Schrodinger’s Ruth

Nadia returns to the Soviet Union in 1982, just as the country is on the brink of collapse. She’s determined to save her family and herself, but finds that she can’t escape her past. Nadia wandering through the carriages at the end of episode 5 has essentially ended in her occupying a less than ideal scenario.

Nadia is surrounded by supportive friends as she gives birth to her baby in record time. This season of “The Goldbergs” features a time traveling train and gold heirlooms, but the most unrealistic part of the show is that Nadia’s friends are there to support her during her labor. ..

Nora wakes up in the hospital to find Chez there, drinking and offering some suggestions on how to make a quick buck. When Ruth, Vera and Delia appear, he’s ushered out the door. In doing so, the women start talking amongst themselves, believing Nora is not cut out to be a mother in her current state and she needs to go to the institution.

Nadia is determined to get back to her daughter in 2022, even if it means crossing into the future. When she gets a call from Maxine informing her that Ruth has been brought in with a blood clot in her lung, Nadia knows she has to go back. She boards the northbound train and heads back to 2022, where she reunites with her daughter. ..

Nadia makes it to the hospital, where Lizzie and Max are quite happy to take care of baby Nadia while adult Nadia heads in to find Ruth. She’s not dying after all, given she’s inexplicably jumped back to a week before her 40th birthday. And at the same time, Nadia is also in the present.

Nadia finds herself in a hospital that is constantly changing, as different versions of her past self are scattered throughout. As the timelines continue to collapse, Nadia must find a way to stop Nadia from taking her younger self out of the correct time period. ..

Nadia finds numerous body bags, all of which contain her. Now, someone far wiser than myself may correlate this to the number of times Nadia died in season 1, but without going back and counting every death, I’d imagine this is pretty accurate. There’s also one of Alan too.

Meanwhile, in East Berlin 1962, Agnes is stopped at the station when she tells the officer that he’s bound for West Berlin. She doesn’t have the clearance to go unfortunately, and as such Agnes is told to head home. After getting on the train, Alan finds himself lost in time as well, thanks to Nadia bringing her younger self out of the correct sequence of events.

As the timelines converge, viewers see a trippy montage of visuals and different events overlapping over one another. Numerous Oatmeals jumping on a counter at the shop; Alan finding Ferran stumbling with a drunk Alan through the park; Nadia rushing to Alan’s apartment; then eventually they find one another. In the chaos, Alan and Nadia eventually come face to face, in the very bathroom where season 1 saw Nadia start her time loop adventure.

The Episode Review

Nadia’s sudden appearance in the last episode caused a lot of chaos, as she experienced the same phenomena as everyone else. I feel that if Nadia had grabbed the baby and headed onto the train, everything would have been much more smooth sailing.

The new season of “Stranger Things” seems to be leaning more into horror than its predecessor, but I can’t help but feel that it’s lost some of the tight-knit intricacies that made the first season so engrossing. It was your typical Groundhog Day/Happy Death Day scenario; a sprinkling of humor and clever wits added in. ..

The season 2 finale looks set to kick things into high gear.