Secrets

## *Dark*

*"We trust that time is linear. That it proceeds eternally, uniformly. Into infinity. But the distinction between past, present and future is nothing but an illusion. Yesterday, today and tomorrow are not consecutive, they are connected in a never-ending circle. Everything is connected."*
―H.G. Tannhaus
***Secrets*** is the first episode of the first season of *Dark*.

## Synopsis

In 2019, a local boy's disappearance stokes fear in the residents of Winden, a small German town with a strange and tragic history.

## Plot

In a cellar containing rifles, hand grenades, and a gas mask, photographs of people at different ages are connected by strings on a wall. An unseen man narrates, explaining that time is not linear but connected in a never-ending circle and that the distinction between past, present, and future is an illusion.

On June 21, 2019, Michael Kahnwald commits suicide by hanging himself in his attic art studio. He leaves behind a Suicide Letter encased in an envelope that reads, "Do not open before November 4, 10:13 P.M.", which was later furtively retrieved by his mother, Ines Kahnwald. Over the next seven months, Michael's sixteen-year-old son Jonas Kahnwald goes for a two-month therapy schedule. During this time, Michael's widow, Hannah Kahnwald, who has a strained relationship with Ines for her absence, continues an affair with Winden Police Department Officer Ulrich Nielsen.

After waking up from another nightmare on November 4, 2019, Jonas heads to the kitchen to find the electricity has gone out and calls for his mother—who is upstairs secretly having sex with Ulrich. Ulrich asks if she will come to the town meeting tonight, but she is unsure as his wife, Katharina Nielsen, will be there. Hannah says she loves him. However, he does not reciprocate and leaves through the window. He jogs home through the woods and passes a sign pointing to the Winden Caves. An ominous noise is heard from the cave, and later, a cloaked person emerges in the cave opening.

Jonas rides his bike and notices a missing person poster for Erik Obendorf as he stops at the Winden Main Intersection in front of the Winden Nuclear Power Plant. During his session with his therapist, Peter Doppler, Jonas has an angry outburst over why Michael would kill himself without leaving an explanation. Afterward, he returns to the Winden Comprehensive School and is treated like an outcast until his good friend Bartosz Tiedemann arrives and defends him. He had bluffed everyone that Jonas was in France for a two-month school exchange.

At the Nielsen Family Home, Katharina is serving breakfast while trying to manage her children: magician Mikkel Nielsen won't change out of his magician's outfit, rebellious Magnus Nielsen can't find his hoodie, and Jonas' love interest Martha Nielsen won't eat because she's on hunger strike. Ulrich arrives, saying he took so long because there was a line at the bakery because it was the first day of school. Mikkel shows him a magic trick where he makes a pawn move from under one cup to the other. When Ulrich asks how he did it, Mikkel replies, "the question is not how, the question is when."

At the Winden Police Station, Chief Charlotte Doppler is yelled at and spat on by Jürgen and Ulla Obendorf, who criticize the police's lackluster results in the search for Erik, who has now been missing for thirteen days. Ulrich, arriving on time, defuses the situation and suggests that Erik may have run away, as he has done before. He promises to find their son and sends them home. Later, Ulrich explains that he is confident that Erik ran away because nothing like that ever happens in Winden. Still, Charlotte reminds him of his brother Mads Nielsen's disappearance, which Ulrich insists otherwise. Charlotte suggests he should pay his mother, Jana Nielsen, a visit, as she has called the emergency number again.

At the high school, students and teachers assemble in the gym, where Katharina, the principal, encourages them to talk about Erik's disappearance. An anxious Martha enters and reveals that she started dating Bartosz, much to Jonas's dismay. Martha sheepishly greets the discomforted Jonas. Later in science class, as a bright student and stoner, Franziska Doppler, gives a presentation on black holes, Bartosz wonders to Jonas whether Erik's drugs might still be stashed in the caves and suggests that they collect them. They include Magnus and Martha in their plan, even though the latter is skeptical about the conspiracy of the Nuclear Power Plant's business near the hollows.

At the Waldhotel Winden, which has no guests due to Erik's disappearance, Regina Tiedemann stands at the empty front desk, stunned. A banker calls with bad news about her inability to repay her loan, and Regina snaps at him, calling him a bully and an asshole. Meanwhile, Ulrich visits his mother, who explains she saw something in the Winden Forest again: the cloaked figure that emerged from the caves and shows him a 1980s Raider chocolate wrapper she found there. Jana compares the case of Erik with Mads' disappearance thirty-three years ago, expressing that everything is repeating itself.

After flirting with Ulrich on a phone call, Hannah gives Director Aleksander Tiedemann a massage inside the power plant. She comments that his scars are knotted up because it's about to rain, and scars can sense that. He says the plant's pending closure might be getting to him more than he thought after being in Winden for almost thirty-three years. Meanwhile, Katharina finds Hannah's brown strand of hair on Ulrich's hoodie at the Nielsen home. She smells it and notices a different perfume.

Jonas bikes to the forest, where he finds Martha alone, as the others are late. She wants to explain her relationship with Bartosz, but Jonas states it's okay. She adds that she wrote him many texts she never sent because they seemed wrong. Martha then tells him she is experiencing déjà vu, as though everything has happened before. Jonas jokes that it's "a glitch in the Matrix." Bartosz and Magnus interrupt them, and Mikkel has also come, as no one else could look after him with the parents having a meeting. They all head to the caves.

During the town meeting at the school hall, Charlotte reveals that they have no new findings in the case. When Katharina wants to talk about what security measures they can take, Regina protests, saying Winden has a very low crime rate and that they shouldn't blow it out of proportion or they'll have the press in town. Katharina and Regina's debate continues until the mentally ill Helge Doppler, who has run away from the Winden Rest Home, suddenly interrupts the meeting and repeats his warning: "It's going to happen again." Charlotte, his daughter-in-law, takes him outside.

On the way to the caves, the kids briefly speculate on Erik's whereabouts until Martha becomes uncomfortable with the idea of his death. When they arrive, Franziska has beaten them to the entrance and obtained the stash. When offering to sell them, Bartosz shoves her and snatches the bag. Suddenly, there is a roar from the caves, and lights start flickering, frightening the gang away. Jonas runs through the forest with Mikkel until he trips and loses the boy. Jonas is then scared off by a hallucination of Michael, and the gang loses Mikkel. Meanwhile, Ines finally reads the suicide letter, and its contents devastate her.

On the following day, Mikkel is labeled as a missing child. The police are investigating by the caves but have nothing. Charlotte receives a call from her husband, Peter, who asks if Mikkel has been found. He is on the verge of tears and tries to tell her something, but Charlotte is interrupted and has to go. Peter recites the Serenity Prayer to himself. But then, a child's body is found in the forest, and Ulrich runs to the scene. He inspects it but announces that it is not Mikkel. He has charred eyes and ears and a Walkman beside him.

In a room decorated like a nursery, with bright cartoon wallpaper and stuffed animals, music videos from the 1980s are playing on an old TV while Erik Obendorf lies on a bed, covering his ears. In the center of the room is a chair with a machine on top of it. Later, Erik is tied to the chair with leather straps by the cloaked figure. He places a coin attached to a red lanyard around Erik's neck before closing the machine over his eyes.

## Cast

**Main Cast:**

* Louis Hofmann as Young Jonas Kahnwald
* Maja Schöne as Hannah Kahnwald
* Oliver Masucci as Adult Ulrich Nielsen
* Stephan Kampwirth as Adult Peter Doppler
* Angela Winkler as Ines Kahnwald
* Jördis Triebel as Katharina Nielsen
* Daan Lennard Liebrenz as Mikkel Nielsen
* Lisa Vicari as Martha Nielsen
* Moritz Jahn as Young Magnus Nielsen
* Paul Lux as Young Bartosz Tiedemann
* Karoline Eichorn as Charlotte Doppler
* Gina Alice Stiebitz as Young Franziska Doppler
* Deborah Kaufmann as Adult Regina Tiedemann
* Tatja Seibt as Old Jana Nielsen
* Hermann Beyer as Old Helge Doppler
* Peter Benedict as Boris Niewald/Aleksander Tiedemann
* Valentin Oppermann as Mads Nielsen (corpse; uncredited)
* Walter Kreye as Old Tronte Nielsen (picture; uncredited)
* Felix Kramer as Adult Tronte Nielsen (picture; uncredited)
* Joshio Marlon as Young Tronte Nielsen (picture; uncredited)
* Peter Schneider as Adult Helge Doppler (uncredited)
* Tom Philipp as Young Helge Doppler (picture; uncredited)
* Anne Lebinsky as Adult Jana Nielsen (picture; uncredited)
* Rike Sindler as Young Jana Nielsen (picture; uncredited)
* Stephanie Amarell as Charlotte Tannhaus (picture; uncredited)
* Ludger Bökelmann as Young Ulrich Nielsen (picture; uncredited)
* Nele Trebs as Katharina Albers (picture; uncredited)
* Ella Lee as Hannah Krüger (picture; uncredited)
* Béla Gabor Lenz as Boris Niewald/Aleksander Köhler (picture; uncredited)
* Carlotta von Falkenhayn as Young Elisabeth Doppler (picture; uncredited)

**Guest Stars:**

* Sebastian Rudolph as Adult Mikkel Nielsen/Michael Kahnwald
* Leopold Hornung as Torben Wöller
* Mieke Schymura as Justyna Jankowski
* Tom Jahn as Jürgen Obendorf
* Jennipher Antoni as Ulla Obendorf
* Nils Brunkhorst as Teacher
* Paul Radom as Erik Obendorf

## Appearances

### Locations

* Germany
	+ Winden
		- Winden Forest
		- Doppler Family Bunker
		- Kahnwald Family Home
		- Winden Main Intersection
		- Winden Nuclear Power Plant
		- Winden Caves
		- Ines Kahnwald's Apartment
		- Nielsen Family Home
		- Winden Comprehensive School
		- Winden Police Station
		- Waldhotel Winden
		- Tronte Nielsen's Apartment
		- Winden Rest Home
		- Jürgen Obendorf's Junkyard (mentioned)
	+ Frankfurt (mentioned)
* France (mentioned)

### Events

* Sacrifice of Michael Kahnwald
* Search for Erik Obendorf
* Kidnapping of Mikkel Nielsen
* Search for Mikkel Nielsen
* Sacrifice of Erik Obendorf
* Kidnapping of Erik Obendorf (mentioned)
* Apocalypse (mentioned)
* Kidnapping of Mads Nielsen (mentioned)
* Search for Mads Nielsen (mentioned)

### Items

* Michael Kahnwald's Suicide Letter
* Jonas Kahnwald's Raincoat
* Raider
* *You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)*
* Time Machine Chair
* Erik Obendorf's Drug Stash
* Walkman

### Mentioned

* Harry Houdini
* Fanny
* *The Matrix* (indirectly)
* Heide

## Music

 Rücklauf
 You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)
 Nightfall
 Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann

## References

The Dark Wiki has a collection of images and media related to **Secrets**.

## External Links

*To be added*

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