The Umbrella Academy – Season 4 Episode 1 Recap & Review

The Unbearable Tragedy of Getting What You Want

Episode 1 of Umbrella Academy season 4 starts with the gang splitting up, having lost their powers and unaware of Hargreeves in control of the whole city, flanked by Abigail, in the spot where Hotel Obsidian used to be.

Fast forward six years and we catch up with each of our gang to see where they are. Jean and Gene head down to the parking lot where they organize a trade with a shadowy man for random memorabilia. As we soon learn, this has been smuggled between worlds, and after killing the seller in cold blood, take the gear for themselves.

Viktor happens to be up in Canada but his girlfriend breaks up with him. Those in the bar joke that he’s blown through everyone in town and appears to be some sort of sex icon. Viktor receives a call from Luther, who happens to be working as a stripper. He’s invited along to little Grace’s birthday party, who happens to be Diego and Lila’s daughter. Viktor hangs up but it’s clear he’s thinking about it.

Diego happens to be working as a delivery driver while Allison is a small-time actress doing commercials. Ben is fresh out of prison following some crypto scam, where Luther picks him up at the gates, while Klaus is paranoid and worried about every little thing killing him. He’s three years sober though and living with Allison.

Five is actually part of the CIA, working undercover to investigate some group called the Keepers. His moustache is fake, thank goodness, but despite his good work, Five’s boss tells him to focus on his other cases. He also has big faith in Five, believing he could run the place one day.

All roads lead to Grace’s birthday party. The gang finally reconvene after six years, but they’re all very different from where we remember them. Minus Five, to be honest, who’s still kinda the same. Diego is paranoid and there’s an air of awkwardness over everything, especially when Luther and Allison reconnect. The only missing person here is Viktor.

Now, before Viktor heads into the party, a guy shows up outside and tells him to get in the van. When Viktor refuses, he’s dragged in after being tasered. Luther also causes chaos too when he destroys the cake and messes up the pinata.

After the birthday party, we get a lovely little twist as Lila is also working undercover for the CIA alongside Five. She’s been investigating the Keepers too. The pair have some fiery banter but Diego is a little suspicious of Lila. Whether he suspects the full extent of what she’s up to, remains to be seen.

Anyway, Jean and Gene show up at the meeting, where we learn from Lila that they started the first chapter of the Keepers in Clovis, New Mexico. Since then, the movement has spread across the US. Jean and Gene discuss timeline sickness, where they bring up this Umbrella Effect and how they intend to get everyone back to their correct timeline.

This explains the scenes at the start of the season. They have a whole bunch of memorabilia from the other timeline, which they show off on a slideshow. They have their sights set on Hargreeves, believing he, alongside the memorabilia, are the key to the “cleanse”.

Jerome and Nancy (Five and Lila) are picked out from the crowd for whispering, and there’s a tense moment where they’re almost outed by Jean and Gene. When they discuss their findings after the meeting in private, they’re unaware that Diego happens to be watching the pair.

Luther and Ben head to the old mansion and the former contemplates whether they should fix the place up again. There’s a letter for Luther on the mantlepiece though, which happens to be a ransom note for Viktor. After agreeing to follow the instructions, they’re to head over to Sy’s Dry Cleaning on 5th Avenue.

The dry cleaner here is Sy, and he confronts them and discusses the Umbrella Academy and the Keeper meetings. He’s lost his daughter Jennifer to this cult and believes something bad has happened to her.

While the others outright refuse, Five jumps right on this, knowing it leads into his CIA investigation. Inside the box of trinkets Sy’s daughter has collected happens to be a jar of marigold. The family are torn over whether they want their powers back or not. They choose not to, but Ben takes the jar for himself. He organizes a toast for everyone but when they leave, Ben opens the jar, pours marigold in the cup, and has another shot for himself.

The Episode Review

The final season of Umbrella Academy brings back the same humour and fantasy we’ve become accustomed to in this series. There are nice little nods to earlier seasons and seeing our family in very different places both physically and mentally is certainly a nice way to switch things up.

Klaus in particular is a completely different person while Viktor is… apparently some sort of stud? Finally, we have Luther who’s clearly struggling with his lot in life and Ben is still just as wild as before. In fact, the only family member that’s still very much the same is Five.

It’s clear that the family are going to get their powers back and it could be linked to Ben. How they’ll react to this and deal with it is another matter. Roll on the next episode!