In the first season of ‘Russian Doll,’ Nadia Vulvokov (Natasha Lyonne), the series’ boisterous and indisputably New Yorker protagonist, was trapped in a time loop in which she died and returned to the same bathroom in her friend’s apartment on her 36th birthday. Nadia, who is approaching her fortieth birthday in season 2, finds herself traveling back in time everytime she travels the 6 trains from 77th Street.

She is initially perplexed, perplexed, and exasperated, recognizing that she is once again on the receiving end of the universe’s weird sense of humor. But then she resolves to make the best of it by changing her history in order to improve her future. This has unavoidable implications, including the collapse of time. Here’s all you need to know about the season 2 finale of ‘Russian Doll.’ WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

Recap of Russian Doll Season 2

Nadia and Alan (Charlie Barnett) have been stuck in the time loop for nearly three years. Since then, they’ve spent Nadia’s birthdays on high alert in order to avoid triggering the circle of deaths and mirrors again. Nadia (Elizabeth Ashley) sees Ruth (Elizabeth Ashley) at a clinic ten days before her 40th birthday after the latter gets involved in a fender bender. She phones Maxine (Greta Lee) in the evening as she walks near the latter’s residence. Maxine’s first words to her are about human embryos and the stage where they have slits in their necks like fish. Nadia boards the 6 train at 77th Street and arrives at Astor Place in 1982.

Nadia meets a shady character named Chez or Chezare Carrera (Sharlto Copley), who appears to know her. Realization dawns on her as she stands in front of a mirror. She is taking over her mother’s thoughts and body while she is significantly pregnant. The time loops were terrible enough; this pushes things to a whole new level, especially given Nadia’s unresolved issues with her mother.

She understands, after overcoming her first shock, that she has traveled back in time to the day her mother stole the Krugerrands from her grandmother, Vera. Vera received 150 Krugerrands in exchange for the remaining family possessions after WWII. The gold coins were supposed to go toward Nadia’s education fund, but she only received one, which she now wears around her neck.

Nadia finds she has the ability to travel back in time to 1982 and attempts to remake history by guaranteeing that the Krugerrands remain in the family. But no matter what she does or how much she affects history, the timeline readjusts and the family always loses the Krugerrands. She falls asleep and misses her stop one time, ending up in Budapest, Hungary, in 1944, in her grandmother’s thoughts and body.

She tries to obtain the original treasures for her family, but the history shifts, and it’s back to the Krugerrands. Meanwhile, Alan has grown increasingly dissatisfied with the course of his life. He hears about the 6 trains time travel from Nadia and decides to try it, landing up in 1962 East Germany, where he develops romantic feelings for his grandma Agnes’ (Carolyn Michelle Smith) boyfriend, Lenny.

Nadia forces time to collapse in the season 2 finale, dubbed ‘Matryoshka,’ after giving birth to herself at a 6-train station and fleeing to the future with her infant self. She and Alan both learn that they are at the same 36th birthday celebration from which they have spent their entire lives attempting to escape.

Russian Doll Season 2 Finale: Does Nadia’s Future Change? Do Nadia and Alan have the ability to prevent time from collapsing?

In the first season of ‘Russian Doll,’ the existential dilemma was central to the plot. The focus shifts to family in season 2. Nadia essentially takes over the minds and bodies of Nora (Chlo Sevigny) and Vera, witnessing their situations directly. We get the idea in the first season that Nora is mentally ill, albeit the type of condition is never actually described. She buys a carload of melons, steals family antiques, engages in drug use, and makes Nadia the target of many of her tantrums.

Nadia’s greatest concern is that she may become ill in the same way. Nadia, on the other hand, unintentionally mimics her mother’s behavior: she drinks, smokes, and eats eggs with chili sauce for breakfast. It is extensively indicated in the first season that Nora committed suicide after losing custody of her daughter. Nadia gets to occupy her mother’s unstable mind in season 2 and begins to truly understand the other woman for the first time.

Vera is a difficult mother to live with. Her life has understandably been molded by the atrocities she witnessed during the Holocaust, resulting in a fundamental schism between her and Nora, who was born and raised in New York City. Nadia finds, while attempting and failing to reclaim ancestral fortune, that her mother did not have a flawless upbringing either. The three women are all the products of their upbringings and youth. Vera, who has lost practically everything, passionately wants to save the Krugerrands, her one remaining tie to her family. One of Nora’s motivations for stealing the Krugerrands is because it is the only means she knows of rebelling against her mother.

Nadia, on the other hand, is looking for a better life for herself. This eventually prompts her to transport her infant self to the future in order to give herself a clean slate — a fresh start — and causes the collapse of time and space. She eventually reconciles her past and present. When she finds herself in the abyss, or an empty pocket of space — “leftover from a task never finished” — she must choose between herself and the Krugerrands, and she chooses the former. Nadia eventually returns to her mother her infant self, reconciling with Nora, breaking the cycle she has created, and finally liberating herself from all the what-ifs that have plagued her thoughts for all these years.

Is Ruth going to die?

Ruth does, in fact, die in the second season of ‘Russian Doll.’ Ruth has been Nadia’s solitary mother figure — the only one who has genuinely devoted herself to Nadia’s well-being. When Nadia travels back in time to 1982, she encounters Ruth’s younger self (Annie Murphy), who has recently lost her husband. Despite Vera and Vera’s friend Delia’s sarcastic remarks about Ruth being an outsider and a widow, Ruth remains consistent in her support of Nora while the latter is pregnant.

As we saw in season 1, Ruth transforms from a supporting friend to a concerned second mother for Nadia as Nora becomes increasingly turbulent. Nadia is distraught when she learns Ruth died as a result of a pulmonary embolism. Because she was imprisoned in her own time loop, she missed the death of the only lady who had been there for her since the beginning. She arrives in Astor Place in 2022 and goes straight to Maxine’s apartment, where Ruth’s wake is being held.

Is Alan able to save Lenny?

Alan’s quest occurs concurrently with Nadia’s in both seasons. They eventually find up in the same timeframe with their memories intact in season 1. While they are no longer trapped in the time loop, Alan is imprisoned by the same memories. He still has vivid memories of killing himself. His obvious despair and life struggles have gotten too much for him to bear. As a result, when the opportunity to live in a completely different way presents itself, he happily accepts it. In 1962, he takes over the body and thoughts of his grandmother Agnes, a Ghanaian student in East Germany, and develops emotions for her boyfriend at the time, Lenny.

Alan learns that Lenny and his friends are attempting to get to West Germany via a tunnel. He tries to stop them, knowing that the tunnel will collapse, but they continue on their path. He never learns whether or not they survived. When he finally encounters Agnes in the emptiness, he discovers that she, too, was unaware. Agnes assists her grandson in discovering his actual worth before assisting him in escaping the nothingness. When Nadia arrives for Ruth’s wake, Alan is already there, smiling and confident.