Russian Doll – Exquisite Corpse

By: Kelly Kearney

The fifth installment of Season 2 of Russian Doll finds Nadia kicking this space-time-continuum into hyper speed as she soars through a trippy look into her family’s past and she comes to the realization that history, like intergenerational trauma, exists in an unbreakable repetitive cycle that cannot be avoided, changed or prevented. Like iconic author and misanthropist Charles Bukowski once said, “What matters most is how well you walk through the fire,” and in this episode Nadia’s taking Chuck’s word for it and dancing through the flames of her disappointing past in hopes it will guide her towards a happier present.

Budapest 1944

When we last saw Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) she was boarding the train to New York in ‘82 but when she disembarks this time, Astor Place has shockingly turned into post-World War II Hungary. Her reflection reveals the face of her grandmother, young Vera—meaning her Hungarian has never been better. She tries it out on a soldier hoping he can help her find the man whose name is signed on itemized receipt she has for the Krugerrands. We can assume Nadia thinks all Nazis know each other. She’s interrupted when her strange woman referring to her as “Erzebet” drags her away from the soldier – angry that she wasn’t flying under the radar. Vera is a widower and if she’s not careful the woman says that she could wind up like her mother. Apparently, her family didn’t survive World War II and this woman was simply looking out for her. After that surprising encounter Nadia heads to her grandmother’s apartment in Budapest. She finds it mostly empty and what little is left behind seems like someone was in a hurry to leave. That’s when she hears a noise and it sounds like someone is calling out to her. When she finds out where it’s coming from, she sees it’s young Delia (Franciska Farkas) who invites her inside a secret hiding place behind a mirror. In the hidden room the two women share a flask as Nadia asks her about the gold train. Delia isn’t sure where this train is, but she does know that all their belongings were placed in a warehouse by the Nazis. The Russians haven’t landed in Hungary yet, so the Nazis are still hoarding everyone’s valuables. It’s time for Nadia to break into that warehouse take back her family fortune to try and right the wrongs history laid upon her weary shoulders.

When Nadia does get inside the warehouse it is full, from floor to ceiling, of Jewish possessions stolen from the Hungarians who were forced to live under their genocidal oppression. It also seems like their possessions are going to be put up for sale–sold to the public at the highest price. As she searches the warehouse she finds in a room filled with crates and containers and all of them are labeled by number, not by name. After some searching she finally discovers her family’s box and inside it is the duffel bag and piles of jewels, silver place settings and whatever else was considered valuable at the time. That was easy enough and she stuffs the bag full of her family’s treasures then walks out of the warehouse like she was meant to be there. It’s not long before we see Nadia breaking through the subway wall to store the duffel bag full of Krugerrands. She marks the spot with an “X” and draws up a map for Vera to find it. We know she does eventually find it because in the beginning of the series we saw an older Vera smashing through the subway wall and retrieving the duffel bag.

Next, Nadia wakes up in a church. It is still in 1944 Budapest, but it is the parish run by Father Laszlo (Ákos Orosz). This is the big surprise since his name was scrawled on the gravestone that she and Maxine woke up on after their DMT trip in present day Hungary. What’s interesting about this is Father Laszlo, presumably a Catholic, was buried in a Jewish cemetery; we know this based on the tradition of laying stones upon his grave. Knowing Laszlo is a Jewish ally Nadia thinks he is just the guy to do her family a solid. She asks him to mail the map pointing out the hidden Krugerrands to her grandmother Vera Pechauer in New York. He agrees but won’t discuss it in the church—God isn’t the only ears listening and asks Nadia to meet him later that evening at the train station. While its true, survival was gifted to those Jews who remained unnoticed, Lazlo could also want to know more about her parting words–not only does he die an old man but also a widower; something that seems to fly in direct conflict with the covenant of Catholicism.

Breaking The Ties That Bind Time

Later that night Nadia waits at the train station with the map in hand for Father Laszlo. Unfortunately, she drops it and a very loud woman picks it up and starts yelling in the crowd “Vera Pechauer!” Nadia panics, especially after what she was told about Vera’s parents not surviving the war, and quickly grabs the map out of the woman’s hands and shoves it into Laszlo’s, who just arrived in the middle of the chaos. With the map heading to her grandmother and her job done in 1944 Hungary, Nadia boards the train back to present day New York before the Nazi soldiers can grab her.

Next, we revisit the moment where Vera (Irén Bordán) digs the bag out of the subway wall and when she boards the train with Delia (Athina Papadimitriu) she’s thrilled she finally found her missing fortune. The year is 1968 and the two friends decide they’re going to cash in the riches and turn it into gold – Krugerrands to be exact. The two, including Nadia still swimming around her grandmother’s head, go to the bank to have the valuables appraised. When the banker asks how they want the payment instead of the suggested cash Delia steps in and says Vera would prefer the payout to be in gold. Apparently, gold never depreciates but cash, depending on the political and socio-economic status of a country, can and these women aren’t taking any chances. As Nadia listens to Delia’s back and forth with the banker something in her says to switch things up. The Krugerrands was a part of her family’s history that kicked off generations of trauma, maybe if the valuables were never turned into gold things would be different? She speaks up and tells Delia she wants another form of currency, but Delia shoots her down and they walk off with a duffel bag full of krugerrands.

All Aboard!

Feeling like everything she did was for nothing, Nadia heads back to her grandmother’s apartment where she finds young Nora dancing. The girl is happy and carefree and only wants her mother to pay attention to her, so Nadia fulfills those needs by playing mommy to her own mother who so desperately needed one. If she can’t change the future at least she can give her mother one happy moment. She tells Nora a revelation: trauma can be passed down from generation to generation and, no matter how hard you try to, it cannot be avoided. She couldn’t avoid the curse of the Krugerrands any more than Vera could – time and history are carved in stone and any attempts to change them will just loop you back to the start. The pain the women in this family went through cannot be erased and it cannot be avoided; like the fire, she must walk through it repeatedly–that is her fate.

After she watches her mother dance she makes peace with the fact her past can never fix her present and boards the train back to 2022, but something is different about this ride. What was once a straight shot from one timeline to another now seems to be collapsing into itself. When Nadia overhears a rude passenger walk past her, she follows him into the next train car–taking her to the 1980s. There she sees Vera and Delia and Ruth (Annie Murphy) waiting for a confused and very pregnant Nora (Chloë Sevigny) who walks right by like she doesn’t see them. Nadia follows behind and morphs into Vera in the 1960s and then again in 1944 Budapest. This seamless walk-through time, through her lineage, finally ends with Nadia in 2022, but she doesn’t stay there long and heads back to 1982 where she sees Nora on the train going into labor. Somehow it makes sense that a woman who’s trapped in a subway space time continuum loop also began her life on that same platform at Astor Place. Nadia has come full circle this season and now she’s about to give birth to herself! Talk about generational trauma.