Russian Doll
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Good morning and welcome back to the fuckpile!
Not to worry, though.
This is a little weird.
), she realizes theres another way to determine what in the fuckpile is going on.
Fucking clues abound, she muses as she gazes around the loo.
(Side note: I love that Lizzy is trying to convince Max to get into podcasts.
Have you ever noticed that theres an inscription over the door that is incredibly highly creepy?
What does it mean?
Lizzy asks back with surprise, Dont you know?
Not by choice, Nads insists.
Religion is dumb as fuck.
Its racist, its sexist, theres no money in it… anymore.
Nadia quickly proves at least part of her proclamation right its sexist!
to ask the rabbi: Any history of hauntings in the building?
The dead coming back to life?
This may be the funniest episode ofRussian Dollyet.
Plop a JewishyNoo Yawkerlike Nadia/Natasha Lyonne into a synagogue and hey-o!
Borscht belt comedy fucking abounds.
Such as:
Nadia: Hey, Shabbat shalom!Shifra: Its not Shabbat.Nadia: Fine by me!
In the same sitcom-y vein, when John finally enters the rabbis inner sanctum (hey-o!
Nadia is a distraction, the rabbi tells him.
Embracing the abyss is the only way forward…
Turn away from the physical world and toward the spiritual one.
There is wisdom inaccessible through the intellect.
you might only reach it by surrendering, being nothing.
John receives the rabbis counsel as proxy for Nadia; this is likewise her guidance to follow.
Surrender is the only way forward for her if she wants things to change if she wants resurrection.
In the meantime, what insight does Nadia receive from Shiphrahs protecting-dead-people prayer?
Angels are all around us.
In the Bible, Shiphrah disobeys the Pharaohs orders to kill all newborn Hebrew boys.
That, or shes just really appreciative of the mango Nadia brought her.
If surrender is the way forward, then how?
Surrender to what, to who?
Nadia tries, for a moment, surrendering to John.
I blew up my life, and thats not on you.
It happened, John, she admits about their affair.
I know it happened.
She finally gives him what he wants from her validation, and then back at her place, sex.
It doesnt last, though.
She cant fulfill Johns desire for a real relationship because she cant surrender to him fully.
I miss you, he says plaintively.
Great, people miss people, she replies patronizingly.
When he presses her Why it is so offensive to you to consider me as a real option?
the only answer she can muster is a facetious one.
I want to be with you, John, for the rest of my life, she chides him.
If it makes you happy, were together forever.
Seething, John finally tells her the rabbis advice.
He goes, Youre using her as a distraction from the abyss.
But hes wrong, John says, because you are the abyss.
A visibly shaken Nadia informs him, I promise you just feel that way right now.
No, he spits back.
I promise I feel that way all the fucking time.
(Hes a man named Horse… a Horseman of the Apocalypse?)
Horse cuts her hair and tell her, This is the new you.
Nadia couldnt budge an inch for John, but she goes the extra mile for Horse.
Literally: After attempting to spend the night with him in the park and freezing to death (dark!
), she hoofs it to the homeless shelter (hellur!
so she can guard his shoes and prevent them from being swiped.
(I gotta also say: Doing good deeds for strangers just because?
And what does the universe grant her for her sacrifice?
Only the MOST INSANE TWIST ENDING WITH THE MOST DELICIOUS IRONIC SYMBOLISM GAHHHH!!
The Salvation Army elevator malfunctions and begins to plummet.
Nadia does not freak out.
She is emotionally embracing a more-or-less literal abyss!
And as she does, suddenly there is a way forward.
The way forward for her is Alan.
The guy in the elevator who dies all the time.
