After 18 episodes of ‘WTF just happened’ Netflix’s German show Dark has finally come to an end. And while I personally rushed through every episode, I have to admit being sceptical about how it could really end given my experiences with Game of Thrones, Lost, Dexter to name a few. 

All I could think was ‘Please don’t be shit’. Luckily for me and every other fan of the show, Dark not only wasn’t shit, it actually ended on a pretty high note. 

So without wasting any more time, let’s get into it. 

Continuing from where it left us in season 2, Dark‘s last season continues the tradition of creating new worlds, developing complex characters, and delivering unimaginable paradoxes.

One would imagine that throwing in the concept of alternate universes in an already convoluted timeline would only confuse viewers but it appears, these murky waters are where the creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese thrive. 

Unlike shows that have previously dealt with alternate universes, they don’t show us a landmark that says, ‘Welcome to Earth 2’ but let us explore it ourselves. 

Season 3 briefly entertains the curiosities of this alternate timeline with familiar characters with new hairstyles and new personalities before taking widening the tunnel of those consequences. Friese and Odar understand that despite the show’s fate-of-the-world plot, the series’ success is firmly rooted in its attention to characters.

Even Jonas, at one point, just seems so fed up with the mention of the freaking time loop and the apocalypse that he just asks for a break from the burden of saving the world. 

Season 3 provides the characters and us, the viewers with two options- Are the brief moments of joy worth the hassle? And is snapping off entire timelines so that they never exist the only option we are left with?  

Both Jonas and Martha struggle through the entire season trying to find a solution to preserve both of their worlds. Which somehow has little to do with fighting a villain and more about the ideological differences between Adam’s Sic Mundus and new characters. 

We actually get answers to these questions as the season ends. And while it does get tiresome as we, and the characters, spend a lot of time in a morally grey area, constantly questioning ‘free will’ and ‘fate’, it does, however, lead to a finale that doesn’t disappoint

It explains every bit of information that has been making us go ‘WAIT WHAT’ for the last 3 seasons as still manages to grant us some ambiguity so that we can make our own conclusions for some parts of the story. 

Look, I could go on about the show for the rest of the day but like I promised, this will hardly have any spoilers, so I will cut the journey short here. 

Calling Dark‘s final season a masterpiece would be juvenile but it remains quite a journey through time and space, a story of science and mystery but about love, loss, pain and morality. And it’s absolutely worth every second of his mind-bending journey.