Each recap aims to be spoiler free. I won’t speculate too much on the future but will get you up to speed in the current episode. Thank you for reading and you can contact the show by emailing wakeupwinden@gmail.com. I am putting this part at the top of the recaps to prevent spoilers from the posts. Cheers!
Plot:
Revelations are made about the night Mikkel disappeared. While Peter was sitting in the cabin bunker, a tear in time opens up in front of him and out falls a dead boy – Mads Nielson. Immediately, he calls Tronte (Mads’ dad) and they are both puzzled and disturbed. The older version of Claudia walks in and she says she has a lot to explain – but first they need to move Mads to where he is to be found.
In 1986, Older Helge visits Middle Aged Helge and tries to get him to stop working with Noah. This doesn’t work because Noah can manipulate Helge like putty. They make Jonas their next target.
In 2019, Jonas confronts his grandma about the truth, tells his mother that everything will be ok, and then he travels back to 1986 hellbent on saving Mikkel. When he reaches Mikkel’s hospital room, Noah is there. Helge sneaks up behind Jonas and knocks him out with a chloroform rag.
Jonas wakes up in torture room. The Stranger talks to him through the door. Turns out, The Stranger is Jonas! Bad news though – according to the Stranger, none of us are free and we all follows the same path over and over. Bummer. Until now. The Stranger is attempting to change everything. He has to leave Jonas there.
Back in the ’50s, Ulrich realizes he is in the custody of a young Egon Tiedemann. He gets beaten but we don’t see him reveal info about Helge’s location. Charlotte does some digging and she puts the clues together to find a newspaper clipping of Ulrich’s mug shot in 1953. She finally meets with Peter down in the basement and they hug.
Ines speaks to the social worker about adopting Mikkel. Bartosz fights Jonas and banishes him from school (watch the tape). Bartosz reconciles with Martha (whyyyyyy) and he also gets a front row seat to Noah’s monologue about The Stranger at the end. You see, Jonas Stranger thinks he is destroying the wormhole, but he is actually creating its existence. A paradox. Noah tells Bartosz there are two groups fighting to control time – the light and the shadow. He says he is part of the light and Claudia is part of the shadow.
Stranger Jonas tries to destroy the wormhole by placing the time machine at the fork in the tunnel and doing some hocus pocus with Ulrich’s phone that he left in 1953. The device causes multiple phenomena. A small black dome/bubble appears over the time machine. Lights are flashing in every time period. A massive version of the dome appears over Winden. Young Jonas and Young Helge see each other as if through a television. When they extend their hands to touch, Young Helge is transported from ‘53 to ‘86. Jonas is transported to the future where he is bashed in the head with a gun as a masked rebel tells him “Welcome to the future.”
Alpha and Omega
Located down the street from Sigma Alpha Espolon, Alpha and Omega is the oldest fraternity in Winden.
Sorry, it really references the beginning and the end. In this series, they are difficult to distinguish. Did Jonas really trigger the whole thing into existence? I don’t really believe Noah when he is talking to Bartosz. Noah has his own narrative but nothing I’ve seen from him in the show leads me to believe he is truly on the “light” side. He has been the big bad of season 1. Getting meta with the show, the last episode circles back to the first episode. The end started the beginning.
Music Corner
The song played over the final montage is called “A Quiet Life,” by Teho Teardo and Blixa Bargeld. It is an absolute masterpiece.
The hunter is now the hunted. Hearing that line makes me think of Ulrich every time.
You think this song is going to end a few different times and then it keeps going and you pump your fist. My 3 favorite songs from Season 1:
- A Quiet Life
- Familiar by Agnes Obel
- Me and the Devil Soap & Skin
Whip Around Winden
No trending up or trending down this week. Instead, I’ll issue final thoughts on the characters and where they stand heading into Season 2.
Ulrich
He is such a scumbag in so many ways, but damn it if I didn’t feel bad for him as he sits defeated in the 1953 prison cell. He could have avoided this. After he dropped Helge in the cellar, he needed to high tail it back to the caves. Then, he foolishly walks by the side of the road leading to his capture. To add insult to injury, his captor is none other than Egon Tiedemann. Ulrich remembers getting arrested by him falsely 33 years ago. This has to sting. He remains in prison in the ‘50’s heading into season 2.
Claudia
Claudia is crucial to the story and we are missing a ton of information about her. Noah labels her as the leader of The Shadow. She works with Peter and Tronte to insure everything happens how it is supposed to until the moment Jonas triggers the device. She uses Jonas as a pawn according to Noah. We know she has been gone for a long time because Bartosz tells her that she was dead before he was born. She has links to the Journey Through Time book, the notebook with predictions as to what happens.
Jonas
This might be the best line in the show so far (besides Where’s my lipstick?)
“Now I have another grandma and she’s the principal of my school! Her husband, who’s fucking my mom, is looking for his son, who’s my father! A few days ago I kissed my aunt. And the crazy thing is, there’s nothing wrong with any of them. They’re ok. I’m wrong.”
Poor Jonas – and he had to say this to his grandma. This leads him to try to bring Mikkel back no matter the consequences. He says goodbye with finality to his mother and gets captured in 1986. Due to the Jonas Stranger incident, he finds himself in the future (2052 by the plus 33 rule). He is currently captured by a futuristic military brigade. Extremely rough go for Jonas this season.
Helge
A soul that was ripped apart by time travel, an evil priest, a strict upbringing, and maybe a touch of evil? Maybe he never had a chance with an ultra strict mother and a father who basically gets the Imperial March played every time he is on screen. Helge’s dementia was caused by this accident. Middle Aged Helge sees Old Helge in a body bag, probably recognizes his ear. Helge’s last hours were the most lucid he has been since the accident. He commits the ultimate sacrifice and crashes into Middle Aged Helge, which he knows is the only reason he stopped helping Noah. That must have messed up Middle Aged Helge pretty good. Old Helge died in the car crash, but will see more from the two younger versions in season 2? We still have yet to see him be returned to his 1953 home.
Hannah
She is in a rough place at the end of the season. Jonas says goodbye and now he is way in the future with no viable way to return because the older version of himself blew up the tunnel that leads to time travel crossing. Hannah is last seen pointing a gun at her kitchen wall. With Ulrich trapped in 1953, where does her story go from here?
Bartosz and Martha
Martha, it didn’t work out with your nephew Jonas. Here’s what I have to say to you re: getting back together with Bartosz:
Seriously why did you have to go back to Bartosz? It shouldn’t have to be a binary choice between Jonas and this loser.
Bartosz beats up Jonas at school and banishes him from ever coming back. I didn’t think they gave that power to students. True, Katharina probably hasn’t been doing much work lately, but surely she didn’t abdicate expulsion powers to Bartosz. ::spit::
Also, why does Bartosz seem so close with Noah now? I have a couple of theories:
- Bartosz is the new Helge.
- Bartosz is…. Noah? Hey, if Jonas can be The Stranger. I mean, why would you seek out Bartosz of all people? Why not make him a guinea pig? We see Jonas help himself throughout the season; maybe Bartosz is doing the same.
Charlotte and Peter
For at least the 3rd time this season, Charlotte dismisses Peter about having a talk. He was going to tell her about Mads the whole time maybe. The love between them seemed to be gone, but they do share a tender hug during the musical montage. Peter is…. Off the hook?
Young Charlotte had a funny interaction with Young Jonas. She calls him crazy after he talks about saving someone’s life before they die – when they’re younger. Is she able to put the time travel theory together because she remembers stuff like this from her past? More people in Winden should be walking around like “Wait a minute…. You look awfully familiar….”
Peter didn’t come to Winden until 1987 and we have yet to see him in the flashbacks. Hmmmmm.
Noah
Random Thoughts
- Unsettling scene when Jonas wakes up and has Mikkel’s hand on his back.
- For such a Houdini Stan, Mikkel only knows the one trick with the cups.
- Oliver Massuci sounds so cool as Ulrich when he is delivering the English lyrics to the 80’s metal song. This triggers a lifelong obsession with Satanism for Egon Tiedemann.
- Ulrich hits Tiedemann hard with some futuristic knowledge of his wife leaving him.
- We see Egon’s wife hold hands with Agnes Nielson during the incident.
- The pseudo science of the time travel goes right over my head. If you can figure out the connection between the CS-137, the Cesium Radioactive Isotopes, and Higgs Field, then God bless you. I’m gonna stick to shitting on Bartosz.
- Noah seems to have the full notebook and Claudia gives Tronte and Peter a notebook with missing pages. Perhaps there are duplicates, just like with the letter and the time machine.
- It took me three viewings, but I think I finally have a firm grasp on what happens in Season One.
- Here’s me worrying about the plot summaries for season 2:
Wake Up Winden 