The Travelers

## *Dark*

**"The Travelers"** is the fourth episode of Season 2 of *Dark*. It premiered on June 21, 2019, and is the 14th episode overall.

## Summary

Jonas meets an ominous figure. While the kids comb the cave for answers, the adults gather in the bunker to share what they know about the travelers.

## Plot

### Prologue (June 23, 1921)

Jonas Kahnwald (after entering the God particle in "Dark Matter") emerges in the middle of a field of harvest-ready grain. He buries his yellow radiation suit. He tries to walk, but his leg is still badly wounded from the gunshot; he stumbles to a tree and vomits. Two men approach him and, seeing his wounded neck from his almost hanging, ask what happened to him. "I just want to go home," he answers. They take him to the town, to Erna, where they offer him food and a room to sleep in for a few days. He asks what year it is and is dismayed to hear it's 1921.

### Three days until the apocalypse (June 24, 2020)

Three days before the apocalypse, Martha Nielsen dreams she is having sex with Jonas, who tells her that they are perfect for each other and not ever to believe anything else. She awakens distressed and bursts into tears.

At the police station, Clausen looks at a sketch artist's drawing of the Stranger by Regina Tiedemann's description. Torben Wöller tells him that Charlotte Doppler has called in sick. Clausen thus asks Torben to drive him around. Charlotte has gone to H.G. Tannhaus's clockmaker's shop, where she finds blueprints for the portable time machine. She receives a call from Hannah Kahnwald.

At the Kahnwald home, the older Jonas finds the box with the gun and passport. He asks Hannah why she has them. She tells him there is someone very interested that they stay hidden. He asks her why she is blackmailing someone.

Franziska Doppler talks to Magnus Nielsen, accompanied by her younger sister Elisabeth and calls a truce. She brought her because their parents last came home two days ago. Magnus suggests they go to the Winden Caves with Martha.

### June 24, 1921

Jonas awakens, panting. His wounds have been bandaged. The younger Noah is inside his room, waiting for him, and tells him he has been asleep for almost twenty-four hours. Jonas tells him that he is in the wrong place. Noah tells him cryptically that he pictured Jonas to look differently, which Jonas does not understand. He sees a plaque of the Emerald Tablet on the wall and notices the words "Sic Mundus Creatus Est." He gathers his clothes and a lantern and hurriedly leaves, passing the young Agnes Nielsen, who stares at him.

### June 24, 2020

The adult Claudia Tiedemann goes to the nuclear power plant and asks for herself; the guard replies that Aleksander is the only Tiedemann there. This surprises her.

Meanwhile, Clausen has gone to the nuclear power plant to question Aleksander. He tells him that he denied Ulrich Nielsen entry to the plant due to stricter security after the Fukushima disaster. He says the door to the caves was sealed shut in the 1980s as a security measure, so it would not be possible for someone to enter. Clausen tells him he finds it unusual that everyone born in Winden seems to remain there. Aleksander attributes this to the steady employment available at the power plant, although that will change soon. Clausen then points out that Aleksander is an exception, having come from somewhere else, arriving in 1986, around the time that Mads Nielsen disappeared. Aleksander points out that he arrived several weeks after Mads's disappearance. Clausen then asks why he took his wife's last name, which was unusual then. Aleksander says that Regina was an only child, so they wanted to preserve the name. He asks what his original name was. He tells him: Köhler.

At the Kahnwald home, there is a knock on the door. Jonas suggests they don't answer, but Hannah goes to the door, saying they must tell someone (she asked Charlotte to come). She introduces him. Charlotte realizes he is the man who Regina mentioned stayed at her hotel. She shows him the photo she found of Noah from 1921, whose identity he confirms, from Sic Mundus—the Travelers. Hannah is shocked that Charlotte seems to know about this.

Claudia goes to the library to learn about the history of Winden. She finds the new technology of 2020 somewhat daunting but eventually works out what to do and searches for herself, discovering that she ultimately disappeared without a trace.

Torben and Clausen go to interview Hannah, but she's not home. Clausen asks Torben about her. He mentions her husband's suicide and that no one understood why they married when she was pretty enough to have any man and was rumored to have had an affair with Ulrich. Clausen wonders if Katharina knew that, but Torben says he does not know. Torben asks whether Clausen volunteered to join the task force. The answer is a firm yes.

Jonas, Hannah, and Charlotte go to the bunker and meet with Charlotte's husband, Peter. He tells them that Claudia knew what would happen and told him and Tronte Nielsen what to do. Hannah cannot believe they knew about Michael, Mikkel, and Ulrich. He shows her the notebook, which contains all the missing children's information, but the last few pages are ripped out. She asks whether Katharina knows about this. Charlotte agrees to tell her.

Claudia continues to read about Regina and Aleksander's marriage and the opening and closing of the hotel. She then searches about her father, Egon, and finds an article saying he was found dead on June 26, 1987 (in two days).

Martha says she sometimes dreams of Jonas and feels he is still alive.

Charlotte informs Katharina that Ulrich and her son Mikkel are still alive but are not "here." Katharina needs clarification. She takes her to the bunker, but Katharina becomes angered when she sees Hannah. She scoffs when she sees (older) Jonas, who tells her he is Hannah's son and her grandson. Katharina finds it impossible to believe that Ulrich and Mikkel have traveled back in time.

Martha and her friends are walking in the cave when the ground begins to shake. They hear footsteps. It is Bartosz Tiedemann, carrying a suitcase. They demand to know what he is doing there. Magnus punches him. They tie him up and take the briefcase, which contains the portable time machine.

### June 24, 1921

Jonas heads for the caves, eventually finding the metal door marked "Sic Mundus," and opens it. He crawls through the passage until he reaches a dead end. He pounds on it angrily.

### June 24, 2020

Hannah tries to assure Katharina she traveled back and saw Mikkel but Katharina tells them they have all lost their minds and leaves.

Magnus opens Bartosz's suitcase and asks him what it is. He tells them it doesn't concern them. Magnus tells Bartosz that if he has anything to do with the disappearance of his brother and father, he will kill him. Martha tells Bartosz they will leave him there overnight and take the suitcase.

Torben and Clausen are driving when Claudia suddenly appears in front of them, and they have to swerve to avoid hitting her.

Katharina goes to the school. She looks through old records of 1986 for Michael Kahnwald, a student, and finds his class photo. She sees her son Mikkel in it and breaks down crying.

### June 24, 1921

Jonas leaves the cave and is greeted by young Noah, who tells him it will take another thirty-three years before there's an opening. Sic Mundus (the Travelers) are waiting for him.

### June 24, 2020

The middle-aged Jonas tells Peter, Charlotte, and Hannah that everything will happen the way it always does. Adam, the leader of Sic Mundus, wants the last cycle to begin in three days, but Jonas has come to stop it. Claudia tried to do it but, in the end, became what she was fighting against.

### June 24, 1921

Noah takes Jonas to the church. The older Noah enters, looks at his younger self, and tells Jonas he has already made his acquaintance.

### June 22, 2053

The God particle has resumed its unstable state. Elisabeth confronts her teenage interpreter and, with a gun pointed at her, asks her what she is doing in the prohibited zone. The girl asks her what is in there and why she's been lying about it. Elisabeth hesitates and answers that they say the particle is part of God, but in reality, it's part of the devil.

### June 24, 1921

Young Noah asks his older counterpart about the prophecy and how it arose. His older self does not answer. He then asks about the triquetra notebook and who wrote it. The older Noah says that whoever it was had already seen the past and future. He says Adam will send Jonas on the path that has been predetermined so that the last cycle will begin.

Jonas is taken deep under the church into a grand room. Adam enters and says to him, "You must have a lot of questions... Traveling leaves its marks on all of us; the human body isn't equipped for it. Shall we begin?" Jonas shouts that he is not here to begin anything; he is trying to end things. The heavily scarred old man answers that no one can avoid the end. Jonas asks him who he is. Adam opens up his tall collar, revealing a scar around his neck, similar to Jonas's. "That can't be," a shocked Jonas says. The old man tells him: "I am you. Every stone is once again where it belongs. Everyone in the place they were destined to be. Now, all that's needed is a little push."

## Cast

* Louis Hofmann as Jonas Kahnwald
* Helena Pieske as Agnes Nielsen 1921
* Lisa Vicari as Martha Nielsen
* Sylvester Groth as Investigator Clausen
* Karoline Eichhorn as Charlotte Doppler
* Andreas Pietschmann as The Stranger
* Maja Schöne as Hannah Kahnwald
* Moritz Jahn as Magnus Nielsen
* Gina Stiebitz as Franziska Doppler
* Carlotta von Falkenhayn as Elisabeth Doppler
* Max Schimmelpfennig as Noah 1921
* Julika Jenkins as Claudia Tiedemann 1987
* Peter Benedict as Aleksander Tiedemann
* Stephan Kampwirth as Peter Doppler
* Jördis Triebel as Katharina Nielsen
* Paul Lux as Bartosz Tiedemann
* Mark Waschke as Noah
* Lydia Makrides as Regina Tiedemann 1987
* Sandra Borgmann as Elisabeth Doppler 2053
* Dietrich Hollinderbaumer as Adam
* Leopold Hornung as Torben Wöller
* Tilla Kratochwil as Erna

## Quotes

*"Tiedemann. Claudia Tiedemann. She used to run the plant. Where can I find her?"
"There's only one Tiedemann here. Aleksander Tiedemann, he runs the plant."*
―Claudia asks for herself at the nuclear power plant in 2020 but learns that only an "Aleksander Tiedemann" works there.

*"You're not from here."
"No. Why?"
"You came to Winden in 1986, at the same time the boy disappeared. Mads Nielsen, Ulrich Nielsen's brother."
"No, it was a bit later. A few weeks. Why does that matter?"
"It probably doesn't."*
―Clausen questions Aleksander

*"Why do you have a gun and someone else's passport?"
"It's insurance."
"What do you mean?"
"Someone needs to keep both things hidden."
"You're blackmailing someone? Who are you?"
"Who am I? Who are you?"*
―Jonas confronts his mother Hannah about the gun and the passport

*"Anything about Hannah Kahnwald?"
"Her husband killed himself last year. He hanged himself. Actually, no one here understood why she married him. She's very pretty. She could've had any man she wanted."*
―Wöller tells Clausen about Hannah and Michael.

*"Who are you? Her new lover?"
"I'm Jonas. Her son. Your grandson."*
―The middle-aged Jonas reveals his identity to Katharina

*"We have a man-eating cave. A nuclear power plant with a boss who is obviously hiding something. A detective who has gone into hiding. And a town full of people who lie, cheat, and betray one another, and who are all only concerned with concealing what's really going on here. So, Mr. Wöller, what do you make of it?"
"I don't know."*
―Clausen ponders over Winden's myriad mysteries.
## Trivia

### Mysteries

* Why did the God particle send Jonas to 1921?
* Whose diminutive coffin is being wheeled through the town square?
* Who is Erna? What is her relationship to Agnes and Noah?
* Is this the encounter from Noah's youth with a war-torn stranger that he tells to Helge Doppler in "Alpha and Omega"? Jonas does not do half the things that Noah describes in his story.
* Why did Noah imagine Jonas different? Since Adam is Jonas, Adam could already tell what he would look like in 1921.
* Reiterated from previous episodes, what is Clausen's deal? Why is he so inquisitive of Aleksander's history?
* How does Egon die? Is Claudia involved? Why does she disappear without a trace around the same time?
* What is Bartosz doing with Noah's time machine?
* What does the Stranger mean when he says that Claudia became the very thing she was trying to fight? Claudia was opposed to Sic Mundus, Adam, and Noah until her dying breath.
* What's exactly a LOOPHOLE and how does it work?
* Reiterated from previous episodes, what does the middle-aged Elisabeth fear so much about the God particle?
* Who built the elaborate Sic Mundus headquarters that we now know lies beneath the church?
* How did the prophecy arise?
* Who wrote the triquetra notebook? Noah says that whoever did must have seen both the past and the future (the beginning and the end, or the end and the beginning).
* What is the path that has been "predetermined" for Jonas?
* Who is the author of the prints of the time machine which is under construction inside Adam's lair? Is the Sic Mundus Organization itself?

### Answers

* Jonas traveled to 1921 after stepping into the God particle at the end of "Dark Matter".
* The scene of lovemaking between Jonas and Martha seems to be an actual memory, as Martha has the same dream this episode. The question remains when this was exactly.
* Aleksander says that he assumed his wife's last name because Regina has no siblings, the Tiedemanns built the town of Winden, and they did not want the name to die out. Whether or not this is the true, or the only, reason remains to be seen.
* Both Hannah and Katharina learn the full truth about time travel this episode. Katharina learns the truth about Mikkel.
* Noah's briefcase contained another (or the same, but different version) portable time machine; he gave this to Bartosz. However, it remains to be seen why exactly he did this.
* In the episode Alpha and Omega, when Jonas is in the 1986 bunker, he says he was imprisoned by Noah. Now it is clear how he gets to know Noah, through knowledge of Sic Mundus' past
* Egon's date of death is June 26, 1987.
* The Sic Mundus headquarters is located beneath the church.
* Adam's scars are from extensive time travel.
* Adam is the elderly self of Jonas.

### Themes and Motifs

#### Time

* The dates featured in this episode are: June 23, 1921 (briefly); June 24, 1921; June 24, 1987 (briefly); June 24, 2020; and June 22, 2053 (briefly).
	+ The June 23, 1921, date is from the opening when Jonas first arrives in 1921—he took the God particle late the night before in 2053.
	+ The June 22, 2053, date is from near the end when Elisabeth and her teenaged interpreter speak. It is not explicitly clear that this is the 22, but it appear to be immediately after the end of "Dark Matter" when Jonas leaves the girl alone and the particle resumes its chaotic state.
* This episode continues the countdown to the apocalypse. It is now 4 days until the apocalypse.
* Jonas is shook to learn that the year is 1921.
* The young Noah tells Jonas that he has been asleep for over twenty-four hours.
* Egon's date of death is June 26, 1987.
* Regina has married Aleksandr on August 8, 1993.
* Katharina confirms that Mikkel went to the '80s by finding a class photo from 1987 containing him.
* Noah tells Jonas that the passage will not open for another thirty-two years—1953, after the incident at the nuclear power plant thirty-three years in the future.
* Mad's disappearance was on 9th October 1986. Aleksandr arrived on 11th November 1986 (See Everything is now) so he is not wrong when ha says "few weeks later" to Clausen

#### Time Travel

* There seem to be multiple versions of the time machine in the same years. In 1987 Claudia uses the time machine to go to 2020, Bartosz uses it to return to 2020 from no one knows where, Lo Straniero has a version of it in 2020 in Hanna's house.

### Observations

* Jonas travels back 132 years (33 x 4) to 1921. There he meets his future great-great-grandmother, Agnes, and her brother (the younger) Noah.
* It appears that the journey with the God particle maintains the 33-year regularity but cannot be controlled. Perhaps it directly links the known time extremes, in this case 2053 with 1921
* The adults learn about time travel.
* The stranger knows the Sic Mundus organization but recognizes only Noah in the photo of January 8, 1921 that Charlotte gives him
* The Stranger says he's here to stop Adam, exactly the same thing Claudia told Agnes to do in the Ghosts episode
* The scar is also clearly visible on the stranger's neck in the bunker, when he speaking in front of Kathrina
* It seems that the Stranger has never seen the book Triquetra
* Katharina sees proof that the young boy she bullied in 1986 and 1987 was indeed her son Mikkel, having traveled from the future.
* Clausen is the first person to ask Torben what happened to his eye.
* According to Woller, Hanna is a gorgeous woman who could have whoever she wants.
* When Clausen sees Claudia crossing the street, he is probably interested in her particular 80s outfit
* Noah works as a priest because the Sic Mundus Headquarters is right beneath the Winden Church.
* Young Jonas sees a time machine under construction and it is the first time. Up to now, Jonas has done the time travel only through the caves and from 1986 to 2052 with the help of the wormhole, just after having touched Helge's in the bunker.

### Callbacks

* Waking – Jonas wakens with a start, this time in a grain field and in Erna's home.
* Martha has the same dream of having sex with Jonas and him telling her they are perfect for each other, and never to believe anything else, that Jonas had in "Beginnings and Endings." Does the fact that they both have the same dream mean this is not a fantasy but they actually did both have this experience?
* The coffin of the dead that Jonas encounters in 1921 could be for the man in the cave, killed by young Noah on 21 June, 1921 with the pickaxe in the episode Beginnings and Endings
* Charlotte finds in Tannhaus's shop the time machine blue prints which were given in 1953 from Old Claudia to Adult Tannhaus (see Everything Is Now) and which are the same that Jonas now sees in Adam's Lair.
* The Sic Mundus painting hanging in Jonas's room is similar to the one hanging in the hospital where Mikkel is staying in November 1986
* (Younger) Noah sits outside the cave eating an apple and talks to Jonas, just as the older Noah met Mikkel in Dark Matter.
* Noah's encounter with Jonas may be the episode he recounts to Helge in "Alpha and Omega": *Years ago, I was still a little boy, a stranger came to us. He looked as if he'd been in the war. Didn't talk much. There was this sadness in his eyes, the kind you sometimes see in those who want to die, but life won't let them. He took a room in our house, the bedroom right next to mine.* The 2020 Jonas may not be this stranger, however; Erna tells Agnes to prepare Noah's room for Jonas, not the room *next* to Noah's, and Jonas was not heard talking in his sleep.
* Aleksander tells Clausen that the door connecting the nuclear power plant to the Winden Caves was sealed shut in the 1980s. In fact, he was the one who welded it shut, as seen in "Everything is Now."
* Magnus and Martha leave Bartosz overnight in the caves just as their parents did thirty-three years ago with Regina just outside the caves, linking her to a tree

### Cultural References

* Eastern Front - The *Ostfront* was the theater of operations in World War I in lands east of Germany, primarily pitting the forces of Germany and Austria-Hungary against those of Tsarist Russia and later the Soviet Union. Under both of the latter regimes, German and Austro-Hungarian POWs were subjected to forced labor and malnutrition, and living conditions generally bleaker than those on the Western Front, i.e. in France and the Low Countries.
* Fukushima - Aleksander alludes to the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster as a reason for stricter security protocols at the plant. Why this would be the case is unclear, as Fukushima was triggered by a natural disaster, the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, rather than a security breach.

### Soundtrack

* The song played for the montage starting at 0:48 is "The World Retreats" by David O'Dowda, originally released in 2015 on \*The World Retreats EP\*.

### Goofs

* The sign outside Winden's municipal library identifies it as the \*Stadtbücherei Winden\*, but the logo on Claudia's search results names it as the \*Stadtbibliothek Winden\*. Both are common terms for a public library, however, and it is possible one term refers to the institution and the other refers to the particular facility in town.
* When Claudia in 2020 searches for Egon Tiedemann, She finds all declaration about Mad's dissapearance dated June 1987, when Egon was already retired.
* When Jonas talks to Noah in the room and again confirms that he is in 1921, Jonas says he is in the wrong place: in reality he is in the wrong time, where he did not want to end up.

## Gallery

*→ See **45** images from The Travelers at **Images from The Travelers**.*
This time in a field"Livestock Treatment"Young AgnesThefarmerErnaAgnes gives a lookIntimate with MarthaSketch the StrangerCharlotte at the shopRetrieving the gunBored teensThe gang debatesMeeting Noah2x0415NoahSmirks.pgA smirkAt the gateUnder pressureCircling his preyAleksander and ClausenCharlotte with the StrangerThe Winden municipal libraryClaudia missingSketch of ClaudiaThe missing pagesMore researchWe're Getting MarriedThe hotel opensAnd closesEgon found deadUnfamiliar woodsSkepticalYou've lost your mindsUsing a lanternConfronting BartoszA tussleDead endAfter checking the recordsUnder constructionA sinister NoahInto the elevatorThe stone portalJonas entersSilja observesElisabeth upsetMissing pages recoveredAdam's studyThe Fall of the DamnedScars
## Navigation

 Season 3 | "Deja-vu" **·** "The Survivors" **·** "Adam and Eva" **·** "The Origin" **·** "Life and Death" **·** "Light and Shadow" **·** "Between the Time" **·** "The Paradise"