Hey Netflix
What's this show about?
it's a long story involving multiple deaths
you had me at multiple deaths
I'll believe it when I see it
Netlfix's Russian Doll is a dramedy that follows Nadia. A cynical self-absorbed New Yorker
who must relive the same few days
over and over again
so in this video, we're going to explain the timeline, ending, and some of the details
you may have missed along the way
but in order to understand the ending, we must head to the beginning
Nadia is a chain smoking alcoholic having a self proclaimed mid-life crisis at her 36th birthday party
she's concerned over the disappearance of Oatmeal, a neighborhood cat
and when her friend Lizzie suggests she make Oatmeal and indoor cat
Nadia snaps, saying
you know, I don't believe in dictating the boundaries of a sentient being's existence
for you, it's safety
for me and Oatmeal, it's a prison
and a prison is exactly what Nadia is going to get
in her search for Oatmeal, she's struck and killed by a car but mysteriously
wakes up in the same exact spot where the episode began
the time loop that she gets caught up in is her own metaphorical prison
she in essence becomes like Oatmeal
lost, trap, but yearning to be free.
What transpires until her eventual meeting with Allan in Episode 3 is a search for answers.
She spends Episode 2 tracking down Wardog, who she finds out laced Maxine's joint with Ketamine.
But when she rules that out as the culprit, she loses all hope and spirals into a binge of alcohol and cocaine.
The symbolism of the door handle gun and pipe gun,
evident that she both killing herself both physically and mentally
She doesn't know this yet, but until she can heal the underlying problems
of what's causing her to act this way
nothing will change
and thus, she is doomed to repeat her 36th birthday
most terrifying day of her life
over and over again
and her 36th birthday carries extra significance
because it's also how old her mother was when she died
and understanding her relationship with her mother is key to unlocking the reason why Nadia is stuck
in this loop
but we'll get to that in a bit.
in episode three Nadia believes that her friends loft where the party was held
has something to do with this lope because it was formally a religious
Yeshiva building and it may have
somehow cursed her
so she asked her ex john to talk to
the rabi and get some answers and the rabi lets out
this piece of information
mysticism features that their is wisdom
inaccessible to the intellect
you can only reach it through surrender being nothing
and Nadia hasn't surrendered yet she hasn't
opened herself up to the thing that causes her the most pain
Until that shell remain haunted
and as the rabi says about the building the buildings aren't haunted
the people are. It's only when Nadia meats
Allen a man who also suffers from this perpetual
death loop that they both start to get some answers
and Allen is a great foil to Nadia because
he's the exact opposite he's a clean freak
likes control and structure he cares for others
namely Beatris and he's weak and timid
The meeting of Allen and Nadia is because
only by them working together
can they solve the mystery of the time loop as Farren says
no one can do anything by themselves Allen and Nadia teach each other
lessons that will help them unlock the pain that is
deeply rooted in themselves the pain neither
of them want to confront Allen instead of confronting it
throws himself off of a roof Nadia does it by
distancing herself from those who care for her the most
her friends and john she also does this
by not confronting the guilt she feels
for her mothers death in episode seven Nadia's
haunted by the ghost of her younger self it's a reminder
of what she did to her mother she confides in Ruth
telling her that when the social worker asked if she
would rather live with Ruth or her mother she chose Ruth
and within a year her mother had killed herself
so she now feels guilt for that decision even though it was clearly
the right decision due to
her mother being mentally unstable
Allen needs to get over Beatris and
let her be whoever she wants to be he visits her and
lets it all out his true feelings
not only about her but about himself he tells her he finally lets someone
help him and she ask who as we immediately cut to
Nadia and her seen where she opens up to Ruth
We have two characters one right after the other opening up
about their deepest fears finally confronting them
it is only then that the loop is fixed and they die
one final time but the story isn't over here
they have broken the loop but are given one final chance to make things right early on
in the last episode both Nadia and Allen realize that
they are in two separate time lines where neither recognizes the
other Nadia must save Allen
who is drunk and unstable from committing suicide
While Allen must save Nadia from getting run over by a car
Nadia follows Allen and watches him
so he doesn't go over the roof while Allen must convenes Nadia
he knows her by reveling the exact amount
her grandmother made by selling the gold bullion
and eventually saves her from getting run over by the
car. Nadia sums up the events quite beautifully by
telling a drunk Allen a story that quote
Life was to painful or they were to fragile
then one night something miraculous happened
They made it through alive and they did
but theirs one final problem in each timeline
now have versions of themselves which are the
same destructive selves seen in episode one
But this time they have each other as Nadia and
Allen say you promise if I don't jump I'll be happy
I don't know man
appositely not
but I
can promise you that you'll not be alone
and in each timeline they walk off together friends
helping each other over come their faults
ready to take on the world renewed and full of hope theirs
also the matter of how the timeline
works it's best summed up in episode seven when Nadia uses the orange
to explain the theory or relativity essentially the
outer layers of the rotten fruit and dead
flowers we've seen throughout the season experience
time differently than the inside
like how the orange rotten on the outside
but fine on the inside the outer layer
experiences time differently than the inside
just like how Nadia and Allen experience
time different from everyone else Nadia
equates their current situation to programming because she is a precoder
sometimes you have a crash which is caused by a bug
their crash is death and their bug is reliving the same loop
over and over if the can fix this bug they
can stop the crash and the way to do that is to
go back to the moment they first met at the deli
and that's exactly what they do by meeting
and helping each other on that faithful night
they can prevent this all from happening in the first place
Russian Doll isn't just a long story involving
multiple deaths it's a
story of two people finding each other confronting
their inner demons and moving on with their lives to help others
and also kick ass hobo parades
Thanks everyone for watching make sure to give this video a like and to
subscribe and leave me a comment telling me what you thought about the show
I have more videos coming up so make sure that the bell is on and as always remember
Daddy loves you very much
English