'The Umbrella Academy' Couldn't Have Ended Any Other Way
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.
Spoilers for all episodes of The Umbrella Academy season 4 ahead. Since Netflix announced that The Umbrella Academy would end with its fourth and final season, the big question has been: How do you conclude a show that already has an apocalypse every season? The irreverent, must-watch TV series has followed the titular, dysfunctional, super-powered family across decades and timelines, and it has become pretty clear that no matter how many years of peace they can get, catastrophe is always around the corner. Now that the fourth season finally arrived on August 8, 2024, we need to discuss how The Umbrella Academy wrapped up the family's story, and why the story couldn't have ended any other way.
Who are The Keepers in 'The Umbrella Academy?'
The Umbrella Academy season 4 picks up six years after the world-resetting, power-removing cliffhanger from the end of season 3, and starts with the Umbrellas still living normal, non-super-powered lives. The season doesn't actually begin with the family. Instead, it introduces us to Dr. Gene (Nick Offerman) and Jean (Megan Mullally) Thibodeau, a married couple (both on- and off-screen) of professors after some black-market merch. It turns out that the new universe wasn't reset perfectly; now people have dreams in which they're living other lives. Relics from the prime timeline (a.k.a. the timeline from seasons 1 and 2) have still lingered, like figurines and a copy of a movie with a different main actress. Over the years, these dreamers have found each other, connected by memories of the prime timeline that they all share: the footprints of Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) and the Umbrella Academy.
Gene and Jean gathered all these disappointed, frustrated souls into a cult called The Keepers, and taught them about "timeline sickness" and The Umbrella Effect, their theory that they can return to the correct timeline. The profs even (correctly) flag that Reginald and his revived wife Abigail (Liisa Repo-Martell) are the "elites" that want to keep the current timeline in check. When Five (Aidan Gallagher) and Lila (Ritu Arya) infiltrate a Keeper lecture, they learn that the Thibodeaus are seeking out The Cleanse, which would bring an end to the broken timeline and restore the prime one, where all of the Keepers would live happier lives.
Who is Jennifer in 'The Umbrella Academy' and how did the original Ben die?
Even though season 4's an abridged six episodes, it takes its time in only revealing details of the Keepers' plot as the Umbrellas figure it out themselves. Eventually, they learn that it hinges on Jennifer (Victoria Sawal), a mysterious woman who was the same person at the center of the Jennifer Incident which killed the Umbrella Ben in the prime, season 1 timeline. It took four seasons, but The Umbrella Academy has finally revealed how the original Ben died in the Jennifer Incident, and it's just as heartbreaking as you'd expect.
Back in 2006 when they were teen superheroes, the Umbrellas (minus Viktor, who was still having his powers repressed at the time, and Five, who had already vanished) were sent to destroy a mysterious weapon before it could be sold. In the flashback, Reginald tells them not to open the container holding the weapon and stresses how important that is. When they get to the ship, Ben is left to set up Reginald's explosive charges while the rest of the Umbrellas subdue the guards. However, Ben hears a thumping coming from inside the giant container. He opens it and finds a girl his age named Jennifer.
Of course, Ben, being a decent person, immediately went against his dad's plan to blow up a random, innocent girl. Because Luther is still Reginald's brainwashed lackey, he radios Reginald that they have a problem. As soon as Ben gets Jennifer out of the container, both of them are immediately shot in the head by none other than Reginald (who seems to have teleported to the ship). Following Ben's death, Reg altered the kids' memories to forget what happened and parrot the phrase, "It was a tragic accident. We failed as a team."
The Umbrellas (plus Viktor but minus Klaus, who, again, sidelined) find out the truth from the season 4 version of Reginald (who blames it all on the prime Reg, which, that's the best you could do?). In the season 4 timeline, Reg and Abigail have also retained all their memories, and they spent the past six years tracking down Jennifer and hiding her in the town of assassins that shot up the Umbrellas in episode 2. The "perfectly valid reason" for prime Reg to kill his son and another kid was to stop them from setting off a "cataclysmic chain of events leading to the extinction of all humanity," a.k.a. The Cleanse.
Little about Jennifer is revealed in the show's final episodes, although we know a bit about her backstory. It's revealed that she has trauma from being swallowed by and later cut out of an absurdly giant squid. (For what it's worth, we're still confused by this, and so are fans on Reddit.)
What is The Cleanse in 'The Umbrella Academy' and how is Abigail involved?
Season 4's apocalypse comes full circle in two ways: the Jennifer Incident, and the mysterious marigold. As fans may remember, marigold was introduced in season 3 as the magical/alien golden particles that Reginald released onto Earth, which got into all of the women who instantly became pregnant and gave birth on October 1, 1989. In season 4, Reg and Abigail explain that the latter had invented marigold, and at the same time that it synthesized, a second particle "was created" called durango.
In a catastrophic yin-yang situation, when marigold and durango interact, the differing particles cause a physical reaction that leads to "the extinction of everything we know." It's also heavily implied that this Cleanse destroyed the Hargreeves' home world before Reginald released the Umbrellas' marigold particles on Earth. (That's likely why everyone was fleeing the planet in that season 1 scene where we saw the moment Reg released them.)
Both in the prime timeline and season 4, Ben and Jennifer have an otherworldly pull towards each other, one that toes the line between true love and the marigold and durango just doing their thing pre-Cleanse. Eventually, after Sparrow Ben rescues Jennifer from the Keepers (long story short, when this Jen was released from the squid, the only thing she can say is "the cleanse," so that's their girl), their physical interaction sets off particle explosions, ranging in strength from just light shimmers when they touch hands to leveling a 100-ft radius while hooking up. Whether it is love or destruction, Ben refuses to leave her, even as he begins to alter into this thing. What no one knew about The Cleanse is that it involves Ben and Jennifer fusing into a horrific, mutated blob that exponentially grows as it levels everything in its path. (There is one person who may have anticipated this.)
Who is Sy Grossman in 'The Umbrella Academy' and what is Abigail's secret?
While Gene and Jean are busy chasing Cleanse clues and Jennifer, Sy Grossman (David Cross) really sets this whole season off. Sy was the one who contacted the Umbrella Academy, seemingly remembering them from his prime timeline memories, and asked them to rescue his "daughter" (a.k.a Jennifer) from the Keepers. However, when they found her, Jennifer had never heard of him. Sy had also just happened to have a jar of marigold on him, which was how the Umbrellas got back their powers in the first place.
Fast forward to episode 4, and Sy joins Jean and Gene at their Keepers headquarters/commandeered Burger King (or, "King Reg"). Sy mysteriously knows way more about Jennifer and the Cleanse than he should, and it becomes obvious he sent the Umbrellas after Jennifer to start the Cleanse. Sy basically appears to the profs with all the answers, but Gene (Offerman) quickly gets on his "macho bullshit" at this random guy possibly taking over his leader spot. Gene even lures Sy out the back of the burger joint with the intent to shoot him, but before he can, Sy's tentacle(!) pierces Gene through the gut!
Of all the unanswered questions over the seasons of The Umbrella Academy, Reg and Abigail's alien anatomy has undoubtedly been the coolest. The big reveal that Sy is Abigail in disguise combines so many of them: The tentacle straight-up cleaving Gene like Reg did Luther in season 3, Reg taking off his skin like a mask to reveal himself in season 2. That skin-disguise effect is put into use here when Abigail becomes Gene, dumping out all his organs and putting on his flesh like a suit. From then on, Abigail is the de facto leader of the Keepers, assembling them to guard Ben and Jennifer, and even killing Jean when he senses something is wrong.
Once the Ben/Jennifer/Cleanse monster gets going, Abigail reveals herself to Reginald to explain why the apocalypse is for the best. She explains that her previous death in her home world was her "penance" for creating the deadly Cleanse, and confirms that her creation led to the death of her and Reg's home world. She asks why he'd lose marigold on another world, ensuring its destruction, and Reg answers that he was lonely without her, hinting that releasing the marigold was connected to bringing her back to life. However, she says all this was hubris, not love, and that it was her duty to set his actions right. With that, the couple let themselves be killed by the Cleanse, as he tells her "well done." So yeah, in the end, literally everything was Reginald's fault. Worst. Father. Ever.
How does the Umbrella Academy stop the apocalypse? And what's with all the Fives?
At first, the Umbrellas make a valiant effort to save the world in the middle of major emotional turmoil. Reg wants to stick to his shoot first and mourn later M.O., but Viktor gets the chance to try to save Ben and Jennifer by pulling the particles out of their bodies. When Viktor's attempt doesn't seem to work, Reg shoots Ben via sniper, which makes no difference. It just makes Jennifer cradle him, and once they touch, the Cleanse monster truly takes over and starts growing (with Ben and Jennifer's mangled faces appearing on the body and giving us all nightmares).
As the Umbrellas retreat and regroup, Five, still reeling from Lila's rejection, peaces out to the subway between timelines. To his surprise, he finds a deli full of Fives, literally operated and frequented by him from other timelines. The other Fives have all also given up on stopping their apocalypses because in literally every timeline where Five is born, the world gets destroyed. This is how Five learns that the birth of the Umbrellas (a.k.a. Reg releasing the marigold on Earth) broke the original timeline into a multiverse. There's only supposed to be one main timeline, but instead, n infinite amount of Umbrellas have been trying and failing to fix their timelines at least "145,412" times.
The Cleanse is a good thing. If the Umbrellas let it consume all of the marigold inside of them, it'll interact with the durango, cancel both of them out, and put the world back into tune. The chaotic multiverse becomes a stable universe again, but the Umbrellas won't be part of it. And it won't mean their deaths; they'll be erased from history, and they will never have existed at all. Plus, they don't know whether their families (including Claire and Diego and Lila's three kids) will survive or disappear.
There's a brief freakout where Lila decides to escape on the timeline subway with their families, but at the last second, she accepts that she has to be consumed by The Cleanse too to fix the world. The emotional final moments show the Umbrellas accepting their fate and standing in a circle in that dilapidated Hargreeves mansion, waiting for the monster to crash through and devour them. They're consumed by the Cleanse and now they're gone forever. To save the world, the Umbrellas needed to die. It's a heartbreaking reality that also makes the most sense. If the apocalypse follows you around, you stop the apocalypse when you stop running.
In the final scene of The Umbrella Academy, we see Claire playing with Lila and Diego's family in a sunny, crowded park. The rest of the crowd enjoying the summer's day includes so many cameos from previous seasons, from The Handler (Kate Walsh) to Grace (Jordan Claire Robbins) and Pogo (Adam Godley) to even Dolores (Rachel Delduca). (No Mary J. Blige, but shout out Hazel and Agnes together again!) But, even on this ordinary day, the post-credits scene shows an eye-catching detail: eight marigolds growing at the base of a tree.
How does 'The Umbrella Academy' comic book end?
With that, Netflix's The Umbrella Academy comes to an epic, sorrowful, admittedly muddled but still inevitable ending. However, the end of the TV show does not mean that fans can't continue with the Umbrellas' story. The comic book series by author Gerard Way and illustrator Gabriel Bá that inspired the show is still ongoing, and season 4 was even able to fit tons of comic Easter eggs into the season (including an appearance from illustrator Bá himself in the final park scene).
Volumes 1-3 of The Umbrella Academy comics are currently out, with the same characters from the show but quite different plots. The comics haven't even gotten to the Sparrow Academy yet, but a fourth volume introducing the second team is set to come out ... at some point. Per ComicBook.com, Bá confirmed during the season 4 premiere that he and Way (of My Chemical Romance fame) are "working on it."
