This subset of episodes, characterized as Season 2, will take on the twelve chapters of the second epilogue of War & Peace. This somewhat controversial epilogue is a presentation of the author’s philosophy that underlies the book.

A common critique of the second epilogue is how confusing and different it seems from the rest. The first epilogue revolves around the characters and resolves some of their journeys. The readers are then presented with an epilogue that takes on metaphysical questions – i.e., questions about the nature of reality, space and time, as well as change.

It tackles the following issues: the of nature of history, nature of man, reverence for the Almighty, God as the ultimate mover of events (favoring Classical thinkers over Enlightenment ones), the relationship of the citizenry to the leaders they march off to war for, the lack of an ability to determine human causality, the nature of free will, as well as other mysteries of the ages.

Tolstoy suggests never having the pride or arrogance to think you can figure out something so complicated as the reasons, from a historical perspective, for the epic movements such as the Napoleonic Wars and Bonaparte’s invasion of Russia.

Instead, the epilogue points out the author’s presumption that “Man is the creation of all powerful, all good, and all seeing God,” who moves the course of history in accord with His mysterious Will. That ideal drove Tolstoy and his novel.

The epilogue, as well as the very title of the book, also explores the duality of man. War and peace, for example, like light and darkness, is within us all. Tolstoy posits we are all connected, in that we often make individual choices in similar patterns with comparable motivations. Therefore, when working together (knowingly or not) we can pull the world in virtuous or troublesome destination (or war-mongering or peace-making directions). Another lesson of the epilogue: try not to let you inner state of war overtake your peaceful nature more than necessary; such decisions can effect more than you realize.

Tolstoy discusses free will in this epilogue and gets the reader to examine it's nature. He questions how free we can be when so many circumstances constrain our freedom. For example, if we have three young children - how free can one be with respect to a subset of their decisions. And when discussing free will, are we even talking about the freedom to do something (like live in some unorthodox way); or freedom from something (like poverty or an oppressive leader). No matter, Tolstoy argues human actions, as the ancients posited, all work to effect God’s ultimate purpose, which we can explore but have little ability to pin down. In Tolstoy's own exploration of these heady concepts, he created one of the great novels of the ages.

The podcaster also notes inspiration the author appears to have received from the Wisdom books, including Job and Ecclesiastes.