Dark Seasons 1-3: Every Recap in Order

Here are links to all of my posts about Netflix’s Dark, in order, so y’all don’t have to wrestle with the tag anymore. Enjoy!

Season 1

Dark Season 1 Episode 1: Secrets Recap – The mystery begins. Jonas is haunted by his father’s death. Winden grapples with the disappearance of several children.

Dark Season 1 Episode 2: Lies Recap – Charlotte and Ulrich lead the search for Mikkel, Ulrich’s son. The Stranger checks into Regina’s hotel.

Dark Season 1 Episode 3: Past and Present Recap – In 1986, Mikkel is lost and in search of a friend. Claudia prepares to take over the nuclear power plant. Mikkel’s Uncle Mads, age 12, has recently gone missing.

Dark Season 1 Episode 4: Double Lives Recap – The episode follows Charlotte and her family members through their day. Ulrich and Jonas each search for Mikkel near where he disappeared, which involves some risk taking.

Dark Season 1 Episode 5: Truths Recap – Another boy goes missing in 2019. Father Noah is introduced in 2019 and 1986. Jonas and the Stranger meet. Young Hannah and Mikkel meet in 1986, while Hannah’s obsession with Ulrich has consequences in both time periods.

Dark Season 1 Episode 6: Sic Mundus Creatus Est Recap – Martha plays Ariadne in the school play. Jonas explores the caves. Ulrich interviews his parents and Regina as part of his investigation into Mads’ decades old disappearance. Katarina and Regina have it out.

Dark Season 1 Episode 7: Crossroads Recap – Jonas visits 1986. Charlotte gets a search warrant for the nuclear power plant. Ulrich focuses his investigation on Helge and Egon.

Dark Season 1 Episode 8: As You Sow, So Shall You Reap Recap – Ulrich takes a left turn into 1953. In 1986, the Clockmaker teaches the Stranger about wormholes and the triquetra.

Dark Season 1 Episode 9: Everything Is Now Recap – Origin stories are revealed and the characters reach major turning points in all 3 time periods. Gretchen the dog reappears.

Dark Season 1 Episode 10: Alpha and Omega Recap – The end is the beginning. Just kidding. Only not. A Stranger walks into a clock shop with a vial of Cesium 137. Then the world ends and two boys change places. Only not.

Dark Season 1: Complete List of Characters – Just what it says on the tin, with descriptions that include spoilers for the entire season.

Season 2

Dark Season 2 Teaser and Full Length Trailers – With analysis that holds up pretty well.

Dark Season 2 Episode 1: Beginnings and Endings Recap – The beginning is the… oh, never mind. Nietzsche joins the party. The cold, cruel time periods of 2053 and 1921 and the characters of Adam, Young Noah, Adult Elisabeth and Silja are introduced. In 2020, Stranger Jonas moves in with a distraught Hannah.

Dark Season 2 Episode 2: Dark Matter Recap – Jonas activates the God particle. Regina turns Stranger Jonas’ papers over to Clausen and Charlotte. Stranger Jonas takes Hannah to 1986 to see Mikkel for herself. Old Claudia gives Adult Claudia a mission. Old Egon visits Old Ulrich.

Dark Season 2 Episode 3: Ghosts Recap – Young Helge returns to the 1950s. Adult Claudia begins her mission while Old Claudia ties up the loose ends of her life. Noah is forced to do Adam’s dirty work, but he picks up some valuable information in the process.

Dark Season 2 Episode 4: The Travelers Recap – Jonas washes up in 1921 and meets Adam, who reveals a startling truth. Magnus, Franziska, Martha and Elisabeth explore the caves in search of clues about their missing loved ones. Bartosz tries to stop them. Charlotte and Peter bring Hannah and Stranger Jonas to the bunker to pool their knowledge.

Dark Season 2 Episode 5: Lost and Found Recap – Jonas and Adam have a long fireside chat. Bartosz spills what he knows to the rest of the teenagers and then they become time travelers. Old Ulrich and Mikkel are reunited, but Egon and Ines tear them apart again. Katharina and Clausen continue to look for answers.

Dark Season 2 Episode 6: An Endless Cycle Recap – Jonas travels back to June 20, 2019, the day before Michael Kahnwald hung himself, in an attempt to change history. He makes the most of his time in 2019 before he meets with his father. On the same day, Hannah attends Katharina’s birthday party alone after Michael refuses to leave the house.

Dark Season 2 Episode 7: The White Devil – Hannah travels to 1953 to confront Ulrich and also meets Egon. Martha meets Stranger Jonas. Katharina decides to become a time traveler, but first she warns Martha and Stranger Jonas to stay away from each other. Martha has mixed feelings about him, once she knows the truth. Adult Claudia takes the day off to prevent Egon’s death.

Dark Season 2 Episode 8: Endings and Beginnings Recap – The second cycle comes to a close. The apocalypse is nigh.

Dark Season 2: Complete List of Characters with Histories and Analysis – Context, relationships and character analysis.

From the Horned God to Dionysus: The Men and Mythology of Netflix’s Dark – An examination of Dark’s characters and their connections to mythology, history and current events.

Season 3

Dark Season 3 Release Date and 1st Trailer – With analysis and predictions.

Dark Season 3 Full Length Trailer and Analysis: Gordian Knots and Second Natures – Bigger and better season 3 preview analysis and predictions. 🧐

Dark Season 3 Episode 1: Deja-vu Recap – We learn that there is no free Will because we are unable to control our deepest desires, so we are controlled by them. Jonas and Alt Martha arrive on Martha’s home world. She promptly leaves him behind. As a world without its own Jonas, Martha’s world is a cracked mirror of Jonas’ own dark world. An enigmatic, unnamed man is introduced who travels as a trio made up of his child, adult and elderly selves.

Dark Season 3 Episode 2: The Survivors – Young Alt Martha attempts to help Stranger Jonas and the Prime world teenagers in 1888. Prime Adult Katharina searches for Mikkel in 1987. In 2020, Prime Adult Claudia, Regina, Peter and Young Elisabeth cope with the effects of the apocalypse. Young Noah pays a visit to Peter and Elisabeth. Young Alt Martha tells Young Prime Bartosz the truth about Adam and Jonas. Angels weep.

Dark Season 3 Episode 3: Adam and Eva Recap – In the 19th century, Gustav and Heinrich Tannhaus have a penchant for carriage rides on dark and stormy nights. On one, Gustav meets the Unknown and they discuss philosophy, in their cryptic, way. On the Alt world, Eva shares her own philosophy of love, life and the multiverse with Jonas. Then she uses Jonas’ eternal karmic bond with Martha to manipulate him into following her orders. Alt Martha goads Bartosz into another physical fight with (Stranger) Jonas. Alt Charlotte uses romance to comfort Ulrich. Alt Hannah grows suspicious. Motivations, origin stories and reasoning grow tangled and confused.

Dark Season 3 Episode 4: The Origin Recap – Young Tronte and Claudia each have an encounter with a creepy old man, Hannah makes a decision that will have wide ranging consequences and Yellow Raincoat Martha gets to know Stranger Martha and her even stranger ideas. Tronte and Jana spend some quality time together, while the Unknown trio check some important items off their To Do list.

Dark Season 3 Episode 5: Life and Death Recap – Teen Charlotte learns her origin story from Old HG Tannhaus and meets Teen Peter. The two Adult Claudias meet for the first time. Alt Claudia gives Prime Claudia the triquetra diary. Child Elisabeth finds Young Noah in the caves.

This is a particularly violent episode, with some big losses, which can be tough to get through. The same warning applies to the rest of the season.

Dark Season 3 Episode 6: Light and Shadow Recap – We discover that Young Jonas is Schrödinger’s cat. Young Alt Martha is forced to live in a cage. The contents of Martha’s letter to Stranger Jonas are revealed. We relive the apocalypse in the Prime world and go through the apocalypse in Martha’s world for the first time.

Dark Season 3 Episode 7: Between the Time Recap – A new world is introduced and some of the missing years are filled in. HG Tannhaus, Bartosz, Stranger Jonas, Noah, Hannah and Claudia are among those who receive focus. Old Claudia makes an entrance.

Dark Season 3 Episode 8: The Paradise Recap – Michael dies again, Jonas startles awake again. Claudia reveals her version of the truth, then convinces Jonas and Martha to take a star bridge into space.

Note that Claudia sells Jonas and Martha a bridge she doesn’t own. The payment is their souls.

Dark: What Did It All Mean? Thoughts on Season 3 and the Ending – Further discussion of the ending, plus ongoing metaphors and plot points that I couldn’t easily discuss in regular posts without spoiling future episodes. 

Time Travel TV Comparison: Dark vs 12 Monkeys vs Travelers – A compare and contrast review between 3 fan favorite time travel shows from the late 2010s.

Images courtesy of Netflix.