Russian Doll Summary: Derailed


Russian doll

exquisite corpse

Season 2

episode 5

Publisher Rating

4 stars

Photo: Netflix

With “Exquisite Corpse”, Russian doll makes his biggest trip yet: to Budapest in 1944, shortly before the Soviet army invaded the city. Nadia boarded a 6 train intending to go to 1982, probably planning to open some floorboards in Vera’s apartment. Now she is in her grandmother’s hometown. Y body.

I have been trying to figure out the broad outlines of how time travel works in Russian doll. Given what happened to the savings/fortune of the original Peschauer family, this mode of transportation makes sense. Nadia’s first trip back in time seems to have been mostly spontaneous: Ruth is the one who mentions Nora in the premiere episode, which, in hindsight, shows how worried she’s been with her old friend. After that, Nadia could summon the train that she travels through time at will. Alan was able to join in the fun, suggesting that he and Nadia are in another round of self-exploration together. Although he consciously chose to board that train, he did not know where (or when or to whom) he was going. But eventually, he too could easily return to a specific time and place (1962 Berlin).

The train seems to operate on conscious and subconscious desires: it carries both conscious (Alan) and unconscious (Nadia, on her first trip) passengers. Sometimes it takes them exactly when and where they want to go. At other times, as we have seen with Nadia, the train travels further into the past to a time and place where the person needs to be, even if they don’t realize it.

Nadia has said on more than one occasion that she will travel back in time as much as necessary and do whatever it takes to make things right. In “Exquisite Corpse,” she gets a chance at her as she navigates the most dangerous scenario of the season so far. Her bravado was always a bit strange when she was in Nora, but as a teenage Vera walking through Nazi-occupied Budapest, she’s a potential liability. Even going back to Vera’s house on Dohány Street (the first stop on her trip to Budapest in 2022) is a riskier proposition, since it’s located inside the Budapest ghetto, part of the former Jewish quarter where the Nazis relocated people. forces the Hungarian Jews during the war.

But Nadia is so sure she’s finally found the right combination of time and place to undo generations of damage, intentional or not, that she’s initially unfazed by the sight of the Hungarian guards at the Keleti train station. She even talks to one of them for a bit before a young woman intervenes, apologizing for her fellow young widow. Nadia tries to get her help in tracking down the Peschauer family’s valuables, which only upsets the woman, who, like Vera (before Nadia arrived), has been disguising herself as a widow. “Do you want to end up like your mother?” the woman warns. This briefly throws Nadia. She can only muster a sad “Already?” her when she realizes that her great-grandparents and other relatives of hers have been forced into concentration camps.

“Do you want to end up like your mother?” That question follows the Peschauer women regardless of the year or the city. It was one of Nadia’s biggest fears in 2019 and, as we saw in “Brain Drain,” it’s one that she hasn’t fully resolved. In the 1980s, Nora criticized that she did not resemble her mother, Vera, whom she saw as a “puppeteer”. For Vera in 1944 it was imperative not to end up like her mother.

We don’t get to see exactly how Vera avoided her mother’s fate despite being alone. Presumably, she had some help from Delia, who has been hiding in the walls of her building. No wonder Delia defended Vera so fiercely to Nadia-Nora (and probably to the usual Nora): her bond was forged in the darkest of times. But here, she and Vera are still young enough that Delia doesn’t try to dissuade Nadia-Vera from seeking the family fortune, which is “stored” in a warehouse (the train will arrive later) where the belongings of the Jews are kept. Hungarians. they are picked up by their former neighbors.

Although Nadia-Vera has some fun at the expense of another Hungarian guard, the mood returns to melancholy as she searches for her family’s valuables. She subtly shakes her head at all the china and cutlery, art and furniture; she is speechless for the third time in this episode, which contributes to her thoughtful tone. When Nadia-Vera finds the family lot (No. 1407), this is the quietest stretch of the entire series. She packs the jewelry and other valuables into a familiar-looking leather bag and manages to make it out of the building undetected (from the looks of the other boxes, this isn’t the first time someone has done this).

Nadia hides the belongings in a tunnel (which also looks familiar), makes a map for herself, and then tracks down the priest László (the name of his church, St. Anne’s, was on his tombstone). Even in this supposed sanctuary, Nadia-Vera remembers her tense situation; as she tells László, for people like her, being “welcomed” actually means “tolerated”. But she can’t fix this part of the past. All she can do is go ahead with her plan, which fits almost perfectly despite a tense moment at the Keleti station. She knows the address of the cousin who offered to take Vera in after the war (his letter was among the things she took from Vera’s apartment in “Brain Drain”), so she knows when and where to send the map that will eventually will guide her. her grandmother to her family’s valuables.

When Nadia boards train 6622, she truly hopes for the best: “This will change everything for my family.” She cuts to the opening scene of the second season, with Vera retrieving the bag from the tunnel. But this can’t be right: if Nadia has changed the past, why exactly is this scene happening again?

Nadia certainly seems to think she achieved her goal. When she sees Delia on the train, she is relieved: Nadia has managed to steal time with fewer mishaps than the Avengers. But there is an unmistakable air of inevitability in these final moments of the fifth episode. Nadia revels in her success: “I think I finally changed what happened, which could change what happened to Vera, which will change what happens to Nora, which will change what happens to me.” It’s the butterfly effect, right? If Nadia stopped the Nazis from taking the family’s valuables from her, then it won’t matter if Nora steals the Krugerrands later. Hell, maybe there won’t be any Krugerrands because Vera won’t be as determined to have an exit strategy.

But as Ruth would say, nothing in life is easy except pissing in the shower. After all her efforts and time travel, and it is not known what she has neglected in the present, Nadia has not changed a bit. With just a touch of resignation, she tells an even younger Nora that she can only do “what was always done.” (This news will upset Alan, who has recently accepted that time travel isn’t just for fun and that Lenny may need to be saved.) In the first season, Nadia had to learn to let go of the past; in the second season, she has to go deeper than she expected. Are these lessons at odds with each other? Is this really the end of Nadia’s time shenanigans?

Of course, no. Ultimately, it could have recreated his family’s history, but all this gambling over time can have unintended consequences. Nadia gets mugged on her journey back to 2022 for, oh, 20 years or so. That’s right: she’s inside Nora’s body again just as her water breaks. Nadia has resigned herself to the past, but clearly the past is not done with her yet.

• You may have searched for this after the first episode, but the golden train was real.

• Russian doll It’s always been built around Natasha Lyonne’s exceptional performance, but there’s more variation in “Exquisite Corpse.” She inhabits multiple roles and times, capturing Nadia’s emotional ups and downs with aplomb. Lyonne’s voice is unique, but here her jokes fade and the show relies more than ever on her expressive face.

• This episode was filmed on location in Budapest, which makes it even more moving.



Reference-www.vulture.com

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