The ending of Umbrella Academy season 3 explained

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for the season 3 timeline of The Umbrella Academy. You probably knew that, but if not, look out!]

Just when the Hargreeves kids thought they had a handle on the space-time continuum, they are thrown into another loop – or, rather, another loop. In the finale, the Umbrella Academy members find themselves in an alternate reality where their father Reginald has his name on many buildings and they have no powers (and they are not the only ones).

What does all this mean in the grand scheme of Umbrella Academy? This is really a complicated question. Netflix has not renewed the series stillbut the idea of not having a season 4 is hard to imagine, especially since there are a whole lot of other balls up for the series than just jumping to a different timeline.

Did Allison end up betraying the Umbrella Academy or not?

After Allison hits Reginald over the head, she starts fumbling with his machine. As the rest of the Hargreeves try to stop them, Viktor lets them go, even saying he is doing it does trust her – just so she pushes the button that everyone else doesn’t want pushed.

It’s unclear if what Allison did was actually something she fully understood. After all, it seems unlikely that Reginald would have programmed her into a world where she would have the family she wanted. Still, at least on the other hand, she’s come out with not only Claire by her side, but Ray as well, a choice actress Emmy Raver-Lampman tells Polygon she’ll likely pursue: “I think it will an immense amount of guilt that will eventually affect them. She got her happy ending but at the sacrifice of everyone else she loves.”

Why don’t they have powers? Where did Sloane go?

I’m not an expert on futuristic, possibly extraterrestrial technology. But is the world that Reginald’s machine threw them into – where the remaining Hargreeves children had no powers and also Sloane was gone for some reason – where he wanted to end up?

In this new world, Reginald seems even more of a captain of industry. This new world could possibly be proof of what he could achieve without superkids, or – maybe? – would have channeled all their powers into a very different extraterrestrial plan. The kids who remember everything (Allison, Sparrow Ben, Luther, Klaus, Viktor, Five, Diego and Lila) could be isolated because they were involved in the machine that got them there, however it works Has.

Luther and Viktor are standing and looking at something from the off

With no powers in this brave new reality, Aidan Gallagher (Five) expects everyone will adapt in their own way. “As for Five, I think he’d get by with that,” Gallagher tells Polygon. “However, it’s difficult because he’s no longer relying on his powers to be able to make the physical difference between what he’s used to doing and what his body and reflexes think he can do and what his body is actually for was trained to balance somehow. So maybe he needs to be a little smarter in the coming seasons.”

Ritu Arya, who plays Lila, isn’t quite as optimistic about her character: “[Lila] wouldn’t know how to work. I think a lot of their confidence and bravery comes from that power. So I don’t know how she will live. Maybe she really is clumsy.”

Who is that with Reginald at the window?

From the looks of it, the woman next to Reginald is the same woman who, in one way or another, has always been by his side: Alice, his wife and basis for the “mother” robot he found in the Umbrella Academy (and the Sparrow Academy) kept even though she was Not known as “Mother” there, you pervert).

In the flashback to Luther’s time on the moon, we see that Reginald had kept Alice in cryogenesis on the moon. It stands to reason (at least as much as everything else Umbrella Academy) that in this new world where Reginald has a lot more capital, maybe Reginald somehow managed to save Alice?

But what the hell is Reginald’s deal?

Reginald looks into a suitcase held out to him by his robotic wife

Although he has a major role (and acting The Umbrella Academy), we know very little about Reginald’s whole affair. He was very interested in adopting the children who were magically (?) born on October 1, 1989 at the 12th hour of 43 women. As an eccentric billionaire and inventor, the pilot of Umbrella Academy tells us that Reginald was uniquely suited to “adopt as many of the children as possible.”

By the end of Season 3, we also know it was vital to him seven

Kids for… whatever that machine was that he had at the end of the season. He’s also an alien, which may account for some of his flair for technology. He was at least once well connected enough to be in the same circles as the shadowy group that ordered the JFK attack. In the Season 3 timeline, Pogo feared what he was capable of so much that he instructed the children to give him some sort of pill every day. And in the new season 4 timeline, his name is on almost every skyscraper in the city.

It’s not exactly easy to look for answers here in the comic – the story is almost entirely deviated, and the book introduces Reginald as an alien in a few pages. After three seasons, it’s time we got a little more insight into his endgame (in any version of reality).

What is the Jennifer Incident?

Ben’s death has been repeatedly linked to the “Jennifer Incident” with members of the Umbrella Academy seldom discussing it anymore. (Even Sparrow Ben doesn’t seem interested in delving deeper into what happened to his alternate self.) So what exactly does this incident entail?

After Season 3, we still don’t know. Some people have theorized that Ben died by suicide, as the plaque in the mansion reads, “May the darkness within you find peace in the light.” But Gerard Way, who co-wrote the comics, said Forbes that it’s a mystery that he didn’t fully answer (at least in the comics). “Originally, I just wrote the character to be dead, that was his function. I always knew I would solve it,” Way said. “The thing with The Umbrella Academy, it’s almost like improvised jazz. You’re just making it up as you go.”

The show can still answer it, especially since it’s never been particularly faithful to its source material and there have already been a few references to the show, such as Viktor noting a Jennifer sketch in Ben’s room. Also, Sparrow Ben seems to be there to stay, so he seems like a logical entry point.

Why does Harlan’s briefcase say Lester Pocket?

Does it make sense that Harlan’s briefcase says “Lester Pocket”? Like so many things Umbrella Academy, possibly! The camera often lingers on him with this name. Considering there’s a supporting character named Lester in the comics, it could be another “Jennifer incident,” something that’s meaningful or suggestive in a way that’s not entirely clear yet.

Why didn’t Future Five want Five to save the world?

In a surprising twist, Five finds out that the phantom founder of the Time Commission is actually… Five! And once he’s met his older self (in a paradoxical panic room), Older Five says to him, “You don’t. […] All that’s left is… oblivion.” He warns Young Five that “that” — a lost arm — “is what you’ve got to come”. He then sends a darker warning, “Whatever you do, don’t save the world,” before his machine shuts down and he dies.

In the end he was right; Five loses his arm in the final battle against Reginald’s machinations. But in the park where they landed in the new reality, Five’s arm is returned. Beyond questions about his siblings and their powers, it’s unclear if Older Five were just warning about the Hotel Oblivion showdown, or if they accidentally triggered something much darker. (The Hargreeves know… yes, probably!)

Why does Grace think ball lightning is God?

Grace, Ben and Fei look at a glowing ball of lightning

Most likely this is a reference to the comic book where Vanya (as the character is still called in the book) remarks that Robot Mom wears a cross necklace. When she asks about it, the mother takes her to Norway, where she is introduced to the Sparrows.

Given how much the show has deviated from the books, it’s likely this is more of a way of mixing in some of the same themes, plots, and visuals without outright recreating them.

Wait, so did someone really die?

In short: yes and no. Harlan did – off-screen, apparently through Allison – as did Klaus and Luther, who were each killed by Reginald. As for the other siblings who were Kugelblitzed, like Marcus… it’s unclear.

But by and large, with the timeline Once again reset to default? Who knows! Luther and Klaus appear to be back unharmed, and even without a gorilla body for Luther. Whether it’s Harlan, Pogo, or any of the other people killed in this alt-original-alt reality returning – well, there’s nothing the Umbrella Academy loves more than a remix.

Additional reporting by Petrana Radulovic.