Undone Season 2 Review – Hunt for the perfect timeline is mired in poignancy

Episode Guide

The Cave -| Review Score – 4/5
The Painting -| Review Score – 4/5
Mexico -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Reflections -| Review Score – 4.5/5
Lungs -| Review Score – 4.5/5
Help Me -| Review Score – 4/5
Rectify -| Review Score – 4.5/5
We All Love Each Other -| Review Score – 4.5/5

When Undone released back in 2019, it brought with it a mix of mind-bending storytelling, gorgeous visuals and a surprisingly effective blend of humour, drama and poignancy. Despite the ambiguousness of the ending, the series actually rounded things out nicely, with Alma sitting outside that cave in quiet reflection on her journey.

Season 2 then picks up right where that previous episode left off. Alma decides to go looking for her father and in stepping into the cave, finds herself tumbling through the looking glass to a completely different timeline.

No, this isn’t some intricately woven puzzle box like Dark but instead, the set-up for an alt-timeline journey into Alma’s family life; a “what if” scenario where her father is still alive but her mother is the one with something to hide. What could it be? Well, we soon find out.

The rest of the series essentially deep dives into Alma’s family history, and while the surface level story is one big investigative effort to uncover the root of Camila’s sadness, the story and the themes this show plays with runs so much deeper than that.

The overarching concept here, and what ties the whole story together, revolves around Alma plagued with one question – if you had the power to control time, should you go back and stop every bad thing from happening to give yourself the perfect life?

Nowhere else is this more evident than in episode 2 of this new season. Alma witnesses someone being hit by a car and then questions whether she should use her powers to go back and save them.

This lovely little nugget of foreshadowing opens the door for what this second season (and the show as a whole really) revolves around.

This deep-dive exploration of the human psyche and the desire to give ourselves the “perfect life”; avoiding everything bad that could happen to make it easier for ourselves. To quote Rocky here, “It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”

Through the season, Alma learns to deal with these punches, taking gut blows and stiff right hooks to the jaw (metaphorically speaking) and struggling to keep everything together. The show does a great job with this concept, even throwing in a couple of Easter eggs and timeline tidbits for junkies of the genre to pick apart. (Keep your eyes peeled for how Geraldine learned “The Rainbow Song”.

The aesthetic is every bit as stunning as it was the first time around, with the CGI characters standing out against hand-painted backdrops. The amount of detail that’s gone into the visuals here is nothing short of outstanding, and it makes sense for this animation style to be used in this way.

The dreamy visuals work to reinforce the idea of the timeline hopping and seamlessly jump between the fog, different timelines and areas without skipping a beat.

There’s also the subject of mother/daughter relationships here too, exploring and deep diving into this concept. Whether it be Geraldine and Camila, Becca and Camila or, more notably, Alma and Camila, there’s a lot of work done here to trace the lineage of the different members of this family and how their choices have led to this point. Jacob is still here though, but without Sam, this very much gears toward giving a voice to the female characters – and it’s all the stronger for it.

The first season ended so perfectly that Undone really didn’t need a follow-up. However, the exploration of an alt-timeline and the deeper themes at hand help to sway any doubts, delivering a confident and enthralling adventure that rounds things out with a pitch perfect ending.

You Can Check Out More Of Our TV Show Reviews Here!