Umbrella Academy delivers a heartfelt and fast paced season two
Do you remember that scene in “Into the Spider-Verse” when Peter B. Parker starts his backstory with, “Okay people, let’s do this one last time”?
That’s season two summed up in one sentence. Time travel, the apocalypse, you know the drill. Except for this time, it’s in 1963.
Warning: spoilers ahead.
After Vanya blew up the moon and ended life in 2019 as we know it, Five teleports himself and his family to Dallas, Texas over three years. He arrives to an outbreak of World War III, started between the United States and Russia, of course. It’s the Cold War, tensions are high, and apparently, this all started because of John F. Kennedy.
In season one, we know it was actually Five who killed the late president, thus fixing the timeline and making the commission happy. However, now that the six (plus ghost Ben) have arrived in 1963, the president suddenly is alive. As it turns out, the apocalypse followed the group, and once again, Vanya is the cause. The FBI building blows up, causing JFK and the motorcade to flee before Lee Harvey Oswald has the chance to assassinate him. Thus, JFK believes the Russians attempted assassination and starts a nuclear holocaust.
The history major in me could go off on a tangent over why the JFK storyline makes no sense, because we all know what transpired during the Bay of Pigs, but I digress. Here’s the issue I have with season two:
It’s all over the place.
Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed this season and was practically counting down the days until it premiered. With Five’s nervous ticks, Klaus’s relationship with Ben, and Luther’s struggle between being a hero and being, well, normal, this season was great. The humor was fresh and there were moments where I had to pause and ask myself, “Did that really just happen?” Our characters are spread out before meeting in 1963 and they each have their own storylines. Diego, destined to prove he is still a hero, is thrown in a mental hospital after claiming the president will be murdered. Luther is working for the mafia, Klaus is a cult leader and Allison has joined the civil rights movement. Vanya has coincidentally forgotten everything and ends up on a farm with a rocky couple and their mute son. Keeping the storylines straight is one thing, but because the audience is dealing with six different storylines, it begins to be spotty. For example, how did Klaus end up getting the cult to such heights and what role did Ben play after its initial start?
What was the exact incident that landed Diego in an institution and how long was Lila, the Handler’s creepy adopted daughter, there waiting for him? Plus, are we really expected to believe that Lila was the first superpowered child they met that wasn’t apart of the Umbrella Academy? We know several children were born that day in 1989, so what stopped the Monocle from going out and finding more?
Perhaps this is nitpicking. After all, seeing more of Vanya being happy and not killing everyone was a great character arc. And Ben, who we finally learned died in battle and was summoned by a young Klaus, explained he didn’t want to go toward the light because he was afraid for nearly 17 years. It was a great ending for our ghostly friend.
Although the gang’s powers seemingly stop working or are suddenly more powerful when convenient to the plot is kind of annoying, I would recommend checking this out if you have the time. The characters learn and grow closer together and the ending sets up season three nicely. What is Sparrow Academy? Why did the Monocle expect them? And how the hell is Ben alive?
If the show continues to follow the comics (season one was based on “Apocalypse Suite” and Season two, “Dallas”), then “Hotel Oblivion” is to come. In the comics, the villains the Hargreeves have defeated come back to seek vengeance, so the Umbrella Academy requests the help of familiar faces bearing Sparrow patches. Creator Gerard Way has confirmed an upcoming sequel, titled “Sparrow Academy.”
“The series finally starts to answer the question: ‘What about the other babies born on that day, at that moment?’” Way said in an interview with Forbes magazine. “The Umbrella Academy siblings are not alone in the world anymore.”
And that’s that. Here’s to hoping season three isn’t too far away.
—sydney.dahle@aggiemail.usu.edu
@dillydahle
Sydney Dahle is a fourth-year student studying history and political science at Utah State and is currently the Lifestyles Content manager for the Utah Statesman. She hails from St. Louis, Missouri and spends her free time writing, listening to The Killers, and playing Animal Crossing on the switch.