The first season of Russian Doll showed life in a loop. Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) began every loop at her 36th birthday party, inside a bathroom, while Harry Nilsson’s “Gotta Get Up” blared. Nadia for the most part knew what to expect: once she left the bathroom, her friend Maxine (Greta Lee) would be there to greet her with a birthday chicken, and a joint laced with ketamine, and from there, the choice was hers. Nadia could party, she could go down the stairs (which she would probably fall down and die), she could go down the fire escape and live a few days before dying and restarting the loop once more. In that first season, Nadia and eventually Alan (Charlie Barnett)—who was experiencing the same time loop phenomenon—knew that if things didn’t go the right way, there was another chance to retry and start again.

But life isn’t that easy. Live is sloppy and difficult. We make a choice, that choice is set in stone. The ramifications of that decision can ripple through decades and generations. Our story isn’t just our own, it’s tied to all those who came before us, and all those who will come after us. Season 2 of Russian Doll embraces this sloppiness, this disorderliness of life, the confounding butterfly effect that our choices have that we are all tied to. Time isn’t a flat circle. Time is a clusterfuck.

The second season of Russian Doll—released over three years since the debut of Season 1 —finds Nadia a few days before her fortieth birthday, generally the same as we last remember her. She’s trying to stop smoking, as her lungs are “two shriveled up Nick Caves,” and she finds herself spending more time keeping an eye on Ruth (Elizabeth Ashley), whose trips to the hospital are becoming concerning.

russian doll season 2
Image via Netflix

RELATED: ‘Russian Doll’ Season 1 Recap: Everything You Need to Know Before Season 2

After a trip on the New York City subway, Nadia finds herself in 1982, and Nadia attempts to try and fix her mom's past mistakes. But as Season 1 showed us, fixing the past isn’t as easy as it might seem, especially when Nadia’s subway trips take her forward and backward in time, continuously throwing her into unexpected times, places, and situations.

Season 1 worked like clockwork, with a compact and brilliant story told over the course of eight episodes that made it seem like a second season wasn’t necessary. By comparison, Season 2 is intentionally shaggy, as this story twists the past and present into a gigantic tangle of a narrative. Season 2 isn’t trying to hold the same tight structure of that first season, but rather, Russian Doll is attempting to create controlled chaos. If the first season explored how the choices we make inform the world around us, Season 2’s zooms out to show just how far back the past informs who we become—a much more daunting and overwhelming task to try to pull off effectively. Yet Russian Doll makes this exploration of the past in conjunction with the present work beautifully.

In order to tell this story, Season 2 latches onto the few loose ends that were left behind in Season 1 — primarily, Nadia’s fear of her past and her troubled relationship with her mother. Season 2 has Nadia mostly searching for the gold Krugerrands her mother lost, which were to be Nadia’s inheritance, yet this is just a MacGuffin for Nadia to reckon with her past and the issues that her mother had at a young age. By walking in her mother’s footsteps, Nadia is able to understand the relationship that she and her mother had with far more depth and compassion.

russian-doll-2-charlie-barnett-
Image via Netflix

But part of this reflection on the past also includes seeing just how important Ruth has been to both Lenora and Nadia, as Ruth has been the person who didn’t have to be there, but always was because of her love for these two women. Because of this, Russian Doll Season 2 is fundamentally a story about mothers, both the ones that we don’t have any choice in and the women who raise us into who we are.

This dive into Nadia’s past allows Lyonne an opportunity to showcase all her strengths as an actress. Facing her past and her mother’s past provides some truly moving moments throughout this season, as Nadia tries to accept the things that she cannot change. Season 1’s most difficult moments found Nadia coming face-to-face with the past she had tried too hard to avoid, and by succumbing to that past in this new season makes the emotional payoff even greater. But as always, Nadia remains a hilarious and unpredictable character, always ready with a charming aside, or a great line made for quoting. Lyonne, who also wrote or co-wrote four of this season’s seven episodes, and directed three episodes, has expanded who this character is in remarkable and magnificent ways.

Russian Doll Season 2 is also a feat of writing, a tangled ball of yarns that somehow all comes together masterfully. The writers for Season 2 know that the audience and these characters have seen plenty of time travel stories, which allows them to have fun by defying expectations. Is there something that everyone agrees shouldn’t be done in a time travel story? Well, then Russian Doll is gonna do it. But the series, for the most part, also handles time with a fairly straightforward and universal truth of these types of stories, in that the past can’t be changed, but exploring the past can help one learn more about yourself and make one a better person.

russian doll season 2 netflix
Image via Netflix

Thankfully, the writing this season allows more opportunities for the supporting cast to shine. A journey for answers teams up Nadia and Maxine for one of the season’s best episodes, while Alan once again gets his own series of adventures, which plays with the same basic ideas as Nadia’s story, but also tells an equally fascinating story about acceptance of the unknowable and not being afraid to make the wrong move. Season 2 also offers plenty of time with Ruth, both in the modern-day and in the 1980s. Ruth and her adoration for Nadia and Lenora is key to this season and the show in general, so it’s great that this season allows for plenty of time with Russian Doll’s most underrated character.

Russian Doll’s second season is a truly wild ride, even when compared to the circuital first season, but it’s the looseness and free-flowing exploration of the past that makes this season so remarkable. By untethering this season from a specific pattern, Russian Doll can delve into much more open territory and expand this world in a way that would’ve been impossible with the first season. With its second season, Russian Doll crafts a narrative that is far more confounding and less structured than the first, and while it might not always work, the result is a season that is far more layered, emotionally satisfying, and engrossing than the pristine nature of the first season. Time travel, what a concept!

Rating: A-

Russian Doll Season 2 comes to Netflix on April 20.