13 Biggest Questions for Umbrella Academy Season 4 to Answer [CNET]

The anti-superhero dramedy returns after two years, with many strings to tie up.

Note: Many spoilers for Umbrella Academy seasons 1 through 3 follow.

Fans of the Umbrella Academy on Netflix have endured a long wait — more than two years — for a resolution to the cliffhanger of season 3, but all of our questions will be answered on Aug. 8, at least according to showrunner Steve Blackman.

The quirky, action-packed superhero dramedy will be releasing all 6 episodes of its final season next week. The Hargreeves clan faces a problem they’ve never experienced before: the loss of their superpowers. 

Reginald’s plan to reset the universe seems to have worked — he’s apparently a corporate giant in this new timeline, with his restored love Abigail by his side. However, since Allison killed him before he could finish his work completely, the Brellies’ loss of powers might not be the only glitch in play.

There are a lot of questions about the Hargreeves to be resolved in the Umbrella Academy’s final season, and some high-profile new characters are expected to spawn even more chaos. Here’s what I want Umbrella Academy season 4 to answer. 

When and how will the Brellies get their powers back?

At the end of the season 3 finale, Reginald Hargreeves extracts the superpowers of Luther, Five, Diego, Lila, Viktor, Sloane and Ben (as Allison watches) to reset the universe. We can literally see the “marigold” particles that created their powers leaving their bodies.

The Netflix trailer for season 4 definitely shows Ben with his powers back, and Gene Thibedeau ominously noting that “tentacle boy is the key to understanding all the timelines.” But what about the rest of the crew? How will they fare without their extra abilities, and when and how will they get them back?

What was the deal between Reginald and Allison?

Much of the end of Umbrella Academy season 3 dealt with the characters’ decision to leave Hotel Obsidian for Hotel Oblivion and find the sigils for resetting the universe (after defeating deadly, cockroach-infested guardians). 

During Sloane and Luther’s wedding, a drunken Five witnesses Reginald and Allison shaking hands on a secret deal in the White Buffalo suite. After that agreement, Allison does everything she can to convince the Brellies to make the leap to the new universe (though she’s not aware of Reginald’s plan to kill Luther and Klaus).

After the reset, Allison finds herself in a timeline-bending home that includes both her daughter Claire from the first season and husband Ray from 1963. This paradoxical situation seems like it must have been Allison’s demand, but is it real? What else did she ask for and did she get it? Does she still have her superpowers?

Who are Gene and Jean Thibedeau, and what are the Keepers?

Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally seem to be the new villains in Umbrella Academy season 4, playing the couple Gene and Jean Thibedeau.

Netflix shared one page of the Umbrella Academy script where we are introduced to Gene and Jean. They end up spending $10,000 for a video starring Allison Hargreeves called Love on Loan 2. 

In the trailer for season 4, we see the Thibedeaus showing two different covers of that video (one with and one without Allison) to a small conference crowd to prove that, “the world we live in is one phony-baloney lie.”

It’s clear the Thibedeaus know about timelines and time travel, but what’s their beef? Are they just grifting or do they have some nefarious evil plan?

What happens to Ray and Claire?

Allison doesn’t get much dedicated time in the teaser or trailer for Umbrella Academy season 4, but from what we can see, she doesn’t look great. She’s certainly not the glamorous movie star from season 1 — her clothes and appearance are disheveled, and her character poster indicates that she might be working as a cleaner.

Two things we don’t get in the season 4 previews are Yusuf Gatewood and Coco Assad, the actors who play Ray and Claire, respectively. The start of the teaser briefly shows Allison in a tearful conversation with someone who seems to be Claire, but that’s it. Was Allison’s reunion with them at the end of season 3 reality, a dream, an alternate universe or something else entirely?

It might be that Ray and Claire simply take a backseat to the last gasp of the Hargreeves. In an interview with Collider, Emmy Raver-Lampman (the actress who plays Allison) says, “this season, Allison is very much in mom mode and the family won because of the decision she made the season before,” indicating that Claire and Ray might be doing completely A-OK, just removed from all of the Hargreeves’ shenanigans. 

What effect did Allison killing Reginald have on his plan to reset the universe?

At the end of Umbrella Academy season 3, it seems like Reginald’s plans have all come to fruition — an entire city is dominated by skyscrapers bearing the Hargreeves name, with Reginald overlooking them all from a penthouse view with his resurrected wife Abigail by his side.

However, showrunner Steve Blackman says that, “because of Allison’s actions, he didn’t get to finish what he started before Allison pressed the reset button,” and “the siblings losing their powers isn’t going to be the only oddity in this timeline.” We can also obviously see from the trailer that Reginald has somehow convinced the Brellies to forgive him, since they volunteer to help him with a new contraption.

So how did Reginald’s plans go wrong? And why does he need his kids’ help again?

What happened to Sloane? Did she swap places with Abigail?

The Brellies are reunited without superpowers in the new universe at the end of Umbrella Academy season 3, but two notable folks are missing — Allison, who’s with Ray and Claire, and Sloane, who is nowhere to be found.

When Reginald murders Luther in the penultimate episode of season 3, he tells him, “I’ll be sure to look after her,” referring to Sloane. Is her absence in the new universe due to Allison killing Reginald before he finished his plan? Or is something darker afoot?

One fan theory suggests that Sloane has taken the place of Abigail’s body on the moon so that Abigail could return to Reginald on Earth. That might explain why we see Luther putting on a space helmet in the teaser — he could be returning to the moon in order to rescue Sloane.

Who are the Brellies rescuing in their ‘first mission back?’

In the teaser trailer for Umbrella Academy season 4, the eight remaining members of the crew assemble in Diego’s Volkswagen Vanagon for their first mission in this universe. After Ben explodes with excitement about killing someone, Allison deadpans, “This is a rescue mission.”

But who needs rescuing? We see all of the prominent characters in the van, and it’s unlikely that Reginald needs rescuing. It’s also doubtful that it’s Claire or Ray, as Allison seems emotionally detached. Could it be Sloane?

Are there two Bens in this new universe? (Three?)

The post-credits scene for the Umbrella Academy season 3 finale showed a different version of Ben, clean cut with eyeglasses and riding a subway train in what seems to be Korea. The fashions suggest an earlier time, but it’s hard to tell. He’s also awfully smirky.

Is the Ben on the train the old “good Ben,” the new “mean Ben” or someone completely different? And which Ben is in season 4? Actor Justin H. Min has a very different look for this season — new haircut, new mustache and a haggard presence. His character (or one of them) seems to have spent time in prison.

The subway in season 4 looks like it enables some sort of time or dimensional travel. In the teaser, we see Five and Lila emerging from the subway with alien letters written on its sign, and the world in ruins, clearly different from the “present day” where most of the action takes place. Is a new Ben riding that subway in from another dimension, smirking at the chaos he’s about to create?

Ben’s character arc looks to be the major focus of season 4, and it seems that he (not Viktor) will be the one to trigger the apocalypse this time. But which Ben is it? Could we see Ben 3 stopping Ben 2 from ending the world this time?

Is Stan alive?

C’mon, everybody loved Stan, right? Actor Javon Walton’s portrayal of Diego and Lila’s fake son was full of fun — he set the Hotel Oblivion on fire with a Molotov cocktail then shot Klaus through the chest with a harpoon gun. Oops!

Luther was murdered and didn’t make it through the tunnel from Hotel Obsidian to Hotel Oblivion, yet he was somehow resurrected after the universe reset. Could other minor characters like Stan (or Hazel! Or the Handler!!) be brought back to life in this universe too? Stan stans want to know.

Will we meet any new characters with superpowers?

Remember that the seven Brellies (or the seven Sparrows) weren’t the only remarkable children born because of Reginald’s magic marigold back on Oct. 1, 1989. There were 43!

Harlan Cooper showed that people don’t even need to be born with superpowers — they can be transferable. On the flip side, the kids don’t even have any superpowers to transfer at the start of season 4.

There’s only six episodes in season 4, and the Thibedeaus/Keepers are going to need some development time, but I’d be more surprised than not if we don’t see one new character who also has superpowers. My bet would be on new character Sy Grossman, played by David Cross, but those powers would have to be transferred — he’s too old to be born in 1989.

Why did Five start The Commission, and why did he tell himself not to save the world?

We’re getting to the really big questions. One of the most surprising revelations of Umbrella Academy season 3 was that Number Five created The Commission … which had been trying to kill him all through the earlier seasons. Huh?

More than that, when present-day Five meets The Commission founder Five — extremely aged, with one arm and stuck in some sort of futuristic iron lung — in season 3, old Five tells new Five, “don’t save the world.” 

Old Five’s advice leads to Five voting against going to Hotel Oblivion, which honestly didn’t matter much anyway after Luther’s murder and the reality of the Kugelblitz, but Five’s warning still resonates. Why shouldn’t they try to save the world?

Who decided to buy the Volkswagen Vanagon, Diego or Lila?

One of the stars of the Umbrella Academy season 4 teaser and trailer is the Brellies’ new ride — a circa 1989 Volkswagen Vanagon with teal and coral trim (but no pop top?). It’s been customized with an extra seat (instead of the standard kitchen area) to fit all eight of the crew, but it’s not the most reliable vehicle of our day and age.

What gives, Hargreeves? No used minivans to be had for $10K?

This question is a bit of a no-brainer. It had to be Diego. Teaser, trailer, haircut and mustache all indicate that Diego is full-on rockin’ the dad life in season 4. The choice of a Volkswagen Vanagon again demonstrates his repeated incompetence despite the best intentions. (Remember when he locked Lila in the closet so he could fight the guardian alone? And then Viktor and Lila actually killed the guardian?)

Where are Reginald and Abigail from, and what’s their deal?

In the first Umbrella Academy comic book by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá — The Day the Eiffel Tower Went Berserk — Reginald is revealed as a “space alien” on page 5. The Netflix show kept it secret a bit longer, until season 2, and then obviously again in the finale to season 3.

Angered by the JFK assassination in the penultimate episode of season 2, Reginald pulls off his human mask and shows his alien head … right before presumably slaughtering a room full of members of the Majestic 12. (We only hear the screams.)

The season 1 finale gave us the backstory of Reginald and Abigail, and the rest of Reggie’s tale has been told in bits and pieces through the seasons. He bought the D.S. Umbrella factory in the early 1900s; he built the Hotel Obsidian (to conceal the dimensional portal) in the 1930s; he was obviously involved in the JFK assassination in the 1960s. (If he’s aging, he’s doing it very slowly.)

Abigail’s dead or suspended body had been stored on the moon for the entirety of seasons 1 through 3, but Reginald’s universe reset has brought her back to life. Where the heck did these space aliens come from, and why are they messing with the universe so much? 

Unfortunately or not, I think that might be the one big question that Umbrella Academy season 4 doesn’t address.