The Umbrella Academy is unlike any show that Netflix has ever had. Its lead characters are complex, going through arcs that make you hate them with every fiber of your being but also love them for how incredibly flawed they are. The situations that they get themselves into and how they get themselves out of them are remarkable. And their family dynamics need to be studied. Then we have season 4 aka the end of this journey with the Hargreeves.
A part of me knew that this is where the Hargreeves would end up. The show has made it very clear that every single time they are involved in a timeline, it ends in an apocalypse. The only way to avoid that is to remove the problem and they are the common denominator. But I had hope because the show has also been very heavy-handed with the concept of family who finds a way. So I thought that this family would figure things out if Netflix was wrapping everything up with a pretty little bow and saying goodbye to this dysfunctional family.
Nevertheless, the more that I think about it, the more I dislike this ending. Just because I expected it, doesn’t mean I don’t think that the Hargreeves deserved better. Plenty of storylines were just completely erased like Sloane who I found myself loving in season 3 and wondering when she was going to pop up in season 4. Instead I found myself watching a Luther that wasn’t as broken up about his love being gone. Then you also had the rushed ending where Diego found out that his wife cheated with his brother and then they all died to protect their family. There was no resolution there. And I understand that that’s life. But this is a TV show. I watch The Umbrella Academy for the “out of this world.” Not the real world and its problems.
Why didn’t they spend more time together?!
If The Umbrella Academy was going to do one last hoorah then they should have had the family spend more time together. Klaus has always been a free spirit. But again, this is the final season and I would have appreciated him spending more time with his family and not having this random psychic pay for hire romps with the dead. If you’re going to wrap things up, give us some hope like him reconnecting with his past love Dave or finding his way through addiction. The same thing goes for the rest of the siblings and Lila. I wanted to know more about their families, what they had been doing since they were last together, and get more than that truly heartbreaking scene at the end before they were blipped out of existence.
The Hargreeves died. And for a show that’s spent such a long time making them immovable objects, The Umbrella Academy season 4 faltered in making me believe anything but this being a rushed attempt to end such a beloved show and move onto the next thing. I also feel like their deaths were cheapened by the marigolds blooming in the after credit scene with glowing particles floating away from them. Yes, it’s a little bit poetic that the Hargreeves are still present in some way. But if the power is still there, it means that the problem was the family. And since day one, this show made us think that the power was the problem and the strength was family.
Then there’s Five and Lila.
Five and Lila are by far my favorite dynamic on The Umbrella Academy. And I remember having this demented thought that what if they pair them together somewhere down the line because this show always did the unexpected? But I thought myself foolish and that The Umbrella Academy would never do this. Oh was I wrong. And I get it. Five and Lila spent several years trying to find a way back home. You would probably find comfort in your companion after such a significant time too. Even with a husband/wife or kids. We’re only human. But like everything else in this show, it was rushed and had no solid conclusion. They survived together, they loved together, and then they died together. But nothing was resolved.
Admittedly, I think The Umbrella Academy could have sold me on Five and Lila if they had more time. (I know some people would probably choke at this thought but Allison and Luther basically grew up as brother and sister and had the hots for each other, Klaus hid Ben was haunting him for years, and Viktor literally slashed Allison’s throat. The show pushes boundaries is my point.) What Five and Lila needed was more time. Because separately, the montage kind of development that we got, it worked. But The Umbrella Academy needed more time to suss out why this happened, where they were going, and the reality that they sought comfort in each other during a really hard time because they’re just human.
Instead, like everything else in The Umbrella Academy season 4, everything was slapped together with a wish and a prayer that fans would just accept it and keep going. And while I will remember the show fondly for how insane it was. I will also remember the faults in this final season. I will remember the wasted time with Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally, even though I love them as actors, the way that the death of Ben was cruel and just didn’t fit, and how out of everyone, Reginald Hargreeves and his wife found peace at the end of it all.
Missed opportunity after missed opportunity
Even exploring Allison was a missed opportunity for season 4, especially after the twisted decisions she made in season 3 to get back to her family. You don’t get to see complex women like that on TV often. She deserved better. Lila also deserved better when it came to her feelings of loneliness and feeling stuck in the world. And Diego should have been given an opportunity to figure out his life just as much as Five deserved to find peace. Heck, I would have even loved to see something more with Luther instead of just making him the stripper himbo. This honestly left Viktor as the only one who seemed a bit more grounded in who they were. And that’s only ONE sibling.
The only thing that is currently keeping my love alive for The Umbrella Academy is the fact that this creative show managed to bring together a cast of incredibly talented actors and bring them to new audiences. It changed these actors’ lives and set them on paths they never thought they would end up on. And it’s all because of a little show called The Umbrella Academy about a family with enough dysfunction to feel multiple football fields and then some. But it’s all worth it, because family is where the show has always shined and will continue to shine. And if they do a movie in a couple years to fix this ending, I’ll be there. Because the Hargreeves deserved better.
The Umbrella Academy season 4 is now available on Netflix.
1. What happened with the talking ape?
2. Tell me a Rumor, was not said once in season 4.
3. Season story line was rushed and simply wasn’t that great.
4. Where did Diego’s scar go that was on the right side of his face?