'Dark' Season 3: What Is The Origin World All About? Who Exists There? Why Alt Martha & Jonas Went There?

SPOILER ALERT: This article unfolds major events of Season 3 of Netflix’s Dark.

Since the German-language Netflix sci-fi thriller series, Dark has sadly but finally come to an end, we have all the time in the world to breakdown the estranged plot of time-travel in detail.

In the first two seasons of the series, all the muddling events and sinful acts took place in a world that was controlled by Jonas-turned-Adam. Then, we as viewers also believed that Adam’s world was the beginning (origin) and end for all estranged happenings.

But there was a twist in the tale: the final episode of season two and the first halves of the season three revealed the existence of an alternate ‘parallel’ world.

We found out that the alternate world was ruled by Eva (the oldest version of alt-Martha). With that, we also discovered that Eva's world Martha and Adam's world Jonas had given birth to a son, who was referred to as The Unknown ‘Cleft-Lip’ Trio.

At the time, both Adam and Eva believed that their son was the bridge between worlds and the origin of all the estranged events in the two worlds. Therefore, Adam desired to destroy the origin/bridge to end the endless cycle of misery whereas Eva didn't want her child to get killed.

However, little did they know that their son was not the origin of all the misery and estranged events. But the everything revolved around a real-world or the origin world, so to say, besides the two worlds of Adam and Eva.

Join us as we reveal the in-depth detail of the original world of the Dark universe.

What Is The Origin World All About?

For most of the series, we see Adam and Eva fighting with each other regarding the origin point of the cycle and their son. On one hand, Adam wanted to destroy their unnamed son to destroy the knot whereas Eva wanted to preserve the knot to keep their son alive.

In between everything, Claudia Tiedemann, whose daughter Regina Tiedemann died in both the worlds, maneuvered to find out about the death of her daughter alive and her redemption from misery.

After 33 years of her research and experience of living in both worlds, she found out that Adam and Eva’s son was, not the "origin" of the time-loop. Instead, she got a clue of a third world or the origin world, which was the beginning of the knot.

Hence, Claudia shared her knowledge about the origin world with Adam in the seventh episode of the third season. She confronted him stating that his son with Eva was not the origin of the knot but a third world (besides his and Eva’s worlds) was the origin that had brought all the sorrows in the two worlds. She also revealed that the two worlds of Adam and Eva never existed in the first place.

Your world and Eva's world, they both should have never had existed. You thought that the origin lies in the binding of both worlds, but in reality is outside of both worlds. Our thinking is shaped by dualities — black, white, light and shadow, your world and Eva's world — but this is false. You need a third dimension to fulfil it all.

- Claudia to Adam

More so, Claudia unfolded how the two worlds were created due to a single mistake of Tannhaus desperate experiment.

She revealed that H.G. Tannhaus of the origin world lost his son, Marek, daughter-in-law, Sonja, and granddaughter, Charlotte, in a car accident in 1971.

But Tannhaus could not accept the fact that his beloved ones were no more in the world. Hence, he created a time machine in a desperate hope of saving them by traveling back in time. However, his experiment failed and it created two new worlds by dividing and destroying his own world in 1986. 

The world that gave birth to this knot, where everything originates, where a single mistake was made. Tannhaus in the origin world, like you, he lost someone. And like you, he tried to bring that person back from the dead. But instead, he divided and destroyed his world and created our two worlds. But there is a way to destroy the knot — through preventing in the origin world the invention of travel through space and time in the first place.

- Claudia to Adam

In the end, the two worlds created from the origin world of H.G. Tannhaus only got bound in an invincible knot of pain and suffering. 

Why Was It Important For Jonas And Alt-Martha To Save The Origin World?

The endless and self-repeating cycle of pain and sorrow had been hitting Adam and Eva’s worlds for centuries. The cycle never seemed to stop, too.

But when Claudia disclosed the existence of the origin world, she also showed a passage to end the cycle of pain and suffering from both the worlds. She revealed that time was the loophole and it stood still for a fraction of a second during the apocalypse.

I finally know how to untie the knot. I know where the loophole is that you searched for all these years. Time. During the apocalypse, time stood still for a fraction of a second at that point, and that threw everything out of balance. But when time stands still it also momentarily breaks the chain of cause and effect.

- Claudia to Adam

Using that loophole, Claudia disclosed that Jonas and alt-Martha could travel to the origin world and saved H.G. Tannhaus’ family.

If that happened, it would prevent Tannhaus from creating a possible time-machine. Plus, he would also not create two new worlds by dividing and destroying his own "origin" world - thus, the knot would never exist.

Hence, to undo the knot, or to actually never let the knot exist, Jonas and alt-Martha had to save the origin world from the destruction caused by the time machine of H.G. Tannhaus.

How do Jonas and alt-Martha Save the Origin World?

Immediately after knowing the way to end the endless cycle (all thanks to Claudia), Adam found Jonas and took him to the alt-world. There, Adam explained everything about the origin world and the formation of the knot to Jonas. He also told Jonas how he and alt-Martha could end the knot by saving Tannhaus’ family in the origin world.

So, Adam instructed Jonas to find alt-Martha before she was taken by Magnus and Franziska to Adam’s world. After that, the later succeeded and took Martha to the tunnels on the day when Tannhaus operated the time travel machine in the origin world.

Before they made it to the origin world, Jonas explained everything about the origin world to alt-Martha and also about how they could end the continuous cycle of suffering. They then travel to the origin world through the time bridge formed inside the tunnel in the Winden cave.

Jonas and alt-Martha inside the Winden tunnel (Photo: Twitter)

In the origin world, they appeared right in front of the H.G. Tannhaus’ son’s (Marek) car on the rainy night of the car accident. After that, Marek yelled at Jonas and alt-Martha for stopping his way.

Then, Jonas informed Marek that the nearby bridge was closed due to an accident and he should return back with his wife and daughter. Right after that, Martha told Marek that his father loved him and he would do anything for him.

That brief moment with Jonas and alt-Martha changed Marek’s mind to drive forward. Thus, he decided to take U-turn and head back to his father. Upon reaching to his father, Marek hinted that he saw a pair of angles that made him return back to him.

Jonas and alt-Martha talks to H.G. Tannhaus' son Marek (Photo: Netflix)

With that, Jonas and alt-Martha succeeded in saving H.G Tannhaus’ family from an accident and prevented the formation of the time machine and the two worlds, afterward.

Who Exists in The Origin World?

After Jonas and alt-Martha prevent H.G Tannhaus from creating the time-machine and splitting the origin world, the two other worlds and everyone involved in the knot started fading away. This was the probable result of the Grandfather Paradox that implies that the existence of someone ends if the origin never takes place.

Before disappearing completely into the thin air, Jonas recited the series’ famous line for Martha. He said, “You and I are perfect for each other. Never believe anything else.”

We also saw Adam and Eva holding hands, Claudia getting emotional and the Stranger being clueless before turning into light that shone out of existence.

Right after that, we saw the actual inhabitants of the Winden town from the origin world—Regina, Katharina, Peter, Benni, Hannah, and Torben Wöller. These were the people who were never created out of the knot and always existed in the origin world.

Besides them, H.G Tannhaus and his son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter were also seen alive and existing in the origin world.

In the end scene, the "origin" world characters were seen having dinner at Regina’s house. There, Hannah was seen pregnant with Torben Wöller’s child; Peter and Benni were couples; Katharina was close to Hannah; Regina was cancer-free, and everyone seemed out of misery.

Characters from the origin world in the series Dark (Photo: Netflix)

And because the origin was in no danger of getting divided into two new worlds, it wouldn't be wrong to say that they lived happily ever after. Or was the ending the beginning of another new cycle? 

"The end is the beginning and the beginning is the end. Thus, everything is connected."