So Um... Did Nadia Die In Russian Doll Season 2?
That finale was a trip.
If Season 1 of Russian Doll was a time loop, then Season 2 is a whole roller coaster filled with every twist, turn, and loop-the-loop imaginable. Instead of being stuck in the same day, Nadia gets in touch with her family history in the second season, traveling back in time to live out pivotal moments in her mother and grandmother’s lives. It all led up to an incredibly confusing Russian Doll Season 2 finale, leaving viewers wondering if Nadia and Alan died. Let’s try to explain what went down on those subway tracks.
Spoiler alert: This post contains spoilers from the Russian Doll Season 2 finale. After using the subway to travel to the past all season long, the Season 2 finale saw the underground train take Nadia and Alan on their most unexpected trip yet. After hunting down their magical subway car that had been stalled on the tracks, Nadia and Alan were hit by the subway and woke up in a strange new realm.
Both Nadia and Alan were just as confused about their fates as viewers, especially once they encountered their dead relatives in the underground world. Alan met his grandmother Agnes, and asked “Am I dead?,” but didn’t get an answer. He did get some cryptic information about this strange area, though, which is apparently called the void. “We call it the void,” Agnes said. “It’s an empty pocket of space leftover from a job that was never completed.”
Likewise, Nadia also asked her mother Nora if she’s dead when she saw her in a subway car. “Just because I came before you doesn’t mean I have all the answers,” Nora responded.
After having cathartic moments with their loved ones — Alan learned to stop dwelling on past mistakes and Nadia fully accepted Nora as her mother — Nadia and Alan escaped the void and reunited at Ruthie’s memorial get-together at Maxine’s. So, if they were dead, it seems like they were brought back to life before the end of the season.
While the void is purposefully left unexplained, it definitely felt like it was the show’s version of the afterlife, or at least some sort of limbo where the spirits of the dead can come in contact with the living. Hopefully, its introduction in the finale means the void will be further explored in a potential Season 3, which could finally give Russian Doll fans some answers about why Nadia and Alan are connected to these space-time distortions.
