Netflix's The Umbrella Academy season 2, episode 9 review: 743

In the penultimate episode of the sophomore season of The Umbrella Academy, Diego, Allison or Klaus can’t reach Vanya in time. Meanwhile, Herb uncovers kill order 743 which leads to disastrous consequences…

In the second to last episode of The Umbrella Academy, “743”, Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Diego (David Castañeda) and Klaus Hargreeves (Robert Sheehan) are cramped within FBI Headquarters as they struggle over how they can possibly save their adoptive sister Vanya (Ellen Page) from destroying the building, setting off the chain of events that lead to the second apocalypse.

Unfortunately, neither Allison nor Diego is able to reach the end of the hallway where Vanya is radiating powerful waves of white energy in the interrogation room. Klaus, surprisingly, is able to reach the furthest but gets blasted with the full brunt of sound wave projection energy. Ben (Justin H. Min), however, being a ghost (who Klaus can only see) can reach the interrogation room.

Dilemma between the concurrent Number Fives

As a continuation from the last episode, “The Seven Stages”, Luther (Tom Hopper), the teenage Number Five (Aidan Gallagher) and older Number Five (Sean Sullivan) discuss what they do with one another as they head towards the very place where President John F. Kennedy is killed in order to restore the timeline.

Luther (Hopper) attempts to keep both of his brothers in check as the two incarnations of Five undergo bouts of the Seven Stages of Paradox Psychosis (denial, itching, extreme thirst and urination, excessive gas, acute paranoia, uncontrolled perspiration and homicidal rage). This is a side-effect when you are in close proximity to yourself in the same timeline.

Deep within the Dreamscape

As the ghost of Ben (Min) enters the interrogation room, he enters the mind of Vanya and tries to confide with the subconscious aspect of her within an apparition of The Academy.

Ben enters through a hollow part of her violin that represents her limbo and speaks to Vanya. She lets Ben’s ghost know that she remembers everything and grows anxious that she is yet again incapable of controlling her powers unlike the rest of The Umbrella Academy. She also recalls how she killed Pogo during the first apocalypse of 2019 when she lacked control.

Kill Order 743

Following the unforeseen mental connection Vanya seemingly has with Harlan (Justin Paul Kelly), her love interest Sissy (Marin Ireland) and her husband Carl, are in conflict due to the trance Vanya unknowingly left Harlan in. Sissy threatens Carl, who intends to take their son to a facility away from the safety of his home.

At the Temps Commission, The Handler (Kate Marsh) gets interrogated by her adoptive daughter, Lila Pitts (Ritu Arya), on kill order No. 743 – the kill order that Herb (Ken Hall) informed her about earlier. Lila confronts The Handler and we discover that older Five was the one responsible for killing Lila’s parents. And that AJ was the one who executed the order. What Lila does not know, however, is The Handler was present when it happened – and the latter is able to twist the story so that Lila will turn against Diego and the rest of The Umbrella Academy.

Placing all the Pieces Together

This, by far, has to be one of the strongest episodes of this season. There were so many great moments from “743” that is just wrapped up in a neat bow. To put it frankly, this was almost a perfect episode.

First of all, a large majority of this cast not only had moments to shine, with a great depiction of 1960s America as the backdrop, but there were so many twists and turns in this episode that even binge-watchers may be scratching their heads.

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These were the strengths of “743”, and this is thanks to the ninth episode’s teleplay by Bronwyn Garrity and Robert Askins, as well as the performances by Gallagher, Hopper, Sullivan and Page. This was also superbly handled by this episode’s director, Amanda Marshalls.

Also, the production design remains impressive along with great use of colors and texture in the cinematography by Neville Kidd and a nice use of music supervision from Jeff Russo really adds to the overall feeling created by the second season.

Both sequences in Vanya’s subconscious and at the FBI Headquarters comparably had good use of symbols in between shots, and let’s not forget the moment when Sheehan’s Klaus complemented Diego as “Antonio Banderas with long hair.”

Undoubtedly, there were flaws, but only minor grievances. Klaus’ arc does feel like it’s beginning to be redeemed now, so that wasn’t so much of an issue here. However, this writer did feel like Ben’s standout moment as he saved Vanya – which was undoubtedly a nice touch in its own right and served as a great send-off for the character – came off as plot armor designed to rob Klaus of a moment to actually be more responsible.

Though Klaus is both an entertaining and compelling character, it’s almost as if the writers are consistently writing for Sheehan’s witty delivery rather than developing the character in a necessary way.

Another problem is the the logic behind time travel – a concept that is always rather challenging. It did feel like the story behind the existence of both Number Fives in the ’60s was not fully explained. Though we knew pieces of the story already, it could have done with a greater explanation just to remind fans who hadn’t revisited season 1 of the fully story.

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What did you think of The Umbrella Academy season 2’s penultimate episode? Have you been enjoying the second season of The Umbrella Academy? Let us know in the comments below!

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