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Is Alma Winograd-Diaz insane?
Undoneearned positive reviews when it entered that landscape in 2019.Danette Chavez, then the TV editor for the A.V.
But all is not well with the Winograd-Diazes.
Mother Camila (Constance Marie) is clearly unhappy, hiding a secret thats crumbling her internal resolve.
Jacob is isolated from her.
The answer for Alma is quite different from those characters.
Almas fixed everything and created peace for her whole family.
Its the first-generation Latinx dream.
Wishes fulfilled, happiness found.
Now, this beingUndone, the show is smart about how it gets us there.
For one, it takes a communal approach to all this healing.
Alma isnt time-traveling alone anymore; she now has her father and sister with her.
With Almas Polish grandmother, Geraldine, the process (and the pain) is more individualistic.
Alma & Co. are able to help Geraldine/Ruchel, working together and showing again the limitations of individualism.
Who are you once your familys struggles are gone?
Perhaps our past wounds do define who we are.
Latinx culture, with our tragic love songs and immigrant stories of hardship,can glamorize the struggle.
So its nice to take a moment withUndoneand its sister stories to imagine an alternate pathway.
Her return also puts into question everything that happened in the previous seven episodes.
Was it all just a dream?
Such are the ways of madness.
Its an unknowable thing, the way our perspectives shape our understanding of reality.
It also positions Alma squarely within the madwoman role.
Its a matriarchal history, one the show seems to double down on in the finale.
In the new old timeline, Alma doesnt have her white dad to guide and protect her anymore.
Her family is her Latina sister and mom.
So Alma wont have much access to her full identity inUndones yet-to-be-confirmed third season.
It seems unlikely, but it is perhaps possible.
What would that have felt like?
That tactic, in effect, embodies the entirety ofUndonessecond season.
The finale rewrites the previous episodes not as the characters truth but as Almas fantasy.
And perhaps the final frontier for the madwoman is peace.
Can we imagine a story in which she gets to be insane and correct, wronged and healed?
Let Alma be madandhappy, and let her take us with her.
