Emmy Episodes: Russian Doll

It’s always my policy to watch every Emmy-nominated episode each year, which leads me to sample a handful of shows that I don’t tune in to on a regular basis. For the fourth year in a row, I’m making a special effort to spotlight each of those installments to offer my perspective on shows that I don’t review each week.

Russian Doll: Season 1, Episode 7 “The Way Out” (B-)

I skipped two episodes of this season to arrive at the fifth of the six episodes submitted for Best Comedy Series consideration, and I don’t feel that I missed much. The only real change is that, apparently, things are going wrong in their pursuit of the reason behind their time loops, causing people to disappear. There’s also evidently a whole lot of baggage that Nadia has with her mother, played by Chloe Sevigny, who was both destructive and manipulative in the way that she used her daughter and exploded at others in front of her. Nadia being haunted by the sight of her younger self was definitely disturbing, though nothing compared to the closing shot of her coughing up blood before a rather dramatic death. There is something cool about how she can have a heart attack and Alan will just conclude that it’s fine and they’ll meet up again soon, but I don’t know how this could possibly end in a compelling and satisfying way. Alan going to talk to Beatrice while wearing a helmet felt sort of silly but also intentional, and things ended up going differently than they had in the past. Nadia, in typical fashion, rocked a similarly protective outfit and looked much more ridiculous, far less effective than watching her return to the start of the party to find no one there but Maxine. I hope this finale will provide some closure but I’m dubious that will be the case since I don’t know what avenue would make this trip feel totally worthwhile.