This is a story recap of the Netflix series Russian Doll season 2 and contains spoilers as it details what happened.
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The second season of Russian Doll takes place four years after the first. Nadia and Alan have survived their time loop death cycle and managed to merge their timelines back into one in a somewhat normal, safer present. Season two throws them straight back into the existential time travelling madness as they discover a subway train, which is also a portal to the past. As you have come to expect with Russian Doll the narrative structure is meandering and highly complex. I will try my best to decipher the insanity. Here’s a breakdown of what happened in each episode of Russian Doll season 2:
Story recap – what happened in Russian Doll season 2?
Episode 1
Nadia takes the six train home and ends up travelling back in time to the eighties. Stuck in 1982 New York, she finds Chez, a dirt bag thief, who wants to steal a bag of gold coins. Nadia helps him with the robbery and goes home with the mustachioed fella. In the toilet she checks out her reflection and discovers she is inhabiting the pregnant body of her mother Lenora. She freaks out and travels back on the train to 2022, where she asks family friend Ruth about Chez and the stolen coins. Nadia then travels back to the eighties to retrieve the family fortune, but Chez has already ran off with all the money.
Episode 2
In this episode Nadia continues to hunt for her stolen inheritance. Back in 2022 she finds the older version of Chez and pays him a visit. Chez says he doesn’t have her gold, asking what happened to his old girlfriend, Lenora. Nadia sees a photograph of Chez as a squash champion and uses this clue to find him in the past. In the eighties, Chez says that he split the money with Lenora. Nadia discovers, with the help of a younger Ruth, that Lenora has already spent all the gold. She bought a sports car and some fur coats. They return the items and exchange the money for Krugerrands. Ruth even gives up her wedding ring to help out. Whilst on the train home Nadia loses the gold.
Episode 3
Nadia’s grandmother Vera explains how the Nazis stole her family’s heirlooms and placed them on a gold train to Berlin. Nadia starts to research this train and is informed that it went missing during the war. She starts to lose her mind and splits apart from the body of Lenora. She has conversations with Nora and is subsequently thrown into a mental hospital. She escapes and travels back to 2022. Nadia finds a receipt for the gold train items behind an old photograph. The receipt is signed by a Nazi Captain in 1944 Budapest.
Episode 4
Alan decides to take the six train to the past himself and inhabits the body of his grandmother Agnes. She was a student in 1962 East Berlin. Alan starts a romance with a German student called Lenny, who plans to tunnel to West Berlin to see his family. Nadia travels to Budapest in the present with her friend Maxine. They hunt down a relative of the Nazi Captain called Kristof. The grandson invites them to a party, where they all take drugs. Nadia goes back on the train, but awakens in 1944 Budapest instead of eighties New York.
Episode 5
In this episode Nadia inhabits the body of her grandmother Vera in forties Hungary. She finds her family’s heirlooms in a crate in a Nazi occupied warehouse and decides to hide them in a tunnel wall. Nadia makes a map of where to find the riches and has a priest post the directions to Vera’s future American address. The train then takes Nadia to 1968 New York where Vera has just retrieved the handbag of riches and exchanges it for the Krugerrands. Nadia is unable to stop history from repeating itself. She accepts that the gold will eventually be stolen again and hides it in the exact same place as before. The train journey home turns into an infinite loop, with each carriage being a different time period and then Nora’s waters break.
Episode 6
Nora gives birth on the six train platform. Nadia decides she is going to take the baby back to the future, which in turn breaks time. In 2022 Ruth has a blood clot and is in a critical condition. Nadia goes to visit Ruth, with the baby version of herself in her arms. At the hospital time starts to act erratically. Sometimes Ruth is recovering from her car accident, other times she is dying. Nadia has a breakdown and flees. She ends up in the mortuary, where she finds her own corpse multiple times. Alan’s reality is also collapsing around him and he rushes to Nadia’s apartment. Alan doesn’t find her there and ends up at Nadia’s thirty-sixth birthday party again, where Nadia and the baby reconnect with him.
Episode 7
Alan argues with Nadia, telling her she has broken time with her actions. Nadia refuses to solve the problem, happy to stay in this new reality until she witnesses infinite Ruth’s walking up the stairs to her party. They decide to get back on the train and resolve the time dilemma. They are both ran over by a hurtling carriage and awaken in a void. Alan speaks with Agnes and Nadia with her mother. Alan realises that it’s OK to make mistakes and Nadia finally accepts her mother. They both return to the present where it is Ruth’s funeral. Nadia stares into the mirror’s reflection and smiles.
That’s the full story recap of what happened in Netflix’s Russian Doll, season 2. What are your thoughts on the story? Please comment below.
