Warning: Contains spoilers for Russian Doll season 2.
Russian Doll season 2 saw Nadia Vulvokov (Natasha Lyonne) and Alan Zaveri (Charlie Barnett) travel back in time via the 6622 train, and there’s a hidden meaning in this number. In Netflix’s existential sci-fi dramedy, the two protagonists discover, four years after the Groundhog Day-like events in season 1, that they can take a train to their past and embody their deceased female relatives. As she realizes she is in charge of her mother’s and grandmother’s decisions, Nadia attempts to rewrite her family history. In doing so, she boards the 6622 train multiple times.
Four years after Nadia and Alan escaped their seemingly neverending death loop, the pair are thrown into another metaphysical situation as Russian Doll season 2’s time train sends Nadia and Alan back in time. As Nadia inhabits her mother Nora (Chloë Sevigny), then her grandmother Vera (Irén Bordán/Ilona McCrea), she becomes fixated on clearing up the transgressions of her family’s past. She boards the 6622 train repeatedly, aware that she’s not in control of the train’s destination, but convinced that the universe will point her in the right direction and help her patch up her relationship with Nora, Nora’s relationship with Vera, as well as return the stolen family goods (the family heirlooms stolen by the Nazis and Vera’s prized Krugerrands). After a series of failures, Nadia and Alan realize they can’t change their past or their families. Russian Doll season 2 then becomes a story about accepting one’s ancestry.
Like most details in Russian Doll, the reason behind the numbering of the 6622 time train hides a deeper meaning. “6622” is very likely a reference to an excerpt from the Old Testament Bible, Isiah 66:22: “‘As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,’ declares the Lord, ‘so will your name and descendants endure.'” Russian Doll season 2’s plot has Nadia and Alan come to terms with the world their ancestors have made for them. They have to endure what they were given and accept they can’t change the unpleasant bits. Furthermore, Isaiah is part of the Old Testament, which can also be interpreted as a reference to the Judaism vs Catholicism discussion that punctuates the narrative, as the troubled Vulvokov family was persecuted by the Nazis (something season 2 explores in great detail).
By time-traveling in Russian Doll season 2, Natasha Lyonne’s character plunges into traumatizing moments in her family’s past. Vera is a bitter and distrustful mother, hardened by the war and paranoid about losing all her family valuables again; Nora keeps stealing from Vera as she suffers from schizophrenia, and on top of it all, she’s nine months pregnant. In a bizarre twist, Nadia ends up giving birth to herself on the subway platform. Apart from being righteously disturbed by the situation, Nadia is also all too aware of the terrible childhood she is about to have. This is the family she was given, but she doesn’t accept this: she takes her baby self back to 2022 in an attempt to rewrite her story, causing time to collapse.
With the time train 6622 appearing in all Russian Doll season 2 timelines and locations, it’s safe to say the “so will your name and descendants endure” line follows Nadia and Alan throughout the season. Alan learns it’s okay not to be in complete control (and that if he’s too afraid of doing the wrong thing, he might forget to live), and Nadia learns that she must accept her family with all its flaws and let go of the desire to fix things in her past. Russian Doll season 2 brought the ancestors to the forefront of its story, and the 6622 train is one of the many details that confirms this.
