Everyone’s favorite dysfunctional adopted superhero family is back for a third season on Netflix. Based on the comic book series by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, The Umbrella Academy is the ultimate polished package of time-travel shenanigans, hateful father figures, and multiple end-of-the-world scenarios.
Before you get to the latest season, there are some details you should probably look back at from season 2. The season ended on a stunning cliffhanger, and there are hope that a certain couple will be reunited.
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Vanya takes center stage in Doomsday.
Netflix
Vanya causes Doomsday… again.
Since Season 1, Hargreeves’ siblings have been tasked with preventing Doomsday, also known as the apocalypse. As in Season 1, Vanya (Elliot Page) is at the center of this world-destroying disaster.
In the Season 1 finale, Vanya releases energy that expels fragments of the moon into the Earth, ending the world. To prevent this, the siblings return in time in Season 2 thanks to the powers of Five (Aiden Gallagher). But they ended up decades back, in 1963, in Dallas, around the time of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Number five (Aidan Gallagher) in The Umbrella Academy.
Netflix
This again leads to Doomsday. Diego (David Castañeda) uses the Commission’s Infinite Switchboard – a secret agency that monitors the world’s established timeline – to see into the future. He sees an FBI building explode as JFK’s car drives by during his parade. This sets a series of events in which JFK evades assassination, but the US government believes the Russians are behind the explosion. They take revenge,, and a nuclear war ensues, also known as another Doomsday.
It turns out that the explosion – you guessed it – was caused by Vanya. Vanya is believed to be a Russian spy and is being tortured by the FBI. This activates her powers, and she is about to explode. Just in time, Ben (Justin H. Min) comes to her mind and convinces her that the siblings love her. She takes control of her powers and prevents the explosion. JFK is assassinated, and history resumes its “correct” timeline. Unfortunately, ghost Ben can no longer return to the living world – he disintegrates, having accomplished his final goal of saving Vanya.
Is Reginald an alien?
The Hargreaves loving old adoptive father always has an asset up his sleeve. During a roundtable meeting with a group of conspiracy theorists known as Majestic 12, Sir Reginald (Colm Feore) pulls off his face. He reveals that it is a mask and that he is, an interdimensional being. He promptly kills the gentlemen.
The Commission and the Hargreeves go to war.
The highlight of Season 2 is that The Handler (Kate Walsh) — aka the head of the Commission and the former boss of Five — sends just about everyone on the Commission to war with the Hargreeves. This war takes place on the farm of Sissy (Marin, Ireland), where she calls Vanya for help. Vanya realizes she accidentally gave some of her powers to Sissy’s son Harlan (Justin Paul Kelly) when she resuscitated him after nearly drowning in a lake.
Harlan is about to explode, but Vanya calms him down and regains his powers.
Diego, meanwhile, convinces the mighty Lila (Ritu Arya) — who can mirror the powers of others — that she is one of the siblings, born on October 1, 1989, the same day they all were. Her adoptive mother, The Handler, doesn’t love her and was behind her parents’ death, intending to capture and control her. With this information, Sissy steals a briefcase — a device that transports people through time and space — and disappears.
The Handler is shot dead.
The Handler initially shoots everyone dead, but Five, having mastered his powers, jumps seconds back in time and prevents this from happening. When the Handler turns his back, Axel (Kris Holden-Ried), the last of the three Swedish hitmen, appears in the shed and shoots her dead (well, so it seems).
Herb (Ken Hall), now acting chairman of the Commission, grants the siblings a suitcase to return home.
Vanya, Sissy, and Harlan.
Netflix
Sissy knows she can’t go to the future with Vanya
Unfortunately, Vanya’s love, Sissy, decides not to join her. “What should that look like?” says Sissy. Her priority is Harlan, although she is “afraid of” Vanya. She knows that she cannot live a normal life in the future without danger with Vanya. But when Vanya finds a safe way back to Sissy, Sissy wants her to take it.
They share one last kiss and hug before Vanya leaves. What They Don’t Realize: is Harlan still displays powers and hovers a carved bird in his hand.
Allison says goodbye
Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampan) is forced to say goodbye to her husband Ray (Yusuf Gatewood), who has to stay behind in the 1960s to support the civil rights movement. She wishes to be with him, and her time with him has changed her, but she knows she didn’t belong in 1963. She leaves Ray a letter saying that sheher siblings saved the world.
The Sparrow Academy
The siblings finally go home, but it’s not as they know it. It is April 2, 2019, the day after the apocalypse, which they manage to prevent. They celebrate over a drink when Diego finds a painting of Ben above the mantelpiece. Reginald appears no longer dead (his funeral occurs in the first episode of Season 1). “This is Sparrow Academy,” he sas, before a group of young superheroes gathers in the gallery.
“Dad, who are these motherfuckers?” says a sharper-looking Ben, more alive than ever with scruffy hair and a scar on his cheek.
So how the hell did the timeline get so messed up? Is Reginald an alien? Will Vanya and Sissy reunite? And will Harlan become a superhero?
Let’s hope Season 3 (coming Wednesday, June 22) brings those answers.
