Dark, Season 1

Narrator:
We trust that time is linear. That it proceeds eternally, uniformly. Into infinity. But the distinction between past, present and future is nothing but an illusion. Yesterday, today and tomorrow are not consecutive, they are connected in a never-ending circle. Everything is connected.

[Mikkel performs a trick with cups]

Ulrich Nielsen:
Amazing! How did you do that?

Mikkel Nielsen:
Dad, the question isn't how, the question is when.

Bernd Doppler 1986:
What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean.

Elisabeth Doppler 2019:
My mother told me all about the old world, before the flood. She said it had been of a different kind: sinking. She would braid my hair and recount harrowing tales, stories of my father and of demons from the underworlds. She said all is forgiven but nothing forgotten. Then the darkness in her eyes was stronger than the light. And her words flowed like waves. She said all was well now the way it was. That all occupied its own space, in the past as in the here and now. When she spoke like this, something would come over her. She would pull hard on my braids, as if to punish me for something that dwelled in a place deep within her. Something that tugged at her from the center, like a hunger that could not be satisfied. She spoke of yesterday as though it were before her very eyes. As if today was but a veil that shrouded in shadow all that was real to her. The old world came to haunt her like a ghost that whispered to her in a dream, how to erect the new world, stone by stone. From then on, I knew that nothing changes. That all things remain as before. The spinning wheel turns, round and round in a circle. One fate tied to the next. A thread, red like blood, that cleaves together all our deeds. One cannot unravel the knots. But they can be severed. He severed ours, with the sharpest blade. Yet something remains behind that cannot be severed. An invisible bond. On many a night, he tugs at it. And then I wake with a start, knowing that nothing ceases to be. That all remains.

Martha Nielsen:
We all face the same end. Those above have long forgotten us. They do not judge us. In death I am all alone, and my only judge... is me.

The Stranger:
But every decision for something is a decision against something else.

Noah:
Most people are nothing but pawns on a chessboard. Led by an unknown hand. Their lives exist only to be sacrificed for a higher goal. Jonas, Mikkel, the children, they're nothing but unfortunate, yet necessary chess moves in an eternal war between good and evil.

Helge Doppler 1986:
Why would God want any of this?

Noah:
Yes, why would God want any of this? After looking into hell, as you have, it can never be forgotten. It becomes a part of you. And the idea of God, of Jesus the Savior, becomes a thread of hope you cling to. All of us who know the darkness long for the light, but... there is no God. God didn't make this hole among us. God doesn't have a plan. There is no plan at all. There's nothing but chaos out there. Pain... and chaos.

Helge Doppler 1986:
If there is no God, then why do we believe in a lie?

Noah:
Because we prefer any lie to the pain.

Charlotte Doppler 1986:
What are you doing here?

Jonas Kahnwald:
Bringing someone back from the dead.

Charlotte Doppler 1986:
How does that work?

Jonas Kahnwald:
It's very hard to explain.

Charlotte Doppler 1986:
[looking at the dead birds] Can you bring these back?

Jonas Kahnwald:
No, you have to find them when they're younger.

Charlotte Doppler 1986:
But then, they're not dead yet.

Jonas Kahnwald:
That doesn't change the fact that they will die.

Charlotte Doppler 1986:
You're crazy.

Jonas Kahnwald:
Maybe.

Noah:
Your pain defines who you are but it no longer holds power on you.

Jonas Kahnwald:
You could have saved Mikkel! Now I have another grandma and she's the principal of my school. Her husband, who's fucking my mom, is looking for his son, who's my father!

H.G. Tannhaus 1986:
Will you tell me what the future's like?

The Stranger:
I'm hoping that by tomorrow, it'll already be different from today.

The Stranger:
We're not free in what we do, because we're not free in what we want. We can't overcome what's deep within us.