Dark Season 3, Episode 4 recap: Who is the Origin?

Dark Season 3 introduces new connections between the Winden families.   

We know that in most small towns, everyone knows everyone else, and there’s a tenuous connection between many families. In Winden, however, those connections are far more complex… and incestuous. If you thought you knew the origins of these families, Dark Season 3, Episode 4 is about to change your mind.

This episode revisits 1954, where we catch up with several characters who end up shaping much of the future. Doris Tiedemann (Luise Heyer) is still heartbroken over her beloved Agnes Nielsen’s (Antje Traue) disappearance and she soon realizes that she has to divorce her husband.

Agnes’ son, Tronte (Joshio Marlon) is living with the Tiedemanns and their daughter Claudia (Gwendolyn Göbel) is obviously smitten with him. Tronte doesn’t seem to care about her at all, and in all honesty, the boy looks like he’s been trapped into pursuing this relationship.

We know that Tronte and Claudia continue their affair for the next 33 years, but it’s obvious that Tronte cares much more for Jana (Rike Sindler). Also in the mix is Ines Kahnwald (Lena Urzendowsky), a real wild child. She seems peripheral to the main story in 1954.

Related Story: Netflix’s Dark Season 3, Episode 3 recap

Hannah Kahnwald, from the future, decided to stick around in this era under the name Katharina, and has been having an affair with Egon Tiedemann (Sebastian Hülk). She finds out that she’s expecting his child, which is news that Egon doesn’t take too well. Hannah doesn’t plan to keep it, especially since Egon proves himself to be a self-centered misogynist.

But, when Hannah goes to a quack, Mrs. Obendorf, she meets young Helene Albers (Mariella Aumann) who’s there as a patient. Helene is the future mother of Katharina, Hannah’s nemesis, but Hannah is moved by the young girl who loves her name and the St. Christopher pendant she’s wearing.

As the girl goes in for her treatment, Hannah leaves the pendant (a gift from Egon she no longer wants) with Helene’s belongings and walks away to start a new life. I’m really curious to know who her progeny will be. Which characters don’t have named parents yet?

Dark Season 3, Episode 4: Who is the Origin?

This episode of Dark Season 3 establishes that the family trees on both worlds point to one true origin, and Adam has been orchestrating all of it. There’s a reason why.

In Earth-2 2052, older Martha explains that Jonas can’t save his own Martha, but he must do his best to save her world. You’d think with all this conflicting information Jonas would try and make his own way, but he swings harder than a pendulum and just follows everyone’s commands. He’s an idiot, because older Martha is secretly working with Noah (Mark Waschke) and they’ve set their evil plan in motion.

Young Martha is quite tired of all this mad jabbering and tries to run away but Jonas empathizes with her confusion and takes her home. Once home, Martha tells Jonas that she felt like she knew him when he walked into her school. And they immediately jump into bed.

This is a real stretch even for this show. We have time travel and alternate worlds, but it feels terribly contrived that Martha suddenly falls in love with a man she hardly knows. Jonas sounds more like a stalker than someone wistfully in love. We’re only rooting for him because we know his backstory.

In Earth-Prime 2053, Adam sends Agnes off on a mission to who knows where. The other Martha demands answers from him. Answers that she’s not ready for. Martha learns that she is carrying the ‘origin’ who will eventually birth all the main players in Dark Season 3. Her and Jonas’ unborn son is the key to Adam’s plan.

And we’ve already met this son! Three versions of him in fact. I wondered why the unknown trio was so compliant with Eve, and now we know. She’s their mother!

There’s a lot to love about Dark Season 3, especially how stellar the casting of each character across the ages is. But you have to love how the majority of the characters spend their time covered in dirt and grime looking all unkempt, and you just run with it because who has time to shower in between time jumps?

What I’m not a fan of is Martha’s storyline. She’s the mother of the origin, really? That’s why she got a bigger role to play in the final season? It seems disingenuous to the character and to the show. Surely there could have been other ways to build the central intrigue of the story.

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What do you think of the ‘Origin’? Let us know in the comments below.