In Netflix’s mind-bending series Dark, Jonas Kahnwald is both a victim and a perpetrator—an innocent teen and a world-weary time traveler. Across timelines and lifetimes, Jonas tries desperately to break the cycle of suffering, only to become the very thing he hates: the architect of it. Each choice he makes, no matter how noble or well-intentioned, ripples through generations and dimensions with consequences that are often tragic. These ten decisions, made by Jonas in his many forms, are the ones that shattered lives, doomed worlds, and left fans reeling.
#10: Keeping the Truth from Martha After Time Travel – Season 1, Episode 10
After discovering that he is responsible for time travel and witnessing the origins of the apocalypse, Jonas returns from the future a changed person. But instead of confiding in Martha, who is grieving her brother and their crumbling world, he pushes her away. He lies, saying he doesn’t love her anymore.
At the time, Jonas believes this is an act of mercy. He thinks by severing ties, he can protect her from the horrors ahead. But this decision devastates Martha and isolates Jonas further.
More importantly, it starts the pattern of secrecy and emotional self-sacrifice that defines his arc. By trying to spare her the truth, he ultimately robs her of agency. The tragedy is that honesty might not have saved them—but the silence ensures their shared suffering.
It’s the first of many well-meant betrayals. And it’s the moment Jonas begins losing pieces of himself for the greater good, only to discover that the “greater good” might not exist at all.
#9: Saving Young Mikkel – Then Undoing It – Season 1, Episode 8
When Jonas learns that Mikkel Nielsen is actually his father, Michael Kahnwald, his instincts scream to rescue the boy and bring him back to the present. And he almost does. He leads Mikkel through the caves, ready to restore the timeline and possibly save his family.
But then the truth hits: if Mikkel returns, Jonas will never be born. The logic is brutal. In order for his life to exist, his father’s must stay lost in time. And so, Jonas lets go.
The choice to abandon a terrified child—his father—is one of Jonas’s earliest acts of self-erasure. It’s deeply personal, tragic, and ethically messy. He’s not saving the world here—he’s ensuring his own existence at the cost of Mikkel’s innocence.
And what’s worse? This moment plants the seed for Jonas’s transformation into The Stranger, and eventually, The Origin. Every painful act begins with a compromise—and this is his first.
#8: Trusting Claudia Tiedemann – Season 2, Various Episodes
Desperate to fix what’s broken, Jonas puts his faith in Claudia Tiedemann, who claims to be fighting against Adam and the eternal cycle. For a while, she appears to be an ally—wise, strategic, and invested in “the right side.”
But Claudia is playing a long, hidden game, and Jonas is just another pawn. She withholds information, manipulates events, and uses Jonas’s emotional vulnerability to advance her own version of the knot.
By trusting her, Jonas enables actions that lead directly to Martha’s death, the world’s destruction, and his own descent into despair.
The tragedy is that Jonas wants to believe someone is truly working for good. But in Dark, no one’s hands are clean—and this blind faith costs him everything.
It’s one of his most devastating choices not because of cruelty, but because of hope. He wanted to believe in someone—and it shattered him.
#7: Becoming The Stranger – Season 2, Episode 1 and Onward
Between seasons, Jonas evolves into The Stranger—a hardened, haunted version of himself who travels through time trying to stop the apocalypse. But becoming The Stranger isn’t a moment. It’s a choice—a thousand small ones made over time: isolating himself, forsaking comfort, diving deeper into pain.
This transformation is heartbreaking because it’s not driven by malice—but by purpose. Jonas wants to undo suffering, even if it means he becomes a ghost of who he once was.
But this evolution also removes his empathy. He withholds truth. He makes decisions for others. He manipulates timelines in pursuit of a fix. He means well—but he starts to resemble Adam in all the worst ways.
The choice to become The Stranger marks the moment Jonas stops trying to live—and starts trying to control. And that need for control? It’s the beginning of the end.
#6: Failing to Kill Adam – Season 2, Episode 8
When Jonas discovers that the leader of Sic Mundus—Adam—is his future self, he’s stunned. And when he sees Adam prepare to kill Martha, he’s horrified. But in that moment, Jonas fails to act. He hesitates.
Whether it’s disbelief, fear, or the hope that he can still save himself, Jonas lets Adam live. And Martha dies.
This decision is more than passive. It’s paralyzing. By not intervening, Jonas allows a chain of events to unfold that leads to his worst transformation. Adam’s manipulation only works because Jonas believes that he might still fix things. But he never confronts the reality: Adam needs to die for the cycle to break.
The guilt of that moment haunts Jonas. He carries it into every iteration of himself. And it proves that sometimes, doing nothing is the most devastating choice of all.
#5: Trusting Alternate Martha (Eva’s Martha) – Season 3, Episode 1
After witnessing the horrifying murder of his Martha by Adam, Jonas is greeted almost immediately by another version of her—Eva’s Martha from the parallel world. Dazed, heartbroken, and emotionally raw, Jonas goes with her without question. And in doing so, he walks directly into Eva’s web.
This alternate Martha plays a delicate game. She needs Jonas to believe in her, to trust her motives, and to help fulfill her role in continuing the cycle. At a point when he is most vulnerable, Jonas desperately clings to her, projecting his grief onto this version of Martha even though he knows, deep down, that she is not “his” Martha.
His blind trust leads him into even more dangerous territory: he helps initiate a loop that ensures their son—the Origin—is born. This child is the fusion of both worlds and the very knot that binds them all in eternal misery. Jonas thinks he’s saving Martha. But he’s helping damn them both.
The haunting part is that Jonas knows something is wrong. But he’s so devastated, so exhausted by guilt and longing, that he can’t stop himself. His faith in this Martha is driven by need, not logic. And Eva exploits it perfectly.
By trusting her, Jonas ensures the creation of the one being that guarantees the cycle never ends. It’s the most human of decisions—born of love, fear, and desperation—and that’s why it hurts so much.
#4: Sleeping with Alternate Martha – Season 3, Episode 6
Of all the paradoxes in Dark, none is more emotionally explosive than the union between Jonas and alternate Martha. In a tender, tragic moment, the two find comfort in each other—two fractured souls trying to feel something real in a world unraveling around them.
But this act, meant as connection, becomes the ultimate curse. Their night together creates The Origin—a child born of both worlds, destined to become the knot that binds them all. A being without a beginning, whose existence ensures eternal repetition of tragedy.
This moment is devastating not because of lust, but because of love. Jonas wants to feel close to the Martha he lost. She wants to believe there’s something more than fate. And for a brief moment, they do. But their desire, their hope, their vulnerability—it’s all weaponized by Eva, who manipulates them into becoming creators of the very thing they tried to destroy.
The emotional weight is unbearable. Jonas didn’t just fail to break the cycle—he completed it. And the worst part? He did it for love. That’s what makes this decision echo through every timeline with such cruel resonance.
#3: Becoming Adam – Season 3, Various Episodes
Perhaps the most crushing truth in Dark is that Jonas, the boy who tried to save everyone, becomes the man who ensures their destruction. Adam, the scarred and cynical leader of Sic Mundus, is Jonas’s future self—a man so consumed by regret and pain that he believes the only way to save the world is to end it.
Becoming Adam isn’t a single decision—it’s a thousand small ones. Every lie, every manipulation, every moment Jonas chooses control over compassion inches him closer to becoming the very thing he fears.
He justifies it. He believes he must become Adam to destroy the knot. But in doing so, he loses everything: love, morality, empathy, even identity. His transformation into Adam is the ultimate act of self-betrayal. He thinks he’s becoming a martyr—but he becomes a monster.
It’s terrifying because it’s inevitable. The more Jonas tries to change fate, the more he seals it. And we, as viewers, watch the light drain from him piece by piece. Until finally, he’s alone in a stone room, consumed by silence and scars, calling it all “necessary.”
That transformation isn’t just devastating. It’s the death of hope.
#2: Sending Young Jonas into the Past – Season 2, Episode 6
In one of the show’s most haunting loops, the Stranger—middle-aged Jonas—sends his younger self back in time to begin the cycle all over again. He tells him it’s the only way to fix things. He says this path will help him save everyone. But it’s a lie.
This is the moment where Jonas truly becomes his own manipulator. He knows what this journey will cost: innocence, sanity, love, even his soul. But he sends himself anyway.
It’s a self-inflicted tragedy. And the horror is in the familiarity. He remembers what it was like to be young Jonas. The hope. The fear. The yearning. And he still sends him back. Why? Because by then, The Stranger has already begun believing that suffering is a currency to be spent in pursuit of salvation.
This moment captures the central paradox of Dark: you are both your own savior and your own destroyer. Jonas doesn’t just walk into his fate—he escorts himself.
And the pain of watching it unfold is unbearable. Because you know that young Jonas believes it’ll work. That this time, it’ll be different.
But it never is.
#1: Choosing to Erase Himself from Existence – Season 3, Episode 8
In the end, Jonas makes the most heroic—and heartbreaking—decision of all: he agrees to help break the loop by preventing the car crash that killed H.G. Tannhaus’s family, the event that prompted the creation of the time machine and, ultimately, both worlds.
By entering the origin world with Martha and stopping the crash, Jonas ensures that neither of them is ever born. The cycle ends. The pain ends. But so does he.
This final decision is devastating because it’s the one truly selfless choice he makes. There’s no gain. No glory. No reunion. Just peace bought with erasure.
And as he fades from existence—looking at Martha, the girl he tried so hard to save—it’s not fear that defines him. It’s peace. He finally breaks free.
For a character defined by loops, it’s the only linear act of his life. A beginning, a middle, and an end. And it’s perfect in its tragedy.
Because Jonas Kahnwald dies to save the world.
And no one remembers.
Jonas Kahnwald’s journey in Dark is one of the most emotionally grueling arcs in modern storytelling. His decisions, whether driven by love, guilt, or desperation, shape the fate of not just one world—but two. And while he begins as a hopeful teen trying to fix time, he ends as a forgotten savior. These ten devastating decisions reveal the brutal cost of good intentions and the paradox of trying to break fate from within. Jonas’s tragedy is timeless. And in the world of Dark, that’s the cruelest loop of all.
