The Umbrella Academy season 2, episode 10 review: The End of Something

The conclusion to The Umbrella Academy’s second season may seem rushed at times, but the cliffhanger ending is worth the sprint.

So the Umbrella Academy have prevented Vanya (Ellen Page) from bringing about the apocalypse 56 years before it’s supposed to happen. Or rather, the ghost of her adoptive brother, Ben (Justin H. Min) did. In one the best scenes of the entire season, Ben sacrificed himself while also reassuring Vanya that she “wasn’t a monster” but “his sister,” and in doing so did more to mentally heal Vanya than any of her adoptive siblings ever had.

As the prologue of The Umbrella Academy’s season finale (“The End of Something”) depicting Ben’s original funeral suggests, Ben may have embodied the true spirit that Prof. Hargreeves (Colm Feore) wanted from the Umbrella Academy more than any other, including Hargreeves himself.

In addition, Luther (Tom Hopper) and Five (Aiden Gallagher) manage to send Five’s older younger self (Sean Sullivan) back to 2019, thus preserving Five’s timeline. Unfortunately, they accidentally destroy another Commission briefcase in the process. Also, Diego (David Castañeda) failed in preventing the JFK assassination and discovered that (surprise!) Prof. Hargreeves wasn’t in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963, but sent a decoy in his place. In fact, Prof. Hargreeves never wanted President Kennedy assassinated at all, and he ends up killing the members of Majestic 12 for using him. Oh, and it turns out he’s also an alien from another planet.

Those weren’t the only revelations. Lila found out it was Five who murdered her parents, only she doesn’t know he was acting under The Handler’s (Kate Walsh) orders. Also, the Commission have been alerted to another temporal anomaly in the form of Harlan Cooper (Justin Paul Kelly).

Somehow, when Vanya gave him CPR back in episode 4, the autistic boy absorbed some of Vanya’s powers. Now he’s losing control, especially after accidentally killing his father Carl (Stephen Bogaert). And the Commission, under The Handler, is prepped for war with the Cooper farm as the battleground.

Powers on full display

With the Umbrella Academy now wanted by the FBI for their “suspected involvement” in the JFK assassination, the last surviving Swede hot on their tail, the entire Commission on their way, and Harlan literally changing weather patterns, one would think we’d be in for quite the FX-extravaganza. And you’d be right.

For the next 15 minutes or so, viewers who have been patiently waiting for a heavy dose of super-powered action this season have their patience rewarded. We see hundreds of heavily armed Committee members appear out of nowhere. We see new applications of powers, such as Diego freezing and redirecting bullets (so, his real power is magnetism on small objects?). We see Vanya float and send out huge shockwaves. We see Klaus (Robert Sheehan) rescued from falling to his death by the ghost of two Civil War soldiers. And we see Harlan sheltering himself inside a bubble of energy. It’s easy to see where the bulk of the production costs for this season went.

This emphasis on action and spectacle also results in several of this seasons subplots being quickly resolved almost with a hand wave, most of which involves Vanya. Not only does she single-handedly eliminate all of the Commission troops except for The Handler and Lila, she calms Harlan down long enough to absorb her stray powers back into herself (or so she thinks), and has a bittersweet goodbye scene with Sissy (Marin Ireland) to boot. In fairness, however, the much of Vanya and Sissy subplot this season was all but finished last episode, so its resolution doesn’t feel particularly rushed. At least compared to what happens with Lila.

“I know that we can be your family. If you just let us.”

As suspected, Lila does have super powers, but she’s also more connected to the Hargreeves siblings than any of them realized. Turns out Lila was also one of the 43 children spontaneously born on October 1, 1989. Her case, she has the ability to mirror the Hargreeves siblings’ powers, albeit one at a time.

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Naturally, this raises a number of questions. What happened to the other 35 children? Why didn’t Professor Hargreeves adopt Lila the moment she was born like he did with the Hargreeves siblings? How come, other than episode 5, did she not think to use these abilities at any other time she’s been around the Hargreeves? And why was she so clueless about her adoptive mother’s real motives?

Yes, it also turns out the Handler had Lila’s parents murdered and “adopted” her because of those powers. Hence why The Handler now wants to “adopt” Harlan and has no further use for Lila. Which is also why, just the Hargreeves -particularly Diego – finally manage to convince Lila of the truth, The Handler suddenly mows them all down with a sub-machine gun. But before the Umbrella Academy can stay dead, Five remembers Professor Hargreeves’ advice and travels back in time mere seconds before the Handler can kill them. She, in turn, is killed by the last surviving Swede brother, and Lila escapes to set up a potential storyline for Season 3.

As I said, it’s not as if Lila having powers is any sort of shock. Yet having Hargreeves correctly leap to the conclusion that she’s one of the 43 has all the fingerprints of the writers having to quickly wrap things up. On the other hand, it does cement Lila’s status as a Catwoman to Diego’s Batman, and it did give us some nifty displays of how she used the Hargreeves’ siblings own powers against them. Her rumoring Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) to “stop breathing” was effectively terrifying. Although, it also leads to the rather squick-inducing moment where Luther – her adoptive brother, remember – gives her mouth-to-mouth which, of course, leads to them romantically kissing. So much for Allison’s marriage to Ray (Yusef Gatewood).

“Home? This isn’t your home.”

Speaking of Ray, Allison does leave him a goodbye letter in Jules Vernes’ From Earth to the Moon, the same book she was reading when they first met. As he reads, we’re treated to a montage of what happened with the other characters.

Herb (Ken Hall) is now acting-director of the Commission. Dave (Calem McDonald) boards a bus to head off for basic training. The last Swede brother hitches a ride with Klaus’ love cult. Jack Ruby (John Kapelos) is set to kill Lee Harvey Oswald. And Sissy and Harlan head off for California. Unbeknownst to the his mother, Harlan is also mentally floating one of his toys in his hand, and the look on his face seems strangely ominous.

However, the real surprise is when the Hargreeves return to what they presume is their own time. They find themselves in the Hargreeves mansion on April 2, 2019, meaning that the Apocalypse from the day before never happened. Only that isn’t the only thing that’s changed.

Professor Hargreeves is still very much alive, and has been expecting them for the last 50-plus years. Only instead of the Umbrella Academy, Reginald Hargreeves is now headmaster of the Sparrow Academy, and his new Number One is… Ben Hargreeves?!

Yes, this adaption has definitely swayed completely off the path from Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s original comic book series, and in some cases for the better. Granted, The Umbrella Academy’s sophomore season did suffer from the occasional “sequelitis,” particularly as its overarching plot felt way too similar to the first season. But the Hargreeves have also undergone tremendous character growth, and, given their interference with history, have set the stage for a very intriguing third season. Likely, it would be a loose adaptation of Volume 3: Hotel Oblivion as this season was a loose adaption of Volume 2: Dallas. Hopefully, the wait won’t be long.

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