Dark Season 1, Episode 9
"Everything Is Now"
Original airdate: December 1, 2017
Writer: Jantje Friese, Marc O. Seng
Director: Baran bo Odar
Cast: Stephanie Amarell, Peter Benedict, Ludger Bökelmann, Karoline Eichhorn, Louis Hofmann, Moritz Jahn, Deborah Kaufmann, Ella Lee, Bela Gabor Lenz, Daan Lennard Liebrenz, Paul Lux, Lydia Maria Makrides, Oliver Masucci, Maja Schöne, Gina Alice Stiebitz, Nele Trebs, Jördis Triebel, Lisa Vicari, Carlotta Von Falkenhayn
Every good time travel story has to wrestle with whether they are a story where the future can be changed (think Back to the Future or The Butterfly Effect) or if they are a, as I like to call it, a "whatever happened happened" story. As the first season of Dark rolls on, it not only shows us that it's a "whatever happened happened" story, but perhaps the best one to ever do it.
The show's philosophy is voiced again by H.G. Tannhaus, Winden's resident clockmaker and philosopher. He muses that if we could see both the beginning and the end, we might know our purpose. Time isn't a line to be traveled but a loop to be understood. Every action has already been taken, setting forward a chain of events that will happen. The tragedy isn't that some of these characters are lost in time, but that they think they can escape it.
In 1953, Helge is missing and his mother, Greta, is worried. She fears he might have been killed like the two boys found last episode. Bernd heads to the police station to report him missing. Meanwhile, Ulrich sits outside the bunker and begins living with the fact that he did what he did. At the police station, Bernd informs Egon that his son is missing. Egon remarks about the strange man who arrived in town the day prior.
The lives of Claudia Tiedemann and Tronte Nielsen become intertwined. He's new to town and she remarks that the girls are going to swoon over him. They speak of his mother and why she moved. He notes that she wanted a change. At the house, their mothers speak about their marriages. Agnes states that she is free now that her husband has died while Doris confesses that her husband, Egon, has become a changed man over the years. She speaks of Egon as being a former pastor but not a "man of faith."
Speaking of, Greta confides in Noah about her son's disappearance. In a show called Dark, it's a surprise when something as haunting as Greta admitting she never wanted Helge to begin with, is still capable of surprising you. Greta tells Noah that she prayed for something to happen to her son, that he wasn't born out of love, and that she has never been able to shake that thought. Kudos to Hannah for losing the "World's Worst Mom" award to Greta Doppler!
Ulrich attempts to return to 2019 but is stopped by Egon. Ulrich is shocked when he finds out that the boys are still dead. He wasn't able to stop Helge and he wasn't able to save the boys. His son is still missing, still destined to become Michael.
A man we've seen little so far of in the show is Aleksander, husband to Regina. His first appearance, chronologically, has him running through the forest, chased by police sirens and wearing a ski mask. Not shady at all, dude! Later, he'll save Regina from being confronted by Katharina and Ulrich about the false accusation of rape. Regina, who is alone in Winden, is saved by a knight in shining armor. Or, well… a dude with a bullet wound and a fake name.
Speaking of Ulrich, he is released from jail because Katharina won't lie about what happened. Egon is sure that Ulrich is hiding something — though after their interaction in 1953, it lines up that Ulrich has a face that won't stop torturing the police officer. Jana demands Egon be taken off Mads' case but not before she slaps him in the face.
After finding evidence of radiation in the caves, Claudia drives to Bernd Doppler's mansion in the '80s to confront him about what he's hiding. He reveals that there was a spill and due to what happened in Chernobyl, he's chosen to hide it from the public in order to avoid panic. The men who worked there that night have been paid handsomely and will never rat the plant out.
'80s Helge walks out of the bunker and is being watched by 2019 Helge. He has missed his interview appointment with Helge, so the officer comes to his cabin. Helge hides in his cabin to avoid talking to the police. Helge then just leaves. Even where there's a scene involving a man who dragged the bodies of some kids out of a bunker, I think Egon is the worst!
Aleksander buries his passport and his gun, then heads off to the powerplant in the hopes that Regina's mom will give him a job, which she does! No background check needed! In 2019, Hannah will have found Aleksander's bag and uses it to blackmail him into destroying Ulrich's life. Too bad for you, Hannah — Ulrich already did that himself! Aleksander calls Woller (the one-eyed detective) to call in a favor for information on Ulrich.
In the wallpapered bunker, Noah shows off his "arc" to Helge, a time travel device that will kill the children. Worst show and tell ever.
With Ulrich missing, Katharina is on the hunt to find her husband. When he's not at work, she confronts Hannah. Hannah takes things into her own hands and ruins Ulrich's life herself. She tells Katharina that while she was sleeping with Ulrich, it was all his idea because he was in love with her. Katharina breaks down at the table.
Things are about as bad as they can be at the Nielsen household… except for Magnus, who is getting laid. After they sleep together, Franziska insists that they don't have to get to know each other. Magnus, pretty desperate for some human connection, says he doesn't want to hurt her but she leaves him hanging. Meanwhile, Martha calls Jonas but doesn't get through (he's busy investigating whether it's considered incest to be in love with your aunt if you didn't even know she was your aunt in the first place!). Martha wonders why people keep secrets but Magnus says some things are just better left private.
Last week, we got the first glimpse of an older woman with white hair. This episode, she visits Bortosz, claiming to be his grandmother. She's not surprised to learn that Regina said she was dead. Instead of waiting for Regina to get home and talk things through, she says she has to leave and gives Bartosz a photo of herself and his mother.
Jonas arrives home and finds Martha there waiting for him. He tells her they can't be together (probably cause she's his aunt) but she kisses him anyway (kind of gross because she's his aunt). She asks if it's wrong and he nods (he's correct, it's wrong because she's his aunt), leaving her in the rain.
At the Waldhotel, Regina enters The Stranger's room to find all of his creepy time travel notes. As if she doesn't have enough to deal with! Bartosz meets with Noah and tells him that everything the priest predicted was correct. He accepts Noah's offer, whatever that is!
Claudia offers Aleksander a job but he has to keep it secret. They open a door to reveal yellow barrels. The Stranger opens a truck in 2019 to find the same ones.
To end the episode, Claudia enters Tannhaus's shop. She shows him blueprints for a machine and tells him to build it. When he asks what it does, she says "it's something that will set the course of time straight." That's got to cost extra. So, if things seem to be as they happened, here's Claudia to posit the notion that things can be straightened out.
