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:
1921:
After an absence in the previous episode, Jonas wakes up in the middle of a field still wearing the hazmat suit. Two men find him thinking he is a refugee from the war. He is brought back to Erza’s house, where Agnes and Noah live as youths. Noah readies a room for Jonas. Jonas has a quick chat with Noah where Noah is very cryptic – Noah knew Jonas would be coming. Jonas tries to escape but the cave portal isn’t built yet – not for another 32 years according to Noah. Noah takes Jonas to meet Adam at the Sic Mundus HQ and Adam reveals that he is actually Jonas (AHHHHHHHHHHHH!)
2020:
Claudia becomes acclimated to 2020 and she researches what has happened in Winden. She finds out Aleksander is now a Tiedemann and he runs the Power Plant – also he is married to Regina. Turns out Claudia disappeared without a trace according to the tablets in the library. Egon died on June 26, ‘87 – two days after Claudia left. She prints out the information and then returns to ‘87 where she sees her sleeping daughter.
Charlotte calls in sick to discuss time travel matters. Clausen takes Woller under his wing and they investigate Tiedemann. Remember, Woller and Tiedemann have been working together since Season 1 when Tiedemann needed dirt on Ulrich. Clausen is very suspicious of Aleksander. Their next interrogation is with Hannah, but on the way there, Claudia pops out in the middle of the street causing Woller to swerve and crash.
The two generations are getting together to work on the Winden Puzzle. Charlotte, Peter, Hannah, Katharina and Jonas the Stranger form the adult group. Martha, Magnus, Franzsika and Elli form the teen group. The teens go to the cave where they find Bartosz sneaking around with a time machine. They beat him up, tie him up, take his time machine and leave him there. Justice! The adult group tries to come to grips with this strange reality – Katharina doesn’t believe them. Only when she goes to her school and finds Mikkel’s picture in ‘87 does she accept the truth.
Whip Around Winden
Katharina
The school board let her keep her job as principal? By all indications she’s been MIA for 7 months – I know we skipped those months in the show but I didn’t get the impression she had been working. First time we see her at work in a long time is her going to get the year book.
I appreciate how she reacts to the time travel info – as a joke, as bullshit. I suspect that would be how most people would react. She sums it up perfectly: “My husband is trapped in the ‘50s, my son in the ‘80s, and you (Jonas) left him there because he’s your father.” The response:
Jonas/Adam
I still hate Adam’s makeup but at least they explained he has the scarring because of all of the time travel. Adam looking so different than Jonas definitely makes the reveal surprising. I know the point of it is “look at the price of what time travel can do to you,” but he looks like such a monster, it kind of takes me out of the show. But I can deal!
Jonas the Stranger said the Claudia wanted to stop the bad things from happening but she became the thing she was fighting. The same thing seems to have happened to Jonas. With the portal being closed for 32 years, is this how Jonas becomes The Stranger? Does he live out his life starting in 1921 and then start time travelling around the time the show begins? Or will he find some other way to leave 1921?
Claudia
What an advertisement for iPads – so intuitive that even someone from the ‘80s can figure it out (with a little help from smug Gen Z-ers). I thought this was going to be Claudia’s disappearance, but she returned back to the ‘80s at the end of the episode. She has gained an appreciation for her daughter after learning about her fate.
Claudia thinks she will find herself in 2020 running the power plant. She is shocked to find out who is really in charge.
Clausen:
Clausen is hot on the trail of Aleksander Kohler/Tiedemann/Niewald. He seems to suspect him above everyone else as he plastered his name above his vision board. When Woller asks him if he volunteered for the special task force, Clausen responded with a creepy “Oh yes.” Clausen knows way more than we think and he is interviewing people that definitely have connections the time travel events
Woller:
The show is mocking us. Everyone wanted to know what happened to Woller’s eye and just when he was about to tell us, he almost crashes into Claudia. We see he is conflicted while interviewing Tiedemann – the two share a look at the end of the scene. He knew about Hannah’s affair, although he seemed to have a pretty big crush on her himself. Seemingly the only person who didn’t know was Katharina. Woller’s grave is seen in 2053 when Jonas is going through the graveyard. I think Woller has a bigger role to play in all of this.
Noah:
Stop trying to make cutting an apple with your knife menacingly a thing! It’s not a thing! I thought apple imagery was associated with Adam, not Noah. Does this mean Noah aspires to be Adam? This is after he read the pages that cause him to lie to Adam. Noah still seems to be doing Adam’s bidding because he brings Jonas to see him. Is Noah just a glorified henchman or more?
Bartosz/Teen Drama
I’m glad the younger generation is getting together to figure out the mystery. I was even happier when they serve some justice to Bartosz. Bartosz is Noah’s puppet and he very well could have some involvement with the missing kids. Are they going to come back for him to make him talk? They take the time machine with them. Elli has to go with them because Charlotte and Peter haven’t been home for two days. My question – why? Do they have to sleep at the bunker too?
Random Thoughts
- Aleksander changing his name is probably an effort for him to gain further distance from his fake name, Kohler. He’s legitimized by taking Regina’s name – he tells Clausen he took the name because the Tiedemanns have been a staple in the community – didn’t want the name to die out. Where does Aleksander say he’s from if not from Winden?
- Jonas sees his great-great grandmother Agnes as a young child sweeping up the home.
- Boris Niewald…. Niewald is a combination of what two names? Nielsen and Kahnwald… verrrrrrryy interesting.
- I’d be so bummed about being stuck in 1921.
- Regina had to close the power plant in between seasons 1 and 2.
- Noah talks about Jonas coming to 1921 in S1, E10 Alpha and Omega. He uses this story to convince Helge to continue working for him. Noah says (paraphrasing a little) “When I was a boy, a stranger came to us. He looked as if he had been in a war. There were sadness in his eyes. The sadness you see in someone who is about to give up. But life won’t let us. This boy didn’t talk much, confused words in his sleep. He slept in the room next to me. One night, he spoke to me clearly in the hallway. He said ‘nothing is in vain. Not a single breath. Years later when I experienced pain did I finally understand what he meant.” Will we see Jonas deliver this speech to Noah in 1921? How did Jonas come up with such a profound statement?
- Quick check in with 2053 in the end – Elli tells The Translator that the thing Jonas travelled in is part of God or part of the Devil.
- Who are we to root for and believe in this battle over time? They all talk trash about each other. I’m rooting for the team that ends up with Charlotte or Franzsika.
Wake Up Winden 