Now that you've made it through the tumultuous and triumphant Russian Doll - which is a surefire Year's Best contender - we can dig into the ending in an attempt to decipher what actually happened.

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THE LOOP

Russian Doll: Season 1 Photos 12 IMAGES

THE LABYRINTH

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THE PARADE

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SEASON 2?

Keep in mind, Russian Doll isn't a show about hard answers. It's about feelings, themes, and cosmic connectivity that doesn't easily break down into solvable equations. Like 1993's Groundhog Day, which is pop culture ground zero for the "repeat the day" premise this series lovingly lassos, there's no conclusive answer for the surreal and supernatural happenstance that's afflicting Nadia and Alan.In a very basic "Christmas Carol" kind of way, Russian Doll is about being able to enter the next day as a better person. It's about confronting, and dealing with, your s***. It's about experiencing something intimate and confusing that no one else knows you've encountered. It's about the gift, and curse, of time.Now, not every Groundhog Day-style story is as vague and ethereal as Russian Doll. That doesn't mean they don't work one way or the other; they just operate differently. This is a storytelling device that's, fortunately, sublimely effective either way. When it's done for sci-fi - like with Edge of Tomorrow, Source Code, or even the way Happy Death Day switched genres for its sequel - there's usually a tech-y and/or alien-y culprit for the time reboot. But when the story's set in the here and now, it's a harder-to-peg journey of self-discovery and inner reflection.Throughout the first seven episodes of Russian Doll, Nadia (Natasha Lyonne), and eventually Alan (Charlie Barnett) too, try to drop the needle on a possible omnipresent offender. Theories are floated regarding haunted buildings and/or the need for spiritual atonement. We watched our two main characters actively trying to solve the puzzle as best they could, as if they were audience members. The long and short of it is: In the end they both wound up being quasi-correct about it.They were both haunted. Not in the way Nadia first suspected, but by memories and moments of their past that still remained within them like a toxin. And then, to Alan's point, they were both being punished in a way. Or, at least, trapped in a cycle that couldn't be broken unless they got serious about admitting their culpability and confronting neglected pain.As for the actual reason why they got looped? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Who knows, right? Did Alan kill himself at the exact, to the millisecond, moment Nadia died and that somehow entered some specific combination into a space-time vault? Does one version of everyone, in all the infinite multiverse copies of oneself, experience this loop at some point? Eh. Who's to say? The overarching point is that two people experiencing two very different crucibles had to jointly decide to overcome a modicum (in the grand scheme) of selfishness. Not because they were the worst people, per se, but because their choices, in a Rube Goldberg way, led to their deaths.Once Nadia realized that their reality was slowly deteriorating with each reboot, to the point where entire people were vanishing from the tableau, it became a race against time. And furthermore, she began to postulate that all the varied instances where she died could be creating separate realities where the people she left behind had to deal with the circumstances of her demise. Some of which were pretty traumatic for those people. She then started to carry the weight of possibly creating even more turmoil for others, in other forgotten worlds, rather than it all just being an instance where the slate was wiped clean with each tumble down the stairs.Everything culminated in the season finale, "Ariadne" (named after the Greek princess who helped Theseus escape the Labyrinth), written and directed by Lyonne herself, where, after they both successfully took ownership of their respective issues, Nadia and Alan found themselves sent back to the original, untouched night of the party. They'd both found "The Way Out" (which was the title of the penultimate chapter) by coming to terms with their failings. Alan accepted his own part in the demise of his relationship while Nadia confronted the guilt she felt over the death of her mother while also acknowledging her partial hand in the ruin of others.But, in a final chapter twist, Nadia and Alan no longer stared the same timeline.In keeping with the show's M.O. that all explanations are right in a certain regard, Nadia's multiverse theory was also dead on. Now though, new Nadia and new Alan couldn't connect with each other. They were paired up with versions of the other who'd never looped. And also never learned to course correct. So the two new versions of Nadia and Alan had to become the "Ariadne" and protect their respective friends from the impending doom of that fateful night.Which means that Ariadne's "maze" wasn't necessarily the seemingly un-ending reboots, but regular life itself. New Nadia had to stop old Alan from jumping off a roof while the new Alan had to save old Nadia from getting run over by a taxi. All while trying to convince the old versions that they were actually, somehow, good friends.Does the multiverse theory hold by the end of the finale though? Well, it's up to the viewer to interpret, really. It can be quite magical when you get an ending that's purposefully imprecise but also wholly satisfying. Like Awake, The Leftovers, and some elements of Lost, Russian Doll isn't about cracking the nut or delivering exact reasoning; it's about the personal journey of the characters. Plainly put, everything both is and isn't.We see two Nadia/Alan pairs walk into the park tunnel at the end, where homeless Horse, and a brigade of puppeteers, are throwing a revelrous parade. It's almost a "breaking the fourth wall" moment, where you find out that Horse, who Nadia thought she knew back in the first episode, was now suddenly an active part of a theatrical ensemble. And their spontaneous procession seemed to signal Nadia and Alan's personal victory in a way that made them feel like outsiders looking in. Like a Greek chorus, almost.Was the parade even real, or was it the show itself taking a bow? After we watched the two pairs walk in and join the party, they emerged as one final pair: The new versions of themselves, denoted by Alan's red scarf and Nadia's white blouse. They'd found each other, or so it would seem. As if the universe rewarded both of them by pairing the best friend versions of themselves back together.But it could have just been a symbolic scene meant to show us Alan and Nadia were no longer alone. That they'd discovered the value in asking for help and connecting with others. What better way to portray that than with joyful street theater that swallows up their multiverse likenesses and spits out healed and higher functioning models of themselves? However, we do see two other versions of Nadia passing her and Alan and walking the other way, implying that there may be other Nadias out there, perhaps on another loop?Not to end on a downer, but if everything is and isn't, then the theories can get quite vast. Maybe the parade was all of existence absorbing Nadia and Alan back into its lively embrace? Did they return to (star)dust and become one with the universe? In which case: Is this how people die? All people? Everyone who dies gets to loop back through important life s*** and try to figure themselves out before going into the light? In which case, Nadia and Alan would've been dead from the moment they died. The rest of it, the show itself, was all part of the passing on process. Just a theory!While a second season of Russian Doll has yet to be confirmed, Lyonne and co-creator Leslye Headland have said that they originally pitched Netflix with three seasons of the show in mind."We definitely pitched it as this three-season idea and yet it’s so interesting to think about how that shapes and morphs in the time since making it," Lyonne told The Hollywood Reporter . "Who knows if we’ll be lucky enough to go back down the rabbit hole. That’s tomorrow’s question. But I think we have some ideas. ... I definitely have ideas that range from the really out-there anthology to staying on board with our friend Nadia. And maybe it’s all one idea."Indeed, Nadia and Alan's stories do seem to have been wrapped up pretty neatly by the end of Season 1, so an anthology approach with new characters in future seasons would seem to make sense - unless we're going to follow one of those other two Nadias we spotted in the tunnel. But then again, seeing how loopy the first season was, we can't rule anything out...

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler