Dark Season 2, Episode 1
"Beginnings and Endings"
Original Airdate: June 21, 2019
Writers: Jantje Friese, Daphne Ferraro
Director: Baran bo Odar
Cast: Peter Benedict, Sandra Borgmann, Karoline Eichhorn, Sylvester Groth, Louis Hofmann, Dietrich Hollinderbäumer, Moritz Jahn, Stephan Kampwirth, Deborah Kaufmann, Roman Knizka, Lisa Kreuzer, Paul Lux, Andreas Pietschmann, Max Schimmelpfennig, Maja Schöne, Gina Alice Stiebitz, Jördis Triebel, Lea Van Acken, Lisa Vicari, Carlotta Von Falkenhayn, Mark Waschke, Carina Wiese
We’re back in Winden with the Season 2 premiere, fittingly called "Beginnings and Endings."
Two men we have not seen before are creating the tunnels in 1921. One has the Emerald Tablet, the same tattoo we’ve seen on Noah’s back. The bearded man remarks that it’s weird to see the beginning and ending of something, similar to Tannhaus’s narration in Season 1. They discuss the prophecy, and the older of the two has seemingly lost faith in “Adam.” The older man quickly realizes this is the moment of his death and is stabbed (rather brutally) with a pickaxe. We then learn that the younger man is Noah.
It wouldn’t be a Dark episode without a Jonas dream. While asleep, he imagines sleeping with Martha, and then he wakes inside his home, but in the future. He heads downstairs and adds an X to the calendar. The day June 27 is circled off. Six days from now. He heads to the bunker where he listens to a tape of Claudia Tiedemann while looking at photos of all the people in his life, connected by red string. He picks up a token of St. Christopher (the patron saint of travelers) and looks at the photo of Martha (his lost love and also his aunt).
We cut back to the “present,” and much like Jonas, we’ve jumped ahead in time. It’s now June 2020. Hannah listens on the radio as Winden continues to deal with the disappearance of many of its citizens. By this point, the town has lost Erik, Mikkel, Yasin, Ulrich, Helge and Jonas.
We meet special investigator W. Clausen, who will lead the task force investigating the disappearances. Good call to bring in some extra help on this one. The town doesn’t seem thrilled that they’ve added one singular investigator to the case, but alas.
Meanwhile, Regina Tiedemann’s cancer has progressed. Bartosz and Martha both have a lot going on, so they decide to end their relationship officially. Bartosz receives a text message, presumably from Noah, saying they will meet in the evening. They meet at the caves and head inside.
One couple that seems to be getting along much better is Magnus and Franziska. However, Magnus follows her and finds her hiding something in a tin box. We later see Benni retrieve the items in the box. Magnus goes to confront her and realizes she is a trans sex worker. Later in the episode, it’s revealed that Benni is the sister of Woller (the one-eyed detective).
Katharina is trying to figure out what happened to her son and husband. She has combed through Ulrich’s files and heads to the caves, seemingly in search of the door. Later, Martha and Magnus will find the files she left behind in Mikkel’s room.
In the future, Jonas will walk through a graveyard with many names of people he knew. He’ll later watch as some men are hanged for trespassing in forbidden zones. Future Winden is run by a deaf woman, who we’ll learn is Elisabeth Doppler.
The power plant is being decommissioned and Aleksander begins working to hide barrels of nuclear waste. Seems safe!
Hannah pulls out the stash he stole from Aleksander and seems ready to end her life. Just in time, The Stranger walks in the house and reveals his identity to her. While she initially seems scarred, he tells her only details Jonas would know. The two talk, and he admits that while he thought he was closing the time portal for good, he only closed it instead, leaving present-day Jonas stuck in the future.
Younger Noah and adult Noah have a chat about having to kill the man at the caves. Adult Noah insists that Adam will be proud. Young Noah seems to be struggling with knowing what’s good and what’s evil. Not sure Adult Noah is the one I’d want to confide in but I guess if he’s also yourself, what’s the harm!?
Peter and Elisabeth begin cleaning out Tannhaus’s old shop. While there, Elisabeth finds a book with an old photo inside. She recognizes Noah and tells her father, who in turn tells Charlotte. The detective is going through files with Clausen and it’s a bit tense! Clausen recognizes that Charlotte likely wanted someone else on the case with her, but instead, she’s stuck with him. We quickly see that this work partnership might not be off to the best start when she lies to him about the call Ulrich made to her before he disappeared.
We meet Adam. He tells Noah that he must find the missing pages of the notebook. It appears to be the same one Claudia had and that Tronte and Peter referred to when they found Mads in the bunker.
Finally, Jonas walks through the abandoned power plant and finds a spinning orb of matter. Ominous!
This episode feels extremely setup-heavy. It’s not as immediately gripping or eerie as the Dark pilot, but that’s by design. Season 2 doesn’t need to introduce us to Winden. It assumes we’re already fluent in the town’s rhythms and secrets. Instead, it begins laying the foundation for the show’s most ambitious swings: timelines multiplying, identities blurring, and morality becoming increasingly unstable.
We’re not just following characters through time anymore. We’re seeing them question who they are within it. The episode offers glimpses of the bigger design: Adam’s rise, Elisabeth’s rule, Jonas’s fractured timeline. What feels like exposition on first watch becomes essential scaffolding by the season’s end. It rewards patience and trust. And in true Dark fashion, even the quiet scenes are loaded with meaning that won’t fully click until much later. That’s the beauty of the show.
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