Dark - Ending Explained

The ultimate twist of Dark is that the two primary worlds—Adam's and Eva's—are both 'cancers' or side effects that should never have existed. They were created when H.G. Tannhaus, in the Origin World, built a time machine in 1971 to prevent the car crash that killed his family. His machine destroyed his world and split it into two interconnected cycles of suffering. Jonas and Martha themselves are bootstrap paradoxes; neither can exist without the existence of the knot. In the finale, Claudia reveals a 'loophole' during the apocalypse where time stands still. Jonas and Martha use this to travel to the Origin World, stop the car crash, and in doing so, cause themselves and everyone born of the knot (including their families) to vanish into thin air, finally bringing peace to the timeline.

While the ending is generally seen as a definitive 'fix,' some critics and fans suggest that the final dinner party in the Origin World hints at a new, different kind of loop. Hannah's sense of déjà vu and her decision to name her son 'Jonas' lead some to believe that the characters are echoes that might eventually re-manifest the knot. Another interpretation is that Claudia Tiedemann is the true protagonist and 'god' of the series, as she is the only one who truly operates outside the manipulations of Adam and Eva, ultimately finding the loophole through her own intellectual labor rather than predetermined fate.