19. Silja Tiedemann
Mess surrounds Silja Tiedemann from the moment of her conception as the product of Hannah’s affair with Egon Tiedemann, but little of it is really her fault. Hannah gives birth to Silja in 1988 only to take them both to 1911 five years later, thinking to reunite with Jonas. Unfortunately, by this point, Jonas has lost most of his humanity to the “Adam” mantle and suffocates Hannah with a pillow with Silja fast asleep in the same room. Adam sends Silja to the post-apocalyptic future, where she becomes a sign language interpreter for Elisabeth.
When young Jonas lands in 2052 and is caught by Elisabeth’s followers in the forbidden power plant ruins, it’s Silja who goes against orders and releases him from captivity. This is the point at which Silja really becomes more culpable in the messiness of her life. She then becomes a follower of Adam, a definite step in a messy direction.
Silja goes on several time-traveling missions and does some dimension-hopping to kidnap Martha from Eva’s world before taking the 19th-century sojourn that has her cross paths with Bartosz. They become a couple and proceed to have two kids, Hanno and Agnes, only she doesn’t make it through the ordeal of childbirth the second time around.
In sum, Silja has the misfortune of being born in 1988 and growing up in the 2050s only to end up in the 1800s and dying in childbirth long before the discovery of antibiotics, epidurals, or any of the other joys of modern medicine. Time travel is a real bitch sometimes.
20. Aleksander Tiedemann / Boris Niewald
Boris ends up in Winden after killing a dude in 1986, as one does, and settles into a new life as Aleksander Köhler. He uses the murder weapon to come to Regina’s aid and scare off her bullies, Katharina and Ulrich, so we know he’s fundamentally a good dude. Good-ish. Well, there are good parts.
Anyway, when nuclear power plant director and future mother-in-law Claudia offers him a job helping hide some nuclear waste in the caves as a coverup, he takes it, and in time he becomes her successor. You would think nuclear power plant director would be one of those jobs that would require a pretty thorough background check, but I digress.
21. Peter Doppler
Peter Doppler is kinda messy but mostly a doormat. His marriage to Charlotte is dead in the water, and while Peter isn’t enough of a martyr to refrain from seeking out extramarital companionship (with Bernadette), he would never do something like suggesting a divorce because that would involve not taking the most conflict-avoidant route possible.
He really does try his best to be a good dad, though. He brings Elisabeth to the bunker to survive the nuclear apocalypse and afterward spends the rest of his life doggedly searching for Charlotte and Franziska, dead or alive. Admittedly, though, this doesn’t represent that long of a commitment considering he is killed not long after the apocalypse while rescuing Elisabeth from an attacker.
22/23. Magnus Nielsen and Franziska Doppler
Forget Jonas and Martha, Magnus and Franziska are the real power couple of Dark, which is why they are ranked together. Happily together in both timelines, they have all of one fight, which quickly resolves itself as a simple misunderstanding, and they manage to have a very active sex life while adding zero incest children to Winden’s convoluted family tree.
Clearly, one or both of them actually paid attention to the birth control lecture their siblings missed. Eva’s world’s Magnus and Franziska die in the nuclear apocalypse, but Adam’s world’s couple remains in Jonas’ inner circle, doing Adam’s bidding as high-ranking Sic Mundus members, which does bestow them with a certain amount of messiness by association.
24. Bernd Doppler
Bernd Doppler is basically harmless. That said, he’s so committed to a fantasy of dysfunctional household as a perfect nuclear family that he campaigns to get a nuclear power plant built in Winden and makes their likenesses the face of it. As the visionary behind the power plant and its first manager, considering a covered-up accident created the fuel that powers the time machines, he has at least some small bit of culpability in the clusterfuck that follows.
25. Ines Kahnwald
When a mysterious boy with an injured arm and no family to speak of shows up one day in 1986, nurse Ines quickly develops a soft spot for the misplaced Mikkel and ends up adopting him, giving him the new identity of Michael Kahnwald. Adjusting to all the changes isn’t the easiest, and Ines decides to help Michael with his anxiety by sneaking him sleeping pills. Secretly drugging your child for an untold length of time is decidedly problematic, and stealing the pills from work adds several messiness points. It clearly comes from a place of love in a warped sort of way, but still.
When old Ulrich breaks out of the hospital in 1986 and attempts to bring Michael back to the future, Ines decides to take her son away from Winden and all of its madness for a while, winning her some kudos for sensibility. Not full marks, though, because she then inexplicably returns instead of making the relocation a permanent change.
Decades later, after Michael commits suicide, Ines somehow manages to get her hands on his suicide note without either Hannah or Jonas noticing. Even though it is addressed to Jonas, Ines not only proceeds to read the letter but also to not give it to the intended recipient, her own grandson, until Jonas pointedly confronts her about his father a week later. While commendably steering clear of time travel and not playing any genetic role in the genealogical knot of Winden, Ines still makes a couple of decidedly messy decisions.
