What You Need to Know Before ‘Dark’ Season 2

This summer marks the return of one of the greatest sci-fi series on television. No, we’re not talking about Stranger Things. Dark, Netflix’s German language drama about time travel and angst, is finally coming back, and it’s been far too long.

Co-created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, Dark premiered its first season in 2017. The thrilling series started with a deceptively simple mystery: after Jonas Kahnwald’s (Louis Hofmann) father takes his own life around the same time a young boy disappears, Jonas devotes himself to figuring out what his father was hiding. That quest leads Jonas on a journey that involves at least three different timelines, surprise family members, and multiple versions of the same person chilling during the same time period. Everything in Dark is precise, well-crafted insanity, and now it’s finally coming back this June to blow our minds all over again.

However, this isn’t a series you can just jump into. Dark requires a lot of research and a lot of fretting over time travel before you can fully understand what’s happening. That’s where Decider comes in. If you don’t have time to do a full Season 1 re-watch, here’s your guide to every major detail you need to remember ahead of Dark Season 2.

How Does Time Travel Work in Dark?

Talk about a loaded question. The short answer is, we don’t entirely know. The long answer involves a specialized time machine, radiation, a book from the mysterious H.G. Tannhaus, and intervals of 33 years.

H.G. Tannhaus (Christian Steyer in 1986; Arnd Klawitter in 1953) was originally a clockmaker in Winden, Germany in 1953. The beginning of Dark‘s first season led viewers and various time travelers to believe he later became a scientist who invented time travel. Most of his research can be found in the book A Journey Through Time, and we know that he’s helped at least one version of Dark‘s protagonist Jonas navigate through time. However, as is the case with everything in this show, H.G. Tannhaus’ origins are a bit more complicated than that. It was actually the older version of Claudia Tiedemann (Lisa Kreuzer in 2019) who first gave him the blueprints for the time travel apparatus. You know what that means — it’s a paradox, baby.

What you really need to know when it comes to Dark’s time travel is that travelers can move backwards and forwards through time in 33 year intervals. A handful of people are capable of successfully doing this on their own, and the rest have been kidnapped or escorted by various nefarious people, which we’ll get to in a second. The three most important timelines in Season 1 of Dark are 1953, 1986, and 2019.

Who Has Gone Missing?

Six young boys have gone missing in the Winden caves. All of these disappearances happened at the hands of the mysterious priest Noah’s (Mark Waschke) hands. Those six boys are Jonas Kahnwald, Erk Obendorf, Yasin Friese, Mikkel Neisen, Mads Nielsen, and Helge Doppler.

1953

After the murders of two boys, Helge Doppler (Tom Philipp), the young son of the nuclear power plant boss, is taken and attacked by a stranger. That stranger will eventually be revealed to be the 2019 version of Ulrich Nielsen (Oliver Mascucci in 2019), who traveled back in time to stop a future version of Helge from harming his brother.

1986

On October 12, 1986, Ulrich’s younger brother Mads Nielsen (Valentin Oppermann) disappears around the Winden caves. He’s thought to have died in 1986. But his dead body mysteriously reappears in 2019.

That same year a young boy who calls himself Mikkel Nielsen (Daan Lennard Liebrenz) appears in Winden. He claims to be the son of Ulrich Nielsen, who is a teenager at this time. He’s eventually adopted by the nurse and changes his name to Michael Kahnwald.

2019

The first boy to disappear in 2019 was Erik Obendorf (Paul Radom). Very little is known about him aside from the fact that Dark Season 1 showed Noah experimenting on him. We now know Erik is dead.

Mikkel Nielsen followed soon after, disappearing in the caves while walking with his brother, sister, and friends. As we later learn, Mikkel doesn’t die in the caves but actually travels back in time to the year 1986. That’s when he becomes Michael Kahnwald, the father of Dark‘s protagonist Jonas Kahnwald (Louis Hofmann).

Yasin Friese (Vico Mücke), a young deaf boy who was Elisabeth Doppler’s (Carlotta von Falkenhayn) boyfriend, is the third boy to go missing in the present timeline. Like Erik he was also kidnapped as part of Noah’s experiments. In 1953 both Yasin and Erik’s dead bodies are discovered. In addition to the attempted murder of Helge Doppler, the 2019 version of Ulrich Nielsen was falsely blamed for these murders.

That leaves Jonas Kahnwald, the very last of the missing boys club. Season 1 of Dark ended with Jonas jumping from 2019 to the year 2052 at the instruction of his future self. We know that Jonas is OK, but to his mom and friends he’s just another terrifying disappearance.

What Happened to Mikkel / Michael?

So now that we’ve gotten all of the background mysteries out of the way, let’s dive back into the meat of things. Dark‘s first episode started with the now adult Michael Kahnwald (Sebastian Rudolph) killing himself. Shortly after, the youngest Nielsen son, Mikkel Nielsen, disappears near the Winden caves. As Jonas quickly learns these two tragedies are very much related.

Michael’s suicide sets Jonas off on a quest to figure out exactly why his father took his own life and what secrets his town is hiding. It doesn’t take him long before he realizes the shocking truth: the young Mikkel Nielsen never disappeared from Winden. Rather he traveled from 2019 to 1986. Once he was in 1986, he was unable to convince his now-teenaged parents that he was their son. He was adopted by a kind nurse by the name of Ines Kahnwald (Lena Urzendowsky in 1953; Anne Ratte-Polle in 1986; Angela Winkler in 2019). Ines raised Mikkel as Michael Kahnwald, who grew up to marry Hannah (Maja Schöne) and father Jonas Kahnwald.

Long story short, Jonas’ friend’s missing little brother is actually his father. Oh, and Jonas still has feelings for his ex-girlfriend and Mikkel’s sister Martha Nielsen (Lisa Vicari). That means Jonas has a crush on his aunt. Isn’t time travel a blast?

Making all of this even MORE complicated is Mads Nielsen. In 1986, the little brother of Ulrich Nielsen (remember: Mikkel’s real father) disappeared. After Mikkel disappeared, Mads’ dead body re-emerged in the woods, looking the same way it did in the ’80s. That’s the mind trip that leads Ulrich to one of his many breakdowns.

What’s Going on with Ulrich and His Many Arrests?

Speaking of those pesky breakdowns, the grim and hotheaded Ulrich has been arrested at least two times in Dark’s history. So let’s get into that arrest record, shall we?

1986

While he was a teenager, the young version of Ulrich (Ludger Bökelmann in 1986) was dating his future wife Katharina (Nele Trebs in 1986; Jördis Triebel in 2019). They were happy, but Michael Kahnwald’s future wife Hannah was not. It turns out she had a crush on Ulrich for years, and she tried to sabotage his relationship in the worst way possible. Hannah lied to police officer Egon Tiedemann (Christian Pätzold in 1986; Sebastian Hülk in 1953), claiming that she saw Ulrich rape Katharina. Egon arrested Ulrich, but he was eventually released thanks to Katharina’s testimony.

After Ulrich was released, he and Katharina went looking for the monster who ruined their lives. But it’s not like Hannah was ever going to come forward about her betrayal; she lied to the police about rape for god’s sake. Hannah blamed the quiet and introspective Regina Tiedemann (Deborah Kaufmann in 2019; Lydia Maria Makrides in 1986), police officer Egon’s granddaughter, for the false accusation. Ulrich and Katharina threatened to beat Regina up but they were scared away by the mysterious Aleksander (Peter Benedict in 2019; Béla Gabor Lenz in 1986). Regina eventually went on to marry Aleksander. So that’s the drama around Ulrich’s first brief jail stint.

2019

In his modern timeline, Ulrich stands on the other side of the law. Throughout most of Season 1 he’s known as the cop working on the disappearance of Erik Obendorf.

1953

Ulrich’s law-abiding ways change when he’s transported back in time to 1953. Ulrich becomes convinced that Helge Doppler is the person responsible for his brother Mads death in 1986 and possibly his son’s disappearance in 2019. He’s right on the money with that one, by the way. Fueled by his anger, the time-traveling 2019 version of Ulrich attempts to murder the 1953 version of Helge. He fails, but attempting to kill a child is enough to make authorities think he was also responsible for the deaths of two mysterious boys who recently appeared in town. Those dead boys would be the very people Ulrich was looking for in 2019, the young and missing Erik Obendorf and Yasin Friese. Ulrich is arrested and sentenced to prison.

Why Does Ulrich Hate Helge Again?

After his son Mikkel disappears, Ulrich notices the similarities between his disappearance and his younger brother Mads’ disappearance in 1986. And what do those two kidnappings have in common? The odd and scarred Helge Doppler.

Later it’s revealed that Helge Doppler did in fact kidnap Mads. He also opened up the wormhole that would lead to Mikkel time traveling. He did all of this on Noah’s orders, though he comes to regret his involvement with the priest later. The gist of this particular feud is Ulrich is right. Helge did ruin his life by taking two of his family members away from him. However, by attacking Helge and making him feel so insecure he can only truth the nefarious Noah, Ulrich unknowingly sets into motion the very events that will lead to Mads and Mikkel’s disappearance.

Where’s Jonas? And Where’s Future Jonas?

The end of Season 1 saw the 2019 version of Jonas traveling to the year 2052 on the orders of his future self. That means our favorite yellow-coated hero is  stuck in a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with drones and angry savage people. Thankfully we know he gets out of this mess alive because we’ve already met future Jonas.

So where is future Jonas (Andreas Pietschmann)? Last we saw he was still in the year 2019. Only time will tell if he actually stays there.

Who’s Dating Who Again?

Ugh, who isn’t dating each other is a better question. The most important hookups all happen in 2019, so that’s what we’re going to focus on. Ulrich is supposed to be a loving and faithful husband to Katharina, but really he’s been sleeping with the widowed Hannah. You know Hannah, Jonas’ mom? And the one who lied about Ulrich raping his girlfriend in the ’80s? And the garbage person who hid that from him? That’s her.

Also Jonas’ therapist has been getting some on the side. Peter Doppler (Stephan Kampwirth) has been seeing a prostitute. Peter is Helge’s son, and he’s also married to Ulrich’s law enforcement partner on the missing boys’ case, Charlotte Doppler (Karoline Eichhorn in 2019; Stephanie Amarell in 1986). After Ulrich gets arrested in 1953, she becomes head of the case.

Now here come the kids. Jonas used to date Martha Nielsen, who is secretly his aunt. Martha dumped him to date Jonas’ best friend Barotsz Tiedemann (Paul Lux) in a move that was sad but probably best for everyone. As for other couples, Martha’s older brother Magnus (Moritz Jahn) has been dating Peter and Charlotte’s daughter Franziska (Gina Stiebitz). For whatever reason, time travel makes people horny.

What’s Going on with the Power Plant?

It’s fun to obsess about who’s secretly related to who, but it’s worth taking a moment to unpack the organization responsible for this mess: Winden’s nuclear power plant. It’s believed that the radiation from the power plant is why so many people have time traveled, which… sure. Why not?

In 1953, the power plant was run by Bernd Doppler (Michael Mendl in 1986; Anatole Taubman in 1953), Helge’s emotionally distant father. It was then passed down in 1986 to the fierce and cutthroat Claudia Tiedemann (Lisa Kreuzer in 2019; Julika Jenkins in 1986; Gwendolyn Göbel in 1953). But instead of passing down the plant to her daughter Regina, Claudia gave ownership to her son-in-law Aleksander Tiedemann. He came to Winden around 1986 while he was allegedly on the run, and he saved the teenaged Regina from the vindictive Ulrich and Katharina. Not much is known about Aleksander besides that.

Aleksander Tiedemann has mentioned that the Winden nuclear power plant is scheduled to close down in 2020 as part of a greener energy initiative for Germany.

Where Are Claudia and Noah?

If you really want to condense Dark to its simplest form, it’s a story about Claudia and Noah dueling for control over time travel. Unfortunately, it takes a LOT of background information to get to that simple battle.

So far we’ve seen the old woman version of Claudia appear in 2019, 1986, and 1953. She’s helped future Jonas, talked to her grandson Bartosz, and told H.G. Tannhaus how time travel works. It’s unknown exactly where she is at the end of Dark’s first season, but it’s safe to say that she’s around.

The same can be said for the maleficent priest Noah. After recruiting the 1953 version of Helge to do his bidding for him, Noah became responsible for kidnapping, torturing, and experimenting on at least three boys. He’s still somewhere in the timeline, and he still has some evil plan to complete.

Season 2 of Dark premieres on Netflix Friday, June 21. 

Watch Dark on Netflix