The Umbrella Academy season 2, episode 5 review: Valhalla

The Umbrella Academy finally reunites, but the Hargreeves siblings are still fixated on their own personal problems instead of saving the world.

When it comes to dysfunctional families, the Hargreeves are more than a textbook case. After all, their adoptive father (Colm Feore) seems to be directly involved with a secret shadow government behind the eventual assassination of President John F. Kennedy. However, as The Umbrella Academy’s previous episode, “The Majestic 12,” also showed, it’s maintaining relationships outside the family which presents even greater challenges.

As of now, Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) is on the outs with her husband for not telling him the truth. Klaus (Robert Sheehan) returned to the bottle after his not-yet boyfriend, Dave (Calem MacDonald), punched him in the face, only to be found by his cult. Luther (Tom Hopper), seeing Allison has moved on without him and having been fired by Jack Ruby (John Kapelos), goes on a laughing gas-bender with Elliot (Kevin Rankin). Yet it’s Vanya (Ellen Page) who suddenly finds love again with Sissy (Marin Ireland), who showed her true feelings for her after Vanya saved Sissy’s son, Harlan (Justin Paul Kelly).

As for Diego (David Castañeda), his budding relationship with Lila (Ritu Arya) is thrown through a loop when they, along with Five (Aidan Gallagher) attend a party at the Mexican Consulate that Prof. Hargreeves and his fellow conspirators are meeting. First, Diego accidentally meets the woman whom their robotic nanny Grace (Jordan Claire Robbins) was modeled after, who’s also dating Professor Hargreeves. Then, he is essentially abandoned by Lila when she protects Five from the Swedish assassin brothers when they attack the consulate. Of course, neither he nor Five know that she’s also The Handler’s (Kate Walsh) adopted daughter.

Thus after the prologue, “Valhalla” begins with Prof. Hargreeves fled the scene, a suspicious Five openly vowing to kill Lila the next time they meet, and Diego feeling used and rejected. But on the bright side, the Hargreeves are about to have their first family meeting since being stranded in 1960s Dallas.

“It’s time we started growing up.”

One of the great things about The Umbrella Academy’s first season was in seeing all of the Hargreeves’ siblings come together, even if it was just to bicker at one another. Clearly, “Valhalla” wants to recapture this, and this works both for and against this episode. Despite being in new surroundings, with new personal problems, and in a different time, it’s clear the Umbrella Academy, as a family, still have the same-old hang-ups.

Once again, Five is the only one concerned about the upcoming apocalypse and saving his family. Diego thinks it’s all connected to the JFK assassination, but it’s clear he’s just looking for an excuse to kill Prof. Hargreeves. Vanya, Allison, and Klaus are too wrapped up in relationship drama. Poor Ben (Justin H. Min) is being ignored what with him being a ghost that only Klaus can see and hear. But it’s Luther who decides the whole thing is a waste of time. Maybe it’s because he enjoys wallowing in self-pity. Or maybe because, as we learn in this episode, Luther already found and was rejected by their adoptive dad moments after arriving in 1960.

Honesty and fantasy

Another delightful scene occurs when Vanya, Allison, and Klaus re-bond over alcohol and dancing to Sam Cooke’s “Twistin’ the Night Away.” After all, they figure that if the world will end in six days and them along with it, they might as well live what time they have to the fullest. That includes being open and honest with others, something all three have been grappling with this season. Thus Klaus decides to return to his cult (where he can presumably tell them off), Allison returning to Ray (Yusef Gatewood) and telling him “everything,” and Vanya telling Sissy that she loves her. As Klaus jokingly states, it’s a “step up” from her romance with Leonard/Harold during season 1.

This is easier said than done, of course. As we saw with Klaus last episode, homosexuality was extremely taboo in 1963; a housewife leaving her husband for another woman would be considered an absolute scandal. And despite her and Vanya consummating their relationship, the episode brilliantly shows how Sissy is very much confined not only by her marriage but also by the expectations from women in the 1960s. Not to mention there’s Harlan and his special needs to think about. As she tells Vanya near the episode’s end, “We don’t get to live our fantasies.”

In turn, we also see that, despite being the most powerful of her family, Vanya feels just as helpless. This is expertly shown during breakfast the morning after Vanya and Sissy have just slept together. Having just arrived home, Sissy’s unsuspecting husband Carl (Stephen Bogaert) wishes to celebrate closing a major deal. And by celebrate, he means have an evening of hanky-panky with his wife.

Sissy trying to gently dissuade Carl, Harlan fixated on playing Operation, the quick cuts to the Operation nose buzzer, the gradual muting of the dialogue, Vanya’s growing visibly frustrated, all culminating in Vanya, presumably, cracking a window with her powers – it’s a definite foreshadowing of a potential tragedy to come.

Even so, it does feel clumsy from a writing standpoint that we’re now suddenly meant to see Carl as an unsympathetic character. Sure, he’s an obtuse simpleton who takes his wife and son for granted. Except for getting plastered at Jack Ruby’s bar during episode 2, the series has never so much as hinted he was any sort of jerk to Sissy or Harlan. Though him drunkenly walking out in his boxers and slapping Sissy’s butt in front of Vanya definitely is a bit much.

“To my pursuers…”

In terms of advancing the plot, “Vahalla” does feel a bit slow compared to earlier episodes. Yet aside from Vanya and Sissy’s subplot, there are some small but significant developments.

More from Bam Smack Pow

Luther and Diego receive a mysterious invitation for a “light supper” from Prof. Hargreeves. Also, the Handler is enacting some sort of plot against the Umbrella Academy, first by having Lila lure Five into an abandoned warehouse where the two duke it out in martial-arts fisticuffs. Given how Lila seems to randomly appear and disappear without Five noticing, it now seems clear that she has super powers of own.

The Handler’s revenge may also appear to involve framing Diego. Why else have Lila take one of his knives to then plant it in the middle of the woods for the Swedish brothers to find, thus leading to one of them being blown up by a homemade IUD? It does lead to one of the brothers finally having some sort of emotional outburst when the surviving two hold (I kid you not) a Viking Funeral. Hence the title of the episode, but in all honesty, I couldn’t care less. Hazel and Cha-Cha, despite being cold-blooded assassins, had personality and charm; these guys are just dull, platinum blond mutes. They definitely don’t even compare with the Unknown from Netflix’s Dark when it comes to being both creepy, sinister, and fascinating characters in their own right.

Still, “Valhalla” does make for a nice bridge episode to mark the season’s halfway point. Despite the continued, and rather desperate, attempts at being an offbeat, surreal “superhero” series, it once again highlights The Umbrella Academy’s real strengths lie with the Hargreeves and their bonds with one another. Just so long as the series doesn’t wind up stuck in the past as the Hargreeves continue being stuck in the past.

Next. All 6 DC Universe original shows ranked from worst to best. dark

The Umbrella Academy season 2 is streaming now on Netflix. What did you think of the fifth episode? Let us know in the comments below!

Home/TV