Diksha Sundriyal
In its final season, Netflix’s ‘The Umbrella Academy’ leads its protagonists on a journey that tests them physically and emotionally. Several truths come to light, and loyalties are tested as the Hargreeves siblings find themselves stretched thin with an apocalypse on their doorstep. With only six episodes this season (which is four shy from the previous ones), each character adds more depth and dimension to the story. No character is irrelevant or wasted, and this is proved by the way the show uses the character of Sy Grossman. Initially, he seems to be a normal person in need of help, but soon, it turns out that he is not who he seems to be. SPOILERS AHEAD
Sy Grossman Died Before the Umbrella Academy Met Him
We meet Sy Grossman in the first episode when he kidnaps Victor and uses him to meet the rest of the Hargreeves siblings. He asks for their help in finding his daughter, Jennifer, who he claims has fallen into the cult of the Keepers, who are preventing her from talking to her family. Later, however, it turns out that Jennifer never knew anyone named Sy Grossman. Things get more interesting when we see Sy meeting with Jean and Gene and conspiring with the Keepers to make sure that Ben and Jennifer meet, something he had ensured by telling Ben how to find Jennifer.
Sy flipping from one side to the other is confusing, but things become clearer when it turns out that it is not Sy but Abigail impersonating him. This means that the real Sy Grossman was killed before the events of the fourth season. Abigail killed him and used his skin to transform into him (something she later does with Gene), so she could meet with the Hargreeves siblings without raising any suspicions. She did this to make sure that they would meet Jennifer, which would lead one of them to come into physical contact with her and kickstart the Cleanse.
Sy Grossman’s Abigail Connection Explains His Actions
Abigail being Sy shows how he knew the things he did. In the first episode, he shows the Umbrella Academy a bunch of things that the Keepers have found belonging to different timelines. In the same box, the Hargreeves find a bottle of Marigold. Had the Keepers really found that bottle, there is no way they would have let it slip from their hands, which raises questions about how Sy came across it. But with him being Abigail, it makes sense that she was always in possession of the thing and intentionally put it in the box because she knew that at least one of the siblings would ingest it to get their powers back. With the plans she had in mind, she needed just one of them to have Marigold in their system before meeting Jennifer, who has Durango.
In the same vein, Abigail masquerading as Sy also explains how he knew where to find Jennifer. When the Hargreeves siblings return the next day to his shop, they find it empty with a note instructing them to go to New Grumpson to get Jennifer. If he already knew where his daughter was, why didn’t he go there himself and get her? This question is raised by the Hargreeves siblings, too, but they are not in good shape to consider the answer to this question.
Abigail becoming Sy Grossman also allowed her to move freely without being detected by Reginald and his men. If he found out that she had been in contact with the powerless Hargreeves children and given them Marigold, he would have tried to stop her from inflicting any further damage and would have moved Jennifer to a different location, completely sabotaging Abigail’s plan to kickstart the Cleanse and commence the end of the world. But with her looking like Sy Grossman, no one would have tracked her movements. This also allows her to move freely within the Keepers and keep track of things while Reginald is still trying to catch up. When Sy’s role is done, she drops his skinsuit and adopts another, not stopping until the job is done.
Read More: The Umbrella Academy: What is the Jennifer Incident? How did Ben Die?
