Everything to remember about 'Russian Doll' Season 1 before Season 2 premiere

A woman with curly red hair smoking a cigarette and wearing sunglasses and a black trench coat as she leans against a brick wall; still from

Russian Doll returns on April 20, more than three years after the serpentine thriller from Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland, and Amy Poehler premiered on Netflix.

That's a lot of time (and a lot of time loops) between seasons, so we could use a recap of what happened in Season 1 — a quick little rewatch wouldn't hurt either.

Time loops, what a concept!

Two women speaking spiritedly in a kitchen where the island is covered with food; still from "Russian Doll."

SWEET. BIRTHDAY. BABY. Credit: Netflix

If you remember one thing about Russian Doll it's the basic premise: Nadia (Lyonne) gets trapped in a time loop. She's out on the night of her 36th birthday (sweet birthday babyy!) when she gets hit by a car and dies, only to wake up in the bathroom of the party and start the night over. All seems well as she survives the night and makes it to the next day, when she falls into an open cellar door.

From then on she dies again and again, in increasingly bizarre and disturbing ways (not to mention too many perilous falls down the stairs). She tries to trace what's happening to drugs, to a peculiar man in the park, and finally gives in to the inevitable existentialism of her whole predicament.

"A child that the universe has tasked me with babysitting"

Side-by-side images of a man and woman facing the mirrors in two respective bathrooms; his bare, gray, and brightly lit while hers is eclectic and dim with an eerie blue light; still from "Russian Doll."

How many ornate bathrooms will Season 2 bring us? Credit: Netflix

Halfway through Season 1, Nadia is trapped in a malfunctioning elevator that stops before plunging into free fall. While everyone else panics, the man next to her is oddly calm.

"Hey man, didn't you get the news? We're about to die," she quips to him.

"It doesn't matter, I die all the time," he deadpans back.

From there on, Nadia and Alan (Charlie Barnett) move through the loop in tandem — living separate lives but also growing closer as the only two people in the world who appear to remember events from every loop. They realize that they're dying at the same time and try to trace this link back to their first deaths, when Nadia was hit by the car and it turns out Alan jumped off the roof of a building.

They meet each other's exes, they have sex, they fight, they come back for each other. In short, they become friends, and that relationship becomes Russian Doll's lifeblood.

Mother, daughter, and Ruthie

An older woman with gray hair and glasses looks with concern at her conversation partner just out of frame; still from "Russian Doll."

Protect Ruthie! Credit: Netflix

As Nadia continues through the loop, she and we start to revisit her childhood with loving but erratic mother Lenora (Chloë Sevigny). In the present, the motherly role in Nadia's life is filled by Lenora's friend Ruth (Elizabeth Ashley), who witnessed the mother and daughter's relationship firsthand and is the only person who understands Nadia's loss.

Flashbacks initially show Lenora being warm and caring with Nadia, but also struggles with child-rearing and after an argument with Ruth shatters various mirrors in their home. Eventually, Lenora loses custody of her daughter and later dies by suicide.

Nadia and Ruth both grapple with this grief and with Lenora's complex nature even decades later. When the time loop has Nadia questioning what kind of person she is and whether she's even alive, she turns to thoughts of her mother for comfort and answers, neither of which Lenora's memory can truly provide.

Though arguably not as emotionally compelling as Nadia's relationship with Alan or Ruthie, the link to Lenora and years they could've spent together still haunt Nadia to this day. Sevigny appears in the Season 2 trailer, as well as a younger version of Nadia (Brooke Timber in Season 1), so the past and present appear to remain inextricably linked.

Reality unraveled

A woman with curly red hair and blood on her hands and mouth; still from "Russian Doll."

This was definitely a low point. Credit: Netflix

As time becomes increasingly meaningless, Nadia starts to notice differences in the loop each times it resets. She tells Alan that time — linear time, as they once knew it — still exists somewhere, a fact that must be true as the loop seems to glitch and fresh fruit appears rotten. The duo return to the deli on the night they met and plan to die again and again until they recreate the right circumstances for escape.

With each loop Nadia finds fewer people at her birthday party, which leads her to believe that they're disappearing because of the damage to time, but by the end of the episode things appear to be back to normal — except that she and Alan are still trapped.

The end

A man and woman walk through a New York park at night; still from "Russian Doll."

Besties on a walk <3 Credit: Netflix

Back when Season 1 premiered, we posited that Nadia and Alan do not survive the time loop together, that they end up in divergent universes where one of them no longer recognizes the other, but they are at least alive and free (we also hoped there would be no Season 2, but here we are).

In the Season 2 trailer, Alan and Nadia appear to remember each other and also experience the same jarring time travel while using New York City's 6 train. The trailer says they have unfinished business in the past, but whether or not that's the same business remains to be seen.