#why are they the problem and not the marigold or Abigail and Reginald or anything else

[32beesinatrenchcoat]

So I was going to write a detailed post describing my every thought on the last season of the Umbrella Academy, but that would have taken forever to write and read. Not to mention people here have spoken about most of those things more eloquently than I ever could. Instead, I want to mention a running theme in the show: family. That seems obvious enough on the surface considering the premise is a dysfunctional superhero family. However, each character is motivated by the nebulous concept of a family.

This has a different meaning for each main character. Sometimes it's by blood, by marriage, or by teams. Each character may have different motivations that could come in conflict with each other's. In season 3, Allison is motivated by a loss of her family (Claire and Ray), Diego and Lila are motivated by starting a family together, and Luthor is conflicted between his old family (the umbrella academy) and a new family (the sparrows).

The problem I have with season 4 is that this theme is tossed aside for no reason. They spend very little time with each other, and they seem so miserable whenever they do get together. Viktor wants to help Ben cause he's his brother, but they have no connection beyond Umbrella!Ben. Allison saves Klaus only to have it thrown in her face. Luther spends the first episode trying to bring the family together and never does it again. But at least these people tried to help. The rest of the family would rather do anything else it seems.

Ben and Klaus immediately walk away after the fight in Maine to do whatever they want. It's been shown that Klaus likes to have people when he's hit bottom, whether that's to help him or just provide company. Ben spent the entire wedding episode angry that he was unwanted. It makes no sense he would throw away several chances to be a part of a family just to be an ass.

Diego and Lila chose to have kids and be together last season. Why are they shown to be completely unhappy now? Lila always wanted a family and people who loved her instead of manipulating her. In this timeline, her parents are alive, she has children and a husband, and his siblings are all there for her. What was the point of telling us several times last season how good of a dad Diego would be to not have that shown? Even if his job sucks and his life is stressful and he misses heroism, his children should be the most important thing to him.

Finally, we reach Five. Five's definition of family has always been his siblings. He fought for them. He killed for them. So him wanting to hide away in some fantasy timeline instead of saving his family is ridiculous and completely out of character. I could believe him and Lila being stuck together and they grow close over the years. I could maybe believe some romantic feelings happened if they truly saw no way out. The problem is that they should have gone straight home once the cipher was found.

The biggest issue is that none of these arcs were absolved. Diego/Lila/Five is never reconciled either way, Allison saves Klaus again and he learns nothing from it, Ben dies a painful death again, and the children are punished for the crime of being born by being erased from reality. The conclusion to the theme of the show is not only do they cause problems in every relationship they have, but that they are the problem. The show asks, What is family? The answer: nothing that can last apparently

[midnightlamia]

just finished the umbrella academy. rant & spoilers incoming:

let me get this shit straight: the hargreeves siblings didn’t ask for their powers or to be born. said birth and powers were forced on them when reginald hargreeves couldn’t just shut up and die with the rest of his planet/wife. then he flies down to earth, adopts them all, and some 30 years later, we find them running around, constantly trying to save the world from an apocalypse, only to eventually find out that the apocalypses are happening not because this random fucking alien unleashed sparkle dust on the galaxy and abused children that weren’t his in the name of his wife….but because the hargreeves were just born.

that’s it. the reason the cleanse happened is a) their punishment for being born and b) abigail felt bad for an experiment gone wrong and decided to make it the entire timeline’s problem. and the only way to stop it isn’t to figure out a way to stop reginald from unleashing the marigold/coming down to earth & allow all of the og 43 children to be born naturally, when they’re supposed to be, but to….erase the children that never asked to be born from existence while leaving a million loose ends, unanswered questions, and shitty character choices that don’t get developed or explained in any way.

this season was just…….it was definitely a season of a show, i’ll give it that. the pacing was all over the place, so much so to the point where, if anything, we needed four MORE episodes, not four less. i have so SO SOOO many questions. where tf is sloane? what about the other 35 kids with marigold in them? why didn’t we see five create the commission? does durango give superpowers the same way marigold does? why couldn’t ben just drink the marigold himself if he wanted his powers back??? WHY THE FUCK WOULDNT YOU JUST GO AFTER THE MAN WHO UNLEASHED THE OG MARIGOLD INSTEAD OF THE INNOCENT HUMANS WHO GOT STUCK WITH IT WHO THE FUCK CAME UP WITH THAT?? YOU COULDVE DONE A WHOLE THING WHERE THE COMMISSION WAS ORIGINALLY DEDICATED TO FIXING REGINALD’S AFFECT ON THE TIMELINE OR LITERALLY ANYTHING—

literally just kill this last season with fire. burn it at the stake. i’m so pissed and so done. i’ve been watching this show since i was in fucking eighth grade, and i was so excited. i thought they were gonna do a whole thing where it could’ve been like “ben was always meant to die and now the universe is out of whack” or just SOMETHING other than what we got. steve blackman, i genuinely hope you have the worst fucking time for the rest of your life, you raggedy, smelly, conniving, ass-backwards bitch.

thank you and good night.

[psychic-refugee]

I agree with pretty much everyone that the season was rushed. They had so much going on and just didn’t do any kind of exposition or building of the storyline. Even if they had the normal 10-episode season, I don’t know how they would have done anyone’s storyline justice.

So, even for a Netflix season, it was short and rushed.

I think it could have been a really good season if they had the time to actually tell the story.

Some things I wished they had developed.

The bond between Jennifer and Ben. Or just having a backstory for Jennifer at all. She was literally just there and I felt I knew nothing about her. Marigold made 43 gifted children, did Durango only make Jennifer? If Marigold gives powers, does Durango make them even more ordinary? lol

They could have had a plot where maybe both particles give powers, but when they are in proximity to someone with the opposite particle, their powers get nullified.

If Lila and Five were gonna go Timeline hopping, they could have shown several timelines where Jennifer and Ben keep meeting tragic ends when they meet each other. I would have loved it if they were “Star Crossed Lovers” on steroids where literally every time they meet, they either die or bring about the end of the world.

I wished they played up more the idea that the Umbrella Academy as a unit/existing at all meant doom for the Universe.

Where if Ben and Jennifer don’t meet/die early enough, then Viktor causes the apocalypse. If Viktor doesn’t cause the apocalypse, then it’s Five with his wrecking the timeline to the point it creates a kugleblitz. If Five doesn’t cause it, then show how the others all bring about the doom.

Klaus always awakens too many of the dead and they kill everyone, zombie apocalypse style.

Alison’s ability progresses to the point that anything she says becomes reality, and she inadvertently causes the world to end because she gets pissed and wished “everyone would drop dead” or some other kind of Monkey Paw consequence to a misguided wish.

Diego is blamed for every assassination because of his abilities, and it starts a nuclear war between countries.

Luther gets captured by a shady government entity where they want to use his DNA or recreate Reginald’s serum to create super soldiers, as his powers are the most coveted for a fascist regime. They’re successful and there’s an apocalypse created by world wars.

Instead of Viktor getting two seasons of ending the world and Five and Ben getting one; It should have been a 7-season storyline where they each end the world in their own way and they continuously try to fix it. Season 7 is where it ends with all of them voluntarily being absorbed by the Cleanse because they realize, “It’s me. Hi, I’m the problem it’s me.”

I wish they had gone deeper into Abigail Hargreeves, and not only on her research for Marigold and Durango, but her apparent resentment of being brought back to life. Like, how did she come to the plan of putting the Cleanse in motion? They couldn’t have at least done a montage of the six years between the resurrecting time reset and the beginning of season 4?

It would have been nice to see the dynamic between Reginald and Abigail. Is he so self-centered that he never noticed his wife was plotting to end the universe as they knew it? Was she horrified at the lengths he went to in order to resurrect her? Was he completely different around her? Soft, caring?

Did she try to live a happy life with Reginald, but couldn’t knowing that because Marigold and Durango still existed, that it was only a matter of time before it went to shit?

Was Abigail aware of the broken timeline and the inevitable eternal loop of apocalypse and resets, and that’s why she chose the Cleanse?

Season Four wasn’t finished, IMO, and we really only saw the Wiki version.

[oddeyevibes]

Turns out I had too many questions in hindsight🫠🫠

(Spoiler heavy questions)

I was lowkey hoping that they would all get reborn but through ordinary means and without powers. Like their existence wasn’t really the problem, the marigold in them was and they didn’t choose for their moms to get pregnant, right?

So why wouldn’t it have made more sense for them to still be born under normal human circumstances and have them live normal lives without the trauma of being Umbrellas/Sparrows?

Also, I hate that Sloane was just gone. Like Luther finally finds someone who matches him and she now doesn’t exist anymore and we’re just supposed to be okay with that??????

There’s just so many questions that didn’t get answered. Like how did they find Allison?? Why doesn’t Sloane or any of the other Sparrows exist but Sparrow!Ben does? And for that matter, why does Lila still exist then if this is an Umbrellas only party??

If Lila’s parents are still kicking then are the Umbrella’s moms still alive? Did neither of them want to meet their moms or was it always just Klaus? (I know why Lila’s parents died but if they’re deaths were undone then who else’s death was undone?)

Where did Jennifer even come from? Was she a similar odd birth like the 43? Or did she just spawn in the squid?? Like I feel a longer season would’ve allowed us at least an episode to learn about her more. She lived and died as a plot device more than a character. Like why is she always in the squid???

Why oh why were the Sparrows swept under the rug? Like literally Ben is the only one who ever mentions them and Luther mentions Sloane ONCE.

I wish we got to see more of Abigail because her playing the violin had me longing for her to connect with the Umbrellas and Sparrow!Ben in a way that was completely different from Reginald to the point that it was jarring. Especially since SHE is technically their creator not Reginald. In the same way original Reginald treats Pogo nicer than the Umbrellas because Pogo is HIS creation.

Was there not a Jennifer Incident in the Sparrow timeline? I know everyone was theorizing it happened differently cause he lived but that was mainly because of his scar and the drawing he made of a woman. But did those details matter at all?? And if they did matter then why wouldn’t he remember a girl named Jennifer if she is a such a constant that even her name stays the same?

And if we have this “the world is better off without them” bit at the end. Then why aren’t their mothers shown being happy in that little park thing? You can say it’s because they lived all over the world but I’m supposed to believe that those commission ppl, the Swedish bros, and the Handler weren’t from different timelines, eras and countries but they got to be in that little happy dream?

Was Jennifer the ONLY durango kid? If the Durango is attracted to the Marigold then why did only one piece of Durango make it to Earth when there was more than one Marigold??

It isnt the marigold kids fault they were born when Reginald is the one that released the Marigold onto Earth and Abigail was the one who made it. Why would the Umbrellas dying undo Reginald releasing the Marigold and Abigail making it? Especially when the Reginalds in new timelines never remember the actions of the Reginalds in other timelines and they have to have their other timeline actions explained to them. So why would killing Reginald #3 AFTER THE FACT revert the splitting timelines? Why are we pretending that Umbrellas themselves are the problem??

You mean to tell me after three seasons of hammering it in how smart Five is, all of those Fives put together didn’t think of just letting the Durango consume them? And if they needed the original to do it then why didn’t one of them reach out to him? Because Five never sugarcoated anything before, why would the other Fives sugarcoat the potential solution to the original Five?

If this is a timeline where they don’t have their powers but have their memories of former timelines then how were the Umbrellas born in this timeline? How can they exist in this timeline? Or is it possible for them to still exist because their mothers didn’t die? If that’s the case do any of them know their mothers at all because it was the Hargreeves School of Wayward Boys not Wayward Kids so Allison and Pre!transition Viktor couldn’t have grown up there. So who are they in this timeline?? If they just jumped out of nowhere then why was Five allowed to join a government agency despite having no traceable background?

If Reginald knew that the Umbrellas couldn’t touch Jennifer why risk it by sending them in the first place? Suppose she got out on her own and then touched all of them, then what? And what’s to say that blowing her up would’ve work in the first place??

[adidegmez]

the umbrella academy s4 spoilers

well the last season

ep 1

five is a CIA agent. it is so cool. ben tricked them. im glad they got their Powers back but they didnt want their Powers most of them at least. theyll be so mad at him. tom holland!

ep 2

im scared. i cant believe five didnt see what ben did. theyre so funny. I avoided spoilers, I have no idea what will happen next. why did she trust ben. they are all amazing. What does Jean and Gene want with jennifer? they almost killed them.

ep 3

im glad klaus is alive. it was a tragic accident… :') i like abigail. I hope she is what she seems. in previous seasons i didnt like the team except five. i mean i loved them at first but the decisions they made make me not liking them. but now it has been a long time i even forgot most of it. i really miss seeing them. this is the last season and i am starting to love them again. i hope they all get a happy ending.

ep 4

reginald killed ben!!!!!! ben and jennifer It scares me what they can do and I haven't seen any spoilers yet and the uncertainty scares me even more. five and lila working together i love them. well World is ending, again. but its probably okay because five will save the World.

ep 5

six years five months two days. they spent so much time there. not five and lila please. Diego and lila was good. five wouldnt do that to Diego. abigail!

ep 6

I thought there would be 8 episodes. How will they end everything now? They won't have happy endings, right? this season didnt make sense. five and lila spent so much time together but I wish they hadn't told the family. What did the writers do this season? this can't be happening. everything is going bad right now. The love trilogy was so unnecessary, I wish they hadn't done such a thing. At least they would be on good terms with each other. everyone is trying to save the World Diego and five is just fighting with eachother. five left his family. old five wouldnt do that. he would do anything to save his family just like he did in the other seasons. what did she make right? abigail ended the World. and thats why i loved five the first time. his family ended the World and he didi everything in his power to save it. but he never succeeded. but he tried. again and again. and now they want me to believe five would upset his brother. he wouldnt do that. he would focus on saving the World and his family again. i dont know if the end makes sense it kinda does but couldn't there be another way? i thought they would have a happy ending or something like that. Could they have lived if Ben hadn't given them marigold? or are they the problem not the marigold. this wasnt a happy ending, it was the opposite. Everyone lived except the people I cared about. I wanted the Umbrella Academy to get the ending they deserved but instead they are dead. why? Couldn't there really be another ending?

some stories just dont have happy endings, right? and this was one of them at least for me, yeah the World is okay. They put up a video where everyone is happy, but it's not a happy ending for me. i dont like this. I wish they had done something much different.

This story ended for better or worse. Sometimes I laughed and sometimes I cried. I'm happy to witness their adventures no matter what. and lastly, I'll probably watch the first 3 seasons again(because i need to, i need to see five and the others the way they used to be), but I'm not sure if I'll watch fourth season.