Dark Matter

## *Dark*

**"Dark Matter"** is the second episode of Season 2 of *Dark*. It premiered on June 21, 2019, and is the 12th episode overall.

## Summary

Clausen and Charlotte interview Regina. The Stranger takes Hannah to 1987, where Claudia has an unnerving encounter and Egon visits an old nemesis.

## Plot

### June 21, 2053

The young Jonas Kahnwald, at the derelict nuclear power plant, listens to Claudia Tiedemann's tape about the God particle. She says that if it is stabilized, it might permit time travel. A generator needs to supply sufficient AC current, which contradicts the second thermodynamics law. He looks at diagrams and pulls a switch. The God particle stabilizes into a smooth sphere. But then the power shuts down, and it resumes its unstable previous state. A frustrated Jonas realizes the generators have run out of diesel.

### Five days until the apocalypse (June 22, 1987)

In his new life in 1987, Mikkel Nielsen awakes with a start, panting. He goes downstairs to where Ines Kahnwald (now his adoptive mother) prepares his lunch. She tells him everything will be better soon as only one week of school is left before vacation, but Mikkel answers that today is his mother's birthday. She reminds him that the past is past and now is now.

Egon Tiedemann visits his daughter Claudia. She says she is too busy to do anything with him, as she must meet with a French delegation. Gretchen the dog comes in, and Egon remarks about the similarity to their long-gone house pet, which Claudia dismisses. He tells her there is something he needs to talk to her about but sensing she is too busy, then says it's nothing and leaves.

### June 22, 2020

At the police station, Charlotte Doppler examines the photo with Noah that her daughter Elisabeth found the day before. She does a web search on "Sic Mundus Creatus Est" and finds it translates as "Thus the world was created."

She asks Clausen why they are starting their interviews with Regina Tiedemann. Clausen suspects a connection between the power plant, the caves, and the fact that Aleksander Tiedemann took his wife's name when they married.

At the Doppler home, Magnus Nielsen accuses Franziska Doppler of prostituting herself for money, having seen her exchange envelopes with Benni. She informs him that she is providing hormones to Benni for her sex change, which she has taken over from her father. She is furious with Magnus for spying on her, making assumptions, and judging her.

Hannah Kahnwald looks through old family photos—happier times. The older Jonas enters and shows her his time machine that can travel thirty-three years into the past or future. He tells her he wants her to see the truth about her husband.

### June 22, 1987

Mikkel hesitantly walks to school. He is shoved by a passing Katharina Albers, his mother, while the younger Hannah looks on. Instead of entering the school, he turns around and heads for the caves, where Noah waits. Noah discourages him from going into the cave, saying that some have gotten lost and never come out. Mikkel questions what Noah said the year before about God and His having a plan for everyone, wondering if God is wrong. Noah feigns offense, saying that God never errs. He says sometimes we need to have faith that things will get better.

At the nuclear power plant, Claudia is informed that a woman has come to claim the dog. The old woman picks the dog up, calling it Gretchen—telling her it is hers, just as it is Claudia's. She tells her to look through the window and proceeds to tell her everything that will happen. She tells her she is her and was in the same position thirty-three years ago. When Gretchen ran into the cave in 1953, she waited for her and ensured Claudia would find the dog.

Egon receives a call telling him his cancer has spread and he will need to start treatment that week. He sees a newspaper headline pointing out that he never solved the disappearance of Mads Nielsen the previous year. Pulling out his old notebook, he sees his note asking why Helge Doppler did not take the forest road home.

### June 22, 2053

Jonas walks to an upper floor of a derelict apartment building, wires an old CD player to speakers, and blasts Elvis singing "Suspicious Minds" from the window, hoping to create a diversion. A team of soldiers arrives in a tank. All get out to look for the perpetrator, enabling Jonas to siphon diesel from the tank, narrowly avoiding detection.

### June 22, 1987

Regina meets Aleksander in the forest. She tells him her mother is never there and only complains about her. She has never told her she loves her. Aleksander offers to make up for that and kisses her.

### June 22, 2020

At the Tiedemann home, Clausen asks Regina why Ulrich Nielsen visited the hotel the day he disappeared. She tells him he asked about Mads's disappearance, she being the last one to see him alive. He then asks why her husband took her last name. She asks what that has to do with anything. She tells him about the stranger who asked for a room but never returned, leaving many papers on the wall - which she shows him - and asking her to deliver a package to Jonas.

Hannah and Jonas enter the caves, where he activates the machine using Ulrich's smartphone. He takes her back to 1987.

### June 22, 1987

Egon decides to visit Helge. He is making stick figures in a hospital, recovering from his car accident. He asks why he took a long way home instead of Forest Road. Helge replies cryptically that the man with the stone (Ulrich) had told him he could change the future and the past, but no one, not even the "White Devil," could change anything. Egon asks him what that has to do with Mads.

The older Claudia takes her younger self to the cave where the barrels are stored and shows her the portable time machine. She tells her it can travel thirty-three years backward or forwards in time and that the problem is bigger than any of them. It takes thirty-three years for the cycle to complete, and it will do so again in five days. She tells her she must stop Adam. She warns her that life is a collection of missed opportunities. She does not have much time left with Regina, but if everything works out, she will live. She activates the machine and disappears, leaving Claudia shocked.

### June 22, 2053

Jonas takes the diesel into the restricted area but is met by three soldiers with guns pointed at him.

### June 22, 2020

Charlotte looks through the papers and recognizes some from her grandfather's book. She relates this to Peter. She asks him why her grandfather never told her who her parents were.

### June 22, 2053

Jonas is placed on the gallows with a noose around his neck. The teenage girl, interpreting for Elisabeth, reminds him of the consequences of entering the restricted area. Jonas defiantly asks Elisabeth why she is lying about what is in the restricted zone, to which Elisabeth shoots him in the leg. He shouts that in five days, everyone will die, and he has to stop that. The passage will never open, and the prophecy is false. Elisabeth kicks the board out from under him. Elisabeth watches him as he chokes, then decides to shoot the rope holding him from the gallows, and he falls to the ground.

### June 22, 1987

Egon calls the police station and asks whatever happened to the man arrested in 1953 for the attempted murder of Helge and two boys. He is informed that he is in a mental institution, where he has been for thirty-four years.

Egon goes to visit him. Ulrich is known as "the Inspector." Egon introduces himself, unsure whether he would remember him. Ulrich assures him he remembers him and quotes him the same lines he had said previously: "My only aim is to take many lives; the more, the better I feel." Egon asks what it means. Ulrich tells him they mean he is still an idiot. He tells him he doesn't have much time until he is dead, which was in the papers, which Egon cannot follow. Ulrich tells him his fate is always to be clueless. He will get what he deserves.

Later that night, Mikkel returns home, where Ines has been worried about him. She tells him she will make him *Toast Hawaii* to cheer him up. It was her childhood comfort food, with cherries on top, and her father would dance like Elvis. He asks her whether she believes in God and if he has a plan. She says she does and that God planned for her to take care of him. He then goes to her and hugs her.

The older Jonas and Hannah arrive at the Kahnwald home. They see Mikkel with Ines as they have dinner together. Hannah cries as she realizes her husband's past.

### June 22, 2053

Jonas is placed in a cage, wounded in his leg and neck. Elisabeth's interpreter visits him and demands to know who he is and why Elisabeth didn't kill him. She releases him and asks him to show her what's in the dead zone. He takes her to the power plant, where the God particle vibrates. Jonas pours the diesel he stole into the generator and starts it up. The God particle stabilizes into a smooth sphere again. He tells her that, according to Claudia, that could be the way to get home. He goes inside, telling her it doesn't matter whether he dies here or inside the sphere. The particle erupts again, and Jonas vanishes.

### June 22, 1987/1954

Claudia later goes home and digs a hole in her backyard. She finds the portable time machine at the exact spot marked on her older self's map. "Meanwhile," on the same night thirty-three years before, the older Claudia buries the time machine before the Tiedemanns' '80s house had even been built.

## Cast

* Louis Hofmann as Jonas Kahnwald
* Daan Lennard Liebrenz as Mikkel Nielsen
* Anne Ratte-Polle as Ines Kahnwald 1987
* Julika Jenkins as Claudia Tiedemann 1987
* Christian Pätzold as Egon Tiedemann 1987
* Lydia Makrides as Regina Tiedemann 1987
* Karoline Eichhorn as Charlotte Doppler
* Sylvester Groth as Investigator Clausen
* Carlotta von Falkenhayn as Elisabeth Doppler
* Gina Stiebitz as Franziska Doppler
* Moritz Jahn as Magnus Nielsen
* Maja Schöne as Hannah Kahnwald
* Nele Trebs as Katharina Nielsen 1987
* Ella Lee as Hannah Kahnwald 1987
* Lisa Kreuzer as Claudia Tiedemann
* Béla Gabor Lenz as Aleksander Tiedemann 1987
* Deborah Kaufmann as Regina Tiedemann
* Mark Waschke as Noah
* Peter Schneider as Helge Doppler 1987
* Sandra Borgmann as Elisabeth Doppler 2053
* Stephan Kampwirth as Peter Doppler
* Winfried Glatzeder as Ulrich Nielsen old, 1987

## Quotes

*"We have managed to stabilize the God Particle and the resulting mass. In a stable state, it seems to create a kind of portal which possibly allows for time travel. If the matter is supplied with sufficient voltage, it can be kept in a stable state in the long term. Sending objects through the stabilized matter has already proved possible.... A generator has to provide sufficient AC current for that. Even after lengthy observation, we are not sure what the energy source of the instable matter is. Measurements indicate there is no form of energy loss. It appears to be a type of self-sustaining recursive system.... The matter’s radiation levels exceed control values. Still, no signs of decay have been observed. This is consistent with the law of conservation of energy, yet it contradict the second law of thermodynamics. Moreover, the matter seems to exist, independent of external temperature, in solid, liquid and gaseous states at once. And the molecules seem to be in a constant cycle...."*
―Claudia, on a tape recording, describes the nature of the God Particle

*"Sometimes we don't really know where we're supposed to be. But I wouldn't go in there. It's like a maze in there. Some have never returned."*
―Noah to Mikkel outside the caves

*"In the hospital, you said something... the thing about God, and that He has a plan for everyone. What if God has no idea what He's doing? If the plan is wrong? If God is mistaken?"
"God doesn't make mistakes. Sometimes we have to have more faith that everything will be okay again."*
―Mikkel questions Noah on God

*"Why didn't you take the forest road?"
"He... He said he can change everything. He can change the past, and the future."
"Who said that?"
"The man with the stone."
"But that was thirty years ago. What does that have to do with Mads?"
"But no one can change it. No one. Not even the White Devil."
"The White Devil? You've said that before. Back then, as a child."
"Tick, tock.... Tick, tock.... Tick, tock...."*
―Egon questions Helge at the rest home

*"'My only aim is to take many lives. The more, the better I feel.'"
"I know that. You've said that before. What does it mean?"
"It means that you, you moron, still haven't understood a thing. But now you have to hurry. You don't have much time left. I know when you die. It was in the paper."
"I don't understand."
"No, of course you don't. But maybe that is also your fate. To die as clueless as you were born. Everyone gets what they deserve."*
―The elderly Ulrich taunts Egon

*"There are days it's best to just forget."*
―Ines to Mikkel

*"What is that?"
"She said that it's a portal."
"Who?"
"I have tapes with a woman speaking on them. Her name is Claudia Tiedemann. I know none of this makes sense, but that may be the only way back home. No clue if it works."
"You want to go in?"<br"It doesn't matter if I die out inside it or out here."*
―Jonas to the girl from the future about the God Particle
## Trivia

### Mysteries

* Who is the White Devil?
* What does the older Claudia mean by "if everything works out, then Regina will live"? She states that her middle-aged self does not have much more time with Regina.
* Reinforced this episode after being hinted at last episode, who are Charlotte's parents?
* When will Egon die?
* Where does the dark matter take Jonas?
* Why doesn't Elisabeth kill Jonas?
* From where and When Claudia has taken the fuel for the Time Machine?
* Where was the Stranger between 12.11.2019 and 21.6.2020 when he reappeared in Hanna's house?
* How many time machines are present : one used by Noah, one used by Old Claudia and one used by the Stranger?

### Answers

* Franziska has been selling hormone treatment to Benni, contrary to Magnus's worst assumptions.
* Claudia became involved in time travel after being visited by her older self.
* Egon has cancer.
* The older Claudia was the one who brought Gretchen from 1953 to 1986 for her middle-aged self to find in "Everything Is Now".
* Regina kept all of the Stranger's belongings that he left in his hotel room in November. She never brought them to the police.
* We see how the portable time machine works for the first time.
* Jonas received the scar around his neck from a hanging in 2053 at the hands of Elisabeth.
* Ulrich is still alive in 1987: He has been living in a psychiatric ward for the last thirty-four years and is now an elderly man. He is known around the place as "the Inspector" but has still never revealed his name.
* The girl from the future also has a light orb like the one Jonas got from his older self. This shows these devices are somehow products of the future.
* We understand that Elisabeth's spokesperson is sensitive to what's happening to Jonas, she too wants to know what's in the plant and maybe escape this world. For this reason she frees Jonas.

### Themes and Motifs

#### Time

* The dates featured in this episode are: June 22, 1954 (briefly); June 22, 1987; June 22, 2020; and June 22, 2053.
* June 22, 1987 is a Monday, Egon must go to the hospital on June 26, 1987 which ia Friday, the day before the Apocalypse in 2020
* This episode continues the countdown to the apocalypse. It is now 5 days until the apocalypse.
* Egon looks at his Police Calendar from 1986.
* Mikkel says that today, June 22, is his mother's (Kathrina) birthday
* Egon references the time when Helge was a boy and spoke of a "White Devil", presumably the 1950s.
* Jonas tries to convince Elisabeth's cult that there is no paradise and that in five days, everyone in his time will die.

#### Time Travel

* Noah has travelled from 2020 (after having instructed Bartosz) to 1987 (most probably using the time machine we have seen when he left Adam in 1921)
* Hanna and The Stranger/Jonas have travelled from 2020 to 1987 with Time Machine.
* Old Claudia, after Nov 2019, has spent few months there or in the future and now has travelled to 1987 with time machine to meet her younger version
* Old Claudia has travelled from 1987 to 1954 to dig the time machine

#### Determinism

* Mikkel finds Noah blocking him to prevent him from coming back because Jonas already exists. As in Series 1, Jonas was blocked twice to bring Mikkel back. Mikkel's destiny is to stay in the Past 1987 and grows, like Ulrich gets old from 1953 to 1987.

#### Historic Recurrences

* Mikkel's disappearance from school in 1987 is similar to Elisabeth's disappearance from school in 2019. Both meet Noah
* Ulrich sniffs Egon to see if he still smells of alcohol as he did in the episode of the first series Past and Present
* It is the third time that Egon is aware of this phrase «My only aim is to take many lives. The more, the better I feel »: in 1986 in the room of the young Ulrich, in 1953 at the police station by Ulrich Adult, in 1987 by the old Ulrich.
* It appears that Egon in 1987 and Regina in 2020 share the same fate of death from cancer
* Regina is the last person to see Ulrich in 2019 and Mads in 1986.
* In 2053 Jonas is about to be hanged similar to his father who hanged himself in 2019. The end is different, this is also Determinism.

#### Paradoxes

* In 1987 we have an Old Ulrich in the Nursing Home and a Young Ulrich in Winden. We have an old Claudia facing an adult Claudia. We have Hanna looking at his future's husband.
* Egon has met Ulrich in all ages : in 1986 when Ulrich was young, in 1953 when Ulrich was adult and again in 1987 when Ulrich is old

### Observations

* Mikkel awakes in the same bedroom and the same manner as his future son 33 years later, both having experienced traumatic events and the loss of parents. Ines calls him Mikkel so he must have finally told her his real name, though he became Michael.
* Mikkel has the comics of the Captain future, exactly like him who is coming from future. We also notices typical 80s success : The Goonies and Becker's success at Wimbledon.
* Presumably, by the way he looks at her, Mikkel knows teenage Katharina is his mother, though she has no idea and shoves him, which seems to upset him.
* In 1987 Ines repeats to Mikkel the same sentence she said to Jonas in 2019 in S1E10, that is, the past is past, the present must be accepted and the future you don't know what it holds.
* Mikkel is still confused at school, Kathrina is still bossy
* Noah assures Mikkel that God exists and has a plan. He previously told Helge there was no God.
* Mikkel arrives in the cave area, while The Stranger and Hanna are traveling back in time from 2020 to 1987.
* Jonas in 2053 uses the principle of communicating vessels to steal gasoline from the armored vehicle
* Regina in 1987 has changed her appearance, has more beautiful and tidy hair because she is engaged to Aleksandr
* Regina in 1987 has Signs on her wrists that are those of the joke made by Ulrich and Kathrina
* Aleksander (who we know is someone else) took his wife's name when they married.
* Claudia meets her older self, similar to Jonas.
* Claudia is distrurbed when Egon argues about the dog who could be Gretchen. She fears that he discovers something about Time Travel.
* Ulrich has stayed in the facility for 34 years, unwittingly traveling to the time where his son is in 1987 as well. Nobody knows the old man's true name.
* Coincidences: Egon in 1987 discovers he has a tumor. A few months earlier, Ulrich Young seemed to anticipate it, when he is released from prison a few months earlier after the fake rape. See episode 9 of Serie 1.
* Egon He never stopped investigating Mads' disappearance, he still has the dead sheep photos on the wall
* Egon manages to question Helge as he failed 8 months earlier but fails to make him confess on the road in the woods and the kidnapping of Mads. He is still a failure, even though he is retired
* Ulrich says to Egon who is an idiot since It is the third time that Egon is aware of this phrase «My only aim is to take many lives. The more, the better I feel » and still doesn't understand the solution of the cases was the time travel and still doesn't understands that Ulrich is the man in front of him and he was the man 1953 and the Ulrich boy few months before in Nov.1986.
* Egon has to hurry like Claudia 1987 with Regina 2020 with the cancer
* Egon will perhaps die of cancer, according to Ulrich everyone has what they deserve. It's a kind of revenge since he paid more than he deserved. Revenge is a dish that should be served cold
* Helge is in a retirement home and will probably stay there until 2019. Let's assume that he no longer works at Central, now that his Father Bernd is no longer the manager.
* The older Claudia was responsible for Gretchen disappearing in 1953 and returning unchanged in 1986.
* Ulrich remembers reading about Egon's death when he was a teenager in 1987.
* The man with the stone is Ulrich. Let's assume that he later confessed to trying to kill Helge. However, Helge later reappeared in 1953 and therefore the murder charge for Ulrich dropped. Ulrich, however, was now on the path of madness and therefore was released from prison but placed in a protected structure, as was done in the 1950s. However, Ulrich proved to be very lucid during the interview with Egon.
* In 2019 Helge repeats that changing the past implies to change the future. He heard this sentence from Ulrich in 1953, before being struck by him with a stone
* The neck scar from the almost hanging remains with Jonas for the rest of his life and can be seen in the "Stranger"/ older Jonas.
* Why does Elisabeth save Jonas? Does she remember him from when she was a girl in 2019?
* Jonas is determined to do all he can to prevent the apocalypse, even if it leads to his death.
* This Claudia's recorded message seems to come from a period after September 2020, so it gives Jonas hope. Claudia is referring to a stabilization of this God Particle/Dark Matter, which means that Someone must have succeeded in the past. Jonas is frustrated because he has no other way to go back in time.
* Old Claudia is now blocked in 1954, without time machine.
* Ines makes reference to Elvis when she was a girl. Elvis is the author of Suspicious minds.
* 33 years is quite a long time but it is peculiar that Hanna doesn’t recognize Mikkel 2019 as the same Mikkel of 1986-1987. The same statement is valid For Ines in the decade , 2010-2020, in which she sees Mikkel NIelsen born from Ulrich and Kathrina

### Cultural References

* The Goonies : it is a 1985 American adventure comedy film co-produced and directed by Richard Donner from a screenplay by Chris Columbus, based on a story by Steven Spielberg. In the film, kids who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon, attempt to save their homes from foreclosure and, in doing so, they discover an old treasure map that takes them on an adventure to unearth the long-lost fortune of One-Eyed Willy, a legendary 17th-century pirate. During the adventure, they are chased by a family of criminals who want the treasure for themselves. Produced by Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, Warner Bros. released the film theatrically on June 7, 1985, in the United States. The film grossed $125 million worldwide on a budget of $19 million and has since become a cult film. In 2017, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
* Boris Becker : is a German former world No. 1 tennis player. Becker was successful from the start of his career, winning the first of his six major singles titles at age 17. His major singles titles comprise three Wimbledon Championships, two Australian Opens and one US Open. Becker also won three year-end championships, 13 Masters titles and an Olympic gold medal in doubles. In 1989, he was voted the Player of the Year by both the ATP and the ITF.
* **Suspicious Minds :** is a 1968 song written and first recorded by American songwriter Mark James. After this recording failed commercially, it was cut by Elvis Presley with producer Chips Moman, becoming a No. 1 song in 1969, and one of the most memorable hits of Presley's career. "Suspicious Minds" was one of the singles that revived Presley's chart success in the U.S., following his *'68 Comeback Special*. It was his eighteenth and last No.1 single in the United States. In December 2003, *Rolling Stone* ranked it No. 91 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Session guitarist Reggie Young played on both the James and Presley versions. **The song is about a mistrusting and dysfunctional relationship, and the need of the characters to overcome their issues in order to maintain it. It is ideal for Winden, where everybody has a secret.**

### Soundtrack

* **"Never gonna give you up"** by Rick Astley
* **"Being boiled"** by Human League
* **"Suspicious Minds"** by Elvis
* **"Thunder"** by RY X

## Gallery

*→ See **78** images from Dark Matter at **Images from Dark Matter**.*

## Navigation

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