How Did Ben Die in The Umbrella Academy Season 1?

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for The Umbrella Academy Season 4.

The exact nature of Ben Hargreeves’ demise is finally revealed in The Umbrella Academy Season 4. So, how did Ben die, and does it line up with what we were told in The Umbrella Academy Season 1?

How Ben Died in The Umbrella Academy Season 1, Explained

The Umbrella Academy Season 1 doesn’t share many details about the death of Ben/Number Six. But then, that’s the point: it’s a series-long mystery, after all. What we do learn is that Ben’s premature exit happened years before the first season and is somehow tied to an unexplained event known as the “Jennifer Incident.” Seasons 2 and 3 don’t really expand on this basic set-up (although Season 3 does introduce a still-alive incarnation of Ben from another timeline).

Instead, we have to wait until midway through The Umbrella Academy Season 4 for the lowdown on the Jennifer Incident. It’s suitably complicated, however, the key takeaway is that the Hargreeves’ dad, Reginald, guns down Ben and a girl named Jennifer to avert the apocalypse. Reggie then wiped the remaining Hargreeves’ kids memories for good measure. It’s a big twist, but does it track with established continuity? Broadly speaking, yes.

The beauty of keeping Ben’s death so vague is that The Umbrella Academy showrunner Steve Blackman and his team weren’t boxed in by specifics. Indeed, there’s nothing in Season 1 (or later) that explicitly contradicts Reginald killing Ben. That said, the first two seasons depict Klaus Hargreeves communicating with Ben’s ghost, which begs the question: why didn’t Ben spill the beans to his brother? Maybe Ben didn’t know his murderer’s identity (Reginald shot him in the back). Maybe Klaus’ brainwashing prevented new Ben-related memories from forming. Or maybe it’s a plot hole. Regardless, Reginald killing Ben is now the canonical version of events!

Related: The Umbrella Academy Season 4’s Ending, Explained

Was Ben’s Death Decided On During The Umbrella Academy Season 1?

Nope, Ben’s death wasn’t set in stone until The Umbrella Academy Season 4. Steve Blackman admitted as much in a Tudum interview, noting that he devised multiple untimely ends for poor Ben. “[I]t really evolved,” he recalled. “I knew Ben died, and I had different versions of it. I presented them to the writers, and together we came up with the final version of it. We talked about a lot of different ways it could have gone down, but this felt like the right way.”

Related: How Many Episodes Is The Umbrella Academy Season 4?

In the same interview, Blackman also confirmed that Ben’s death may not play out the same way in the Umbrella Academy comics. “To be honest with you, [writer] Gerard [Way] and [artist] Gabriel [Bá] don’t know what the Jennifer Incident is,” he said. “This is my interpretation of it. They’re going to do something slightly different in their graphic novel. But they were very gracious and said, ‘Go do your thing, and we’re going to do our thing. Our graphic novel will continue past the show.'”

The Umbrella Academy Season 4 is currently streaming on Netflix.