slips away to her room where it turns out she does have spare liquid for the machine. Without a moment’s hesitation, she uses the contraption to travel away from the workshop.
4th November 2019 – The Other World
Jonas and older-Martha stand together discussing their intertwined fates and pasts; their personal glitch in the Matrix. It turns out Martha and Jonas are a twisted version of Adam and Eve living within these two worlds – destined to try and save each other. Handing Jonas a contraption from their world, she tells him he’s destined to show the younger version of Martha there the future as that’s how fate has bound them together. Meanwhile, Ulrich learns about Mad’s body and looks over his belongings in the station, struggling to keep his voice from wavering in the face of his grief. As Woller takes over the brief, Charlotte takes Ulrich aside and they discuss the beginning of this new cycle. In this reality however, everything continued to go wrong with the police investigation in the past. Ulrich returns home and speaks to Martha (the younger one from this world, not the time traveling one), probing her over what happened to Mads and whether the kids were doing drugs when she found the body. Magnus interjects though, prompting Ulrich to take his leave after widening the gap between parent and child. Hannah shows up at the police station with a tray of brownies but when she sees the pictures of her and Ulrich on the table, she breathes heavily and leaves the room. Hannah heads to the nuclear plant and offers Aleksander a deal. The same one as we’ve seen play out in our reality as it happens. Only this time, instead of wishing ill on Ulrich she wants Charlotte to be destroyed. Older-Martha is approached by our cut-lipped men in Sic Mundus and handed three items; the play Martha recited when she was younger, Charlotte’s watch and a book full of information about the power plant. As she opens the book, Jonas steps out from the cave and approaches the Martha from that time, convincing her to come with him and show how everything is bound together. Charlotte arrives at the bunker and finds the coin on a pendant. As she holds it up, Helge goes walking again, this time to the police station where he admits to killing the child. Only, when he sees Ulrich he immediately panics and mentions how he’s still alive, showing a different pendant off himself.
23rd September 2053 – Our World
After handing the liquid to Jonas, Martha time-travels across from 1888 to the remnants of the power plant. There, she approaches Adam who happens to be waiting and she confirms the deed has been done. Commenting how gullible he was in the past, Adam tells her she’s done the right thing as the swirling orb of energy continues to swirl.
The Future
Jonas and Martha step out the cave and find themselves in a very different reality altogether. Gone are the bleak, grimy futures choked by trees or nuclear apocalypse. This time, the world has been completely ravaged and turned into sun-stained sand. From the distance, a cloaked woman approaches and welcomes them to the future.
The Review Write-Up
Quite how Hannah is going to fit into this whole timeline remains to be seen but after seeing Ulrich and that reality’s Hannah together, I wouldn’t be surprised if she tries to switch sides and take Hannah’s life for herself. Alongside that, it seems older-Martha is part of this whole equation but – especially given the episode title – she’s not the opposite of Jonas, she’s actually the opposite of Adam. Could she be responsible for the catalyst of events that engulf this world? The jumps between times slow down a little this episode though and that certainly helps give some breathing room for the excellent acting to shine once more. There’s plenty left to dissect with this one though and quite what direction this is likely to go next remains to be seen.
