Warning: SPOILERS for Dark season 3.
Dark is a TV show with plenty of mysteries and, now in its final season, it also offers many satisfying explanations for its biggest questions - but with one exception: Torben Woller’s eye and arm injury. Since Dark season 1, viewers have been wondering what exactly happened to Woller and why he’s wearing an eye patch. Because Dark is a show rich in details, even hinting at the fate of its characters, it’s no wonder people were quick to think Woller’s missing eye and arm would turn out to be a major plot point or an important piece of the Winden puzzle.
However, in a 2019 interview with Indiewire, creators Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar revealed that while they know the story behind Woller’s injury, there are certain mysteries they had no intention of answering because “it’s funnier that way.” In fact, Woller’s injury became a running gag in the show as every time he tries to explain what happened, he’s interrupted by something. While Dark isn’t known for its humor, Woller provided tiny light-hearted moments that the creators and viewers could share. Almost like he’s a nod from the show to fans being prone to speculating. Of course, it’s all in good fun as Woller is a secondary character at best and not connected to the main mystery.
Although the show didn’t give us a definitive explanation to the eye patch and missing arm, that doesn’t stop fans from conjuring up answers and theories on what happened. After all, Dark is the perfect series for those who love a puzzle wrapped in a mystery. Before Dark season 3 was released, Reddit users came up with creative ideas to explain the Woller’s injury, thinking he could be involved in the kidnappings or multiple timelines shenanigans. Unfortunately, season 3 proved them all to be wrong, since Friese and bo Odar never planned to give the viewers an answer. Nevertheless, the theories viewers made up were intriguing and some added even more complexity to the already-tangled family trees of Winden.
Pre-Season 3 Dark Theories
One Reddit user, 8Ariadnesthread8, connected Noah’s time-traveling experiments to Woller’s injury. Noah kidnapped Mads and Erik, and later both boys reappeared dead and with major damage to their faces, especially their eyes. His goal was to fix the time machine. So, the theory suggested Woller might’ve been kidnapped at a young age and somehow escaped, but not before hurting his right eye. The idea was particularly intriguing for Dark season 1, as Woller is helping investigate the kidnappings and, in a particular scene, is shown to recognize one of the boy’s belongings: a tape recorder. Turns out, his reaction might’ve been simply a red herring thrown by the show to keep the audience guessing on who was the kidnapper.
On the other hand, Reddit user djnorthstar pointed out Woller’s eye patch might be hiding his heterochromia (when each eye is a different color). If he had the condition, this would connect him with Claudia since she has brown and blue eyes. The user speculated he might be her son. This would certainly complicate the already complex Tiedemann family tree and make him Regina’s younger brother. Woller’s parents are never mentioned in the show, so if fans want, they can still believe he’s actually connected to Claudia. Unlike other characters present in Jonas and Martha’s family tree, he did not disappear after the cycle was broken – which means he could still be Claudia’s son, although it seems unlikely (the official Dark website doesn’t list them as family). Still, it was an interesting idea.
Aleksander, Woller, and the Nuclear Power Plant
The character of Woller is not a major player in Dark’s storyline. He’s a police officer who works with Charlotte, and that’s the extent of his backstory in season 1. When he’s first introduced, he’s wearing a bandage wrapped around his head that covers his right eye but also has wounds on his nose and face. This injury is present since the first episode, suggesting whatever happened to him, happened before Mikkel’s disappearance. Apart from that, we also learn he is Bernadette’s brother. But one vital clue about his injury might be his association with Aleksander.
Aleksander Tiedemann is the current director of the nuclear power plant in 2019. When Hannah tries to blackmail him into destroying Ulrich, Aleksander calls Woller, who in turn, questions him about a truck. Later, we realize Woller is talking about the truck full of yellow barrels. The nuclear material, that will eventually cause the apocalypse Jonas is trying to prevent, is inside these barrels. So it seems Aleksander and Woller are close associates and have been for some time.
It’s possible Woller’s eye and arm (in Martha’s world) injury were caused by an accident related to the moving of the barrels. It can’t be police-related because Charlotte asks him what happened in season 2, implying the people he works with don’t know the truth behind his eye patch. One problem with this theory is that the nuclear plant in Winden no longer exists in the third world – the new reality created after Jonas and Martha end the cycle. However, in the last scene of Dark season 3, Woller once again has suffered an injury, although this time it wasn’t as permanent and he recovered mostly unscathed.
Woller and the Third World
Since Woller’s injury happens before Mikkel’s disappearance and it is not connected to the nuclear plant or Adam and Eva’s time loop, the answer must be completely unrelated to the events of Dark. This would explain why the creators were in no rush to solve this particular puzzle as it wouldn’t affect the main plotline of the show. Basically, this means Woller suffered an accident outside his police work and outside the loop. Whatever happened, it must have been on his personal time. There’s no way to know exactly what took place. However, it had to be something big to cause him to lose an arm in a different reality. Perhaps a car accident or something involving heavy machinery.
Real Life Injury
Finally, a possible scenario is that the actor who plays Woller suffered a minor injury on set and had to use a bandage during filming. This is pure fan speculation, of course, since there hasn’t been any news about an accident. But if that was the case, Woller had to keep his injury for all season 1 for the sake of continuity. When fans started speculating he had something to do with the kidnappings, perhaps the show creators decided to tease and play with the audience. It’s not unusual for real-life production problems to affect the final product. Fortunately, if the real-life injury theory is true, the Dark actor didn’t suffer anything that devastating.