Lost and Found

Lost and Found
Season	2
Writer	Jantje Friese & Baran bo Odar
Dark
← Previous	The Travelers
Next →	An Endless Cycle

"Lost and Found" is the fifth episode of Season 2 of Dark.

Synopsis

In 1987, Ulrich seizes an opportunity. The kids return to the cave with the time machine, and Jonas learns of a loophole that could change the future.

Plot

2020

The older Jonas and Martha are making love but mysterious black strands form veins in her abdomen, bursting out of her navel. Jonas then awakens from this nightmare, panting.  

1921

The younger Jonas awakens in a strange room and is startled to find Adam sitting in a chair observing him. Adam remarks that people are repelled by those most similar to themselves. Jonas replies that he simply wants to know how to get home. Adam tells him to get dressed. He sees his clothes, including his yellow jacket and his sneakers, laundered and neatly folded nearby.

2020

On June 25, 2020, two days until the apocalypse, the older Jonas watches Hannah as she sleeps in her bed, and leaves with the time machine without waking her.

Katharina is looking at the school photo with Mikkel in it. Martha and Magnus come downstairs. Katharina tells them that there is something they need to see but they say they have to go. Martha lashes out at her, demanding to know why all of a sudden she wants to speak to them when she has ignored them for months. Katharina attempts to stroke Martha but she rebuffs her and says they no longer need to talk. They both leave.

Aleksander is on the phone asking why Clausen is so interested in the power plant and why is he really there. Regina announces that Bartosz is missing, and his bed was not slept in. Aleksander thinks he must have gotten back together with Martha, but Regina says no one is answering there. She asks Aleksander to tell her everything is okay, and he tells her everything is okay—unconvincingly.

1987

At the psychiatric facility, Ulrich Nielsen bides his time at the mental asylum, observing an orderly carefully as he buzzes in with his keycard.

Claudia looks at a newspaper article concerning the death of her father Egon on 26 June 1987. Her assistant comes in to remind her that the French delegation is waiting for their meeting, but Claudia tells her to reschedule and leaves.

1921

Teenage Jonas contemplates "The Fall of the Damned," the painting in Adam's study, then asks why he is there. Adam tells him a man lives three lives. The first ends with the loss of naiveté, the second with the loss of innocence, and the third with the loss of life itself. Everyone becomes his older self, and the older self turns into what he sees before him. Jonas says he must return to head off the apocalypse, having seen the graves of his loved ones. Adam tells him he has plenty of time: it is 1921, and he has 99 years.

1987

Ulrich looks at the photo of Mikkel that Egon had left him as the orderly comes in to prepare a snack. As the orderly makes small talk about a speech Reagan had given, Ulrich smashes a bowl over his head, knocking him unconscious, and steals his keycard. He uses it to make his way out of the asylum.

Claudia visits Egon at home. He points out that she had not visited in some time, but says he is very proud of all her accomplishments, and that her mother would be too. This upsets Claudia, who excuses herself, but she tells him she wants him to move in with her and Regina, so he would not be so alone. She suggests, in fact, that he move in the very next day. Egon is surprised, but she urges him to think it over. He smiles.

Hannah is at the kitchen table looking over old family photos when she is interrupted by a knock at the door. It is Katharina, who asks whether Jonas is there, but Hannah says he has disappeared. Katharina wants to know how she can get "there" to where Mikkel is, and Hannah tells her that Jonas used a "time machine." Even if she did know how to use it, though, Jonas had taken it with him. Katharina looks over the pictures on the table, then comments, bitterly, that she can't believe Hannah slept with both her husband and her son. She says Hannah envied and took everything of hers, like a parasite. She asks if Ulrich ever told her he loved her. Hannah remains silent, pulling out a cigarette, when there is a knock at the door.

Hannah answers it to find Clausen, who points out she had missed their appointment the previous day. He enters and is surprised to Katharina there—indeed, the last person he expected to see there. Since she is present however, he shows her the sketch of the Stranger and asks if she has ever seen him. She says she has not, and takes her leave. He shows the picture to Hannah, and she denies knowing him as well.

Jonas the Stranger breaks into the empty Nielsen house and walks into Martha's room. He sits on her bed and leaves the St. Christopher medal on her pillow.

1921

The younger Jonas asks Adam whether he knows everything that will happen. Adam says he knows of wars and crashes, and what investments to make, but he does not know what his counterpart will do. The younger Jonas implores him for a way to change the future so the apocalypse does not happen. Adam replies that it took him 66 years, but a loophole does exist, a way for him to leave this hell.

2020

Clausen tells Hannah that he doesn't believe anyone in town is telling the truth; everyone is hiding something. He just isn't sure whether they are hiding the same thing or not. He asks if Aleksander Tiedemann is paying her, and she acknowledges that he is. Clausen points out that she had ceased to be his massage therapist months ago, yet he was still making deposits in her account. She replies that Winden is a tight-knit community, and Aleksander helps out with money because her son has disappeared. Clausen is skeptical, saying it is remarkable that Katharina has the same feelings. In small towns, it seems, people share their money and their beds. She stares at him coldly.

The children, carrying the time machine, head back to the Winden Caves, though Elisabeth senses something odd, and pauses before entering with the others. As she does, Noah emerges from behind a tree.

Jonas the Stranger has returned to the bunker. Charlotte asks him who Noah is, and Jonas says he is another traveler, and Adam's puppet—and the murderer of Mads, Erik, and Yasin. Charlotte asks him if he knows who her parents are. He says he does not, but that he knew H.G. Tannhaus, her grandfather. Charlotte admits that Tannhaus was not her real grandfather, even though he raised her. She asks if he was also a traveler, but Jonas says he was just a pawn, like everyone else. Claudia used him, just like she had used Jonas, Peter, and the others, to have him build the time machine, which he unlocks and opens. Charlotte says he knows what will happen in the future, and he agrees.

The children return to Bartosz, still tied up in the dark. They press him about the device is, and what is going on overall. He says he cannot tell them, however, and even if he did, they wouldn't believe him. Franziska says matter-of-factly that the human body can survive three days without nourishment, and they all prepare to leave. He pleads to Martha, then in desperation shouts after them that it is a time machine. They pause. Magnus is skeptical, but Martha tells Bartosz to show them how it works, and frees him. Bartosz opens the apparatus and asks for a phone; it just needs to search for the signal. This activates the device, and he beckons them closer. The whole group is enveloped by a black sphere, then disappears.

1987

Claudia visits Bernd Doppler at his palatial home, and says the records she found do not match his explanation of the incident at the plant. He shoves a binder across the table to her, saying he knew she would refuse to let it go; the binder contains the full results. She pages through it and says the values make no sense. He replies that the later tests always came back the same, mostly matching calculations of Englert, Brout and Higgs in 1964. Claudia knows it as the God Particle: the particle that gives all things the mass they have. She marvels, and says such a discovery should be shared with the public. Doppler, however, reminds her that it is better to let sleeping dogs lie. The nuclear plant is his only legacy; he wants his name and the plant kept out of things, at least until his death.

The aged Ulrich reaches the Kahnwald home and comes upon Mikkel, who is sitting outside. Mikkel asks if he is all right, but Ulrich is speechless, overcome with emotion.

At the hospital, Ines steals two sleeves of pills from a box, and pretends to be restocking iodine when her coworker Ina happens upon her. Ina is more worried, however, that an inmate has escaped from the mental asylum, who had killed two children in the 1950s and almost a killed a third. She warns Ines that all are to be vigilant.

At the Kahnwald home, Mikkel brings Ulrich a glass of juice, and they sit outside. Mikkel says Ulrich looks familiar. Ulrich say, carefully, that he has waited 33 years for that moment. He turns his glass over and says he had told him the question isn't how, but when. At this, Mikkel hugs him warmly, calling him Papa.

1921

Jonas continues to question Adam about Sic Mundus and the travelers, asking if they are a religion. Adam says they are the opposite: they are the enemy of God, having declared war on time. They are creating a new world without time and without God. Adam says the God mankind has prayed to is nothing but time itself—not a sentient being, but a force of nature, and not a merciful one. Life is merely cause and effect, immutable.

2020

Charlotte returns to the clockmaker's shop and sees a picture of her as a child with Tannhaus amidst the scattered papers. She finds the blueprints to the time machine, but is interrupted just then by Noah, who introduces himself. Backing away, she tells him she knows who he is, and that he is the one who has been killing the children. He tells her he is only acting to try to put a stop to things once and for all, and says she will not take things from him. He shows a photo of him with her as a baby, saying she had been premature, but had had a strong will to live. He tells her that her mother had taken the picture, and he had promised to bring Charlotte back. He had been searching for her, but she had been there the whole time—and Adam had known. He says the apocalypse is coming in two days, and he knows that he must end Adam so that everyone can live, not just those in the bunker. Charlotte asks who her mother was. Noah says she loved her very much, and still loves her, but does not give a name.

1987

The children emerge from the cave and find the landscape different, and that the armchair is missing. Bartosz says he didn't believe it at first either, but Noah told him things would happen which all came to pass: about Martha's kiss with Jonas, his mother's cancer, Jonas' disappearance. Magnus and Martha do not know who Noah is, but Franziska says Elisabeth knows him.

Bartosz continues that Noah told him there was a war for control of time, that his grandmother was involved, and that Jonas would return. Magnus scoffs at this, and turns to leave. Bartosz asks Martha if she trusts him, and she turns to follow Magnus.

Ines returns home and calls for Michael, but there is no answer. She finds the door ajar, and walking onto the patio, sees the two cups on the table. She calls Egon, saying she is worried the man who broke out of the asylum might be involved. Egon says he will notify the station and will come by to pick her up, as he has an idea where they might be headed.

Mikkel and Ulrich run through the forest as sirens wail. They reach the entrance to the cave just as the police do, with Egon and Ines close behind. The police fire warning shots, and Ulrich stops running. As the police carry him away and Ines grabs a hold of Michael, Ulrich shouts a promise to Mikkel that he will come back to take him home. Seeing Egon, Ulrich says it is all Egon's fault, and he will kill him if he ever sees him again.

1921

As the camera pans out from Adam's collection of portraits of the four Winden families, he intones that Michael/Mikkel is just a part of a knot that is vastly larger and more convoluted. The entire universe is a knot from which there is no escape. Jonas asks, if nothing can change, if Adam has already had this conversation; he says he has, and asked the very same question. He thought the moment would never be repeated all his life, but that was because he could not understand what "his" Adam wanted. Now, 66 years later, however, he understands because of pain he has never forgotten. He sees a way out of the futility, however. Jonas wonders why, if there is an escape, nothing has changed, and everything is happening over again. Adam rises and walks over to a corner with framed blueprints for the appartus, the chair, the bunker, and the future control system, and says that is not the end of the chain.

1987

Claudia meets with a technician in her office, and asks him to test a sample in secret. He asks what it is, and she replies that if it is what she thinks it is, it will change their understanding of the world forever.

The children walk out from the forest to the bus stop, where concert and campaign posters from 1987 are hanging. Two '80s police cars drive past, stopping at the traffic light. The older Ulrich is being held in the latter; he sees and recognizes them and beings shouting for Magnus and Martha, but the light changes and they drive on. Bartosz asks the others if they believe him now.

2020

Hannah is home again looking through her photos. She finds one of Ulrich with her and Katharina on either side of him. She creases the photo and tears off the side with Katharina.

Jonas the Stranger returns, which pleases her, but he asks her whether she ever loved his father. She remains silent. He says he knows about her affair with Ulrich, and asks who she would choose: Ulrich or Papa. She remains silent still. He tells her sadly he cannot trust her, and heads upstairs. She admits that she messed up everything, and Jonas says coldly that perhaps she has always done that. She calls after him, but he says she needs no one, just herself.

The children emerge from the cave to the familiar landscape, including the old armchair. Martha pauses to watch for Bartosz; when he appears, however, she does not wait for him, and turns away.

1987

Ines returns home with Mikkel, as Ulrich is back at the asylym, held down in restraints. Ines makes Mikkel hot chocolate, mixing pills into it.

2020

Charlotte stares at the photo of Noah and her as a baby. Martha returns home and finds the St. Christopher medal on her pillow.

1921

At the Sic Mundus lair, Adam and Jonas walk into a chamber where a chaotic God Particle is churning and throbbing in the middle. Adam says it is not the same one that Jonas has seen before, but is like its twin, known as ether, dark matter, and the Higgs field. Jonas asks how it was created. Adam replies that the one Jonas saw was created by the apocalypse in two days that he so desperately wants to prevent. This one, however, was created by a technological device, and will be the end of the knot—it will send Jonas to the day he wants to travel to, to break the 33-year cycle.

Jonas understands now why he is there: Adam wants to send him to stop the apocalypse, he only needs to know when the beginning of the apocalypse will take place. Jonas says to send him to the 20th of June, 2019, just before Michael's suicide. Adam says if Jonas can prevent the suicide, then nothing that follows will occur. Mikkel will not travel back, and Jonas will never be born, but everyone else will live—including Martha.

Adam adjusts dials on his device, and the God Particle solidifies into a smooth sphere again. Jonas dresses up in his gas mask and hazmat suit. Adam tells him if Jonas succeeds, they will reorder the whole world. Jonas steps into the God Particle.

Quotes

• Adam: Is it not peculiar that one feels the greatest aversion towards the very people who are most similar to oneself?
• Martha: You've hardly spoken to us in months and now you want to know what we think? Look around you. We're the kids, but you've been acting like one for months.
• Adam: A person lives three lives. The first ends with the loss of naïveté, the second with the loss of innocence, and the third with the loss of life itself. It is inevitable that we go through all three stages. You will turn into your older self, and your older self into what you see before you.
• Claudia: I want you to move in with us. You wouldn't be so alone, and Regina would be happy to see more of you. Tomorrow would be best.
  Egon: Tomorrow? You're acting like I'm almost on my deathbed.
• Katharina: He was always here, right in front of me. I just can't believe you slept with my husband and my son—nut you always did want what belonged to me. You're like a parasite. Did Ulrich ever actually tell you he loved you? In the end, he would always choose us.
• Clausen: I've been here almost a week, and I get the impression no one is telling the truth. Everyone's trying to hide something—although I'm not sure

if you're all hiding the same thing or if everyone is trying to keep their own skeleton in the closet.

• Adam: We've declared war on time, declared war on God. We're creating a new world, without time, without God. What does that mean? It means that what people have worshiped for millennia—the God who holds everything together—that God is nothing more than time itself. Not a thinking, acting entity, a physical law with which one can negotiate as little as one can with one's own fate. God is time. And time is not merciful. We are born, and our life is already trickling away like the sand in this hourglass. Death is forever inevitably before us. Our fate is nothing but a concatenation of cause and effect, in light and in shadow.

Analysis

• The recurring dream of Jonas and Martha making love is seen again, this time involving the older Jonas, who also awakens panting and sitting on the edge of his bed, as we have seen with teenage Jonas, Martha and Mikkel.

Cast

• Andreas Pietschmann as The Stranger
• Lisa Vicari as Martha Nielsen
• Louis Hofmann as Jonas Kahnwald
• Dietrich Hollinderbaumer as Adam
• Maja Schöne as Hannah Kahnwald
• Jördis Triebel as Katharina Nielsen
• Moritz Jahn as Magnus Nielsen
• Peter Benedict as Aleksander Tiedemann
• Deborah Kaufmann as Regina Tiedemann
• Winfried Glatzeder as Ulrich Nielsen (old, 1987)
• Julika Jenkins as Claudia Tiedemann (1987)
• Christian Pätzold as Egon Tiedemann (1987)
• Sylvester Groth as Investigator Clausen
• Gina Stiebitz as Franziska Doppler
• Carlotta von Falkenhayn as Elisabeth Doppler
• Mark Waschke as Noah
• Karoline Eichhorn as Charlotte Doppler
• Paul Lux as Bartosz Tiedemann
• Michael Mendl as Bernd Doppler 1987
• Daan Lennard Liebrenz as Mikkel Nielsen
• Anne Ratte-Polle as Ines Kahnwald 1987)
• Lea Wilkowsky as Jasmin Trewen

Gallery

→ See 65 images from Lost and Found at Images from Lost and Found.

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