If you’re reading this review, then that means your probably officially a fan of The Umbrella Academy. In the first episode we met the six magical babies that Sir. Hargreaves adopted to form an elite crime fighting force. The force eventually split up to live separate lives, but eventually reunited because of the passing of their father. One thing that I really held onto in the last episode is the fact that the children described their father as very unlikable. Each of them have their own personal grudge against him for how he raised them and held onto it even after his death. You would think that during a grieving time that they would say kind words about their deceased father, but their was not one nice thing said about him except the speech that Pogo made. We were also blown away by the shocking return of number five who was lost in time travel, but returned during the funeral. After his arrival he announced to Vanya his discovery of the end of the world, which lead us to this episode.
The episode began with a scene of the seven children having supper with their father. It was surprising to see Klaus doing drugs at such a young age, but you would’ve never known what they were too young for since their Sir.Hargreaves made them get matching tattoos to honor their union. This scene also revealed when and why number five went missing for so long. Five’s rebellious attitude and intelligence drove him to travel time even though his father told him that he wasn’t ready. Sir. Hargreaves also warned five abut the consequences that came with time travel, which unraveled when five couldn’t turn back and saw the horrors of the future. I was surprised how comfortable five was confiding in Vanya because his intelligence makes him act a little cocky towards everyone. Luckily, Vanya isn’t so quick to jump to conclusions like Luther. I was also surprised at how close the two were and Vanya’s desire to keep five in her life since his early departure from the family. It’s certain that the family has their picks to who they will align themselves with event though their not so different after all.
We were introduced to the assassins Hazel and Cha-Cha who traveled to take out five. The question that continued to linger in this episode is why do people want “five” dead?I’m guessing during his adult life or time traveling adventure, he made some enemies along the way because Hazel and Cha-Cha were assigned to take him out. I also think that five’s intelligence had become intimidating to other which caused him to get in a lot of trouble. So far we can tell that Hazel and Cha-Cha are people that don’t posses to much seriousness, they’re more about the money. From the episode I can tell that they are desperate for work because of the budget cuts and crappy motel that they had to stay in. Although they don’t seem to have all of their marbles, they are also people that shouldn’t be taken lightly. If five can take out a goon of guys with guns, these two should merely be lightweight. Let’s just hope that he doesn’t end up dragging his family into the mess that he created and didn’t tell anyone about.
As far as the other family members go, Luther was still convinced that his father didn’t die from a heart attack, Diego was still being a bitter street avenger and Klaus was still high as a kite. Addiction is a disease and Klaus even went as far as pawning one of his father valuables to buy drugs. When he was questioned by Pogo, he insisted that he didn’t know of the whereabouts of Sir.Hargreaves personal items. Not only was Klaus getting high, but he is also going crazy from the drugs. As seen in the last episode, Klaus has hallucinations of his late brother Ben. In this episode Klaus is visited by several voices, but what exactly does this mean for Klaus? I really hope that somewhere in this season we will see the root of Klaus’s drug problem and how he was exposed to them. I’m not sure if it was an influential thing or if his father was really that hard to deal with sober. Everyone has a different way of fixing their damage and I guess this was the best way he knew how. I still love him though.
If you thought that Klaus’s situation was bad, you had to see Luther’s face when he discovered that Diego lives in the backroom of a gym in exchange for light janitorial work. This made me think about their father’s guidance of them as young children. For him to be so tough on them, make them get tattoos, not say goodnight to them, and overall use them like test monkeys, he could’ve at least set them up for success. The man was a billionaire there is no way his children should’ve been living on the moon, in a rehabilitation center, or in the back of a gym. It makes all of the lost time of actually being a real father feel pointless. He didn’t even fulfill his purpose of the academy in general because the seven didn’t even come around until his funeral. We saw some scenes of Sir.Hargreaves act inhumane towards the children, but I hope to see what other things did he do to live up to this monster that everyone paints him to be. So far I didn’t even see Sir.Hargreaves smile or a scene of a joyous moment that he had with the children. Maybe they don’t resent him so much for how they were being raise, but more because he didn’t give them the opportunity to have a normal childhood. In most superhero TV shows and movies we see that the characters live a double life. This made me feel like the seven were only allowed to be dedicated to one life which was being the public eye representation of the academy which seems really heartless. Then again how can one die of heart failure without a heart? (metaphorically speaking). Even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were able to act like real teenagers.
While the family struggled together to keep their sanity, five struggled to find the owner of a eyeball that he collected from the future. It was said that the day of the end of the world, someone will lose and eye. With the body of a small child, five wasn’t able to do much to get information about the eyeless patient so he got help from Klaus. In exchange for money, Klaus agreed to pretend that he was five’s father. This scene got wild because Klaus was high of course, but he also threatened the doctor if he wouldn’t help. Five’s investigation was cut short because the eyeball was not listed yet and Hazel and Cha-Cha finally found him. They were able to obtain information about five when they electrocuted the tow drivers nipples that was at the donut shop before the shooting. When five visited his future wife, well model of his future wife, Hazel and Cha-Cha began to fire bullets at him. During the scene he didn’t have control of his powers which showed how he ended up stuck in the future. Five barley escaped with his life and a piece of his wife (hey, that rhymed). As much as five wants to prevent the end of the world, he officially washed his hands with the idea when he saw the future again, but this time he saw the corpses of his family.
We know Alison as the superstar of the family from her work in the acting industry, but behind closed doors she is going through a divorce and separation from her child. Pogo was able to help Alison with her depression by letting her watch surveillance videos that her father recorded of them when they were little. When Pogo left the room, Alison watched the tape of the night that Sir.Hargreaves died. From the look of Alison’s face, I could tell that it was something that she wasn’t expecting to see. The evidence proved Luther’s conspiracy theory to be true, but I want to know if he didn’t die naturally, what really happened? If there was foul play of any kind, it would’ve shown up in the autopsy report unless someone was given hush money or what if the same people that are targeting five, are also the same people that killed their father. It is all still very unclear, but so far I feel like the more you know, the more intimidating you are. Not to mention that the children were crime fighters so their father put a target on their back for them. The tattoos doesn’t help either.
I hope to see more episodes of highlighting each individual’s problem and how the children grew up together just to drift apart. I also hope to see what broke the family up in the first place and if Vanya will eventually blossom into someone with an actual personality. Her character is so bland that she actually resembles her father in away because she doesn’t smile much at all. When I say there doesn’t seem like an ounce of personality is in that woman, there is none. Not a drop. Squidward has more personality than Vanya it’s more sad than the violin songs she plays. This episode was very entertaining and I love this show! Don’t worry, I’m doing a great job of handling my patience with watching the show, but my head is full of questions waiting to be answered. If you have any question that maybe similar to mine or predictions please leave a comment and we will see what happens in the next episode.
~Arganise
