Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘The Umbrella Academy’ ends the story of its dysfunctional family of superheroes with the fourth season, where they face an extinction-level event once again. Following the events of the third season, Viktor, Five, Alison, Luther, Ben, Klaus, Diego, and Lila find themselves in a completely new timeline. Not only is everything different in this world, but they also don’t have their powers. Despite the challenges, life must go on, and for six years, they live as normal people, doing regular jobs to make ends meet. But then, their powers come back, and with it comes a great problem. SPOILERS AHEAD
What Happens to Ben and Jennifer?
While the rest might have been like family to each other because they were the Umbrella Academy, Ben always felt like an outsider with them because he belonged to the Sparrow Academy and was the only one of them to survive the events of Season 3. This feeling of otherness draws him to Jennifer when they meet. The connection he feels with her is instant, but the more he desires to be with her, the more the world seems to want to tear them apart. Reginald, especially, is adamant about them not being close to each other, and there is a good reason for it.
It turns out that when Reginald’s wife, Abigail, made the Marigold, through which the Umbrella Academy and other kids like them got their powers, she also, unintentionally, created another compound called Durango, which acted like an anti-matter to Marigold. This means that these two compounds should never come in contact with each other; otherwise, it would be the end of the world. While the Umbrella Academy had Marigold, Jennifer had Durango, which is why they all needed to be kept away from her. In the original timeline, a teenage Ben and Jennifer came in contact. To prevent things from going further, Reginald shoots both of them in the head and makes the rest of the kids forget about how Ben died.
The Reginald of the new timeline also knew about this, which is why he kept Abigail in a separate town, New Grumpson, where she would be under constant scrutiny. It was like her own Truman Show, except no one knew about her, and her life wasn’t being broadcast on TV. And it would have stayed that way. But then, Abigail interferes, and Ben and Jennifer end up together without having any inkling of what being in each other’s presence would do to them.
Slowly, the effects of Marigold and Durango coming together start to take effect, and Ben and Jennifer take a monstrous form, which gets bigger with time. Viktor tries to save Ben by getting him away from Jennifer, but it doesn’t work. Reginald shoots Ben, hoping that killing him will do the trick, but Jennifer merges him into herself, and they become one massive monster, which, everyone concedes, is now out of control. The remaining Umbrella Academy members try to stop the monster, but none of their powers work on it, and eventually, they have to accept defeat.
To answer the question of what really happens to Ben and Jennifer and whether they are dead: no, they don’t technically die, but they are not themselves either. They become the Cleanse, the monster made of Marigold and Durango, which will destroy the whole world as it grows bigger with each moment. What makes it worse is that it is after the rest of the Marigold and will not stop until it has it all.
Do Reginald and Abigail Die?
All Reginald wanted was to have his wife back, who died when they were on their home planet. He released Marigold on Earth with the hopes of doing something that would change things, and eventually, he did get a timeline where Abigail is still alive. Now, the only thing he needs to do is make sure that this world remains safe for her to live in. This is why he keeps Jennifer tucked away in a made-up town, away from the rest of the world. Abigail, however, knew the adverse effects of Marigold and Durango and what their simple existence had done to people and the world. Death was her penance, so when she was brought back to life, she couldn’t live with the moral implications of her husband’s actions.
In opposition to her husband’s efforts, Abigail drove the Umbrella Academy towards Jennifer so that Marigold and Durango would fuse and the Cleanse would come about, destroying the world because that’s how it’s supposed to be. She was never meant to live beyond the life she originally had, and she tells her husband as much. In the end, he has to accept and respect his wife’s decision. In any case, things have gone out of his control by now, as the Cleanse is in full force and will eat away at the world. As he makes his peace with it, the Cleanse comes for them, and they are both consumed by it. This thing continues as the Cleanse continues to grow and eat and destroy everything in its path, be it people or things. As it continues to grow, it will eventually cover the whole world. No one will be able to escape it, and once again, like it happened the last three times, the world will end.
What Happens to the Umbrella Academy? Do They Die?
At the end of each season, the Umbrella Academy finds itself at a critical point. Each time the world ends, they decide to ditch it instead of going down with it. They do it half-hoping that they will do something different the next time and prevent the end of the world. But each time, things turn out the same. This time, they also find themselves at the end of the world and must make a choice. Should they ditch it like last time and try to start anew somewhere else, or should they let things be and die with it?
With Five’s powers of traveling through time and space, the Umbrella Academy survived the first two world-ending events. He could also do the same this time, having discovered the subway system that opens into other worlds. He and Lila have thoroughly explored it and would have a better idea of exactly where to land so they can all be safe and start anew. But therein lies the trouble. When Five leaves his family in the middle of the fight (dejected about not being chosen by Lila), he finds himself back at the subway, but this time, things are different. This time, in a deli in the subway, there are many other Fives from different timelines, and it turns out that they all have been trying to save the world.
Five discovers that no matter how many fresh starts he and his family get, they will always end up kickstarting the end of the world. No matter what shape the events have taken or how different things have been each time, the world has ended on their watch. And the same will hold true wherever they go. Moreover, in jumping from one end of the world to another, they have given rise to the multiple timelines that the subway goes through. The only way to save the world is to merge all the alternate timelines into one, the original one. And the only way to do that is for all the Marigold and Durango to disappear from the world.
The reasoning behind this is that Marigold and Durango were not supposed to exist in the first place, and neither was the Umbrella Academy. When they came into being, the timeline was split into two to adjust their arrival. From there, things snowballed such that an infinite number of alternate timelines were created, and in each timeline, the world ended because the Umbrella Academy existed. Five postulates that the only way to stop this cycle and put things to rest is by letting the Durango claim all the Marigold in them. But in doing so, they will be erasing themselves from existence. They will be permanently removed from existence. No one will remember them or even know they ever existed. This is the only way to break the cycle and reinstate the original timeline where they were never supposed to be.
While it is the only way to save the world, it is also a very difficult decision to make. Everyone wants a different solution to the problem, but deep down, they all know that this is the only way forward. Slowly, they all accept it, but while they are ready to sacrifice themselves, they can’t help but wonder about the safety of their loved ones. Alison worries about what will happen to her daughter, Claire, when she is gone, and Lila has her entire family, including three kids, to worry about. They decide to send them all to an alternate world through the subway, but the problem arises when Lila leaves with them.
Five reveals that the only way their sacrifice can work is if they all do it together. As long as even one of them escapes the Cleanse, the end of the world will keep happening no matter where they go. Even if Lila finds a safe world to live with her family, things will eventually turn out so that the world will face an extinction-level event once again, but next time, Lila will have no way to save her family. There is only so much running away she can do. On some level, Lila knows this, but she cannot leave her family without knowing they will be safe. Still, to ensure that they end up in a safe world, she must offer herself up to the sacrifice.
After a lot of back and forth, she relents and joins the Umbrella Academy as they stand together, holding hands and waiting for the Cleanse to claim them. Sure enough, it finds them, and one by one, as they say their goodbyes, they are consumed by the Cleanse. As the Durango and the Marigold meet and are destroyed by each other, the alternate timelines are erased and only one, the original timeline remains. The Umbrella Academy, on the other hand, is erased from existence.
What Happens to Lila’s Family and Claire?
The world ends, and the Umbrella Academy meets a tragic fate, but what happens to Lila’s family and Claire? They were left on the subway train by Lila, who stepped out of it at the last minute, even though all she wanted was to leave with them. They had no idea where the train would leave or what it even meant to get on the train. Lila worried about how they would find their way to the right world, which was safe for them, especially because she had seen all the worlds that the subway opens into, and many of them were not safe for anyone.
Her worries become pointless because when the Cleanse claims all the Umbrella Academy members and all the Marigold is destroyed by the Durango, all the timelines merge into each other, and only one train remains in the end. This shows that the alternate timelines are gone, and there is only one world now, which is how it should have been in the first place. Considering that Lila’s family and Claire were already on the train when the timelines started to merge, it makes sense that they ended up walking out of the subway into the only world that remained. This means that they are all safe and sound and can live in the new world that has opened up to them.
One would think that since Alison, Lila, and Diego have been erased from existence, their kids shouldn’t exist either. However, one must remember that the Cleanse only erases the Umbrella Academy, their existence, and their memories, not their past. People don’t remember them, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t do all the things they did when they still existed. It’s like when Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is erased from people’s memories, but it doesn’t mean that the things they did together are undone. It simply means that no one remembers those things, or at least, they don’t remember doing those things with him. The same logic applies to Alison and Lila’s kids. The fact that their loved ones would be safe was the only thing that gave comfort to Lila and Alison in their final moments before the Cleanse took them. It also makes the ending of ‘The Umbrella Academy’ a bit more hopeful, especially after the bleak fate suffered by the main characters.
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