The ending of Umbrella Academy left us with some questions (and some answers)

Netflix series The Umbrella Academy ended with season 4, and it all came together climatologically speaking, to say the least. Almost every superhero these days has to deal with the end of the world, and the Hargreeves children are no exception.

(Editorial note: As you might expect from a post that questions the end of Umbrella Academy season 4 we’re gonna talk about the ending of Umbrella Academy Season 4. Spoilers follow.)

Normally, superheroes rarely die saving the multiverse. Even fewer lose their entire team to being swallowed by the strange brother-sister monster that is consuming the entire world. So what exactly happened at the end of the world at the end of The Umbrella Academy? Here are the questions we had, and our best attempts to answer them.

What happened to Abigail?

In the series finale, Abigail (Reginald’s wife in this timeline and others) sits down with Reginald and explains that the gigantic, lumbering apocalypse enveloping them was her doing. As she seems to explain it, this chain reaction caused by the meeting of Ben and Jennifer’s molecules resembled something on their own home planet (probably) that led to both her death and the end of their world.

“Dying was my penance for creating something so deadly,” she says, her voice melancholy. “This cleansing… wasn’t it enough to see our world destroyed? Why lose it like this?”

It seems like this courtroom confession is a declaration of some sort of grand plan: Abigail says that Reginald’s actions had “consequences far greater than anything” he could imagine, that she felt it her “duty to make things right.”

Considering how much of the show’s timeline and the Time Commission were a way to ensure a correct timeline, it’s possible that Abigail could lay claim to the role of the grand mastermind behind all of the show’s events. If you read it that way, it’s her efforts to keep creating apocalypses in order to gather the right ingredients to end the world and stop Reginald from continually recreating her and the universe. (It might even explain why Reginald felt he had to guard her body on the moon.) Season 4 is precisely the moment where everything finally comes together.

And it’s a good mirror for what the children themselves must accept in order for the world to finally live in peace – which brings us to…

So…what exactly happened at the end of season 4?

Photo: Christos Kalohoridis/Netflix

Whuf, OK, bear with me. So the things we know happened are: Ben and Jennifer each contained a different type of energy form within them that, if the two were to touch, would start a chain reaction that would eventually engulf the world (what the cult that formed around them called “The Cleanse”). They touch, it happens.

The Umbrella Academy tries to stop it, but Five ends up in a cafe full of Fives, all from the different timelines that have tried to stop the apocalypse. He learns that he and his siblings have tried to stop the end of the world 145,412 times, resulting in a mess of timelines where there should only be one. He returns to his siblings with the answer: The Cleanse isn’t evil, and they should allow themselves to die in order to actually merge the timelines and prevent apocalypses once and for all.

Though it takes some bickering (this is the Hargreeves family, after all), they all eventually join in — this is what they signed up for, being superheroes and all, even if this isn’t how they imagined risking their lives. But with their family safely tucked away from the menacing Cronenbergian monster swallowing the world and the promise of a peaceful ending, they did.

What does the fact that Reginald is an alien have to do with this?

Ultimately, for The Umbrella Academy show, not a whole lot, other than establishing where his technological prowess comes from. Him being an alien was more of a plot point in the comics, which the Netflix show has already drastically deviated from.

Who were those people at the end?

The last scene of The Umbrella Academy shows a blissful day in a park, where nothing bad happens. There is a reference to the first season, with a cover of “I Think We’re Alone Now”. First we see Lila’s family, her and Diego’s children, and Claire all having a picnic, clearly completely healthy from the subway.

But then the camera pans and we see more characters. It’s a little hard to tell who they are, given most of the iconic Umbrella Academy characters have very distinctive costumes and appearances. When you see them in similar normal clothes, you have to think for a moment about who they are. We have taken care of it for you!

The three older guys playing frisbee are the three Swedish hitmen from season 2. The reason they’re old is because season 2 was set in the 60s, remember? And they’re all still alive! Yay!

The couple pushing their bikes together are Agnes, the donut lady, and Hazel, the hitman who fell in love with her in season 1.

The woman pushing the stroller is Grace, the Hargreeves siblings’ mother — a robot modeled after a real woman Reginald dated in the 1960s. It’s unclear whether this version is a robot or the real woman (who hasn’t aged since the 1960s), but she’s gently pushing a stroller, so she’s a mom!

Photo: Christos Kalohoridis/Netflix

And then there’s the lady who stretches during her run — the Handler! She’s almost unrecognizable without the wig and extravagant outfit. But she still gets straight to the point. So some things never change.

The person doing the sketch is Gabriel Ba, the real artist behind the Umbrella Academy comics (#meta).

The two people playing backgammon are Dot and Herb, who worked for the Commission and essentially banded together against the Handler when she took over the Board of Directors. Now they don’t have to worry about world-ending events, they can just have a nice day in the sun.

There are other people in the background, but they were too small to see. Showrunner Steve Blackman says they got a lot of actors back for this final scene (the exceptions being Mary J. Blige and John Magaro from season 1). He also told us that Dolores the mannequin makes a cameo, so keep an eye out for that!

…Wait, how can Diego, Lila, and Claire’s children exist if their parents don’t exist?

We’re not so sure about that. Don’t think about it too much and just accept that they’ll get a happy ending!