What I’m Watching: Undone (Season Finale)

Undone: Season 2, Episode 8 “We All Love Each Other” (B+)

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this episode since I was so blown away by the powerful ending of the previous installment. It was definitely jarring, in a good way, to see Alejandro show up at the hospital when Jacob was there and ask about Dad, and to see how close this family unit was in this version of reality. Alma seeing Camila as a skeleton made it impossible for her to accept things and just leave it at that, but it was Jacob who ended up having the stroke and then being in the hospital. It was poignant to see him unable to speak but perfectly capable of signing to Alma and communicating with her that he was ready to go, something that didn’t feel right to her since she had put so much effort into saving him but which made her get closer to the idea of saying goodbye. Rosario asking Alma about the door and whether there was something else behind it was another indication that her work wasn’t done yet and that there would have to be some cosmic correction for all the changes that they had made to the timeline. The way this season ended was fitting and a bit too neat for my liking, only because it doesn’t mandate a third season the way the first season set this one up. I do hope that they’ll be more of this show since there really is nothing like it, and I’ll still be thinking about this all-too fleeting collection of eight episodes filled with mesmerizing content.

Season grade: A-
Season MVP: Angelique Cabral as Becca

What I’m Watching: Undone

Undone: Season 2, Episode 7 “Rectify” (B+)

This episode featured an unexpected deep dive into the other side of the family previewed only by Jacob’s use of his mother’s birth name, Ruchel, at the end of the previous installment. That was one of several indicators of her Jewishness, including her father’s yarmulke and her telling the woman who found her in America that she has no mispacha (Hebrew for family). While their persecution didn’t appear to be explicitly because they were Jewish, it’s sadly hard to find anyone living in Eastern Europe during that time who was able to survive and stay in their home. What Ruchel’s mother did was far more public than what Geraldine and her children were able to do in part because it was seen as a kind of magic, but unfortunately that was also her undoing. After they tried to navigate that trippy house of memories in the sky, Jacob put his all into trying over and over again to fix it and find a way to protect her family. While he didn’t ultimately succeed, Ruchel got the forgiveness she needed from her many future selves to be at peace and to connect with her identity. That led to an extremely powerful finish, one that showed Alejandro joining the family early and Becca ending up with an adopted child thanks to the successful changes they made. Jacob explaining that they were lighting the yahrzeit candle in memory of his mother was an emotional way to end the episode, and I’m so curious to see what is still left to be sorted in the finale and if there is anything broken that will require fixing.

What I’m Watching: Undone

Undone: Season 2, Episode 6 “Help Me” (B+)

I’m glad that, aside from a few straightjacketed ice baths, Alma didn’t have to suffer too much and her brief incarceration wasn’t all that bad. She wasn’t able to go into the fog, and it was only when Geraldine sat next to her that she was able to channel her powers to make them strong enough to get through to Becca. Geraldine was rightfully paranoid about Alma possibly getting her stay extended, and she seemed to have only negative associations with her abilities, which she did acknowledge having even if she said she hadn’t used them for a long time. She was open to playing the song for Becca, and that was enough for Alma to get out. Jacob’s reluctant decision to give in and tell Becca led to him and his daughters being a united front, but Geraldine was still not eager to take heed of their presence and what they were desperately asking her to do. That visit may have actually pushed her further towards recommending that Camila let her past go, but there is obviously deeper trauma hiding behind that door that Jacob helped to open by using her birth name. Even if they can convince Camila not to leave Alejandro behind, it doesn’t seem like Camila and Jacob’s marriage can be repaired, even if Jacob is ready to put the effort in a bit too late to fix it. But a new timeline could be entirely different, so anything could be possible if they’re able to reset everything.

What I’m Watching: Undone

Undone: Season 2, Episode 5 “Lungs” (B+)

This felt like a different kind of alternate history, one that showed us the hidden timeline of Camila’s secret relationship with Alejandro. I was surprised to learn that they met so early on, and that Camila kept sending him cards and other things timed to holidays throughout the years. It was also very interesting to know that it was Geraldine who had told Camila not to bring Alejandro into her life in the way that she was planning to, and to think that the closeness she felt with her mother-in-law might have been different if Jacob had died as he was supposed to, or if it would have been affected at all. Hearing Alejandro’s worsening cough was indicative of how the life he was forced to live send him down a particular path, one that he now can’t escape if Camila is finally ready, however much it wasn’t her choice, to accept him and share his existence with the family she does acknowledge. Telling her to get out after she tried to usher them out so she could stay and take care of it was a sad departure, and hopefully this won’t be the last we’ll see of him. Alma was entertainingly casual with her newfound sibling, and now she’s gone ahead and gotten herself trapped in a memory Becca was able to access of their grandmother, but the people in it can most definitely see her. She was right to panic, and it’s hard to know how she’ll be able to escape a very captive situation.

What I’m Watching: Undone

Undone: Season 2, Episode 4 “Reflections” (B+)

Well, we have one mystery solved, and that’s the identity of Alejandro the painter. Rosario wasn’t just some sympathetic passerby for Alma when she was at the pyramids, but instead a very relevant and crucial part of her mother’s life. Becca finding a baby crying was a very trippy and unsettling experience, one that allowed her to navigate her own concerns about becoming a mother and grappling with her fractured relationship with Reed, who did call her even though she declined it, while, unbeknown to her at first, reliving the experiences of her own mother. Seeing and running through the mirrors to get to the crying baby was disorienting and worrisome, and it ultimately led her to the truth: that Camila had another baby there. Jacob also got to travel back to his memories in a different way, remembering his idyllic meeting when she wasn’t supposed to give him a tour but did anyway and both of them weren’t speaking to their families. Alma expressed that she didn’t think the Alma of this timeline was happy before she showed up, and Jacob took it a step further by assessing that him being alive may not actually be better than him being dead. At least that introspection is helpful for him being a productive part of fixing all this and not just saying that any more meddling will only cause further damage. I was reminded midway through this episode of how good its music is, helping to invite anyone watching down the dazzling rabbit hole.

What I’m Watching: Undone

Undone: Season 2, Episode 3 “Mexico” (B+)

I like that the focus of this show is increasingly shifting, with Jacob left behind to make multiple unanswered phone calls while Alma and Becca travel to Mexico in search of answers about their mother. We got to meet a few new people played by familiar performers, starting with Abuelita Fabiola, played by Renee Victor from “Weeds,” and Tia Monse, played by Ana Ortiz from “Ugly Betty.” There was also Padre Reyes, who was played by Santiago Cabrera from “Star Trek: Picard.” While Camila’s relationship with Reyes was certainly a scandal for her community, and Monse was very much involved because she passed coded notes between them, we got a peek at something less clear, which was Camila living away from home and apparently in sin after that, rejected rather brutally by her mother when she tracked her down. Becca’s ability to go into memories is extremely powerful and far more controllable at the moment than Alma’s powers, and she does get so overcome with emotion each time because she takes that on herself as part of the way that she transports them there. Alma doesn’t have to endure that and is therefore pushing Becca to keep going with it, and, as they’ve now reached that house from the painting, it appears to have taken a substantial toll on her. It’s not clear what they’re going to find if someone answers that door, but Alma is likely going to have to finally answer her father’s calls so that she can figure out the best way to help her sister.

What I’m Watching: Undone

Undone: Season 2, Episode 2 “The Painting” (B+)

It makes sense that Becca wouldn’t know exactly what to make of her powers since she didn’t have her father there to train her, although she did of course grow up with him alive, unlike the Alma we know, who had to learn from him showing up via time travel. She was just as disoriented as Alma when she kept falling through the fog, and she doesn’t seem particularly interesting in learning how to control what she can do. She was also unnerved by Alma’s success in triggering her abilities, playing the piano so that she would travel back in time to that memory. She’s going to be going through her own stuff now that Reed has left to get some space since he was sure she was lying about still taking birth control as he tells everyone who will listen that he can’t wait to have a baby. Alma didn’t say too much when Becca insisted that she would never cheat on Reed, but presumably this Becca wouldn’t. Alma got to have a reunion of her own with Sam, who in this timeline doesn’t know her but still congratulated her on being right based on something he doesn’t remember. The two sisters confronting their mother together went exceptionally poorly, and now she’s gone and Jacob is blaming Alma, who already said too much in his mind to Becca about where she and Jacob really come from and who will likely be the one who can fix this, though she may require help from the two of them.

What I’m Watching: Undone (Season Premiere)

Undone: Season 2, Episode 1 “The Cave” (B+)

I’m so thrilled that this show is back, and I can’t believe that it’s been two and a half years since season one premiered. I didn’t even realize that it was well before the pandemic, and I know that I was worried on a few occasions whenever I remembered just how long ago it was renewed without any news of when this new season would be debuting. But now it’s here, and this first episode was fantastic enough before the awesome surprise at the very end which has me very excited. Camila and Sam were both extremely concerned about Alma and her mental state, and then she got to realize that she was in a different reality where Becca was on her honeymoon and Jacob was still alive. It was fascinating to see how he reacted to the news that she was the Alma he had coached on helping him stay alive, but it turns out that having him around wasn’t quite as wonderful as she had thought since he’s not into feelings and her mother is deeply unhappy. Seeing her spring into her new professor life was cool, and it’s definitely a more presentable if far less interesting – to her – career. I thought that the man we couldn’t see in the car might be Sam or some other element of her other life, but instead Alma found out that she was seeing through Becca’s eyes, and not just that, but that she and her father aren’t the only time travelers in the family. I’m glad that Angelique Cabral is going to get to have a bigger role now, and I’m so intrigued to see how she approaches her abilities.

What I’m Watching: Undone (Season Finale)

Undone: Season 1, Episode 8 “That Halloween Night” (B+)

I don’t know how else this season could have ended, and it’s unfortunate that we don’t know yet if this will be it or if intelligent minds will decide that this incredible story should be permitted to continue. I for one am totally one board with that idea, though it’s not clear if the way this episode concluded was meant to leave it all up to the imagination. Alma’s ability to bring Jacob back with her to the night that he left was very impressive, and she gleaned some very crucial information that her father either neglected to tell her or was no longer able to recall because of the circumstances of his temporal reincarnation. Seeing her mother at the lab to confront Jacob about Alma saying that he had experimented on her was a monumental discovery, and Camila divorcing Jacob was yet another thing he hadn’t mentioned. Jacob evidently realized what was going on and tried to send her back to the moment they started, but Alma has evolved beyond being controlled. Finding out that no one killed him and that it was him who drove the car off the road in some twisted attempt to get rid of Farnaz was devastating, but it does resolve one mystery which Jacob may in fact have need help unpacking. Sam trying to work with Camila to get Alma help showed that he didn’t really believe what she said, but Camila confirmed what Alma had seen during her last trip into the past. Becca coming to find her and support her was a sweet way to end, and I won’t soon stop thinking about this show, its potential, and the extraordinary vision it has presented about time, perception, and the meaning of life. I don’t know what kind of awards it might contend for, but it deserves a lot!

Season grade: A-
Season MVP: Rosa Salazar as Alma

What I’m Watching: Undone

Undone: Season 1, Episode 7 “The Wedding” (B+)

Naturally, Alma would choose the day of her sister’s wedding to investigate a lead that wasn’t going to pan out and which took her into a suspicious person of interest’s hotel room, making her late for the photo session. Showing up after everyone was looking for her and spilling the beans – loudly – about how Becca slept with the bartender was a truly regrettable moment, and in truly fascinating fashion, Alma was able to undo it, to go back and say exactly what she should have said, just like she did when she kept waking up in the hospital. Jacob trying to get her to go back before the wedding seemed like a bad idea, though his encouragement makes more sense when his worldview came into his focus, which is that it won’t matter if she misses the wedding since she’ll come back and he’ll be there as if he’s never not been there. Telling her to enjoy and it will be his own burden to figure it out after she gave Becca an effective heart-to-heart seemed to indicate that things would settle down for a bit, though that’s not likely given that the next episode is the season finale. Realizing that she’s always been doing the dance was a mesmerizing way to transition into her final big leap into the mirror to face her own past and figure out a way to change the present. I don’t want to do any research into if this show has been renewed for a second season yet since I don’t want to risk spoiling anything that happens in what I’m sure will be an intense and invigorating finale.

What I’m Watching: Undone

Undone: Season 1, Episode 6 “Prayers and Visions” (B+)

It seems I underestimated Sam. I thought that he wasn’t a good person because he lied to Alma about her having broken up with him, but now that she’s shared with him the very incredible information about her relationship with her dead father, I would have expected him to do something to try to bring her back to what he believes is reality. Instead, he’s being transparent about the fact that he can’t actually understand what she’s going through but wants to do whatever he can to support her. I like seeing the interactions between them, namely Alma arguing that tons of people find her charming and her lack of enthusiasm as compared to his extreme excitement at the notion of going to a food tasting with Becca and Camila. It doesn’t appear that Alma is staying grounded much anymore, nearly repeating a poorly-received introduction to Darrold, and I’m not sure if we should be worried that we didn’t see Jacob at all in this episode. Camila seemed very thrown off by the fact that Reed’s mother wasn’t letting her pay for anything at the wedding, and it was good that Alma showed up when Becca ditched her for the other church. That situation quickly turned sour when Father Miguel tried to reason with Alma about the medication, prompting Camila to find herself unsupported by the man she thought would be an ally in her fight to ensure Alma’s mental health, at least according to the way she sees it.

What I’m Watching: Undone

Undone: Season 1, Episode 5 “Alone in This (You Have Me)” (B+)

It’s always gratifying when an episode picks up exactly where the one before it left off, with Alma slicing her finger and her father expressing excitement that she was able to change how things happened. It’s truly disorienting to experience time and space as Alma is currently doing, with Sam’s head showing up in the middle of wherever she was with her father to interrupt their conversation so that she could get back to reality. His response to her confronting him about not telling her that she broke up with him was hardly worthy of commendation, since he was essentially blaming her for not being strong enough to deal with news about a decision that she herself had made. He also implicated her sister in the deception, which reinforces the notion that he must be the living person she can trust most since her sister probably should have told her what she knew had happened. Alma got to explore a lot of her father’s life and some of her early moments in this episode, and the early stages of her implant are particularly compelling to watch, and to hear since they mirror Alma’s experience interacting with the world, initially in a soundless manner and then gradually understanding what sounds mean. Confiding in Sam about what she’s been doing with her dead father was likely a mistake, especially considering his previous communication with Tunde behind her back. Jacob knew it was a bad idea, and hopefully being perceived as crazy won’t cut off her bond with him.

What I’m Watching: Undone

Undone: Season 1, Episode 4 “Moving the Keys” (B+)

This episode’s title was fitting, as Jacob pushed Alma to concentrate and figure out how to move the keys, something that she eventually came to understand wasn’t about the keys themselves but more about her traveling through moments in time to when the keys were in a particular place. Her mom was predictably concerned about her and angry that she wasn’t communicating with her, and suggesting therapy led to surprising agreement from Alma, who didn’t really bother listening to the therapist’s reactions to the ideas she expressed. The more Alma becomes engrossed in what her father is telling and teaching her, the more she disconnects from the real world, resulting in events like her showing up naked in front of her students, something which she thinks was a dream but might not be. Managing to go back to her memories at the end brought her back to her breakup with Sam, leading to a haunting ending with her cutting her finger again because of the shock brought on by what she just learned. Sam jokingly suggesting that Becca slept with the bartender led to a much more serious moment in which Becca used what she knew Sam was keeping from Alma to blackmail him into keeping her secret from the very dopey Reed, whose exchange with Alma at the bar was very entertaining. Discovering Sam’s lie is likely going to send Alma to the one living person she thinks she can trust, but that’s just ultimately going to lead her to the fact that Becca kept the same crucial information from her.

Take Three: Undone

Undone: Season 1, Episode 3 “Handheld Blackjack” (B+)

I’m continually astounded by this show, and so appreciate of the animated format that allows it to provide transcendent visuals to explain how Alma is experiencing time and reality. Opening and closing the episode with Alma having her hearing aids out adds another dimension to it, and the way that things around her are changing, like the photos on the wall or the placement of the couch, is appropriately haunting since she’s no longer able to stay grounded in her own life. Jacob giving her the electronic blackjack game to play continuously so that she’d be able to stay tethered to the physical plane is a fascinating notion, though the game, with its loud sounds, seems to be far too distracting to everyone else to feel like a legitimate option. Tunde is rightfully concerned about her being around kids, though calling her boyfriend to express concern about the state of her “emotional recovery” doesn’t feel like the right thing for him to have done. Asking her mother questions about her father’s death and his student Farnaz feels like the start of her going down a rabbit hole, and I’d hope that Jacob is able to warn her from becoming entirely disconnected from her world in a way that will trap her in the same state as him, unable to help because she can’t get back to where she was. Bringing her back to a class he was teaching about time travel adds a scientific element to it, one that makes this fantastical show and concept even more appealing.

Round Two: Undone

Undone: Season 1, Episode 2 “The Hospital” (B+)

I’m so glad that I decided to watch the pilot of this show even though I don’t usually check out animated fare. I was already intrigued enough by Alma’s outlook on the life and the relationship she had with both her sister Becca and her boyfriend Sam, and then the end of the episode which featured the car crash made it only more interesting. I love time travel more than almost anything else, and even though it’s presented in a purposely non-narrative format here, I’m absolutely hooked. I liked how Jacob kept pulling Alma in and demanding that she agree to help him before repeatedly sending her back to experience the same events over and over when her mom and sister proved to be less than sympathetic to her condition when she woke up from her coma. In addition to her seeing herself pushing the elevator button and then showing up as the other her the next time, she managed to learn how she could better interpret the intent of those around her and accept what she’d knew they’d say instead of fighting it. It was mesmerizing to watch Jacob invite her to experience her life in a normal way, showing her the birth of her child, the death of her mother, and her eventual death, before rewinding it all with the alternative option of doing it without a narrative approach. The notion of him going back so that he wouldn’t die and leave her alone on Halloween is pretty incredible, and I’ll be glued to the screen as I check in with the rest of this show each week.

Pilot Review: Undone

I'm trying something new with my pilot reviews, so from now on, check out video takes on each new series, which I'll embed below and you can also watch by subscribing to movieswithabe on YouTube.