Warning: The following article contains spoilers for The Umbrella Academy Season 4.
The Umbrella Academy‘s fourth and final season had a big story to wrap up and only six episodes to do it – so, inevitably, things don’t always add up. With this in mind, we’ve rounded-up The Umbrella Academy Season 4’s biggest plot holes, ranked by how frustrating they are!
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5. How Are the Brellies’ Kids Still Alive in the Epilogue?
As The Umbrella Academy‘s latest apocalypse unfolds in Season 4’s finale, Lila Pitts makes a last-ditch attempt to save her family. She puts them all (plus Allison Hargreeves’ daughter, Claire) on an alternate timeline-traversing train and sends them to a reality where the end of the world isn’t going down. Her plan works, and in the finale’s epilogue, we see the Pitts clan and Claire alive and well in the newly reinstated, singular timeline. There’s just one problem: Claire shouldn’t exist anymore, and neither should Lila and Diego Hargreeves’ kid, either!
Lila and the rest of the Brellies rebooted the timeline by erasing themselves from existence. So, any children they had should’ve also ceased to exist, not been folded into the overhauled status quo. And how does that even work, anyway? Does Claire not have a mom in this reality? Are Diego and Lila’s tykes entirely parentless? It’s a real headscratcher of a reveal that’s more interested in making viewers feel good than making sense. But, if I’m being honest, it does make me feel good, which is why I’ve ranked this plot hole lowest.
(Oh, and while we’re on the subject of The Umbrella Academy Season 4’s epilogue and timeline anomalies: Why are some of the cameo characters from the 1960s era still young (Grace), while others (the Swedes) have visibly aged?)
4. Why Does Marigold Make Luther an Ape-Man Again?
The Umbrella Academy Season 4 picks up where Season 3 left off: with the Hargreeves siblings (and Lila) powerless. They eventually get their powers back after quaffing down Marigold particles, however, things don’t go exactly as planned. Several Brellies wind up with new or augmented abilities – and one of their transformations is especially confusing. No, not Lila’s laser eyes (although seriously: what the hell?); I’m talking about Luther’s ape-man body.
As established in The Umbrella Academy‘s previous three seasons, Luther’s simian physique is the result of a life-saving primate-derived serum, not Marigold. As such, the particles should’ve simply restored his super strength and left him with a normal human body. Of course, Marigold moves in mysterious – some would say “conveniently ill-defined” – ways; that’s how you get amped up powers and random ray-beam peepers. But Luther going King Kong again is a stretch.
My guess as to why this happens? Showrunner Steve Blackman and his team wanted Luther back in his familiar form for the finale and didn’t really worry about the in-universe logic of it all. It’s hardly a season-ruining plot hole, but it’s distracting just the same.
Related: Is The Umbrella Academy Over?
3. Why Can’t Viktor Just Absorb All the Marigold?
Most Umbrella Academy characters (and fans) rightly focus on Viktor Hargreeves’ extinction event-level sound manipulation powers throughout the show’s run. Yet Season 3 also depicts him emitting and reabsorbing the Marigold in his system at will. Which begs the question: why didn’t Viktor use this ability to suck the Marigold out of his siblings and Lila?
That way, only Viktor would’ve been wiped from reality by the Cleanse; everyone else would’ve been reborn in the new timeline. Admittedly, Season 4, Episode 6 does pay some lip-service to Viktor trying to yank the Marigold out of Ben. Yet when this fails, he inexplicably drops the idea entirely. Given Viktor’s innately heroic nature, this doesn’t really stack up.
Speaking of things that don’t stack up: the Brellies’ self-sacrifice doesn’t quite work, either. After all, there’s still some Marigold left over even after they’re gone! There’s still some in Reginald Hargreeves’ vial, plus the shot’s worth Klaus Hargreeves didn’t drink earlier in Season 4. Maybe the Cleanse hoovered up both after gulping down the Hargreeves family, however, we don’t see this on-screen.
2. Why Are Reginald and Abigail’s Plans So Needlessly Convoluted?
For two hyper-intelligent alien lifeforms, Reginald Hargreeves and his wife Abigail come across pretty dumb in The Umbrella Academy Season 4. If Abigail is so desperate to kick off the Cleanse, why not walk up to Jennifer and just give her the Marigold vial?
Sure, Reginald’s keeping a close eye on Jennifer’s faux-small town enclosure, so approaching her wouldn’t be easy. Yet Abigail can assume other people’s likenesses; we see her impersonate Sy Grossman and Gene Thibedeau in Season 4. So surely, she could’ve adopted a suitably unassuming civilian identity (like, I dunno… Sy!), strolled into Jennifer’s diner, and planted the Marigold on her?
Meanwhile, Reginald going to such extreme lengths to keep Jennifer alive is equally over-engineered. Yes, this is a different – and ultimately, more decent – incarnation of Reggie, however, he’s still ruthless enough to simply kill Jen and be done with it!
Related: How Does The Umbrella Academy End in the Comics?
1. What Was the Point of Season 3’s Post-Credits Scene?
It’s been a minute since The Umbrella Academy Season 3 dropped, so you might’ve forgotten that it has a post-credits scene. What’s more, said stinger sets up a “third Ben Hargreeves variant” subplot that’s never touched on in Season 4. Seriously: not once! Apparently, whatever Blackman and co. had planned for this smartly-dressed, smiling Ben was too expansive for the fourth season’s truncated length. The knock on effect is that this Ben’s true nature and purpose is a literal hole in the overarching plot. Presumably, he’s the OG Ben, resurrected by Season 3’s alternate timeline shenanigans, but we’ll never know for sure – and it is killing me.
The Umbrella Academy Season 4 is currently streaming on Netflix.
Published: Aug 16, 2024 07:26 am