Each recap aims to be spoiler free. I won’t speculate too much on the future but will get you up to speed in the current episode. Thank you for reading and you can contact the show by emailing wakeupwinden@gmail.com. I am putting this part at the top of the recaps to prevent spoilers from the posts. Cheers!
Plot:
And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you – Nietzsche
He was referring to recapping Season 2 of Dark as we are now covering five timelines. Gulp.
1921:
The episode starts off in 1921 with the forging of the tunnel to the crossing. A young Noah and an unnamed acquaintance work on the tunnel and then have a conversation about prophecy and fate. The acquaintance badgers Noah by asking him why Adam even took him in and called him Noah. Noah’s response is to kill him with the axe. We learn that the apocalypse will happen on June 27, 2020 from Noah’s notebook. Later, Young Noah speaks with Priest Noah who tells him that everything is connected.
1953: N/A
1986: N/A
2019
Six months have passed since the events of Season 1. It is now the summer holidays and the sun has come out for the first time ever in Winden. The government has assigned a federal task force to Winden in response to the six missing people cases. They sent one man named Clausen, who wants to examine everything, including the possibility of Ulrich’s involvement. Peter and Elli find a picture of Noah from 1921 that immediately gets added to Charlotte’s vision board.
Regina is deep into her chemo treatment and not responding well. She wants to remain at home as opposed to returning to the hospital. Bartosz and Martha break up. Martha looks into Ulrich’s police files. Katharina already had been looking at them and she searches the caves with no luck. Bartosz meets up with Noah and follows him into the caves. Magnus still doesn’t trust Fran and further spies on her. The sex worker from Season 1 picks up the money. Magnus follows her and gets frightened when he learns who had been picking up the money from Fran. Woller is her brother.
Hannah receives a visit from Jonas the Stranger and he is able to convince her of his identity. Aleksander gives a rousing speech to his employees and then does something shady in the back with the danger barrels. I don’t know, he’s pouring cement on them or some shit. Ready for transport. Here’s me attempting to follow the nuclear plant scenes:
2052
Another episode where Jonas wanders for at least ten minutes of screen time. At least we get a lot of world building for 2052. He splits his time between his old house and the torture room, which he has been using as his personal conspiracy lab. Elli, Charlotte’s daughter, is the only other person we know from 2019. Many people died in the apocalypse, including Martha, Aleksander, and Woller. Claudia survived and recorded a statement that leads Jonas to want to find the God Particle. Problem is, it’s on the other side of the wall. In this future, to cross the wall is punishable by death – a Frenchman gets hanged by a group led by Elli. Jonas risks it and at the end he does find the God Particle (which I describe as a glowing orb plus Tangela the Pokemon).
Unknown Time
We see a few scenes with Adam and Noah where they don’t specify the time period in any way. They put all other vision boards to shame with the holy grail of vision boards in their mansion. Adam is asking Noah if he has any doubts. They have to burn down everything like a dead forest in order to rebuild. Adam should have looked closer at Noah’s angry face.
Whip Around Winden:
Katharina
Katharina looks for the steel door but seems to be pretty inept at searching. At least she is doing something now! She spent a majority of Season 1 trapped in her house ignoring her other children. Since six months have now passed, maybe she has had some time to process things.
Hannah/Jonas the Stranger
Poor Hannah is a mess at the beginning of the episode, and possibly about to end her life when Jonas the Stranger walks in with his own key. He talks about a scratch on his arm, a spot on the floor where Dad spilled pancake oil, and the kitchen table where Jonas had seen Hannah and Ulrich banging. Sorry.
Hard to tell how Hannah feels about all of this, even if she is starting to believe him. This face might be a clue.
Charlotte/Clausen
Oh I bet Charlotte is missing the days when she would simply have to listen to Ulrich’s guilt about cheating. Now, she’s got the mysterious Clausen and his dumb elephant metaphors. Clausen instructs her on interviewing techniques and Charlotte is over it. He also has no driver’s license and has to ask Charlotte for a ride the next day. Charlotte agrees because she is in such a hurry to go to the bunker to see what Peter found.
Adam
New character alert! Introduced as Noah’s boss. I’m not sure I love the design of this character. Why does he look like a less muscular The Thing from The Fantastic 4?
This has to be intentional…
Random Thoughts:
- I think it rained for the entire second half of season 1. Nice to see the sunshine in Winden.
- Martha has a line summing up the sadness in her life:
“My brother and father are missing and my mother is crazy and won’t speak to me.” Well… I guess there’s Magnus? Ah, he’s a dirtbag.
- Can’t really make fun of Bartosz though with his mom going through the chemo treatment. They both are going through a rough time. Bartosz has been hiding his secret of communicating with Noah.
- Only one name from the graves I didn’t recognize: Justna Jankoski. Now I’m gonna be looking for her name to show up way too much.
- Love seeing Elli as the leader of the future rebels. The girl that hit Jonas with the butt of the gun at the end of season one is her translator. Together they rule the future.
- Woller buys the truck from the sex worker, who is his sister. He wants her to call Mom. This truck had the danger barrels in it during Season 1. Woller was working with Tiedemann to bring down Ulrich. All I want to know is how he lost his eye.
- Who is the man Noah kills in the beginning of the episode? Someone we know or a new character?
- Isn’t this title basically the same thing as Alpha and Omega? They are really hammering this theme of beginnings and endings home.
- If they add 1887 and 2085 to the mix, I’m flipping over my computer.
Wake Up Winden 