Russian Doll – Station to Station

By: Kelly Kearney

In the fourth episode we follow Alan through his own space-time-subway continuum to East Berlin. Seemingly unaffected by the news of Nadia’s new nightmarish loop, Alan has been hiding his time jumps which unlike his friend’s, don’t seem to be painfully disappointing. Heading into 1962, Alan transforms into his grandmother, Agnes, and finds himself in a new relationship that he worries might end in tragedy. Should he break his own rules and use his knowledge of the future to prevent a disaster in the past? Let’s dive down this rabbit hole and find out.

Lenny, Alan, and Agnes

Opening on a very cheery Alan (Charlie Barnett) whose morning bath gets interrupted by a man named Lenny (Sandor Funtek)—and right away, we can tell this man is more than a friend. As the soundtrack of rock and roll’s greatest space and time traveler, David Bowie, sets the mood of the opening sequence we start to realize (like Nadia’s shared maternal conscience) Alan is also keeping it in the family way. He has landed inside the mind of his grandmother, Agnes (Carolyn Michelle-Smith), in post-war East Berlin. Agnes is a student from Ghana who moved to Germany during the Cold War to study. Now that East Berlin is suffocating under the Iron Curtain, she is trying to stay focused and not let the political oppression affect her and her blooming new romance. She is smitten with her love and simultaneously thrilled to be getting an education and so is Alan—he is all smiles. Considering the oppression in Europe during the time, the racism fueling a civil rights movement back in America, not to mention his seemingly straight sexuality, it is surprising how comfortable he is in this new era. But maybe it’s all about getting to know Agnes – a woman he never had the pleasure of meeting. He can barely contain his joy as we see him smirking at the flirtatious attentions of police guards and is even more full of smiles when he kisses Lenny goodbye for the day. Alan is having the time of his life, and considering he ended his in the last time loop he was stuck in, he is finally a good headspace now.

Later, when he meets up with Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) for a game of Chess, the two talk about their conflicting ideas on time travel when she asks him what he has to fix in 1960’s Berlin. Nothing is his answer; Alan just wants to soak in the history and get to know his grandmother. Nadia is the one with the hands-on approach. Alan warns her about the consequences of changing the past, but she ignores him for her own agenda- which is valid considering it’s her life she is trying to fix. With a checkmate win, Nadia wanders away from Washington Square Park but Alan notices right away she cheated– just like she is trying to cheat her way out of her own determined fate.

Budapest By Way of East Berlin

After her game with Alan, Nadia heads to Ruth’s (Elizabeth Ashley) to show her the Nazi signed receipt she found in Nora’s belongings. She doesn’t reveal how, or when she got it (stealing in 1982) just that it is linked to missing Kruggerands. Ruth is not shocked by her wild story; this woman has been through it with this family, so she goes along with the story that this dated receipt is proof the Nazis stole Nadia’s fortune. This means, at least in Nadia’s fractured mind, it is the perfect time to go to Hungary to learn more about the missing gold train and the man whose signature is on the receipt. Soaking up some culture isn’t a bad idea either; she always wanted to see where her people were from. Ruth agrees the trip could be good for her and suggests she takes her bestie, Maxine, along for the ride. Ruth has never steered Nadia wrong so she and Maxine (Greta Lee) hop a flight to Budapest, and as you can imagine, hilarity ensues.

Back to East Berlin and Alan’s romance with Lenny hits a rough patch when he meets the young man’s friends and realizes they’re planning to dig themselves a risky escape into West Berlin and Agnes was a key player. The group plans on escaping by way of a tunnel underneath the Berlin Wall. Knowing the deadly history of such escape attempts makes Alan hesitate to join the group’s secret mission. In fact, he goes out of his way to dissuade them from digging but his concern for his love, Lenny, winds up backfiring. Everyone is a spy in Cold War Europe and Alan’s worried pause looks suspicious to Lenny’s friends–who accuse him of being an informant for the Communists. Later, he tries again to convince Lenny to abandon the plan and breaks his own time traveling advice when he reveals the crumbling fate of the Berlin wall. There is no reason for his grandmother’s love to risk his life if the wall is coming down in less than two decades anyway. Sure, he sounds crazy, but he is desperate to save this man. Unfortunately, with or without Alan/Agnes’ help, Lenny and his friends will be tunnelling their way to their families in the West, and if the guards flood it– a common practice for stopping dissidents, so be it.

In modern day Budapest, we catch up with traveling duo who, thanks to Nadia’s impeccable Hungarian, manages to track down the great-grandson of the Nazi who signed the receipt. The man’s name is Kristóf Halász (Balázs Czukor), a local art gallery owner who fellow artist Maxine is immediately drawn to and not because she promised herself that she’d sleep with a Hungarian after she slept off her jetlag. He is cute and a bit mysterious, claiming not to know much about his grandfather’s past. Whether he is telling the truth or not doesn’t matter, his whole vibe pushes Maxine to ask Nadia whether or not the Nazi blood swimming in his veins is baby making genetic material. It looks like she isn’t alone in that because Kristóf invites the two Americans to his house party, which turns out to be a massive rave. Both women are impressed with his wealth and lucky for Nadia, her bestie has no issues keeping the Hungarian Hunk distracted long enough to allow Nadia to snoop through his things. It doesn’t take long before she uncovers a box of Nazi memorabilia.

Alan is Too Late

After a phone call with his mom, Dr. Zaveri (Lillias White), fails to clarify what her mother was up to in Berlin, Alan heads back to 1962 Germany to try to stop Lenny before it’s too late. There is just something about this tunnel escape plan that’s rattling Alan. He probably should’ve listened to his gut because when he checks the location of the soon-to-be-tunnel he finds the digging has already begun and there is no signs of Lenny. Alan is too late to stop the sea of people who will surely die trying to find their freedom and their families.

Back in Hungary, Nadia confronts Kristóf over his Nazi box of things, but he is too busy making out with Maxine to really care. He does say the box was given to his father after his grandfather died and their family is ashamed of their past. Like some sort of peace offering for getting angry over Nadia’s questions, he offers her some DMT, to which she inhales and immediately trips the light no-so-fantastic. Don’t get me wrong, she is having a good time but that’s mostly due to the fact she is hallucinating through, rather than living in her traumas. She falls through her past, her present, and even her repetitive birthday deaths like a strobe light of twisted memories bleeding into the present. When she comes to, we find a very confused Nadia and Maxine waking up in a graveyard. How they got there, only the DMT knows. When the two return to New York Nadia fills Ruth in and she ponders the fact the trip was all for nothing. She is no closer to finding the Kruggerands and that’s when Ruth reminds her that breakthroughs can happen internally. Maybe she already knows the answers, but her conscience needs time to update; or maybe it needs inspiration. With that, Nadia boards the 6-train heading back to 1982, but when the train pulls up to the platform it isn’t Astor Place waiting for her, but 1944 Budapest. It looks like Nadia is going back to the end of World War II to try to intercept that gold before the Nazis can ruin everything…again.