Spoilers below for the final season and episode of The Umbrella Academy, so be warned if you haven’t yet watched it on Netflix.
For a show where part of each season’s core hook has been stopping a literal apocalypse, The Umbrella Academy wasn’t destined for an easy ending in 2024, and its shortened final season didn’t exactly help make things any smoother. The season not only had to resolve the power-removing efforts from Season 3’s conclusion, but also had to tie up various loose ends while also delivering the long-awaited answer behind The Jennifer Incident. And how’d it go? Well, everyone’s mileage will vary.
I share in others’ online opinions about how the season probably would have felt less choppy had it maintained prior seasons’ episode counts and/or focused more on the core Hargreeves siblings instead of alt-versions of other characters. I still enjoyed the hell out of the episodes while watching, though, and for better or worse, I’m still thinking about questions I have about the series finale’s final scene, as well as the flowers that were revealed in the extended post-credits moment.
As those who watched will recall, the O.G. Umbrella squad sacrificed themselves and allowed Ben and Jennifer's Cleanse to finally occur, which meant that the other 145,000+ additional timelines (subway stops) were voided and ceased to exist, leaving only the original timeline that wasn't splitered into oblivion by the group's Marigold-fueled existences. And this untarnished reality was exemplified by the suburban utopia of a cameo-filled sunny day in the park, implying that many of the previous seasons' characters were living their best lives. But that just led to befuddlement over the questions below.
Is That Robot Grace, And Whose Child Is In The Stroller?
Perhaps the most surprising appearance in the park — other than Five’s mannequin paramour Dolores popping up in the background — came from Jordan Claire Robbins’ Grace, or Mom, as she was affectionately known by the Umbrella siblings. This is the kind of cameo that is possibly meant to be accompanied by a big winking shrug from showrunner Steve Blackman and the rest of the creative team, but I don’t know how to make the logic work well enough inside my head.
Like, I’m not sitting here worried about whether Gabriel Bá’s guest spot as the artist sketching Herb and Dot means Bá exists within this universe. But like…what are we talking about here with Grace? Clearly this can’t be the human woman that Reginald first took a shine to in the 1960s, since she looks exactly the same. And I dunno that I’m willing to automatically guess that this is a lookalike granddaughter or something.
So that would mean it’s the same version of the robot that more or less raised the Hargreeves kids, but does that even make sense if Reginald created her to be the perfect mother due to all the nannies that were killed? Even if he would have had another iteration of Grace in the works otherwise in the ‘80s, would she still be walking around in 2024 with a baby stroller?
Which leads us to this all-important follow-up: who in the world could be in that stroller? Does Robot Grace have a babysitting side gig? (Or even a full-time gig, because why not?) Or is this meant to imply that Reginald is still taking other people’s babies for reasons unknown? I mean, what I WANT to believe is that it’s Pogo’s kid inside the stroller, because Pogo is just that kind of a stud, but I fear it’s not anything so fantastical.
Are Other Versions Of Allison, Diego And Lila Raising These Children?
I can understand the logic mechanics behind Allison’s daughter Claire still existing in 2024 along with Lila and Diego’s children Grace and Coco and other family members, and that they wouldn’t remember any of the Brellies. But are these indeed still the same characters from earlier Season 4 scenes? Because if so, not remembering who Allison, Lila and Diego are should create some huge issues when it comes to living situations and the science behind their existences.
If other characters like Kate Walsh’s Handler are enjoying their O.G.-timeline life, then wouldn’t Claire be living with her father Patrick instead of hanging out with a family she wouldn’t otherwise have had any contact with? And would Patrick be freaking out right now without knowing where his daughter is, or where his daughter came from in the first place?
Or is the idea here meant to be that Allison, Diego, Lila and the rest of the core characters experienced totally natural births in this universe without the Marigold-infused powers, and that they’re indeed alive out there? If so, would Grace’s middle name still be Stanley as a reference to Javon Walton’s Stan, who disappeared in Season 3? Would her name even be Grace?
Okay, But What DO The Flowers Actually Mean?
The post-credits scene featuring those eight golden flowers no doubt threw some viewers just as much as Five and Lila's romantic relationship. On the one hand, it kinda seemed like that moment was undercutting the entire series by showing that Marigold (and presumably also Durango) are still present on our planet, and could potentially wreak havoc anew down the line. But it could also be a sign of hope that the core Brellies and their heroism are just as inevitable as any dangers out there.
When asked by Netflix's Tudum if the eight flowers were indeed a direct link-up with the eight siblings, showrunner Steve Blackman shared the following:
Not necessarily. You can assume many things from that. We can assume that some essence of Marigold still exists somewhere in the world. It may do nothing ever again. And it could just be flowers, or it could be what’s left of them because there happens to be eight flowers. And a couple of them kind of turn into each other. But I’m leaving it to the audience to decide what it really means. Does that mean there could be more of the Umbrella Academy or is it just that a tiny bit of their essence does go on?
I can actually get behind that kind of response, since it doesn't really matter if there's a "real" answer without any further episodes to explore the ideas. So by all means, if fans want to believe in the Hargreeves' sibs reconnecting and saving the world from future catastrophes, it's there for the theorizing. As is the opposite idea that this world will never have to worry about the threats that could only be handled by Five & Co., and that these flowers are the dying breath of Reginald and Abigail's threat to humanity.
Especially since the story is going to get turned on its head in a completely different way whenever Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá complete their comic book arc. Which will hopefully happen sooner rather than later, regardless of what timeline we're talking about.
The Umbrella Academy is available to stream in full with a Netflix subscription.
