You think your job is stressful? How about having to stop not one but three apocalypses, all while dealing with major PTSD and some deep-seated family drama from your childhood with a less than affectionate father? Welcome to The Umbrella Academy.
If you’re a fan of the Netflix superheroish drama, you know this story by now: On October 1, 1989, 43 babies were born to women who earlier that day had not been pregnant; the women had been imbued with “marigolds,†which gave those 43 babies special powers. Billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves — whom we now know to be a killer alien from another world — adopted seven of those babies and raised them to form the rough-around-the-edges crime-fighting Umbrella Academy.
At least, that’s how it went down in the original timeline. Since season one, Hargreeves siblings Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Number Five, dearly departed Ben, and Viktor (who went by Vanya in the first two seasons) have bounced around in multiple timelines while attempting to save the world, generally messing things up before making them better (sort of). If your head is spinning trying to remember everywhere and everywhen we’ve visited with the Hargreeves crew over the past three seasons, you’ve come to the right place. Ahead of the season-four premiere — the final timeline, as it were — here’s your refresher on the highlights, the lowlights, and yes, the choreographed dancing of each would-be apocalypse.
Season 1: The Original Timeline
Where are we?
Season one acts as our baseline for all Umbrella Academy shenanigans to come, and we kick things off in an unnamed North American city, mostly referred to as the City. Much of the drama takes place in and around Umbrella Academy HQ, or home sweet home to our Hargreeves clan.
When are we?
Most of the action takes place in 2019, though we do get a glimpse of Five’s 40-plus years spent in the postapocalypse, as well as a trip to the Commission, which exists both out of time and also in 1955. You get it.
What are the apocalypse vibes?
Not that I’ve thought much about the details, but I wouldn’t have guessed the apocalypse included a symphony hall, ghost tentacles, and the moon crumbling to pieces before our very eyes. Here we are! When Viktor goes off his meds, discovers his ability to turn sound waves into energy, and learns that dear old dad brainwashed him into thinking he was ordinary to prevent him from using those powers, he unleashes holy hell. He almost sucks the life out of his siblings until Allison distracts him, but oops, that means his energy laser beam redirects into space, accidentally destroying the moon and the entire Earth with it.
But, like, they do stop the apocalypse in this timeline, right?
Um … sort of? Seconds before things get real dark, Five throws a Hail Mary, sending himself and his siblings back in time to “fix†Viktor and stop the 2019 apocalypse from ever happening. But as you’ll see when we hop into the next timeline, when the Hargreeveses move around in time, they simply bring a new apocalypse with them.
Who is the timeline MVP?
Admittedly, I have a giant soft spot for our beloved Number Four, but come on, without him there is absolutely no way any of the Hargreeves siblings survives the swarm of Commission soldiers sent to stop them at the symphony hall. Thanks to his powers, Klaus can channel Ben’s ghost, and through him, Ben can use those monster tentacles to take out all the soldiers. On top of everything, within the same week the Hargreeveses have to stop the apocalypse, Klaus ends up spending a year in the Vietnam War (those Commission time briefcases are tricky!), where he meets the love of his life and then watches him die. I forgive this man for all his faults!!
Who is the villain of this timeline?
Wow, take your pick. Sure, Viktor technically causes the apocalypse, but he does so only after suffering at the hands of two emotionally abusive men: his father, Reginald Hargreeves, and Leonard Peabody, a.k.a. Harold Jenkins, a serial killer who manipulates Viktor in order to enact a childhood vendetta against the Umbrella Academy. There are also Commission assassins Cha Cha and Hazel, who do spend a lot of time trying to kill Five and, by proximity, his family, but let’s be real — they are simply following orders from the Handler, who will do anything to keep her power at the Commission intact.
What group dance number do we need to learn in this timeline?
Once all the Hargreeves children (save for Five, who is still lost in time, and Ben, who died 15 years prior) reunite after their father’s death, we get to see a little of their individual personalities when Luther blasts Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now.†It’s fun and cute, and Diego clearly has the best dance moves. Did you see his Running Man?
But wait! There’s a second choreographed dance break later on when Luther and Allison imagine a rosier world where they can dance together in the park to “Dancin’ in the Moonlight.†It would be romantic if not for the incest.
Hargreeves Sibling Tension Rating: 5 out of 5. No one trusts anyone, and there’s that thing where Viktor slices Allison’s throat with sound waves and a violin bow, leaving her unable to speak or use her powers for a year.
Most important, how is our sweet Pogo doing?
In many ways, the beloved sapient chimpanzee was more of a father to the Hargreeves children than Reginald was, but many of the secrets he kept for Reginald over the years come to light and he has to answer for them. Still, he in no way deserves to be so ruthlessly killed by Viktor when he discovers Pogo was an accomplice in Reginald’s deceit. Unfortunately, there’s no coming back from impalement via antlers.
Season 2: Welcome to Texas
Where are we?
We’re in Dallas now, y’all.
When are we?
When Five uses his powers to get him and his siblings out of 2019, he sends them all to Dallas but accidentally scatters them across the early 1960s. Five arrives last, on November 25, 1963, right in the middle of a nuclear holocaust. It’s Hazel who arrives to get Five out of there, dropping him off on November 15, 1963 — giving him ten days to stop this apocalypse. And if you’re looking at those dates and thinking, Weird, that’s right around the date of JFK’s assassination, well, it turns out that’s not weird at all.
What are the apocalypse vibes?
Just call it Apocalypse 2: Not-So-Cold War. Thanks to Five’s initial look at the new timeline as well as Diego’s glimpse of it when he spends a day at the Commission, we learn that after Viktor is interrogated by the FBI under suspicion of being a Soviet spy — he’s turned in when his girlfriend Sissy’s husband, Carl, learns of their affair — Viktor does his cute little explosion thing. Unfortunately, this time his explosive sound waves go off in a building that’s right along President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade route. While this explosion saves JFK’s life, the U.S. assumes it was an attack by the Soviets, things escalate, and the world goes kablooey.
But, like, they do stop the apocalypse in this timeline, right?
Yes! Once the Umbrella Academy figures out that Apocalypse Part Two: More Apocalypse is linked to Viktor, Allison, Diego, and Klaus head over to the FBI building on a rescue mission. Viktor is already in full sound-wave energy-blast mode, and all three siblings are taken out in their attempts to stop him before he blows. In a heartbreaking twist, only one person can get through to Viktor: Ben. When he finds Viktor hiding in his own subconscious, terrified that he is a monster, Ben helps Viktor see that he is loved, that he is part of this family, and that he isn’t to blame for what their father did to him. He gets Viktor to control his power — but the cost is grave. Ben won’t be able to go back; he is forced to pass on. The Umbrella Academy is vague on ghost rules here, but it doesn’t matter because you’re crying so hard when Ben asks Viktor to hold him as he goes that you won’t even have time to ask questions! Thanks to Ben’s sacrifice, the timeline goes back to normal.
Who is the timeline MVP?
There are two: Obviously Benerino, I’m still crying about it, but Five makes a real hero move here as well. After the Umbrellas stop the apocalypse, they still have their own personal demise to face at the hands of the Handler. Post-almost-apocalypse, the Hargreeves siblings pile into the station wagon to help Viktor with Sissy’s young son, Harlan. Earlier in the season, Harlan almost drowns, but Viktor saves his life and somehow transfers some of his powers into the boy. When the Umbrellas arrive at Sissy’s farm, Viktor attempts to help Harlan, who is now having uncontrollable energy outbursts. Around this time, the Handler arrives looking to tie up any loose ends from her coup at the Commission, and those loose ends are Five and his family. The Hargreeveses — well, Viktor, mostly — defeat the thousands of assassins she sics on them, but she winds up shooting and killing all of the siblings herself. Well, she kills all of them except Five, who, with the little strength he has left, uses his powers to go mere seconds back in time and stop her from pulling the trigger.
Who is the villain of this timeline?
Okay, the Handler, yes — she gets hers after Five’s rewind when one of the Swedes, part of an elite and quite disturbing Commission assassin team, shoots her for getting his brothers killed. The Handler’s adopted daughter, Lila, also causes a lot of issues, including manipulating and then falling in love with Diego after they meet at a mental hospital, and wanting to murder Five after discovering he was the Commission assassin who killed her birth parents. It turns out, though, that the Handler was behind it all: Lila is another one of the 43 babies born on October 1, 1989, and the Handler wanted her for herself.
But perhaps the biggest villain in 1963 Dallas is once again Reginald Hargreeves. When the Umbrellas track him down, he is so disgusted at the state of them, he wants nothing to do with his children. When he berates Diego to the point of tears (both Diego’s and mine)? Beyond cruel. Oh, also Reg reveals himself to be a killer alien, so there’s that.
What group dance number do we need to learn in this timeline?
Upon discovering they have six days to figure out how to stop the apocalypse, Allison, Klaus, and Viktor have a day-drinking session at the hair salon where Allison works, which turns into a dance party to the tune of Sam Cooke’s “Twistin’ the Night Away.†There’s lots of synchronized dryer-chair moves.
Hargreeves Sibling Tension Rating: 2 out of 5. Klaus and Ben do have some issues when Ben wants to possess Klaus so he can hang out with a woman in Klaus’s cult — did I mention Klaus starts a cult? — and because he’s tired of watching Klaus get drunk instead of helping their family. The tension is especially devastating given the whole “Ben sacrifices himself to save the world†thing.
Most important, how is our sweet Pogo doing?
Pogo gets an origin story! The chimpanzee was being trained by none other than the real Grace, a scientist working with NASA and Reginald Hargreeves on the space program. So yes, Pogo went to space! It’s very cool … until things go terribly wrong and Reginald needs to use a special serum to save the chimp’s life. It works — and it begins to change Pogo into what we know him as in the 2019 timeline.
Season 3: Something Doesn’t Seem Right Here
Where are we?
Well, technically, we are back at the Hargreeves home — except now it’s called the Sparrow Academy and there are seven other superpowered siblings living there.
When are we?
It’s 2019 again, but everything is different.
What are the apocalypse vibes?
You know that feeling when you walk into a party and you’re like, Whoa, this party’s really giving “growing ball of light that’s gonna eat all of time and space and render existence obsolete and also there’s lots of Champagne� Apocalypse No. 3 is like that. When the Umbrellas return from 1963, they learn they have royally fucked up the timeline again. Remember that disastrous meeting with Reginald? He hated his “children†so much that he makes sure to adopt six superpowered babies born on October 1, 1989 — and Ben makes seven — and gives them an even harder, stricter training regimen. But the fact that their own father replaced them isn’t actually the worst news the Hargreeveses get upon reentry.
Hey, remember Harlan? Well, in 2019, he’s an older man, and his power allows him to feel mentally connected to other superpowered people. When he links up with Viktor, he confesses that when Sissy died — on October 1, 1989 — he felt connected to the 43 women on the cusp of having those 43 superbabies. So overwhelmed with everything, Harlan’s powers exploded, and he wound up killing all but 16 of the would-be mothers. Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Five, and Viktor were never even born. Yet somehow, they exist now in this timeline. That head-scratcher is a grandfather paradox, and the universe can’t handle it; it therefore creates a kugelblitz. Now, a kugelblitz may sound like a great time, but it’s actually this ball of black holes and fire that begins to suck up all of time and space until nothing exists anymore. So kind of the exact opposite of a good time, if you think about it.
But, like, they do stop the apocalypse in this timeline, right?
Whew — yes, but it’s a close one. It’s all tied to Reginald’s big Project Oblivion mission. As it turns out, it was the entire reason he adopted seven superheroes in the first place: to send them into Hotel Oblivion, a machine built by the creator of the universe as a fail-safe that is protected by four monstrous Guardians, which would allow Reginald to reset the timeline and bring his alien wife back from the dead. The main problem, though, is that the seven Hargreeves children he sends in will die; the kugelblitz simply puts a deadline on when Reginald needs to complete his mission. Even when the only people left in the universe are Reg, our six Hargreeves heroes, Ben, and Sloane, the majority of Reginald’s children refuse to trust their father and take on Oblivion. The man is desperate, though. He kills Luther and blames it on the Guardians to sway everyone’s minds. It works!
The Umbrellas and Sparrows defeat the Guardians and then Reginald continues with his plan to let his children’s life forces — or marigold — get sucked up to power the machine. Allison, who made a deal with Reg that she would help him if he promised that in the reset timeline she would get back both her daughter, Claire, and husband, Ray, is the only one spared. Thankfully, she can stand to watch her siblings die slow, agonizing deaths for only so long. She kills Reg and frees her siblings … but can’t resist the temptation to push the final button and reset the timeline. The apocalypse is stopped once again, but this time the Umbrellas arrive in a new 2019 without any of their powers.
Who is the timeline MVP?
Everyone gets some nice moments this season, but let’s give it to Lila. Sure, she makes Diego’s life a living hell for a while when she lies about their having a 12-year-old kid named Stan, but those two psychos do seem to love each other! Plus, her mimicking powers come in handy multiple times: Not only is she part of the squad that slows down the kugelblitz for a while, but she has two important team-ups with both Five and Viktor. She’s a highly valuable part of the team now.
Also, a shout out to Sloane, who somehow makes her own wedding dress within hours under the most pressure a bride has ever been subjected to in all of history, no matter the timeline.
Who is the villain of this timeline?
The easy answer is Allison, but her situation is complicated. You give up a life with your sweet husband in order to return to your daughter, only to learn your daughter doesn’t exist anymore, and you tell me how you’d react. She makes some dicey decisions — killing Harlan and rumoring Luther are objectively awful — but let’s all focus on the real villain here: Reginald Hargreeves. No matter what timeline this dude’s in, he has absolutely no regard for the children he adopted.
What group dance number do we need to learn in this timeline?
When the Umbrellas and Sparrows first face off, Sparrow Number Six, Jayme, spits her venom on Diego, causing him to hallucinate an entire choreographed dance-battle sequence to “Footloose.â€
Hargreeves Sibling Tension Rating: 4 out of 5. Woof, that fight between Allison and Viktor is honestly hard to watch. Allison isn’t totally wrong about Viktor getting a free pass for various transgressions, but a lot of it was out of his control, and that “We should’ve left you in the basement†line is rough.
Most important, how is our sweet Pogo doing?
Standing up to Reginald because he doesn’t want to watch him send the Sparrows on the sure-to-be-fatal Oblivion mission? Giving Marcus the pills to keep Reg sedated in order to save his beloved Sparrows, even when Reg kicks him out of the family? Joining a biker gang and becoming a tattoo artist? Pogo is a king.