Diksha Sundriyal
The fourth and final season of Netflix’s ‘The Umbrella Academy’ offers many twists and turns as the Hargreeves sibling takes one last trip in an alternate timeline, once again trying to prevent the end of the world. At the same time, they must also come to terms with the complexity of their relationships, courtesy of being a part of a dysfunctional family. This season, things become even more complicated, especially between Five and Diego when the former falls in love with the latter’s wife, Lila. What happens between them cannot be considered an outright betrayal because of the way things happen, but it does put a huge question mark in the love triangle: who does Lila choose in the end? SPOILERS AHEAD
The Problems in Lila and Diego’s Marriage Would Exist Even Without Five
Lila and Diego met each other in Season 2, and despite being on opposite sides, with her working for the Commission, they fell in love. Things got more serious between them in the third season when Lila revealed she was pregnant with Diego’s child. At the end of the season, when the timeline is reset by Reginald Hargreeves, and everyone loses their powers, Lila and Diego walk their separate way, ready to begin their lives together. This was supposed to be their happily ever after, but in reality, there is no such thing as that.
It is one thing to make a family together, and it is entirely another to stay as one. Six years pass between Season 3 and 4, and when we see Diego and Lila again, they have three children, but they are also visibly frustrated with everything in their lives. The loss of his powers hits Diego harder than expected, and he finds himself at a loss of purpose. He doesn’t know what he is supposed to do now. Moreover, having lived an eventful life, especially being involved in the end of the world three times, Diego finds the mundanity of his life absolutely tiring. This starts to reflect on his family life, and things get strained between him and Lila.
While Lila loves her family, she, too, feels frustrated with things, as she seems to have been reduced to being a wife and a mother. Before this, she worked for the Commission, which offered excitement at every turn. But now, she feels the same as her husband: purposeless. But while Diego has a job that gets him out of the house, Lila is a homemaker and spends almost every single second of her day tending to her family. At one point, she starts resenting Diego for having the freedom that having a job provides him. His slacking over his responsibilities and his inability to perform any task independently add to her frustration.
Things get so bad that eventually, she tells him that she needs a break. While this doesn’t necessarily mean that they would have gotten a divorce, it does show that Lila was craving something different and exciting and might have further distanced herself from Diego to find her purpose, with or without the impending apocalypse.
Lila and Five’s Romance was Doomed from the Start
If there is one other Hargreeves sibling that Lila has been connected to since her first appearance in the show, it is Five. Because of her connection to the Handler and her job at the Commission, she was pitted directly against Five. They started out as sworn enemies, but with Lila becoming a part of the family, things softened between them. It is only in Season 4 that they finally explore a romance, but the chemistry has always been between them.
Lila and Five always seemed to have more in common than she did with Diego. Starting with their pasts with the Commission, the fourth season builds upon this common ground by making their paths cross with the Keepers and their idea of the Cleanse. To take a break from her family, Lila found alternate ventures, which she kept a secret from Diego because she knew he wouldn’t understand. But with Five, she could easily talk about it. When she thinks about distancing herself from Diego for a while, Five offers the perfect distraction. His time-traveling subway system offers all the excitement Lila could have hoped for.
When they get stuck in the subway, Lila doesn’t seem too eager to leave either, at least not in the beginning. She is calm and composed, and even as Five starts to panic, she tells him to relax, assuring him that they will eventually find a way out. Of course, she hadn’t expected them to get lost for seven years. Had she been alone, it would’ve been a problem, but Five’s company eases a lot of things. Spending seven years with one person by your side, going through unimaginable things in multiple timelines, and surviving it together is bound to bring people closer. The same happens with Five and Lila. He falls in love with her, and she lets herself explore the possibility of being with someone other than Diego.
When the time comes, Lila chooses to go back to her family, even when Five proposes that they should stay in the alternate timeline, away from the chaos that the rest of the group is going through. Had it not been for her children, one can’t predict what Lila would have chosen. It is the thought of her kids and seeing them again that doesn’t allow any doubt about her choice to emerge in her mind. However, this doesn’t mean that her feelings for Five are simply erased. She doesn’t really get the time to process the new situation and wonder what exactly it means for her and Diego, but it’s clear that she does have affection, bordering on love, for Five.
When Diego asks her if she loves Five, she tries to dodge the question, which shows that she couldn’t have denied her feelings. While this doesn’t necessarily mean that she would have chosen Five over Diego, it also shows that her feelings for Five would have increased the rift between her and Diego. Luckily for her, the apocalypse is nigh, and she isn’t forced to choose. In the end, she holds both Diego and Five’s hands, showing that she has feelings for both of them.
Read More: The Umbrella Academy Season 4 Ending Explained: Does the World End?
