The Umbrella Academy: Season 4 Review

Allison: Excuse me! Claire! Claire!
Klaus: Would it make you feel better to remind you that we were exactly like that at her age?

Multiverse stories are always messy. The Umbrella Academy is no exception, and this last season – and this time it is the last season – is made more problematic by budget issues, where the number of episodes was cut from ten to six. At least we get the last apocalypse, which is good, because too many apocalypses become boring.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. Warning! Spoilers abound.

Season four starts six years after the end of season three. Somehow both Luther and Allison have lost their spouses. Diego and Lila are still together, with three kids, and somehow Lila has been reunited with her biological family. The characters are mostly in their mid-thirties, although Five has decades more life experience than the others. The rest, due to different timeline experiences, don’t have the same years on earth either.

The pushing forty age makes it pretty late for coming-of-age stories. I think there are two sorts of coming of age, when (usually) teenagers realize their parents are not always right and begin taking more responsibility for themselves. There’s a second sort of coming of age, less of a focus in most stories, when lead characters become parents themselves and discover how hard it is (at which point they may forgive their own parents a bit). However, only a few of our characters have kids: Allison, Diego and Lila, and in a quasi-parental role, Klaus.

Viktor, who has botched a whole bunch of relationships in Canada, is still stuck in the first sort of coming of age. He tells off Reginald (who points out that the Reginald that Viktor is mad at is from a different timeline). However, as Reginald’s wife knows all about the Umbrellas, we have to wonder how much this Reginald remembers, as she must have gotten her information from him. Viktor shows up for the family but he does not show a lot of growth.

Luther’s wife Sloane: Luther mentions her, but apparently she did not make it into this timeline. Ray, Allison’s husband from season two, did make it into the timeline but he did not make it into any episodes. We just learn that he left. This, however, allows a deeper relationship between Allison and Klaus. Klaus, who without his powers, can now die permanently, has become a germaphobe. He lives with Allison and her daughter, serving as parental backup when needed. Allison is still struggling with her guilt in helping Reginald in the last apocalypse, but she finally reconciles with her family.

The Ben and Jennifer scenes are necessary for the plot, but it’s hard to care about either of them. Ben is totally unlikeable and we barely know Jennifer. At least we learn about the “Jennifer incident” that was mentioned – in a conveniently vague manner – in earlier seasons.

Klaus has been sober for three years, but falls off the wagon when dosed with marigold (I’m not sure why; in season two, despite still seeing ghosts, he was sober three years there, too). Klaus's storylines are a lot of fun, especially when he is taken prisoner by the drug guy. And despite his problems, he has insight into his siblings, noting that Lila is the best-adjusted. Nevertheless, he also shows growth when he fights his way out of the coffin.

Luther and Diego are not in really happy places. Luther is doing the legs and eggs brunch stripping, while Diego is discontent with the mundane life of being a dad and having a dead-end job. Diego gets some terrific scenes, though, when he learns about Lila and Five in the sixth episode.

Many viewers (certainly not all) hate the relationship between Five and Lila. However, I love it. Yes, it’s weird to see such a young actor (Aidan Gallagher) paired romantically with an older actor, but not only do Five and Lila share a birthdate, his life experience puts his character in his sixties. Yes, she’s married to his brother, but they are isolated for about seven years. Five never presses her, but you can see him falling for her when she laughs. He does not kiss her until she literally slips into his arms. But the quiet “OK, love,” that he says as he’s heading out to run an errand shows us how he really feels.

In many respects, this is Lila’s season to shine. Not only is she managing as an investigator of the Keepers and the mother of three young kids, but her sacrifice at the end when she sends them off in the subway without her made me cry. She is also the straightest of arrows. She does not take long to tell Diego what has happened. This is actually one of the best scenes, especially as we watch the reactions of the others as they go from "Huh?" to "Shock!" at the idea of Five and Lila (Diego is less surprised). They are then filled with dismay and sorrow about their being lost for seven years (and Diego finally seems to notice that Lila is wearing, not just a new bracelet, but different clothes). Lila refuses to answer Diego's question, "Do you love him?" Of course she does, but she has made her choice to come home, even when that home is not perfect.

Happily married does not work for Reginald, either, even though he went through the past three seasons to restore his wife to life. Abigail wears the monocle in their family. The conversations when Abigail is wearing the Sy and Gene suits and she shows her attitude that women should perhaps be in charge are really funny.

All the characters give up their lives – their total existences – at the end, but both Five and Lila make the most painful choice: they give up who they love at the moment that love is at its most profound. Right after Lila gives Five the jar of instant coffee is when he tells her he has a way to get home. Going home means giving up Lila, the woman he loves (which is why he put it off for five or six months, which shows us how hard this was for him). Lila, of course, gives up her children forever by stepping out of the subway car just as the doors are closing. Five holds her, as he has held her many times, when she is sad.

The ending is really the only ending possible. I rather wish that I, or the writers, could find something else besides the characters no longer deserving to exist, because it makes you wonder if the story had any point. But I am glad it is ending, although I liked the series better than I expected, because too many timelines is just too confusing.

Title musings. I don’t think any of the episode titles are particularly inspired, although I’m a sucker for anything with numbers in it.

Bits and pieces

I have not read the comics, so my reaction does not reflect them. There are bits that show that retain a comic book flavor (although I don’t know if they are in the original). We get some slapstick, such as the puking experienced by nearly all the characters (ugh). Then there is Luther’s stripper clothing that lets us see David Castañeda (Diego) without his shirt on (and although he’s constantly complaining about gaining weight, he looks just grand without said shirt). We also get the weird Ben-Jennifer blob creature at the end. Diego’s van being stuck on the Baby Shark track was annoying but hilarious. The Gene/Jean characters are also comic-book quirky, with their homophonic names and their matching outfits.

This season contains many illogical bits. The marigold only gave Luther super strength, so why does the dose Ben gives him restore the simian aspects? It made me appreciate the first episode, in which Luther still has his purely human body. Because Tom Hopper, undressed, is really easy on the eyes. He’s also a fantastic dancer.

The end scene is also illogical. Our heroes cease to exist (except for a group of marigolds that you will only see if you wait to the last of the credits) but their kids still do? This is a grandfather paradox all over again, and we know how the Commission hates that.

Abigail talks about creating an element and Reggie talks about creating a particle. Elements and particles are not the same thing. Elements are on the periodic table. Elements are composed of particles, but there are lots more particles.

Pastrami is usually made from beef brisket.

Abigail is pretty murderous, but of course, the cleanse is about to destroy the entire timeline, so it doesn’t matter if a few humans get killed earlier.

The word Durango originates from the Basque word "Urango" meaning "water town" or "well watered place." There is a Durango, Spain and a Durango in Colorado, and the Google tells us this about it: Durango's beautiful natural landscape has served as the backdrop for numerous classics such as "The Sons of Katie Elder" and "National Lampoon's Vacation." It's also seen some present-day action with a 2012 "The Lone Ranger" remake. As of 2023, approximately 30 major films have been filmed in Durango. Anyway, I guess one of the writers had a penchant for the town.

Diego has learned to speak Punjabi in order to speak with Lila’s family. Pretty impressive.

Most of the romance between Five and Lila takes place in episode five of the season.

In a season two episode, Lila offers to teach Five to shave. In this season, she actually does shave him.

In their separate motel rooms, Ben and Jennifer are watching The Blob, a movie each loves. And, later, they become the blob.

The day that Pogo mentions in the end, August 8, 2024, a perfectly normal day when nothing happened, is the day that Netflix dropped the final season.

Many actors in earlier episodes can be seen enjoying the idyllic final scene. Grace, not a robot, not Reggie’s lover, but a woman with a pram of her own. The Swedish assassins are playing frisbee, Agnes and Hazel are walking a pair of bikes, and we also see Herb and Dot playing a game, and the Handler listening to tunes. I probably missed others.

Quotes

Emcee: T-minus five, four, three, two, one... The man who puts the ass in astronaut, Spaceboy!

Klaus: One minute you're alive, and then the next, poof, you're dead.

Rosie/Jennifer: Buddy... I'm gonna let you in on a little secret, okay? This is not the kind of place where the customer is always right. It's the kind of place where the customer is frequently wrong, and when he's rude, he gets boiling liquids poured down the front of his chinos.

Viktor: I get it. You got Claire and Ray. And things worked out fine for me too. Like, I'm happy. But we're not friends. And that sucks, but it doesn't have to be some huge thing.

Quinn: What do you think? Sage grows on trees?
Note: Sage does grow on trees.

Lila: That is none of your goddamn business!
Five: Actually, it is. I've been here with you the past seven years, watching your back. Nursing you when you were sick. Holding you when you were sad. So it is my goddamn business.

Reginald Hargreeves: You tore my suit when you threw me into the car.
Viktor: Bill me.

Abigail: I did not ask to be brought back to life.
Reginald: That was an act of love.
Abigail: No, Reginald. That was hubris.

Diego: Did you S K R E W my wife?
Grace: Screw is spelled S C R E W.

Five: Actually, it’s not killing ourselves, it’s worse than that. We cease to exist.

Klaus: Listen to your mom, Claire Bear. I know that every time I do, things turn out OK.

Lila: Make sure you read to Gracie every night. And don’t let the twins fight!

Klaus: You know, I just wanna say I love you guys... but you are all assholes.

Overall rating

I was annoyed with this the first time I watched it, but I knew I had missed some sections due to jet lag (and I kept falling asleep at the same scene). So I did a rewatch and appreciated it so much more on the second viewing that I am planning to start the series again. I know, I know, not all will have my reaction, but there were many bits that I enjoyed. Three out of four marigolds.

Victoria Grossack loves math, birds, Greek mythology, Jane Austen and great storytelling in many forms.

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