The Umbrella Academy, a popular Netflix series, was an award-winning series and one of my favorite TV shows I’ve ever watched. The show is about a family of seven adopted siblings with unique superpowers. They were raised by an eccentric billionaire before reuniting as adults to solve the mystery of said billionaire’s death and attempting to prevent an upcoming apocalypse. In the second season, the seven siblings are stranded in different years of the 1960s as they reunite to stop yet another apocalypse. Then, in season three, traveling back to 2019, they all discover an alternate reality where the “Sparrow Academy” exists instead of the Umbrella Academy. Throughout this season, they face the Sparrows, a very deadly ball of energy called the “Kugelblitz”, and fight to fix the timeline to prevent yet another apocalypse.
Now, getting back to the newest season, season four, I have never seen a whole fandom all agree on something as much as the Umbrella Academy fandom agreed that this season was so horrible. This season of The Umbrella Academy is by far the worst of all the seasons. From the amount of unnecessary plotlines to the character assassination of the fandoms’ two most popular characters, all the way to the numerous plot holes that were left unanswered, it is clear how inferior this season was and still is.
In total, there were at least six different plotlines and at least fourteen lines in total, most of which don’t even contribute to the main plotline which is the Ben and Jennifer plotline. The Ben and Jennifer plotline is one that has been having fans wondering about it for years, leading fans to be very excited about this season. However, due to there being so many different plotlines that not only didn’t contribute to the overall story, but some of them weren’t even necessary to add. The most controversial plotline that was added this season was the Diego, Lila, and Five one that had a lot of people angry at the writers. The writers decided to give Five Hargreeves a love interest this season and that love interest was Lila, Diego Hargreeves wife. The reason why this was so controversial is because a now Twenty-year-old Aidan Gallagher who plays Five Hargreeves, was only fifteen to sixteen years old at the time of season two where he met the then thirty-year-old Ritu Arya who plays Lila. Not only was Five Hargreeves trapped in his thirteen-year-old body when the two met, she is married to Five’s brother, Diego, and he killed her parents pre season one! Not only was this relationship unwanted, it wasn’t needed. In fact, it was a total character assassination. Throughout the series there is one thing about Five, a defining trait about him. He is loyal. Five dedicated the majority of his life to saving his family, making sacrifice after sacrifice only for the writers’ to throw all of that away in the last season. It feels unnatural, disgusting, and unnecessary to add this plotline. What makes it even sadder is how this was never resolved in the end. More on that later. Onto the character assassination of Diego. Almost the entirety of season three, Diego’s relationship with Stanley, a kid he was made to believe was his son, was built up to be a father-son relationship with Diego ending up loving and caring for Stanley. However, in season four, when Diego actually has kids of his own, the writers’ make it so that he regrets having them. Even fast forwarding to the end, Allison and her kid, Claire have a sad, heartbreaking moment and even Lila has a moment with her kids, but Diego has nothing, as if they weren’t even his kids. Furthermore, there was a lack of explanation for what happened to Luther’s wife, Sloane and yet another character assassination of Ray, Allison’s husband who the viewers were made to believe would leave Allison and his own child behind.
Other than the unnecessary plotlines, there were many unanswered plot holes. This entire season revolved around Ben and Jennifer, a new character added this season. Jennifer has been talked about prior to season four as being a part of the “Jennifer Incident” in relation to how Ben died. Having the answer to why Ben is dead by the start of the series would have been a great storyline for this season, but was poorly executed. First, when Jennifer is talked about, even though the characters know about the Jennifer Incident, they pretend to not know and not even bring it up. Second, when Jennifer was introduced, she was inside of a Giant Squid, only, the Giant Squid was never spoken of again. Third and finally, why didn’t Umbrella Academy Ben tell Klaus who killed him? This season, we found out it was Reginald Hargreeves who killed Ben (which is a whole problem on its own), but why didn’t Ben relay that message.
This entire season felt as if the writers never watched the previous seasons. From season three and especially into this season, Ben Hargreeves became a main character and a part of the main storyline. However, a big part of Ben was his friendship with Klaus. However, this entire season, their friendship wasn’t brought up once. Characters like ‘Delores’, Ray, and Sloane are practically gone this season. The entirety of season three was about the grandfather paradox and how if you go back in time and kill your grandfather, you cease to exist, but then this season ends with Allison, Lila, and Diego’s kids in the new timeline they created. More things they messed up this season that were in past seasons are Luther being put back in his monkey-like body even though it had nothing to do with his powers or everyone forgiving Allison for everything she did in season three or that they were so lazy with this season that there are multiple scenes with cameras in the shot.
Not even going into the million other things that the writers should have done differently or plot holes that were not talked about at all. Season four, specifically the writing of season four feels so off from the previous seasons that had me excitedly waiting every year for the next one. The previous seasons brought the perfect amount of humor, drama, and action compared to the unnecessary plotlines, numerous plot holes, and character assassinations that I know left most fans utterly disappointed. Although The Umbrella Academy will always have a place in my heart as one of my favorite shows, I know I and other fans were hoping for another season to forget this one.