Netflix

Promotional poster from “The Umbrella Academy”

Warning: This review contains spoilers

On February 15, 2019, the anticipated series “The Umbrella Academy” was released to the world. To many people’s surprise, “The Umbrella Academy” would skyrocket to the top of the Netflix charts worldwide after its debut. I was one of these early-day watchers and almost instantly was hooked by the dynamic action sequences, interesting characters, and mix of dark and sarcastic humor. Fast forward several years and three seasons later, we arrive at the end of this comedic but emotional finale, season four.
Following the events of season three, the Hargreeves family fought to save the world from an impending apocalypse and the family is left powerless, living out simple lives; Diego now works as a mailman; Lila is a stay-at-home mom who has to deal with Diego’s lack of attention, which she doesn’t deserve; Alison is a B-list actor for commercials and other projects; Viktor owns and operates his bar; Klaus is a germaphobe living in Alison’s basement, which I believe is how most people would act if they got their immortality taken away; Ben is a convicted felon for stealing cryptocurrency; Five is an agent working with the CIA.
The main plot point of this new season is focused on the family realizing that other timelines are bleeding into theirs. This includes items appearing in other timelines such as a movie poster with different actors, and people remembering lives that they haven’t lived. This also includes the mysterious substance, Marigold, that gave the family their powers. This part of the show confused me; previously in the show, Marigold was barely mentioned besides a small cameo in the last episode of season 1. The appearance of Marigold out of the blue seems a little strange to me. If the show writers and directors wanted the show to have a point where the Umbrellas don’t have their powers, then they should have dove a little deeper into what Marigold is and where it came from. This oversight and lack of world-building makes me think that the writers were just forced to get something out or didn’t care about the final product. After the family meets up once again, they go to have a drink to celebrate their normal lives, however, Ben spiked the family’s shots of sake with Marigold therefore restoring the family’s powers.
A big part of this season that came into play was something referred to as “The Jennifer Incident,” which is how Ben died as a kid in the original timeline. Jennifer is the opposite version of the Umbrella kids, as she had the ability to create the monster “The Cleanse.” “The Cleanse” is an interesting side plot the show tries but I believe ultimately fails because of a lack of a concise backstory. “The Cleanse” is an eerie and foreboding name that intrigued me and made me a little excited, but the execution of what is supposed to be this horrible creature is very disappointing because it was just an ordinary blob monster.
In the finale, the Hargreeves family, instead of fighting back, decides to give up fighting the giant monster of “The Cleanse” and let themselves be killed, which in turn resets the timeline once more.
The “original timeline” is displayed as a single shot of a park with some faces that some fans may recognize, but to the majority, these faces mean nothing unless you pay very close attention throughout the show. Considering the ending of the last 3 seasons ended with some sort of action sequence, I find this ending very disappointing. I wish that it should have ended with a grand finale and not just the main characters throwing in the towel and giving up.
If I were to direct and change the finale, I’d let them defeat “The Cleanse,” transporting only one member to the very first apocalypse. the only person in my opinion who’s suited for it would be Five. due to his apocalyptic experience in the earlier seasons. Creating this time loop would make a lot of sense and would be a great conclusion compared to what we were given. In the end, I believe “The Umbrella Academy underperformed in comparison to the previous 3 seasons; it was rushed, felt forced, and I was ultimately very disappointed with the ending. I know many other fans feel the same way, Netflix could and should’ve done better.