Time travel, parallel universes, the end of the world: it’s all in a day’s work for the Umbrella Academy.
The superpowered Hargreeves siblings have caused their fair share of chaos over the past three seasons of their Netflix show. As they’ve blundered their way through the history books and way into the future, we’ve seen baddies wearing rabbit masks, Viktor blowing up the moon and JFK assassination theories galore.
But we’ve also been presented with mysteries galore. Now, with season four (the final one) about to air, we take a look at some of the burning questions we’d really, really like answered. Spoiler hats on.
Where did Sloane go?
A large chunk of Luther (Tom Hopper)’s season three story arc revolved around his sweet romance with Sparrow Academy counterpart Sloane, who had the ability to manipulate gravity and wanted to spend her life travelling the world.
Their speed-dating came to a dramatic conclusion when Luther proposed with a piece of moon rock that he’d supposedly been carrying around for the last three years (where? How? Your guess is as good as mine).
When Reginald and Allison reset the universe, all the remaining Umbrella and Sparrow siblings find themselves brought back, albeit without their powers (in fact, Luther is literally brought back from the dead). All, that is, except Sloane. Season three ends with Luther rushing off to find her, but for now it seems like she’s vanished.
For that matter, where did their powers go?
Not heard of/forgotten about Marigolds? Well, these tiny spheres of golden energy have been teased since the start of the show – Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) is shown releasing them into the air during a season one flashback – and they seem to be what gave the Umbrella Academy their unique powers.
During the season three finale, those golden spheres are shown leaking out of them as Reginald attempts to reset the universe – and when it’s eventually rebooted, they all come back sans any powers at all. Where did they go? Did Reginald zap them out of existence, or were they used up in the Big Bang Reset? Will they ever come back? We don’t know, but hopefully season four will tell us.
When and why did Five start the commission?
We all know Five (Aidan Gallagher) is an old man trapped inside a teen’s body – but in season three he gets to meet an even older version of himself, trapped inside a ventilator. This future Five has been running the Commission, the time travelling bureaucratic system that basically functioned as season one and two’s villains and were hunting the Hargreeves down.
This opens a can of worms that the series never really goes onto address. Where has this future Five come from? Was it a different timeline? Why did he set up the Commission in the first place, and why did he try and kill his younger self in seasons one and two? Mysteries upon mysteries.
Who is Jennifer?
Ben Hargreeves (Justin H. Min) – the original one – has been dead from the beginning of the show. But the circumstances of why exactly he died remain a mystery, and one that the siblings have remained schtum on.
Barring the fact that he died on a mission gone wrong, we know nothing, but season three did shed a little more light on the situation. Luther and Klaus (Robert Sheehan) both mention something called “the Jennifer incident”, which seems to be connected to Ben, while Viktor (Elliot Page) later discovers sketches of the mystery Jennifer that Sparrow Ben has drawn.
Apart from that, though, answers are frustratingly lacking: hopefully we’ll find out more in the weeks to come.
How does Reginald being an alien factor into any of this?
Yes, you read that right: Sir Reginald Hargreeves is apparently an alien. In the events of the season three finale, Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) attacks him with an axe, only to shear off the side of his head and reveal that (gasp) he is certainly not of this world.
We then find out that he’s an alien whose own home planet was destroyed. He clearly found his way to Earth (possibly bringing the power-granting Marigolds with him) and has been searching the universe, trying to find a way to bring back his dead wife Abigail. This leads to him setting up the Oblivion mission, a kamikaze expedition that involves travelling to another dimension to find a button that will reset the universe.
As might be apparent from the above, he succeeds – but we’re left none the wiser about where Reginald comes from, where he found the Marigolds and what exactly he is.
What deal did Allison make with Reginald?
Poor Allison has by far one of the least likeable character arcs of the entire show in season three. Devastated at being launched into a new universe where her daughter Claire no longer exists, she goes to her surrogate father Reginald (albeit a Reginald from a different timeline) to make a mysterious deal that ends with Allison almost betraying and killing her siblings.
Things work out for Allison – we see her running up the stairs and hugging her daughter in the new rebooted universe – but it still begs the question, what did she promise her father? And will this come back to bite the Umbrella Academy in the final season?
