The Umbrella Academy is officially coming to an end with its fourth season, and with all the questions left by previous seasons, how will The Umbrella Academy end? Created by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, The Umbrella Academy is a series of comic books that made the jump to the world of streaming in 2019 thanks to Netflix, quickly becoming one of the platform’s most popular titles. Now, Netflix has officially renewed The Umbrella Academy for a fourth season, which will also be its last.
The Umbrella Academy introduced the audience to the Hargreeves, seven adopted siblings who were born on the same day, at the same time, and under the same mysterious circumstances as other 36 babies around the world. After learning about this curious event, scientist and billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves set out to adopt as many of those kids as he could, and with the seven he adopted he created “The Umbrella Academy”, as each kid developed unique superpowers. However, the Hargreeves parted ways and reunited years later for Reginald’s funeral and to stop the apocalypse, and that was the beginning of a series of problems and three different ends of the world.
After stopping another apocalypse in Dallas, Texas, 1963, the Hargreeves returned to their present year (2019) but were greeted with huge surprises: Reginald was alive, and he created The Sparrow Academy with six other kids and Ben (Justin H. Min), who is alive and well (though very different) in this timeline. The Umbrella Academy season 3 saw both teams trying to work together in order to stop another apocalypse caused by the kugelblitz, which in turn was a consequence of the Umbrellas’ many changes to the timeline. By the end of The Umbrella Academy season 3, Reginald had reset the timeline but was killed by Allison, and when the team found themselves in this new timeline, they discovered they are now powerless. With season 4 marking the end of The Umbrella Academy, where will the story go and how will it end?
How Umbrella Academy Season 3 Set Up The Show's Ending
Among the many questions and concerns about The Umbrella Academy season 3 was how the Sparrow and Umbrella teams would get along and if they would join forces at some point, while also wondering if this season was going to face a “too many characters” problem. Season 3 quickly solved these potential issues by gradually getting rid of most of the Sparrow Academy, either by having them consumed by the kugelblitz or killed by Harlan, and by the end of the season, only two Sparrows were left and thus had to join the Umbrella team: Ben and Sloane (Genesis Rodriguez), the latter becoming Luther’s (Tom Hopper) wife in a “wedding at the end of the world”. The biggest (though still somewhat expected) twist in The Umbrella Academy season 3, however, was Reginald’s betrayal of both teams: he killed Luther, made a deal with an already vulnerable Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) to get both teams to enter Oblivion and thus reset the timeline, and in the process, he earned Klaus’ (Robert Sheehan) trust only to let him die when the world was about to end.
Reginald’s purpose was to use the remaining seven members of the Umbrella/Sparrow Academies to activate the reset of the timeline in Hotel Oblivion and thus create the world he wanted, while not caring what happened to his children. However, after realizing that the process was killing her siblings, Allison killed Reginald and reset the timeline. The current timeline in The Umbrella Academy has the surviving Hargreeves now powerless, Sloane missing, Allison reuniting with her daughter and her 1960s husband, Ray, and a city that is now under the control of Reginald, who is now living with his resurrected wife, Abigail. The Umbrella Academy season 3 saw massive changes to the timeline and the main characters, setting up a major battle between the Hargreeves and Reginald in order to get the answers they are owed and to do one more effort to restore the timeline. Reginald has also reached peak villain status, becoming the actual major threat that the Umbrellas (including Ben, Lila, and Sloane) will have to defeat.
What Still Needs To Happen Before The Umbrella Academy Ends
The Umbrella Academy has left a bunch of unanswered questions since its first season that will have to be answered in the final one. First off, The Umbrella Academy season 4 needs to give a proper explanation of Reginald’s plans from the beginning. Reginald was shown with his dying wife, releasing the marigolds, leaving his planet, and arriving at Earth, where he purchased an umbrella manufacturing company, was involved with the Majestic 12, and at some point built Hotel Obsidian/Oblivion around an inter-dimensional door. It’s unclear if everything Reginald has done has been with the purpose of resurrecting Abigail, though why he would release 43 marigolds if he only needed seven children is unknown.
Another big mystery that the final season of The Umbrella Academy needs to solve is what happened to the original Ben. The Umbrella Academy season 3 gave more clues about what happened to him when Luther and Klaus mentioned “The Jennifer Incident”, and given that Sparrow Ben also knows a Jennifer, of who he has made many, many drawings, all clues point at Umbrella Ben sacrificing himself to save Jennifer, while Sparrow Ben made the opposite decision. The Umbrella Academy season 4 also has to solve the mystery of what happened to the other marigold children and why, if everyone got superpowers, they aren’t widely known. Of course, the upcoming season will have to answer what happened to Sloane, as she was the only surviving Hargreeves that didn’t appear in the new timeline.
One big storyline that The Umbrella Academy season 3 completely forgot and the final season must address is the reveal that Five (Aidan Gallagher) is the founder of The Commission, which makes the show’s timeline more confusing than it already is given Five’s complicated history with this organization. Last but not least, The Umbrella Academy season 4 has to see the Umbrella Academy, with its new members, working together as a real team in order to stop Reginald and/or whatever massive threat they will encounter, as so far the only time they have worked as a team was in season 2, and even then, the team still felt a bit disjointed.
Will The Timeline Be Fixed In The Umbrella Academy's Ending?
As the show’s final season, The Umbrella Academy season 4 would have to fix the messy timeline that the previous seasons have created, and even more now that Reginald is one if not the most powerful man in the world. Fixing the timeline in season 4 will be more complicated than in season 3, as not only is Reginald in control but Allison finally got what she wanted, and she surely won’t give it up. Even if the timeline can’t be fixed, the Hargreeves could have the chance of landing in one that benefits them all, just like Allison in the current one, or they could end up in different timelines that give them what they need, thus putting a definitive end to the Umbrella Academy.
Is Reginald Going To Die In Umbrella Academy's Ending? Will Others?
With Reginald placing himself as the ultimate villain in The Umbrella Academy, one of the biggest questions around the end of the series is if Reginald will die. The previous antagonists in The Umbrella Academy have met their fate one way or another – Leonard Peabody and The Handler – so it would make sense that the same happened to Reginald in The Umbrella Academy’s final season, more so as he has already proved he can’t be redeemed. As for the possible deaths of the Hargreeves, at this point, the ones with the biggest chances of dying in the show’s final season are Allison, Luther, Five, and Klaus. Allison could find her redemption by sacrificing herself to save the team, Five has already been close to dying a couple of times, Luther could be the one who sacrifices himself so his wife and siblings can live (thus living up to his place as the team’s Number 1), and Klaus, now powerless and always finding himself in life or death situations, could also meet his end.
Can The Umbrella Academy Have A Happy Ending?
The Umbrella Academy hasn’t caught a break in years, even before the events of season 1. As Reginald wasn’t a good father, the Hargreeves grew up with a lot of trauma that ultimately led them to part ways, with Luther being the only one who stayed with Reginald. Most of the Hargreeves seemed to have found their happy places when they were scattered in the 1960s, but they had to abandon all that in order to save the world once again. The Umbrella Academy, then, deserve their happy ending, but if they are going to fight their powerful father, there might be some tragedy in exchange for their happy ending. With no more comic book material that can hint at the future of The Umbrella Academy, season 4 can go in any direction in order to bring the story of the Hargreeves to an end, but what’s for sure is that they all deserve a good ending.