Exquisite Corpse
In the fifth episode of Russian Doll Season 2, Nadia finds herself in Budapest in 1944. She has the gold train receipt from her grandmother, Vera, and is using the name Erzabet. However, it’s unclear how she ended up here and what her role will be in this time period. ..
Nadia and Delia are discussing a possible plan to get the gold from a warehouse. Nadia says that everything is held up in the warehouse, but Delia confirms that everything is actually on the train. Nadia suggests they go talk to the owner of the warehouse, who might be able to help them get the gold.
Nadia is determined to disrupt this operation and find the warehouse, getting her gear back and changing the future. At least, that’s the plan anyway.
Nadia makes it into the warehouse without much in the way of opposition and opens up the crate in question. She finds her family’s gear, including stacks of jewelry and other trinkets. She hurriedly snatches them all up and takes off, with the crate still wide open. This catches us up to the moments at the start of episode 1, as Nadia stashes the gear in an underground tunnel and draws up a makeshift map for where she’s hidden it all.
Nadia finds Laszlo Kiss, the man whose grave she woke up next to in Budapest last episode. Nadia hands over the map and encourages him to mail this over to Vera in New York City. Given she herself is Vera, Laszlo is a little confused but he agrees to her crazy story about the time travel and being at his grave.
Nadia lost her map in the chaos of the church meeting and when a random woman picks it up she gives it to Laszlo who sets up a meet for Keleti Station at 8pm that very night. The thing is, the station is packed and unfortunately Nadia loses her map. When a random woman picks up the receipt and begins screaming for Vera, Nadia snatches it up, hands over the map to Laszlo and scrambles aboard her train back to the present.
Vera (the older Vera) follows the instructions, uncovers the bag, and retrieves the gear. Now, with history presumably changed, Nadia now adopts this older-Vera persona and finds herself in 1962. The gold is theirs and Nadia is excited. Within the bag happens to be a letter (the map to the gear), but before she reads this, Delia catches her off-guard and decides to get the currency in Kruggerands. The same Kruggerands that go all the way through the years to eventually be stolen from Nora on the train. ..
Nadia tells Lenora that time has always been like this, that everything has always been a loop. She tells Lenora that she’s hidden the coins under the sofa and that she’s going to tell her everything.
The Episode Review
Nadia was born in 1944, but somehow the universe just knows to send her back to this time period – and then again in 1962. That’s to say nothing of being able to transport from New York across to Budapest too. Can Nadia control the time periods she goes to? Is it just random? And what is Alan’s part to play in all this? Why is he in the 1960’s?
The time travel train is a neat little concept, but the rules around how this all works are murky. I’m not saying this show should be an intricate web of complicated players like Dark or Twelve Monkeys, but the constant loop is well designed but with poorly defined rules.
Season 1 nailed this, realizing that the simple concept of a time loop every time you die is easy to remember and get invested in. Season 2 however, has way too many loose threads and unexplained rules around this time period. That’s really typified by that final shot of Nadia just wandering through the train carriages and inexplicably ending up in different time periods.
Russian Doll is in danger of becoming a convoluted mess because there is no clear understanding of what it is. Hopefully, some clarity can be reached about what Russian Doll is and what its purpose is.
