Dark – Season 3 Episode 4 “The Origin” Recap & Review

The Origin

Unknown Timeline

Episode 4 of Dark Season 3 begins with Tronte approaching the cave but in doing so, quickly senses he’s being watched and turns to face the branches. Sure enough, the man with no name arrives with his older and younger version of himself, handing over a bracelet that belonged to Tronte’s Mother.

24th September 1954 – Our World

After making love, Egon admits to Hannah that he loves her and reveals a pendant with a coin on the end. She isn’t so sure though and asks if he’ll come back to her.

While Egon remains unsure, when he heads to the police station he’s frazzled, and refuses to listen to Doris’ ideas around where Agnes may be. He does the same with Helge’s mother too, admitting he has no clues to go on regarding her son’s disappearance. Only, it turns out she’s there to discuss the missing minister Noah who she calls Hanno Tauber.

Hannah heads to the doctors and learns she’s pregnant. Shell-shocked, she immediately heads to the police station and breaks the news to Egon. She promises to get rid of the baby and bemoans her luck, commenting how some people have everything and others nothing.

Unfortunately, when Egon returns home Doris decides to break up with him. This happens to be the catalyst that sets him off on a dangerous path of drinking that we know consumed his life for many years after this. It also sends Hannah with the time machine away from this time period.

The three nameless men make sure the future still continues the way it does though, forcing the building permit for the nuclear plant to be signed.

2052 – Our World

Agnes stands by Adam’s side as he gives her the newspaper article confirming Claudia’s death, requesting she hand it over to Claudia again, just as the cycle was meant to be.

Martha awakens in the caves and finds a much older Magnus standing infront of her. It’s been 33 years since the last time they spoke and Adam is waiting for her. Although this seems initially like it’s 1921, we’re actually still in 2052. Martha watches silently as Adam begins his plan and sends Agnes, dressed in a suit, toward the swirling orb of energy.

6th November 2052 – The Other World

The Martha from the other-world is brought before her older self to the bunker where she sees chalk names, some of them crossed out which signifies which ones will die in the apocalypse.

Conflicting with his current world view, the older-Martha tells Jonas he needs to let his world go and instead embrace this new reality. There, he and Martha can actually be together.

Convincing Martha to follow him, Jonas and her head off through the cave as the older Noah steps out from the shadows and speaks to the older-Martha from that time about their purpose. As he goes on, he mentions how they’re all born from Jonas and Martha, reinforcing that Adam and Eve symbolism we’ve been seeing so much of.

2019 – The Other World

Jonas brings Martha back to her current world and the duo kiss. This eventually leads to them both making love. While seemingly a pretty standard act, it’s actually something that’s hugely significant given what we’ve just learned.

2052 – Our World

Promising to show Martha her fate, Adam brings the future version of Martha to his childhood room and confirms this is where everything started. Referring to their intimacy from years earlier, Adam confirms that their origin – and more specifically the love making – is the bridge between worlds as their seed is the beginning of the knot and also the end.

Their son is the beginning of this all and that just so happens to be the nameless, cut-lipped man we’ve seen so much of.

The Review Write-Up

The dramatic reveal at the end surrounding just who this strange man is will certainly be one of the bigger shockers of this series. We’ve seen a lot of him recently and if this Adam and Eve symbolism is to be believed, could this be hinting at Cain and Abel?

We’ll have to wait and see of course but beyond that, the series is doing an excellent job building up these two worlds and showing the various contrasts and similarities between the two.

This is definitely one of the stronger elements of Dark this year and while some may bemoan the avenue this has gone with its religious symbology and heavily influenced narrative around this, it actually works quite well in the context of what we’ve seen so far and the big questions raised by the show.

As we cross the halfway point, who knows what the next episode has in store for us.