At first glance, the new Netflix show Russian Doll seems like a replay of the comedy classic Groundhog Day, in which a character finds themselves repeating the same day again and again. It’s a concept that Tom Cruise’s sci-fi movie Tomorrow Never Dies and the horror comedy Happy Death Day have also mined comprehensively, leading to the question–what can this latest TV version add?
Luckily, Russian Doll is absolutely its own thing. While early episodes use the gimmick of main character Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) dying over and over for dark, drug-fuelled laughs, it quickly becomes clear that the show has deeper intentions. Once Nadia discovers that she is joined in a strange fatal bond with a man called Alan, who also dies every day and wakes up in the same place, it becomes a show about fate, morality, and redemption.
Like another recent Netflix hit–the brilliant Maniac–Russian Doll is a multi-layered series that demands several viewings. The complex, looping narrative structure ensures that we see the same events played over and over with variations, and there are callbacks to earlier (and later) events scattered throughout. And while the show isn’t exactly open-ended–there is certainly a resolution to Nadia and Alan’s story–it still leaves plenty of questions. As a result, there are also numerous theories about the timeloops and the different levels of reality. Lyonne has spoken about the possibility of a second season, so many of these questions may yet be answered. But until that happens, here’s some of the biggest Easter Eggs, callbacks, and theories to be found in Russian Doll Season 1.