who

Jonas Kahnwald

Jonas, son of Hannah and Michael Kahnwald, is a quiet, thoughtful teenager. The suicide of his father hits him hard and he struggles to process it, even after several months of therapy. In the days following Mikkel Nielsen's disappearance, Jonas' true purpose is revealed: He is a time traveler. He isn't yet aware of how significant a role he will play in the overall course of events.

Mikkel's disappearance

Jonas was the last person to see Mikkel Nielsen before he vanished in 2019. When visiting the caves as a group, they were frightened by an unusual noise and started running through the forest. Magnus, Bartosz, Franziska, and Martha were ahead of them. Jonas tripped and suddenly Mikkel was gone.

The journey begins

A few days later, Jonas receives an anonymous package from the Stranger. It contains a futuristic light, Geiger counter, and goodbye letter from his father. The letter reveals that time travel exists and explains what's happened to Mikkel. Jonas finds the passage in the Winden caves thanks to a map his discovers in his father's room. He enters it and travels back to 1986.

Jonas finds Mikkel in the hospital there, but before he can do anything, the Stranger appears and warns him that Mikkel must become Michael Kahnwald in order to be Jonas' father. Jonas thus abandons his plan to rescue Mikkel.

Forbidden love

Martha Nielsen is the love of his life. In the summer of 2019, it looks as though Martha and Jonas are going to become a couple, but his father's suicide shakes him. He spends months in therapy and stops answering her texts. Martha believes Jonas is in France and starts dating his best friend Bartosz Tiedemann instead.

When Jonas returns, their love is rekindled. That's until Jonas finds out that Mikkel is his father, making Martha his biological aunt. Without giving her a reason, Jonas blows her off and vanishes from Winden completely – but he never stops thinking about Martha.

His older self

On another trip to 1986, Jonas is intercepted by Noah and Helge Doppler. They knock him out and lock him in the bunker with the deadly time travel chair. The Stranger appears and reveals that he is indeed a grown-up Jonas, but he doesn't help the teen escape.

When the Stranger later tries to close the passage, a portal opens in front of Jonas' eyes. He can look into 1953. There, he sees Helge Doppler in the bunker as a boy. When their hands touch, Jonas lands in 2052.

What the future holds

Jonas lives in his old house for more than six months in post-apocalyptic Winden. He keeps his distance from Elisabeth Doppler and her followers who are living in the forest awaiting the day of salvation. Jonas discovers numerous wooden crosses at the cemetery next to the church, including one for Martha Nielsen.

Jonas wants to travel back to 2020 using the time portal of black matter at the center of the nuclear power plant. However, Elisabeth has forbidden access to the plant and Jonas is caught trespassing. He is sentenced to execution. As he is hanging with a noose around his neck, Elisabeth changes her mind and severs the rope. Jonas is left with scars from the rope that he'll carry with him for the rest of his life.

Silja helps him escape because she wants to find out what is at the core of the power plant. Jonas is able to control the black matter and vanishes.

His even older self

Jonas travels from 2053 to 1921. He's assumed to be a confused war veteran and given temporary food and board in a guesthouse, where he meets his great-great-grandmother Agnes Nielsen as a child. He also encounters a young Noah, who takes him to Adam and Sic Mundus.

Adam reveals that he also has scars around his neck: Adam is Jonas, some 60 years older. Adam shows Jonas the time portal beneath the church that makes it possible to travel to any date in time. Jonas travels to June 20th, 2019, the day before his father's suicide – the day it all began. He believes he can make everything right again.

Back to the present

Jonas goes to his family home and confronts his father about his imminent suicide. Michael is perplexed. He wasn't planning on taking his own life. It was also the first he'd ever heard of a goodbye letter. Michael also reveals that it was none other than Jonas himself who had led Mikkel as a boy to the time portal on November 4th, 2019.

Older Claudia Tiedemann arrives and explains that things should not be undone. She says Jonas' role in the overall course of events is larger than he suspects. As she leaves the house with Jonas, he realizes in horror that he was the one to give his father the idea of suicide in the first place.

Allies

Jonas spends a year with Claudia Tiedemann learning everything he can about time travel. Together they join in the fight against Sic Mundus and Adam. He travels to June 27th, 1987 and visits the younger Claudia. They go together to the caves and reactivate the passage using his time machine – the same passage that his older self had deactivated only six months earlier. Jonas and Claudia then travel ahead to 2020.

Martha's death

On the day of the apocalypse, Jonas goes to rescue Martha. He finds her at home and they share a passionate kiss, even though she knows he is her nephew. Adam suddenly appears and shoots Martha, the love of Jonas' life – and his own. Adam explains that it is necessary and Jonas will someday understand why. Then he disappears.

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