Russian Doll released its season 2 on Netflix on April 20th, 2022, continuing Nadia's (Natasha Lyonne) adventures of time loops. At the end of season one, Nadia and Alan (Charlie Barnett) finally broke their timelines and ended the series by joining a costume parade. Season two of Russian Doll was not short of mind-bending twists. Even though Nadia and Alan no longer worried about reliving the same day over, they were now able to time travel across dimensions.
Before viewers try to unpack what season 2 or even the series finale meant for Nadia and Alan's future, this might be a good time to relive Nadia's unfortunate deaths from season one. Among her 26 deaths across the eight episodes, some of her last moments before resetting were utterly bizarre and somewhat funny.
This article contains spoilers for season one ofRussian Doll.
10. Broken Elevator
Even though Nadia might be slightly irritated with this constant "Groundhog Day" style reset, she seemed pretty accustomed to it. Similarly, at this point, viewers grew accustomed to Nadia dying. Viewers who watched shows like Euphoria, Orange Is The New Black, or even How I Met Your Mother, may have grieved over the deaths of well-liked characters, but in the case of Russian Doll, viewers knew death was temporary for Nadia.
In episode 3, "A Warm Body," Nadia stood in a crowded elevator when the elevator stopped. All the other people panicked, but a man (Alan) stood unfazed. When Nadia asked why he wasn't panicking that he might die, the man replied "It doesn't matter. I die all the time". While at first, this might seem weird to hear this from a stranger in an elevator, it gave clues that Nadia wasn't alone in her time loop.
9. Breaking and Entering
One of the ways that Nadia wanted to change her behavior was to fix her relationship with her ex-boyfriend, John (Yul Vazquez). She wanted to give his daughter a book that was at Ruth's home. However, Nadia learned from her past deaths that her death was inevitable if she went to Ruth's the following morning.
So in episode 5, "Superiority Complex," Nadia decided to walk unlock Ruth's apartment the night before and grab the book without disturbing Ruth. As Nadia grabbed the book from the cabinet, she was shot in the back by Ruth. Ruth assumed that a stranger was breaking into her home, and was surprised to realize it was only Nadia.
8. Too Many Stairs
One of the most ongoing deaths for Nadia in episode 2, "The Great Escape," was a flight of stairs. However, viewers might recall that Nadia almost fell down a flight of stairs in the previous episode. As Nadia was exiting her party, Mike stood outside the door on the phone and caught Nadia at the last second before she fell down the stairs. This might have been the only time that she safely exited the stairwell.
Nadia didn't fall down the stairs once, she fell down the stairs three times. Each time that she walked down the stairs she either tripped over the stairs or bumped into someone causing her to fall. She eventually resorted to taking the fire escape.
7. Sidewalk Cellar Doors
During episode 2, Nadia theorizes that the reason why she might be reliving the same day over was that she smoked Maxine's (Greta Lee) weird concoction of drugs. As Nadia left her meeting with War dog (the day after her party), she talked on the phone with John and fell through sidewalk cellar doors.
During the night of her party, Nadia visited War dog again and asked what exactly was inside the drugs. After she left War dog, she saw Alan leaving with Fahran. As she called after him, she fell through the sidewalk cellar doors the second time.
6. Fatal Gas Explosion
In episode 5, before Ruth shot Nadia, Nadia visited Ruth to discuss Nadia's mother. When Ruth decided to make tea, she lit the stove causing a gas explosion. Not only does this death occur, once but twice. The second time that Nadia died in a gas explosion, viewers learned of Alan's new death when he got hit by a car after riding on a bicycle drunk.
Nadia was cautious about Ruth trying to make tea and later warned Ruth for her not to use the stove. Nadia also called to report a gas leak in Ruth's apartment almost every time she died thereafter. However, Nadia finally did get her cup of tea in one of the scenes.
5. Bees in a Subway
In episode 6, "Reflection," Nadia helped Alan retrace his steps to help him remember what exactly was his first death. During this episode, they entered a subway station and both admitted that they were allergic to bees. The next scene showed people running from the subway station screaming.
Although there was no visual showing a swarm of bees in the subway station, it could only be assumed that the bees killed them. Following this thought, there is no explanation as to how the bees got into the subway station, and why. Therefore, allowing viewers to assume that the bees crawled their way into the station or the universe was still messing with them.
4. Falling Air Conditioner
Perhaps it wasn't a coincidence that Nadia and Alan died almost immediately after each other. Maybe Nadia and Alan's deaths were connected? In episode 5, Nadia and Alan confront each other that their deaths were separated by a few minutes. When they looked up, they saw an air conditioner falling from the top of a building killing them.
Most of the common tropes used in cartoons or fantasy shows such as Tom and Jerry are surviving a near-death experience. While Nadia and Alan don't survive the falling air conditioner, this scene is similar to the common falling piano trope. The piano slips from the ropes and crashes on an unsuspecting person. However, in Alan and Nadia's situation, there was no evidence of an air conditioner being lifted. It simply tumbled on its own from the top of the building.
3. Can't Breathe
In episode 7, "The Way Out," Nadia and Alan thought that there might be a way to break the time loop. However, when Nadia reappears in the bathroom, she noticed something was off. Her party guests disappeared, but Maxine acted as if nothing unusual was going on. As Maxine and Lizzy (Rebecca Henderson), exited the apartment to walk with Nadia to the bodega, Nadia came across a younger version of herself.
After seeing her younger self, Nadia began having what could be described as an asthma attack. Just as she was trying to figure out that breaking this endless curse might mean meeting Alan at the store, Nadia had trouble even reaching the bodega where she first saw Alan.
2. Bloody Nose
In episode 7, after seeing her younger self, Nadia reappeared in the bathroom. She noticed that more of her party guests disappeared. When she finally met Alan in the bodega, her younger self appeared again. Her younger version smiled and then blood poured from her mouth.
It was as if the universe was sending her a message that she was on the wrong path. Her time loop was more complicated than Phil's time loop in Groundhog Day, where Phil needed to steer away from this destructive behavior in order to be free.
1. Choking on a Glass Shard
Nadia's last death was gruesome as if it was straight out of a horror or a Final Destination movie. Nadia approached John's daughter in the coffee shop, and she finally handed her the book. A few minutes pass before Nadia starts coughing up blood and pulls out a glass shard from her mouth.
When Nadia pulled the glass shard, she saw her younger self sitting at the table. This death proved to be the final one for Nadia as she finally broke the time loop in season 1's penultimate episode.