The Hargreeves family album closes with The Umbrella Academy season 4, but season 3 may have already stolen the show's perfect ending. Based on the three published comic volumes by Gerard Way, Netflix's live-action The Umbrella Academy TV show is confirmed to end with season 4. This arrangement affords Steve Blackman, The Umbrella Academy showrunner, an entire season to properly conclude the saga of the Hargreeves siblings, but exactly how that final chapter plays out is almost impossible to predict given the show's propensity for time travel twists and pernicious paradoxes.
How the Umbrella Academy ending plays out is even harder to forecast after season 3's shocking ending, in which Sir Reginald Hargreeves conspired with Allison to reset the entire universe, leading to a dystopia where Reginald himself occupies a position of great power. Another consequence of the world's Reginald-sponsored reset is that the Umbrella Academy kids and their one surviving Sparrow friend, Ben, all lose their powers. Exactly why this happens remains unknown, but the Hargreeves siblings have clearly lost whatever caused their superpowers to manifest in the first place.
The Hargreeves Siblings Losing Their Powers Was Umbrella Academy's Perfect Ending
An argument can be made that the Hargreeves siblings losing their powers actually should have been the show's overall ending, but Netflix's The Umbrella Academy season 3 finale used that storyline prematurely. Superpowers have been the bane of the Hargreeves children's existences since birth. Given to them forcibly by an extra-terrestrial, Sir Reginald then put the youngsters through arduous training and a loveless childhood in order to mold them into a superhero team rather than a family. Whether it be ghosts tormenting Klaus, Allison rumoring her daughter, or Viktor ending the world, the Hargreeves' powers have largely brought misery upon them.
The sole good outcome of the siblings having powers was meeting each other, and this perhaps should have been the note The Umbrella Academy ended on. Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Five, Sparrow Ben and Viktor all find a way to remove their powers and choose to become normal people, foregoing their own individual strengths, but coming together as a close-knit family in a way they never were before. The Umbrella Academy would finally end with the powerless siblings becoming a proper family unit rather than the dysfunctional mess they were while they still wielded powers.
Thanks to The Umbrella Academy season 3, this ending has already been spent. The Hargreeves clan are highly likely to get their powers back in The Umbrella Academy season 4, since an entire season without them would feel distinctly odd, but any ending where the main characters give up their powers and become normal again would now feel derivative of Sir Reginald's universal reset from season 3. In turn, this means The Umbrella Academy will likely end with the Hargreeves siblings still in possession of their abilities.
Can The Umbrella Academy REALLY End If The Siblings Keep Their Powers?
Thematic considerations aside, it is also difficult to see how The Umbrella Academy can reach a definitive conclusion while the Hargreeves siblings keep their powers. Allison would always be tempted to utilize her rumor gifts, Five will always be able to change history, and Viktor will always be one sneeze away from causing an apocalypse. Much of the family drama in The Umbrella Academy has been instigated by the very fact the characters possess superpowers, and unless those abilities somehow disappear, the Hargreeves story will surely roll on indefinitely until a wrinkly Klaus is sitting alone in a pool of his own bodily fluids.
A three-way paradox worthy of the Temps Commission arises. A peaceful ending will elude the main characters so long as they remain empowered. The Umbrella Academy cannot reuse season 3's ending for season 4, but it seems incredibly unlikely the Hargreeves kids will remain power-free throughout their entire final season.