This article, “who is Chezare Carrera” contains spoilers regarding the Netflix series Russian Doll season 2.
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In Russian Doll, our perilous lead Nadia Vulvokov sports a mane of luscious red locks and can normally be found dressed in black with a rather large gold chain around her neck. This chain holds her family’s one remaining Krugerrand, kept close to her heart at all times. The other gold coins went missing, along with the family fortune, under mysterious circumstances. New addition to the cast, Chezare Carrera may be at the centre of this inexplicable thievery, but just who is this mustachioed thug?
Who is Chezare Carrera in Russian Doll season 2?
Played by South African thespian Sharlto Copley (District 9), Chez is a real scumbag of a character. He smokes, he takes an array of drugs, he shamelessly steals and most importantly Chez does all these vulgar activities in the presence of a pregnant woman. The pregnant lady is none other than Nadia’s mother Lenora Vulvokov (Chloe Sevigny) and Chez’s current on again off again girlfriend. Poor Nadia is privy to all these sinful crimes even before she’s born. Lenora smokes like a chimney and happily accepts Chez’s offers of pills and criminal undertakings, but the man is an awful influence on her, a detestable individual indeed.
We’re first introduced to Chez as he escapes a possible barroom brawl at the hands of an angry drug addict, no doubt Chez is at fault somehow. He offers his pregnant partner the options of a Quaalude or a mystical pill known as a Black Beauty, then they go rob Nadia’s grandmother. He clearly has no morals or inhibitions, happy to feed his own selfish desires at every turn. The eighties Bonnie and Clyde take the family fortune without a care for the consequences. Poor Nadia spends the rest of her time travelling days trying to return her lost inheritance.
Chez is money mad and sex obsessed. When Nora eventually gives birth, surprisingly on a train platform, his mind goes straight to these two vices. He wonders how they can profit from the unusual birth story and he tells Nora to call him when she’s all sewn up. The despicable squash champ is then removed from the narrative completely. It is only in Nadia’s present that we see a much older, pitiful version of Chez, now an aging, lonely man. Nadia visits the older version of Chezare, who appears fragile and meek, in episode two. He talks of the stolen gold and her mother in a nostalgic light, although he doesn’t provide Nadia with any answers, only clues of the lost treasure.
The dirt bag boyfriend of Nora Vulvokov clearly used Nadia’s mother as a route to the family’s riches and for a little bit of sordid fun, but as with most Russian Doll characters, he’s just a passing narrative tool. There’s not much depth to his character, although he can be a lot of fun. It would have been more intriguing if Chez happened to be Nadia’s father, but this seems unlikely. Overall though, he is an entertaining if dismissible character, wrapped up in the plot to steal the Vulvokov’s fortune.
