Summary
Undone is back, and the animated series remains one of the most ambitious shows on television.
This recap of Amazon’s Undone season 2, episode 1, “The Cave,” contains spoilers.
Access the archive of news, recaps, and reviews for Undone.
Undone season 2, episode 1 recap
At the end of Undone’s freshman season, Alma (Alita: Battle Angel’s Rosa Salazar) looks up at some ruins and the sunrise. She pulls an Emma Stone in Birdman as her eyes widen, seeing something in the sky. Did her father, Jacob (Bob Odenkirk), come back to the present day?
The possibility poses many questions. Is it just a figment of Alma’s schizophrenic imagination if Jacob returns? The series did a beautiful job of toeing the line of the argument that Alma/Jacob is, in fact, involved in time travel, or does Alma have a behavioral disorder that causes her to have hallucinations and delusions?
Alma gets her answer quickly. As Becca walks away and calls her mother to tell her she is bringing her home, Alma sees some lights flicker and flash in the cave. She enters, and the lights dissipate. Since nothing is there, she leaves the game, falls to her knees, and cries. When an old lady approaches her and asks if she is okay. Alma tells her how she is fucked up, and now she will head back to the car so her sister can take her home. Of course, the woman points out there is no car. Becca is gone.
Alma calls her cell, and Becca picks up. She sounds like she just woke up. That’s because Becca is on her honeymoon. She married Reed. Alma now realizes what has happened. She heads back home to find her mom crying. Of course, Camila says everything is fine. This being an alternate timeline, and everything she went through in her past that we saw last season, Camila is understandably unhappy. Alma moves to her Dad’s office, and he is at his desk. And he now has a full head of white hair.
Alma says hello and how she can’t believe it’s you. Jacob does not catch on at first. He has been living in this different timeline for decades. Those linear paths finally came to a cross. Jacob sees the look in her eyes and realizes this is Alma. His Alma. She is finally here. Alma’s consciousness has now merged into this alternate timeline. What makes this even more interesting, she has also tapped in and retained her memories from the timeline she is what amounts to illegally subletting.
The ending
The rest of the episode shows Alma, every time she deals with stress, begins to be surrounded by clouds and free fall. It doesn’t matter where she is. In a car, at the dinner table, it has descended through the clouds and pierced the sky. For example, when she sees someone hit by a truck, the descent happens. Except when she was at the dinner table with her parents, Becca, and her husband Reed, she has it when her mother makes a personal phone call, and Alma finds herself landing in front of her parents’ house. She then sees her mother talking to a faceless man in a black sedan. His name is Alejandro, and she tells him he has to go now.
When Alma confronts her father about this, he doesn’t want to hear it because he tries to make the most out of this second chance. Then Alma approaches her sister about their mother. It becomes apparent that the vision Alma saw was something Becca witnessed and not her! Alma then assumed that Becca was admitting to viewing memories and could time travel like her.
The episode ends with Becca looking upset and scared. She then replies, “What?”
Is Jacob refusing to attempt his talents of time travel just a metaphor for taking his medications and keeping his possible mental health condition under control? Are these episodes that Alma is experiencing harnessing her powers to time travel? Or is her brain protecting her from upsetting situations? Was Becca admitting to Alma’s same powers, or did she simply state she was experiencing a simple phenomenon such as deja vu?
Or could this all be in Alma’s head?
What did you think of Amazon’s Undone season 2, episode 1? Let us know in the comments below!
