The Umbrella Academy – Season 4 Episode 2 Recap & Review

Jean and Gene

Episode 2 of Umbrella Academy season 4 starts with each of the family back to their old selves, complete with their powers. The group join together at the old mansion to discuss these changes. Viktor struggles to control his powers, while Lila’s eyebeams are a point of contention too.

Ben reveals himself and points out what he’s done, having spiked their shots from the night before with the marigold. Viktor is angry, explaining how he built up a brand new life for 5 years and now all of that is gone. Luther’s stripper career is actually starting to pick up, in a surprising turn of events, but Klaus is the only one who didn’t drink the shot so he’s still sober and fine.

Ben points out that they’re better with their powers, but he’s a complete mess, adjusting to his powers returning. He vomits on the floor and struggles to control his tails. The gang want answers, and so, with their new powers, they head back to Sy’s dry-cleaning.

Sy is not there though, and instead we have a map with a circled spot for a town called New Grumpson. On the way, the gang are sick and after some initial chaos and drama, things settle down a bit. In the calmness, Diego speaks to Five and points out he thinks Lila is cheating. He riffs about his concerns, but Five points out that they have a family together and everything is okay. However, Diego is concerned about this “moustache character”, while Lila happens to be listening from the backseat.

The gang finally do make it to New Grumpson, where they begin looking for Sy’s daughter, Jennifer. Klaus is still in the car, and contemplates whether to get back to his old self or not. Eventually he chooses not to.

Ben meanwhile, heads to the diner where he gets talking to a woman called Rosie. She’s heard of him from his crypto scam and believes he’s full of crap. Ironically, Rosie’s bus-stop in town is actually fake, and just a ploy to get people to come into the diner and eat. So really, both of them have their own little scams going on.

The pair connect over their dysfunctional families while the others continue looking for Jennifer. However, in a nice little twist it turns out Rosie is actually Jennifer and Sy is not her father. So who is he?

Before we can find out, everything goes awry and a big chase ensues, as it turns out everyone in town is an undercover agent working for Hargreeves. A massive fight ensues and while Ben and Jennifer run together, the group are chased and forced to flee from gunfire. Five teleports over to a subway, which happens to be playing sound backwards. He enters the train and when he emerges, it seems he’s in a completely different timeline as the town is not in the middle of an all-out war. It appears this train is the key to jumping between timelines.

The only person in town who’s not fully into this cult is Jennifer, who joins Ben as they slip out the back. Through all of this, someone impersonates Jennifer and when she’s outed, shoots Klaus in the heart before Ben kills her in cold blood.

When the group reconvene and race out of town, they have no choice but to use the Marigold on Klaus and give him back his powers to save their friend. Their van is hit by Jean and Gene on the road and tipped over. As they turn, Ben and Jennifer touch hands, which seems to do something with their powers as there’s a blast of light. Jennifer is snatched up by the two assassins, who wave goodbye to “Nancy” before they depart and take off.

The Episode Review

A boatload of action at the end leads to the realization that these timelines are connected and it appears Five has the ability to switch between them. Klaus getting his powers back was a given at this point, while we also see a good deal of drama between the family as there’s a reluctance from some over receiving their powers again.

There’s definitely some contrivances toward the end for Jennifer just up and trusting Ben and the others, but given the link these two have with one another, perhaps that’s part of the reason for this. If not, then it’s just bad writing. Hopefully that’s explained later on down the line.

All of this eventually leads to the final moments where Jean and Gene return and take off with Rosie. Whether she’s going to be the girl who’s the “key to everything” in typical narrative fashion remains to be seen but the ending definitely leaves the door open for the rest of the season.