Dark ending does not make sense - there is a inconsistency within Tannhaus universe (?)

Ok, for some years now, I have watched (and liked very much) Dark TV Show, but the season 3 ending, although might be defensible because of the artistic freedom, is not consistent with the rest of the TV Show until now.

(Contains spoilers)

First, there are is no explanation (or I did not get it) to how Jonas was killed by Martha and, yet, he was alive to become Adam. Ok, you could explain this saying that there are two possible endings to the two universes that entangles into a loop, what is the same of saying that there are four universes. Yes, you could say this, but this is not a good enough explanation. I couldn’t see how the two universes entangled with the other two universes in order to be an alive Jonas who became Adam.

But what made me most uncomfortable with the season 3 Dark ending is the ending scene with Martha and Jonas.

So, in all episodes until now, the series was all about a loop in which all the characters tried to do their best in order to make the world a better place and failed miserably, just making the loop what it already was. This makes perfect sense, the same people, in the same situation, having lived the same life, will make the same choices. This is a very scientific sound and makes a very dark plot. You try to make the world better, but you are tied to your own destiny. From the scientific point of view, it also makes sense, because there is a spacetime universe in which cause and effect are perfectly entangled. This was what Dark was about, until S03E08.

In the S03E08 episode, two things happened that, in my opinion, worsened a lot the TV Show as a whole. First, the same characters, facing the same choices in the same situations, chose differently. This happened when Claudia changed the actions of Jonas and Martha. This was bad, because it doesn’t make a lot of sense. But, in my opinion, is forgivable, since could be the beginning to a nice, and artistic, ending. What made me really uncomfortable was the fact that Jonas and Martha closed the loop in an inconsistent way.

So, in Dark, there were 3 universes, the original one with Tannhaus (I will call it Universe A), the universe we are first presented and where Jonas exists (I will call it Universe B) and the universe where Jonas does not exists but Martha exists (I will call it Universe C). According to the series ending, the only way to end all the suffering, murdering and hate of the B and C universe (I won’t go into the merit if this is indeed a good thing) is to go to the origin, which was when Tannhaus started to create a time machine. He did this because of the death of his son, Marek Tannhaus, and his granddaughter, Charlotte. So, in order to stop the universes B and C to be created, Martha and Jonas just needed to ensure that Marek and Charlotte did not die.

Simple, right? Yes, but there lies a problem with this narrative. First, it needs to make the same characters to make different choices in the exact same situations, already discussed above. Second, and, in my opinion, the most problematic, is that the intervention of Martha (from Universe C) and Jonas (from Universe B) makes Universe A inconsistent. This is so because in Dark the universe is a continuous spacetime. Past, present and future are just perceptions of the characters, in fact, everything is eternally happening. When Martha and Jonas save the life of Marek and Charlotte, they avoid the frustration of Tannhaus and so they avoid the creation of the time machine, ending their universes and all the lives that it made possible.

Ok, this makes sense. Except that there is a problem. For the Universe A to be consistent in this narrative, it needs to be interceded by universes B and C (Jonas and Martha), but they don’t exist anymore. So, there is a paradox. For Marek to be dissuaded of driving (and dying) that night, he needs Martha and Jonas, but for Martha and Jonas to exist, they need Marek to die. So, basically, the Universe A becomes an inconsistent universe. Since, in Dark, Universe A is in “eternal happening”, this does not make sense, it is not a stable state of things. Also, Dark always presented consistent plots, where cause and effect were well entangled, this doesn’t happen in the ending.

Dark is a great TV show. I enjoyed it a lot, despite the ending being (according to my own comprehension) faulty. I would certainly recommend it to anyone interested in a dark, complex and interesting TV show.

What do you think of my comments? Do you think I got it right? Feel free to comment, criticize and discuss all of the points.

Best regards,

Otavio