We All Love Each Other
Episode 8 of Undone Season 2 starts with the family gathering to celebrate their new life. Everything is perfect…or is it? Alma starts to flash out, seeing frightening visions and believing, deep down in her gut, that there’s something else that she needs to fix. When she tells Becca as much, Becca doesn’t agree. Late at night, Alma receives some horrible news. Jacob has had a stroke. He’s in a rough way and in surgery. When she catches up with Camila, she confirms that Jacob has a blood clot and he’s paralyzed on his right side, unable to talk. Alma and Becca deliberate over whether to get Rosario involved and ask her for help. They don’t move on that though, and instead decide to stay in the hospital and be there for their father. When Jacob comes to, he’s using sign language to communicate. He signs to Alma, telling her she’s the great gift. Right now, he needs to rest. Back home, Alma speaks to Rosario about the door opening. Alma admits that she managed to open it and heal the wounds of the family. For the most part anyway. Rosario smiles thinly, and asks whether there was anything else behind the door at all. This sends shivers up Alma’s spine as she starts to have doubts. Alma is unwilling to accept the reality of her fathers situation and sets out to save him no matter what. Jacob reflects on how his mother came to him while he was having a massage, telling him that he’ll join her soon. “Part of me is scared,” He says, “But death is not the end. I’m ready.” Alma though to think of an alternate way of saving Jacob from his fate. Several flashes occur here, as Alma shifts to different parts of her life. When she finally settles down, she’s back in bed just before her mum rings. The spirit of her father shows up with Geraldine and smiles warmly; a way of saying goodbye. Alma understands that death is part of their life and they need to accept that this is the way of things. Jacob passes away, and at the wake Alma speaks up, reflecting on Becca’s words about how bad things are going to happen and they need to find a way to work past that. So why does Alma’s fog continue to swirl around her? Well, it turns out that her old self – the previous timeline version that hasn’t accepted her father’s death – needs to be healed. That version of Alma is in a rough way and currently in the hospital, cutting herself and seemingly hopeless. With the Alma in this timeline in a much better place, it would seem that the only solution now is to head back to her time and fix what she started. After a teary goodbye to her mother, Alma propels through the portal back to her own time. Specifically through to the moments we saw at the start of episode 1. Alma is determined to fix her own timeline, and part of that comes from accepting that she’s not alone and embracing her family’s love. She meets back up with Becca, who’s on the phone right where she left her, ready to drive back. Alma looks in the wingmirror and notices a figure in the distance, walking toward the cave. Now, we only see a glimmer of them but it looks like Rosario. Alma doesn’t want to go back to check. Instead, she wants to head home.
The Episode Review
The final episode of Undone revolves around acceptance and, more specifically, Alma coming to terms with her father’s passing. This whole timeline has been a healing process for Alma and, to be honest, that extends out to this second season as a whole. This dive into the multiverse could be construed as one of two ways – did Alma physically and mentally go into another timeline or was she just mentally ill and imagining all of this? That point is left ambiguously open and for good reason too – the show works so much better with open-ended answers and coming to our conclusions over what’s going on. The real crux of the issue here stems from grief and, more specifically, Alma’s introspection that things won’t always be boring or terrible, they can get better. Death doesn’t have to be the worst thing in the world, it can be used as a healing process to move past. Like Becca said at the end, bad things are going to happen in life and we have to work our way through that. Ultimately, this is what the themes this year have tackled. The finality of Alma heading back home at the end, deciding to try and fix her life after all, feels pretty conclusive in the context of the story. The idea of “fixing” Alma’s timeline for the perfect life, only to be hit with the hammer blow of Jacob dying anyway, really nails the complexity of life and how you can’t escape bad things happening. Sometimes you just have to deal with it. Seeing all the choices Alma and her parents (and her grandmother) have made leading up to this point has been beautifully explored and it makes for a really solid and well written show.
