Russian Doll season 2 follows Nadia and Alan on an existential adventure into the past where they explore their family’s legacy and rediscover their true selves.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) had learned some valuable lessons about her life in the previous season. Between Ruth and her own traumatized childhood, she still finds time to crib about the crisis called life.
But not for too long, as just ten days before her 40th birthday, she takes a subway and mysteriously travels back to the past to the year 1982.
Soon, she encounters Chez (Sharlto Copley) who seems to recognize Nadia. They head to a house where Chez steals a bag. At Nadia’s place, she comes across a reflection of herself in the mirror and sees a pregnant version of her mother instead.
She has been transported back in time to when her mother was pregnant with her and now stands to relive her mother’s life. She travels back to the present day and heads to Alan (Charlie Barnett) to tell him about her latest experience
Nadia visits her aunt Ruth (Elizabeth Ashley), who’s admitted to the hospital, to find out more about her mother and Chez’s relationship. Aunt Ruth tells Nadia that it was Chez who made her mom lose all the family money. Nadia travels through the subway again to verify this information. On the other side, Alan too decides to take the subway out of curiosity.
Nadia asks Chez about robbing her grandma’s Krugerrand gold coins. When she returns from the bathroom, she finds Chez fleeing with the coins. The next morning, Nadia, who is Nora in 1982, is confronted by her grandma, Vera, regarding the gold coins.
Nadia decides to find Chez to get her ancestral gold coins back. She returns to the present time and uses the internet to find Chez’s current address. She visits an older Chez and tries to ask him about the specifics of his location after he fled with the gold.
There, she finds out that Chez was a member of the Bowery Recreation Center where he used to play squash. She finds Chez, who tells her that she came last night to take the gold back. Nadia realizes that her mom Nora bought a car with the money.
She decides to return the car. On her way, she meets Delia, who has been tasked by Nadia’s grandmother to take all the stuff back. She also comes across her younger aunt Ruth who accompanies her to return the car.
At the car outlet, she realizes that she didn’t pay for the car in gold coins. She finds some fur coats in the trunk of the car and takes the money she got after returning the car, along with the fur coats, to the store where she sold the Krugerrands in exchange. On the owner’s refusal to return all of the Krugerrands, Ruth sacrifices her dead lover’s ring to compensate for the remaining amount.
On her way to return the coins to her grandmother, she sees Alan on a train on the other track. In this moment of distraction, her bag of coins goes missing. She comes to know from her grandmother, Vera, that the Krugerrands had a history of going missing before too.
This revelation about the ancestral treasure sends Nadia looking for more clues as she gets convinced that stopping the gold coins from going missing the first time will correct the cycle.
But, by this time, Nadia (as Nora) starts hallucinating, going through the same mental trauma as her mother. With the help of the librarian, Nadia comes to know that the gold train, on which her family’s possessions were transferred during World War II, was robbed on the way.
Nadia realises she has to prevent it from happening to set things straight. Just a few minutes later, she’s taken to the psychiatric hospital as she continues to see her mother’s hallucinations. Nadia finally starts experiencing the trauma her mother went through and realizes the gravity of her mother’s suffering.
She escapes the asylum and travels back to the present time where she meets Alan, who’s been travelling to East Germany and experiencing his grandmother Agnes’ life. Alan has grown closer to Lenny (Sandor Funtek), Agnes’ lover, who’s been trying to tunnel his way to West Germany. Alan tries to convince Lenny to drop the plan.
The next time Nadia takes the subway, she travels to 1944 Budapest as her grandmother Vera. She meets the younger Delia who tells Nadia that the belongings of the Jews are kept in a warehouse. Nadia plans to retrieve her family’s belongings.
She gets to the warehouse and finds her family’s belongings. She hides it inside a tunnel and marks the place to find it later. She gives the letter with the location of the belongings to a priest asking him to mail the letter to Vera.
In 1968, Vera and Delia received the letter and discovered the bag left by Nadia, implying that Nadia has been successful. But Delia takes Nora to sell the belongings in exchange for Krugerrands. Nadia realizes that she has failed to change anything in the past.
Just as Nadia was returning to the present time, Nora’s water breaks. Nadia, in the form of Nora, gives birth to her baby, which, in this case, is Nadia herself.
If you have any doubts about the ending, here’s a complete breakdown.
Russia Doll season 2 ending explained in detail:
Wrinkle in time
Nadia wakes up to find Vera discussing with Ruth about taking the baby to her home and sending Nora to the asylum as she feels Nora cannot be a good mother. Nadia decides to take the baby to the future with herself.
In 1962 East Berlin, Alan, who’s been living as Agnes, tries to look for Lenny but finds out that he has already gone to West Germany through the tunnel.
On the way home, Nadia gets a call from Maxine (Greta Lee) informing her about Ruth’s pulmonary embolism. When she goes to the hospital, Nadia finds out that there are multiple Ruths in the present time. At the coroner’s, Nadia finds multiple bodies that look like her, along with one that looks like Alan.
Alan goes through the same experience where he sees a messed-up version of things where multiple timelines and events have happened to collide. By taking the baby Nadia to the future, Nadia has disrupted the flow of time leading to unexpected consequences.
Back to zero
Alan and Nadia find themselves in the bathroom of Maxine’s apartment from where everything started. Alan gets furious at Nadia for trying to change the timeline. After some hesitation, Nadia realizes her mistake.
Alan and Nadia find the train where they meet Maxine and Lizzy (Rebecca Henderson). Nadia realizes that one month has passed and Ruth has died in the meantime. She regrets not being there for Ruth during her last moments.
Immediately afterward, Alan and Nadia, along with the baby, separate and fall through a hole.
New beginnings
Nadia gets on the train and finds Nora. Nadia gives the baby to her. On the train, Nadia bids one final goodbye to Ruth as she sets on her journey to present-day New York.
Alan, on the other hand, meets his grandmother Agnes and realizes that he wasn’t supposed to stop Lenny from going to West Germany.
In 2022, Nadia goes to Maxine and Lizzy’s apartment, where a small party has been arranged in the memory of Ruth. There, she meets Alan who’s back too.
Both of them have rediscovered themselves through their journeys. The season ends with Nadia smiling as she realizes that things have finally come full circle.
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