Diksha Sundriyal
The final season of Netflix’s ‘The Umbrella Academy’ brings the story of the Hargreeves siblings to an end as they find themselves powerless and in a different timeline after the events of the previous season, which ended with a lot of mysteries and the fates of several major characters left in the lurch. One of those characters is Sloane, a member of the Sparrow Academy, who was nowhere to be seen when the Umbrella Academy walked out of the elevators at the end of Season 3, even though she was present with them at Hotel Obsidian. Her absence raised several questions, but the final season addresses it in one dialogue. SPOILERS AHEAD
Sloane’s Fate Remains Uncertain in Season 4
The events of ‘The Umbrella Academy’ Season 4 pick up six years after the ending of Season 3 where all the Hargreeves siblings walked away from each other to pursue a new life without their powers in the new timeline. At the time, Luther was dedicated to the goal of finding Sloane, his wife, but when we see him again in Season 4, he seems to have given up on the task. Considering that it has been six years and he still hasn’t found her, it makes sense that he has explored all avenues and exhausted every possibility of finding her. Now, he is convinced that he can never find her and has moved on.
While the show tells us that Luther has given up, the answer about Sloane’s true fate is still not confirmed. It becomes equally perplexing when one considers that the Ben in this new world is a Sparrow and repeatedly talks about how his family is gone and the Umbrella Academy are not his people. The show doesn’t explain how Ben is still there, and Sloane is not. Still, there are a few assumptions we can make about what really happened to Sloane.
The most logical answer is that she does exist in the new timeline, but her memory is wiped away, and she doesn’t remember who she is and who Luther is. This is why, despite Luther’s efforts to find her, she doesn’t reach back to him. Considering that Luther doesn’t have his powers or any resources at hand to help him in search of Sloane, of whom he probably doesn’t even have a picture, it makes sense that despite his best efforts, he couldn’t find her. She could have ended up in a different city, which explains why six years have passed without a sign of her. Even if she is in the same city, there are millions of people around, and the chances of Luther and Sloane crossing paths by chance are rather slim, come to think of it.
While this seems the more acceptable answer, it begs the question: if Sloane has lost her memories, why didn’t Ben? This is where things get complicated. We know that the rest of the Sparrows probably didn’t make it to the new timeline because they’d all died before the reset. Marcus and Fei were wiped away in a Kugelblitz, Jayme and Alphonso were killed by Harlan, and Christopher exploded, leading to a new wave of Kugelblitz. Sloane and Ben were the only ones alive by the finale of Season 3, and it would have made sense for both or none to return in Season 4. The presence of only one makes it difficult to understand why the other isn’t there. In the end, the only explanation seems to be that Sloane simply doesn’t exist in the new timeline.
Allison and Reginald’s Deal May Have Had to do With Sloane’s Disappearance
One of the major twists of ‘The Umbrella Academy’ Season 3 is the deal Allison makes with Reginald, which is a huge backstab for the rest of her siblings. In Season 1, Allison had a daughter; in Season 2, she had a husband. In Season 3, however, she doesn’t have any of those things and spends the entire season angry about it. Her desperation grows by the minute, so in return for having the rest of her siblings fall in line with Reginald’s plan, Allison gets to have her family back in the new timeline. Sure enough, when the rest happens, we see Allison with both Claire and Ray, which is interesting because Ray existed in the 1960s while the rest of the stuff happens in the current timeline. This shows that with the reset, Reginald was able to do whatever he wanted, bring back whomever he wanted, including his wife, and he did that for Allison as well.
A curious thing about the deal is that Allison asks for her “family” in the reset. She doesn’t simply say husband and daughter; she uses the word “family,” which includes the Umbrella Academy, including Ben. It is possible that Reginald put the entire Umbrella Academy in the reset, but when it came to Ben, he accidentally put Sparrow Ben into the new timeline. It would make sense because Sparrow Ben is the only version that Reginald of Season 3 knew. He’d met the Umbrella Academy in Season 2, but Ben was not one of them. The only Ben he knew was from the Sparrow Academy, so that’s the one he brought to the new timeline. As for the rest of the Sparrows, he didn’t even think about them because they were neither the priority for him nor for Allison. This is why, while resetting the universe, Reginald didn’t think about Sloane or any other Sparrow, and this is why none of them exist in the new universe.
Read More: The Umbrella Academy Season 4: What is the Cleanse?
