The Umbrella Academy’s finale was bound to be bittersweet. Our rough Hargreeves family isn’t big on mushy stuff. So when the siblings join hands in the last episode, giving up their lives to stop the apocalypses for good, and Klaus (Robert Sheehan) says, “…I love you guys, but you are all assholes,” it feels just right. Sadly, many other parts of the Umbrellas’ ending don’t hit the mark — leaving the fourth and final season of Netflix’s show about superpowered adults with childhood issues feeling bittersweet in an unexpected way. There was so much room to give the Hargreeves a great send-off, and while some moments shine, most of the ending is full of lost chances to say goodbye in a truly satisfying way.
This feeling is perfectly shown in one of the season’s big scenes: the Timeline Subway. Oh, Timeline Subway — what could have been!
Season 4 starts six years after the Hargreeves came out of Oblivion into a reset 2019, finding they’ve lost their powers. Everyone’s unhappy with their life. (Welcome to being normal, folks!) When Sy Grossman (David Cross) asks them to find his “missing” “daughter” Jennifer (Victoria Sawal), they end up with a jar of marigold — the stuff that a sad Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) once released, causing 43 moms to get pregnant and give birth on Oct. 1, 1989. Simply put: marigold gives the Hargreeves their superpowers.
It turns out that Reginald’s wife, Abigail (Liisa Repo-Martell), who made the marigold and its opposite, durango, was pretending to be Sy. She wanted the Hargreeves to get the marigold so they’d mix it with durango and end the world. This was to make up for making such dangerous stuff in the first place (and to teach Reginald he should’ve left the marigold alone). If that seems like a weak reason to cause an apocalypse, you’re not alone.
