Russian Doll season 2 recap guide: Episodes 1 to 7

Russian Doll season 2, episode 2 recap: Coney Island Baby

Russian Doll season 2, episode 2 begins with Nadia waking up in her mother’s body to her very angry grandmother Vera (Irén Bordán). Vera is really upset with Nora for losing her Krugerrands. Nadia assures Vera she’ll get them back, but obviously at this point Vera only sees her daughter and her mistakes, so she’s doubtful.

Nora’s next stop is to the Guardian Angels after one of them, Derek (Ephraim Sykes), was kind enough to her during her first train ride. Nadia tells Derek why the gold is so important to her to convince him to help.

We learn that Nadia’s grandparents were holocaust survivors and after the war, survivors were paranoid about putting their money in banks. Vera acquired 150 Krugerrands and the price of gold fluctuates, meaning the entire amount is worth over $250,000, hence why she wants to get it back, especially since it was meant to be her inheritance.

Derek agrees to help her track down Chez, but since it’s the 1980s and the internet doesn’t exist yet, it will take several weeks. That’s too long for Nadia, so she hops back on the train and returns to the present.

Since it’s the next day now (time seems to pass the same in both time periods), Ruth is back home. Maxine (Greta Lee) and Lizzy (Rebecca Henderson) are taking care of her. Max is annoyed with Nadia for disappearing and tells her the bad news: the doctors found a lump in Ruth’s neck. It doesn’t sound good for her. Nadia brushes this off, it seems like she’s not ready to face the possibility of Ruth dying.

It’s not hard for Nadia to find Chez in the modern world thanks to Google. He’s much older now and clearly not living the high life, meaning he no longer has the gold. He calls the gold, him and Nora a “Coney Island,” a term used by Chez’s family. A “Coney Island” is the thing that would have made everything better, if only it had happened, or didn’t happen. I’m sure this is going to become relevant thematically.

Using that detail, Nadia returns to the past and heads straight for the recreation center Chez frequented, the place where he won the trophy in the photo. Chez tells Nadia (as Nora) that she came back the night before and retrieved her gold, she even left a few scratches on his face during their making-up process.

Nadia doesn’t remember doing this, which is strange, especially since Chez in the future doesn’t tell her. Then she recalls her mom’s beloved convertible and yep, she pawned the Krugerrands to buy it. While retrieving the car, Nadia runs into Vera’s dear friend Delia (Athina Papadimitriu) and a much younger Ruth (Annie Murphy) who is grieving the loss of her recent husband.

With Ruth’s assistance, Nadia manages to get the Krugerrands back from the pawn shop, intending to deliver them to Vera (Nadia can’t take things with her on the train back to the present and vice versa, they just disappear).

Before visiting her grandmother, Nadia uses a payphone to call her mother, leaving her a really strange voicemail detailing what’s happened (that’s she her daughter and she got the gold back) before heading back to the subway to go see Vera. While sitting on the subway, Nora notices Alan on the opposite subway, the wormhole subway. She gets distracted trying to get Alan’s attention and when she returns to her seat, the gold is gone yet again.