By Tamoor Hussain on Feb 12, 2019 08:23 pm
Valentine's Day is fast approaching, and if you're the kind of person who likes to get into the spirit of calendar-mandated love, you'll no doubt be thinking about what gifts you can purchase for that special someone in your life. Sure, you could opt for the ol' low-effort Valentine's Day survival kit of flowers and chocolate, but why not consider something a little more fun? Something video game-related, because there's nothing more fun than video games. NOTHING. The good thing about this approach is that, between the games, digital store credit, accessories, and plethora of merch, it's pretty easy to find a gift that's either cool, quirky, or useful. So, we've put together a list of potential gift ideas that you can either pick up or use as inspiration. And, to make things a little more worth your while, each entry in this gallery will also include an interesting fact related to Valentine's Day, so you can also give the gift of knowledge. Because there's nothing more attractive than knowledge. NOTHING.
Phwoar Credit
Store credit might sound like a lazy gift but in reality it is anything but. If you think about it, store credit empowers the subject of your affection to pick something that interests them--it's consumer freedom in the form of digital currency. We live in a world where a small but immensely powerful Japanese lady has taught us to seek out the things that spark joy, while politely but ruthlessly casting out everything that does not. With that in mind, you don't want to risk buying a game for someone that they either already have or have no interest in playing--that's a Marie Kondo no-no. Instead, you can do the smart thing by grabbing a gift card and letting your giftee pick something that's certain to spark joy in their life. Fun fact: Traditionally, it was considered to be bad luck to sign a Valentine's Day card with your name. Play it safe this year and keep it anonymous, even if the other person knows it's you.
It's You And Me, I Know It's My Destiny!
Depending on your perspective, Pokemon can be about many things. To some, it might just seem like it's all about catching and collecting monsters, then battling them against each other in a kind of fantasy dog-fighting scenario that's absolutely fine because it's institutionalized on a global scale and generally accepted by everyone in the world to be an unobjectionable norm, but doesn't truly consider the feelings of the individual monsters in a way that meaningfully factors in their autonomy. To others, however, Pokemon is about friendship. It's about finding a companion that you can develop a deep bond with. It's about learning to trust and rely on one another and accept them for who or what they are--faults and all. And the same can be said of love, which means a Pokemon-related gift is very appropriate for Valentine's Day Fortunately, you have a lot of options when it comes to Poke-gifts, but we reckon we've found the perfect one: Hearts Take Flight Pokemon pins. The official Pokemon Center currently has an adorable pack of these pins and greeting card, and they're a cute, low-cost way of showing someone you care. It's Eevee and Pikachu in a hot air balloon along with the phrase, "You lift me up"--it's adorable. Fun fact: In Finland, Valentine's Day is actually called Friend's Day, and is more focused on remembering and appreciating friends, instead of just people you have a romantic interest in.
It Takes Two To Tango
As storytelling in video games becomes more ambitious so does the subject matter they cover. Take romance, for example. Gone are the days when your love interests and relationships are defined and directed by the creators of a game. Now we get to choose the virtual avatars we shower with our affection, and there are an abundance of video games available for you to pick from if the idea of wooing game characters makes your heart flutter. You might think this isn't a great Valentine's Day gift idea, but if you treat it as a multiplayer experience where you and another person play together, it becomes a shared experience that will bring you closer. There are few things in this world that inspire affection like watching two pigeons fall in love in Hatoful Boyfriend. Nothing will get your passions fired up like seeing Geralt and Yennefer doing it on a unicorn. You'll never know a high like the one you'll get when you convince Garrus to do some calibrations on you. Do you even know what love is until you've shared a carrot with a horse that has an anime boy's head? No, you don't. Anyways, here are a few titles that have some good romance-oriented gameplay. Fun fact: As well as being Valentine's Day, February 14 is also memorable as the day when Alexander Fleming introduced penicillin back in 1929.
Until The End of Time
The Legend of Zelda's Triforce is made up of three triangles representing power, courage, and wisdom. What you may not know is that the middle is empty because it shows that, when you have those three attributes, love emerges from within. You probably didn't know this because we just made it up and it's 100% untrue, but it sounded pretty good, right? Regardless, since his very first adventure back in 1986, the Triforce has been a symbol of Link's heroism and his unrelenting devotion to Princess Zelda. And although Nintendo is yet to officially confirm whether she's into it, there's still a kind of nice sentiment there. And it's one that you can attempt to explain to your valentine when you present them with 24 karat gold plated necklace of the iconic Triforce. Of course, if said person is actually a fan of The Legend of Zelda, you're in business, as it's a pretty nice-looking bit of jewelry that represents one of the greatest video game franchises of all time. Alternatively, you can go for a gold version of the legendary Hylian Shield. If they're not into Zelda, maybe they're actually not worth it? Just putting that out there. Fun fact: Both Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray applied for patents for the telephone on February 14, 1876. They were both too busy trying to revolutionize communication to think about getting laid.
Love D.Va
As those of us who have had to watch a Genji break formation to Swift Strike behind enemy lines and burn his ult in a desperate, poorly timed attempt to get some kills can attest to, communication is the key to any successful partnership. When people talk there's a meeting of minds, a harmonization of hopes, and a synchronization of ambitions. That might be so that they can build a life together and live happily ever after, or it could be to push the damn payload beyond the first bend on Route 66 without feeding the enemy for half the game. Communicating is connecting, which makes the Razer Meka Headset a fantastic gift, especially if you're buying for an Overwatch fan. This particular headset is modelled after D.Va's in-game headset, with its angular design and protruding antenna evoking her mech. It has an omnidirectional mic, in-line controls, and leatherette on-ear cushions for comfort--a functional, stylish way to ensure you're always on the same page with your valentine. Fun fact: The oldest love poem in the world was discovered by archaeologists in Nippur, Iraq. It was etched into a clay and is called "The Love Song for Shu-Sin." It was written by an Ancient Sumerian, and the Sumerians are recognized as being the first people to develop a written language.
The Color Of Love
The best presents are the ones that show you've been thoughtful. Anyone can rock up to a store and pick up something off a shelf, and if you're doing that you should keep a hold of that receipt just in case. However, if you add a personal touch to your gift, you'll have something that is both unique and memorable. One quick and easy way to do this is to get your valentine a custom controller. More specifically, a custom Xbox One controller (also usable on PC) because Microsoft has made getting one of those pretty darn easy. Xbox Design Labs has quite a robust set of tools that will let you craft controllers suited to the person you're buying for. You can opt for unique color configurations and specify how individual components such as the analogue sticks, buttons, triggers, bumpers, directional buttons, back, and face look. There are solid colours, blends, camo, and various other interesting styles. Or, if you really want to, you can pick the logo for an NFL franchise and put that on a controller. We recommend really thinking about that one though as NFL logos on a controller are kind of like getting the tattoo of your current partner's name: risky. Anyways, custom controllers are cool. Maybe get one. Fun fact: February 15, the day after Valentine's Day, is Singles Awareness Day (SAD). We do not recommend you use this information on a date.
Love Blossoms
Flowers are a curse and the fact that we're conditioned to think they're an essential component of Valentine's Day is a conspiracy perpetuated by Big Flower. Sure, they may look pretty, but when you're given them you're effectively having responsibility thrust upon you. Those colorful plants require constant care and attention, and even when you give them that they wither away and die anyway--just like all of my relationships. Thankfully, there's a way to get a your valentine a flower and not burden them with a month's worth of upkeep-related tasks. How, you ask? Well, why not get them the greatest flower of them all: Piranha Plant. More specifically, get them a Piranha Plant Amiibo, which will require no additional taking care of as it's made of some sort of plastic. Admittedly, the Amiibo might not smell amazing or whatever, but let's be real, flowers smell okay for at most a day; the Piranha plant is going to look like a badass deadly killer forever. Better yet, when you tap it on your Nintendo Switch you'll probably get something good in the game you're playing. If you smoosh an actual flower onto your screen you'll just leave gross plant residue behind, and who wants that? In summary, real flowers are crap, Piranha Plant Amiibo is better. Fun fact: Venus, the Roman goddess of love, favoured the red rose, and it is believed this is why it's so closely linked with love.
Soulful Bonds
Sometimes it can feel like your relationship is stuck in a cycle--as if you're stumbling through an unending darkness, not sure of yourself, your purpose, and the place others have within your life. You're desperately searching for just a tiny ember floating in the darkness, a faint light that will guide you the warm embrace of a roaring, life- and love-giving fire. Well, that's basically what Dark Souls is and if any of that made sense to you or you've heard your valentine spout similar nonsense, well then boy do we have a great gift for you. Fangamer is currently doing a three-pack of Amiibo-like figures for the first entry in From Software's Dark Souls series. The Heroes of Lordran series features Solaire, Oscar, and Siegmeyer. Each one is four inches tall and has a nice amount of detail on the model. They make for fantastic desk ornaments, or you can keep them by your bedside and give them all a little kiss before you nod off like I do. Fun fact: YOU DON'T NEED A SPECIFIC DAY TO SHOW LOVE AND AFFECTION TO SOMEONE.
By Array on Feb 12, 2019 04:07 am
As in any battle royale game, a big part of the experience of Apex Legends is searching for weapons to defend yourself against the many squads you're competing with to survive. The early part of a game is all about finding weapons quickly; later, if you survive, you can try to find more effective guns that will make you deadlier as you work toward being the last team standing. Throughout any match, you're constantly asking yourself if the gun you've found is better than the gun you're carrying. We've spent quite a bit of time with Apex Legends at this point, and we've definitely determined that some guns are better than others. Many are good in a pinch, some are great in specific roles, and a few are worth ditching whatever you're carrying whenever you find them. What guns you're carrying can make or break a battle, and having a good spread of fire options among your squad can make you versatile in a lot of different situations. Choosing the right guns is a big part of your strategy in Apex Legends. Here's a rundown of what guns you should grab as you're working to survive in Apex Legends, and the situations they're great in. Remember too that the right attachments can completely change a weapon's effectiveness and how it handles, so make sure you're keeping an eye out for extended magazines, stocks, optics, and everything else you can get to improve your favorites. You'll also want to check out our rundown of things the game doesn't teach you, learn about how monetization works in the game, and read our full Apex Legends review.
R-301 Carbine
Generally, we're not fans of many of the light ammo guns in Apex Legends. They don't do much in terms of damage and their magazines are all criminally small. Early in the game, though, light ammo might be all you can find and having a gun is better than not. For versatility, the R-301 Carbine is probably your best bet in the opening moments of a match if you can't find something better. It has decent range and magazine size, and you can flip it to single fire if you're really trying to hit something further away. The R-301 isn't going to get you out of scrapes later in the game, but early on, it can be pretty effective.
Alternator
Again, light ammo isn't really all that great in most Apex matches, and pitting a light ammo gun against a heavy one is usually a good recipe to get killed. That said, in frantic, close-range situations, the Alternator is a reliable choice largely for its capacity to dump a ton of ammo on an enemy in a small amount of time. Its small magazine still hurts its overall effectiveness, but if you're hurting for a gun and expecting to run into trouble, the Alternator will do when you can't find a shotgun.
EVA-8
This shotgun is underrated because it does less damage than the Peacekeeper in most instances, but it's a lot more forgiving in dangerous situations. That's specifically because it's an automatic shotgun, allowing you to fire again and again in quick succession. Shotguns in general should be your go-to weapons in a lot of situations, especially in the early game, and the EVA's ability to deliver a lot of punishment fast makes it great for getting you out of fights alive. You'll need to be up close and personal with it, but if you're not a great twitch fighter with super-quick aiming abilities, this should be your shotgun of choice.
Peacekeeper
This seems to be the shotgun most favored in Apex Legends right now, and for good reason: It's extremely powerful, especially if you can hit with most or all of a blast at close range. The Peacekeeper fires a lot more slowly than the EVA but makes up for the difference with damage. It's even better if you can apply the Precision Choke attachment, which makes the Peacekeeper very effective even at relatively long ranges. This thing is a solid secondary weapon in most fights if you can close the distance on enemies; up close, accept no substitutes.
Wingman
It's a pistol, but don't write off the Wingman every time you see it just because it's small. It's actually a hand cannon in Apex Legends, it packs a serious punch, and it can win games--some players we know favor it over a shotgun as a secondary weapon. The Wingman deals serious damage even with body shots, and although it fires slowly, if you can connect with an opponent's head, you'll stand a serious chance for taking them out. Some close-range optics, an extended magazine, and a Skullpiercer attachment make the Wingman seriously dangerous. It's probably not something you want to take into the late game, but it can be very lethal for most of a match.
Flatline
There are a lot of heavy ammo assault rifles in Apex Legends, but we find the burst fire guns to be less than reliable from a lethality perspective in most cases. The full-auto Flatline, on the other hand, is the meat-and-potatoes of Apex guns. It has great versatility and utility in a lot of situations thanks to both automatic and single-fire modes, it can handle a lot of scopes, and it'll do you good in just about any mid-range encounter you can think of thanks to its solid damage and accuracy. An extended magazine is almost essential, and you'll probably want to toss the Flatline for better alternatives like an LMG or sniper later in the game, but the Flatline's reliability makes it a great choice most of the time.
Spitfire LMG
There are currently only two light machine guns in Apex Legends, so they're not super common, but they are two guns you're going to want to get familiar with when you find them. The Spitfire in particular is your entry-level LMG and a great, deadly weapon to have for almost any encounter. The heavy ammo it fires means it hits hard, and it has a big magazine and can drop a lot of lead quickly, making it the kind of gun that's great for racking up kills even if you're not a particularly great Apex player. It still requires a degree of aiming capability so if you're missing a lot, consider a shotgun, but at lots of ranges the Spitfire will drop enemies quickly--in most cases, you want one on your team.
Devotion LMG
The tougher-to-use but arguably more effective light machine gun is the Devotion, which fires energy ammo rather than heavy ammo. In our experience, it seems to be the stronger of the two guns, which is offset by the fact that it has to "spin up" when you fire it--for the first second or so while you're pulling the trigger, the gun warms up before it starts shooting. You can cut that time down significantly with the Turbocharger attachment, but if you're good at anticipating the spin-up, you don't even need it. The Devotion's accuracy and damage, plus its ability to send all kinds of fire really quickly, make it a great gun for dropping people at all kinds of ranges.
Longbow DRM
As snipers go, the Longbow is reliable and powerful, but requires quite a bit of skill to use. Its single-fire action means it fires slowly, which makes it tough to put a lot of shots out quickly, and its heavy ammo makes bullet drop pretty noticeable at longer ranges. But if you can hit stuff with it, you can use it to win matches, especially with a strong sniper scope like the 4x-8x variable, an extended magazine, and a Skullpiercer attachment. Practice makes perfect with the Longbow, but generally speaking, you want at least one teammate to be carrying this guy in most late-game scenarios. Spend some time learning how scopes calculate bullet drop and you'll do even better; we explain how it works in our list of things the game doesn't tell you.
Triple Take
If you find a Triple Take, grab it--or give it to someone on your team who can snipe if you can't--because these things are absolutely deadly. The energy sniper is great at just about any range and does serious damage, although its three-round spread lessens its effectiveness at longer ranges. You can combat that by finding and applying a Precision Choke attachment to tighten up the spread, which makes it even more lethal. For a sniper rifle, the Triple Take is also pretty useful up close, since its three-round spread means you can fire it without a scope from the hip like a shotgun. That's not the recommended use case, but in a pinch, it can be surprisingly effective.
Mastiff -- A Devastating Shotgun
There are top-tier guns in Apex Legends that you'll only find in care packages: the Kraber sniper and the Mastiff shotgun. Grab a Mastiff and get to close range against opponents and you'll be in a winning position a lot of the time. The shotgun does huge damage and its spread is horizontal, rather than rounded like most shotguns. That means it can hurt multiple enemies at once, and is devastating if you're really close to an enemy. The drawback, of course, is its lack of utility at range, and like the Kraber, it can't be reloaded or altered with attachments. However, the Mastiff makes up for those deficiencies with so much raw power that if you can get one, your squad will appreciate it.
Kraber -- The Most Powerful Sniper
If you've got an eye for sniping, the Kraber is probably the best gun in the game. The .50-caliber sniper rifle scope lets you get more range than any other Apex Legends weapon, and it ravages enemies by dealing huge damage per shot. In fact, you can drop enemies with a single headshot through a Level 1 helmet. The drawback is that the Kraber comes with only 12 rounds, and when you're finished with them, it becomes useless. On top of that, it's the only bolt-action sniper in the game, which means you'll only get one shot at a time. Like the Mastiff, raw devastating damage makes up the difference, and in skilled hands, the Kraber wins matches. Keeping it from other squads is reason enough to go after supply drops whenever you can.
By Kevin Wong on Feb 12, 2019 01:31 am
The solution is staring us in the face.
Short of coming right out and telling us who killed Will and kidnapped Julie, HBO's True Detective gave us enough clues to put the solution together ourselves in Season 3, Episode 6: "Hunters in the Dark." The bigger questions now shift to the detectives: Who knew what, and at what time? Based on the 2015 timeline, Roland and Wayne may have done something heinous to the perpetrator(s), as an act of vengeance, justice, or a colder matter of practicality. The most interesting question: where is Julie Purcell in 2015? We know that the authorities never found her, but that still doesn't preclude the possibility that Roland and Wayne found her and covered it up, or that she's six feet under, and died as an anonymous citizen. The showrunners still have two episodes to tie up any remaining loose ends. Here are the latest theories for True Detective: Season 3, Episode 6--a combination of our personal insights and the best theories we found online. If you liked the theories in this gallery, there's more where that came from. Check out our other True Detective theory galleries for further deep-dive analyses.
1. Hoyt Involvement Confirmed
We learn that Lucy's cousin, Dan O'Brien, knows the name of the person who was paying off Lucy for her silence and complicity. And in one of the most suspenseful scenes of the series, Tom corners Dan in a motel room and forces him, at gunpoint, to give up the name. We next see Tom skulking the grounds of the Hoyt family compound. And when he breaks in, he discovers a room dressed entirely in pink: the "pink castle" that the show has alluded to multiple times. This confirms a popular fan theory that Hoyt Foods is the main culprit in this crime and its subsequent coverup. We learned early in the season that the Hoyt CEO lost his granddaughter, and fans have speculated, for several weeks, that Julie was kidnapped to serve as a replacement. This recent development all but confirms it. But how did Julie later become a runaway? Were the Hoyts abusive? How did she escape? Do they want her dead now? It's all still up for speculation.
2. A Deep Closet
We learn in the '90s timeline that Tom is a closeted gay man; his fellow co-workers caught him entering a "queer club." We see religious conversion therapy pamphlets in his house. And there are several implications that one or more of the other main characters could be closeted as well. The first is Roland, who forms a close relationship with Tom in the years since the crime. He's the one who Tom credits with helping him stop drinking. Is it possible that their relationship was ever something more than a friendship? When Roland later interrogates him for the possible murder of Will and Julie, Tom has an abject look of hurt and betrayal on his face--perhaps more hurt than if they were only close friends. We also learn Roland and his girlfriend broke up and that he's unmarried as of 2015. The second character possibility is Harris James, the head of Hoyt security. There's a weird, out-of-place comment when Roland and Wayne are interviewing him; James compliments Wayne's body in a very forward, awkward manner. Is this foreshadowing James' orientation? So why does any of this even matter? Because as we learn from Tom's foreman in the '90s, people felt uncomfortable discussing homosexuality in '80s Arkansas. It's entirely possible that somebody in the underground gay community saw something that was relevant to the case, but never reported it out of fear of being outed. And similarly, Tom, Roland, and James might be privy to information they wouldn't feel comfortable sharing, or they could be extorted by someone who threatens to reveal information if they step out of line.
3. Is Harris James a Future Victim?
We know Harris James ends up disappearing by the end of the season. But how? Perhaps the detectives did it and then covered up the evidence. They would have some vengeful reasons to do so. Harris almost certainly planted the evidence on Woodard's property and framed an innocent man for murder. This could be the big secret that Wayne and Roland are keeping in 2015, which has taken a massive toll on them both. We see a nice bit of foreshadowing during their interview with Harris: a picture of Harris on a hunting expedition. Wayne did some hunting in Vietnam, only his prey was of the human variety.
4. Do You Remember Mike Ardoin?
We see a young Mike Ardoin in a couple of scenes at the beginning of the season; he's the one waving at the Purcell kids when we last saw them biking from their home. He's also the kid who went trick or treating with Julie and told the detectives about the corn husk dolls. In the scene where '90s Amelia is interviewing Julie's runaway friend Shelly, Amelia glances out the window and sees a truck with the name Ardoin on the side. We also see a young, dark-haired man by the truck. Could this be an older Mike Ardoin? Vanity Fair dedicated an entire article to the theory that Julie is now hiding out in Mike's home. After she escaped the Hoyts, Mike's '80s crush blossomed into a full relationship.
5. Is Shelly Who She Says She Is?
The Vanity Fair article further speculates about Shelly; what if that is actually Julie, and she's still pretending, in front of Amelia, to throw the detectives off her scent? There's no hard evidence to back this up, but it underlines the point that the only security footage we have of Julie is very blurry; there's no reason it couldn't be her, or any other woman who's drifting through the background of the show. It all seems a bit far-fetched, honestly. But we are getting to the end of the season, and we still haven't met an older Julie, face-to-face. It seems we should have by this point, and maybe, we already have.
6. Suspicious Pumpkin Lady
At the press conference where the police announce that Woodard will be convicted for Will and Julie's murders, Lucy storms out. She is followed by a news reporter, Amelia, and a third woman, which the camera appears to display front and center. She then runs back inside, without either Amelia or the reporter acknowledging her presence. We've seen this woman before. She was one of the people who was initially interviewed; she was taking down her pumpkins off her porch when Will and Julie biked by. Clearly, she knows Lucy. And if she was close enough to Lucy to run after her, perhaps this woman knows some information relevant to the case.
7. Forgetful or Faking It?
There's a moment near the end of the episode when 2015 Wayne gets confused and paranoid. He asks Roland to check outside for a sedan. Roland does so (the camera doesn't let us see from Roland's point of view, unfortunately) and he tells Wayne there is no sedan outside. What if Wayne is pretending to be more forgetful and paranoid than he lets on? There's a staged quality to the entire exchange, and there's even a faint smile on the edges of Wayne's lips while Roland is looking out the window. Is he testing Roland in some manner? We know that Wayne still has his old instincts, despite his senility; he correctly deduces that the filmmaker and his son are sleeping together. Perhaps his confusion isn't all that it seems on the surface. He could be using it to his advantage, to catch people with their guard down.
By Dan Auty on Feb 12, 2019 12:57 am
At first glance, the new Netflix show Russian Doll seems like a replay of the comedy classic Groundhog Day, in which a character finds themselves repeating the same day again and again. It's a concept that Tom Cruise's sci-fi movie Tomorrow Never Dies and the horror comedy Happy Death Day have also mined comprehensively, leading to the question--what can this latest TV version add? Luckily, Russian Doll is absolutely its own thing. While early episodes use the gimmick of main character Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) dying over and over for dark, drug-fuelled laughs, it quickly becomes clear that the show has deeper intentions. Once Nadia discovers that she is joined in a strange fatal bond with a man called Alan, who also dies every day and wakes up in the same place, it becomes a show about fate, morality, and redemption. Like another recent Netflix hit--the brilliant Maniac--Russian Doll is a multi-layered series that demands several viewings. The complex, looping narrative structure ensures that we see the same events played over and over with variations, and there are callbacks to earlier (and later) events scattered throughout. And while the show isn't exactly open-ended--there is certainly a resolution to Nadia and Alan's story--it still leaves plenty of questions. As a result, there are also numerous theories about the timeloops and the different levels of reality. Lyonne has spoken about the possibility of a second season, so many of these questions may yet be answered. But until that happens, here's some of the biggest Easter Eggs, callbacks, and theories to be found in Russian Doll Season 1.
1.The world's getting smaller
Every time Nadia and Alan wake up in their respective bathrooms, their world has changed a little. While their lives have not moved on, things are slowly disappearing, as their world gets smaller. At first Alan's fish is no longer with us, then we see flowers wilt and fruit rot as the days go by. Finally, furniture and people start disappearing. It's a subtle device that plays out across the whole series, at first in the background, and finally as a main plot point as Nadia scrambles to keep her friends from ceasing to exist.
2. Where's Alan?
We see Alan several times before he is properly introduced into the story at the end of Episode 3. As well as his drunken shopping at the bodega in Episode 1, he is seen twice in Episode 3--first in the distance walking across Tompkins Square Park, and later passing Nadia as she is looking for Horse in the square.
3. Oatmeal and Horse
There's definitely something strange going on with Nadia's missing cat Oatmeal. It is the hunt for Oatmeal that causes Nadia's first two deaths, and when she finds her in the second loop, the cat literally disappears from her arms as she is petting him. Is Oatmeal moving between dimensions? One theory suggests that Oatmeal and Horse are connected and are perhaps even the same "person," criss-crossing the different realities. Like Horse, the cat is only ever seen in the park, wanders the night with no real home, and seems to have an uncommonly close bond when Nadia first finds them together. Horse is also leading the final parade, that sees the "healed" versions of Alan and Nadia reunited.
4. Game On
The fact that Nadia is a video game developer is a lot more than just a bit of background character detail. There are multiple references to the both the games she helped build and the nature of gaming throughout, that help shed some light on her and Alan's plight. At times it seems like they are trapped in a game, constantly dying and restarting from the same position. Alan used to play one of the early games that Nadia worked on and complains to her that it was impossible to finish as the main character was always killed at the same point. Nadia even compares their situation to a glitch in the code that needs to be rewritten before the "game" can continue.
5. The Losing Number
In Episode 2, the tedious customer at the bodega is seen choosing lottery tickets, and at the last minute changes the last number from 21 to 22. There are a total of 22 deaths in Russian Doll.
6. Falling Down
What controls the point at which Nadia and Alan die in each loop? While most of their deaths occur much later in the day--sometimes even on the next day--for several early loops in a row Nadia dies falling down the stairwell while trying to leave Max's apartment, within minutes of "waking" at the party each time. Nadia presumes it's something to do with the stairwell itself. However, since it's later established that both characters die at the same time no matter where they are, there is a theory that it is because Alan (who Nadia is yet to meet) is continuing to kill himself as soon as he wakes, triggering Nadia's sudden deaths. Perhaps Alan's first few deaths were, in fact, suicides, before he realised they were futile.
7. Ruth
The name of Nadia's family friend, psychiatrist, and surrogate mom has a double meaning. Not only is Natasha Lyonne's real-life aunt named Ruth, but Ruth is also the name of one of Emily's aunts in Emily of New Moon, the Lucy Maud Montgomery novel that Nadia was obsessed with as a child. As an aside, in real-life actress Elizabeth Ashley was married to actor George Peppard (Breakfast at Tiffany's, The A-Team) and a picture of them together in the 1950s can be spotted in Ruth's House.
8. The Multiverse
For most of the season we are led to believe that the different universes that Nadia and Alan occupy exist in parallel--all occurring at once but entirely separate. In the final scene the two join Horse's parade, seemingly in two timelines. But as the split-screen merges, we see two women pass Nadia through the crowd--we see them fleetingly from behind, but they are clearly "other" Nadias. Could all exist within the same multiverse, with much more overlap than we previously believed?
9. Ariadne
The final episode is titled "Ariadne." In Greek mythology, Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos, who helped Theseus survive in the Minotaur's labyrinth. Both Alan and Nadia are trapped in their own mazes and ultimately act as each other's Ariadne, helping each to escape the mistakes of their first deaths. Back in Episode 1, we see a poster next to Nadia's computer with the title "The Legend Ariadne"--and later we learn this is the name of the video game from which the characters cannot escape. And it might just a be a spooky coincidence, but Ariadne is also an anagram of "re-Nadia."
10. Repeating Figures
The idea that the different levels of reality are blending into each other is supported by the fact that the actors who play the drunken bankers in Episode 1 appear again as the developers at Nadia's code meeting and as the ambulance men taking her to hospital. In all cases, they are playing men who direct hostility towards Nadia. As her world shrinks, the same people are occupying different, yet similar, roles in her life.
11. The Parade
Whether it's a multiverse or a series of separate realities, we see that "healed" Nadia and Alan are reunited at the end. We can tell from their clothes that these are the final versions--Alan is wearing the scarf given to him at Max's party, while Nadia is wearing the black jacket and white blouse that she wears while trying to save Alan from his first suicide.
12. Not the first death?
There are several clues suggesting that the first death we see for each character--Nadia being hit by the car and Alan's suicide--were not in fact their first. It's noticeable that the first time we see Nadia restart the loop, she is disoriented and presumes the things she is experiencing are simply deja vu. Could the first episode actually start after she is has already been killed at least once? She recognizes Horse when she steps out of Max's apartment, despite not yet being killed--is Horse is a memory from an earlier loop? This idea would also support the stairwell death theory mentioned earlier, in which Alan spends his first few loops trying to kill himself, before he becomes fully aware of his situation.
13. Dead All Along
What if the endlessly repeating loops are not an alternate reality but a form of purgatory? Alan and Nadia died once that first time and the glitch that keeps repeating their experience stops them from moving to on the next stage. In some religions, including Catholicism and more relatively Judaism, purgatory is defined as a stage between life and death where "purification" occurs. By the end of the show, having "saved" each other, Alan and Nadia are reunited at Horse's parade--a happy, joyous afterlife. This is a theory that Nadia herself suggests to Alan at one point.
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