In 2019, Netflix released the first season of The Umbrella Academy, a more complex and imaginative adaptation of Gerard Way’s comic-book series of the same name. Right away, fans and critics alike were drawn to the story, which follows seven children with mysterious superpowers who have a dysfunctional, traumatic relationship with their father.
Sci-fi fans especially loved the plot, filled with world-ending apocalypses and confusing time travel paradoxes. In Season 1, the Hargreeves siblings, who had been separated for years, reluctantly come together to save the world from ending. However, the seven siblings—Luther (Tom Hopper), Diego (David Castañeda), Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Klaus (Robert Sheehan), Five (Aidan Gallagher), Ben (Justin Min), and Viktor (Elliot Page)—struggle to get along, largely due to their difficult upbringing by their adoptive father, Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore).
Throughout the first three seasons, the main characters did their best to fix everything and restore the original timeline, but they kept encountering different apocalypses. The fourth and final season of The Umbrella Academy finally gave us the pieces needed to understand the rest of the storyline.
The Hargreeves siblings discover that the universe has been divided into multiple timelines because of a time paradox, a moment in time that was never supposed to happen. This moment occurs when a substance called “Marigold” is released into their universe by Reginald, leading to the unnatural birth of the Hargreeves siblings.
The release of Marigold and the birth of 43 children across Earth cause the main timeline to break into multiple timelines, with countless apocalypses happening across the multiverse. The siblings realize that they can’t stop the world from ending because they were the cause of it in the first place.
Now that the show has reached its finale, fans across the internet are expressing their disappointment with how Season 4’s plotline was handled. Viewers are raising questions that the show left unanswered. Some of these questions are minor plot holes, while others significantly hurt the character development of the Hargreeves siblings. Here are some of the lingering questions left after The Umbrella Academy Season 4.
At the end of Umbrella Academy Season 3, Sparrow Academy Ben is seen on a South Korean subway train heading to Yeouido Station. Beside him is a QR code sticker that leads viewers to a real-life website called “Pogo’s Tattoo Shop.”
This scene created a lot of excitement, with fans expecting it to play a part in the upcoming finale. The show’s creator, Steve Blackman, even confirmed that the scene was meant to be a meaningful teaser for Season 4. However, it wasn’t addressed at all in Season 4.
There is no explanation for Ben’s mysterious Season 3 mid-credit scene, and it seems to have no real connection to the storyline. Pogo doesn’t even appear this season. Over the years, The Umbrella Academy has been known for its quality storytelling, with each scene serving a purpose. So, fans’ disappointment is understandable, whether the scene was cut intentionally or just overlooked.
After the timeline reset, Allison finds herself in a reality-warping home where both her daughter Claire (Coco Assad) from the first season and her husband Raymond Chestnut (Yusuf Gatewood) from 1963 are present. Allison makes a deal with Reginald to bring Ray out of his timeline and into hers, even though he wants to stay in 1963 to continue his activist work.
This isn’t addressed in Season 4. Ray is only mentioned once when Klaus casually says that Ray abandoned his family. The reasons behind Ray’s departure and his whereabouts are not discussed. Allison’s relationship with Ray played a crucial role in shaping her character, and a confrontation between them in Season 4 could have been significant for her character development.
Allison coming to terms with her immoral actions in Season 3 could have also been explored in Season 4, but unfortunately, this was not addressed in the final season.
The wedding of Luther and Sloane (Genesis Rodriguez) is a highlight of Season 3, as it briefly brings the Hargreeves family together at Hotel Oblivion. After the timeline reset, when the siblings arrive in their new timeline, Sloane is missing, and Luther desperately asks Five about her whereabouts. He says, “I don’t care about any resets, all right?
I want my wife back…I gotta find my wife.” Luther’s determination to find his wife makes viewers expect her to appear in the final season. However, Sloane is only mentioned twice in the entire season, both times by Luther. It is never made clear whether Luther searched for her or if she actually died.
Sloane was one of the 43 children born in 1989, so it would make sense for her to exist in the new timeline. But if Sloane no longer exists after the reset, leaving her fate unresolved negatively impacts Luther’s character, making him seem shallow and weak.
Originally, after his wife’s death and the destruction of his home planet, Reginald Hargreeves released Marigold on Earth in hopes of somehow reviving his wife. But after the timeline reset, it’s unclear whether Reginald still decides to travel to Earth or stays with his dying wife as his planet collapses. It’s also unknown if Reginald was the only survivor from his home planet.
Among the many unresolved issues, fans are left wondering why Jennifer (Victoria Sawal) was discovered inside a giant squid. There is no backstory given for Jennifer, making it difficult for viewers to connect with her. When Five, Lila, and Diego read her file in Gean and Jean’s office, it’s revealed that she was born in September 1987.
This means she wasn’t one of the 43 super-powered children born because of Marigold. Her being born inside a squid makes her existence even more mysterious, and this is a glaring plot hole that the showmakers should have explored further.
Another mystery is the origin of Hotel Oblivion, the universe reset switch, and the time-travel subway. All three of these exist in a dimension outside all timelines, and their origins remain unexplained in the Netflix series. In the comics, Hotel Oblivion is a large tower built by Hargreeves on a distant planet, serving as a prison for dangerous criminals captured by The Umbrella Academy siblings.
However, in the show, Hotel Oblivion is just a hotel in a dimension outside the main timeline. Moreover, the machine inside Hotel Oblivion, which we never learn if Reginald actually built, allows him to reset the timeline and bring his wife, Abigail, back to life.
Similarly, the time-travel subway replaces the comic book’s Televator. In the comics, Reginald invents the Televator, a device that works like an elevator, allowing people to travel through time, space, and across dimensions. Unlike the time-hopping subway, the Televator is frequently used throughout the comics. The question of who made the universe reset button and the interdimensional subway train remains a mystery for fans of the show.
Just like the previous season, the season finale of The Umbrella Academy has an end-credits scene where viewers see eight Marigold flowers blooming under a tree. The Marigold flowers in the Season 4 end-credits leave fans wondering if this is yet another meaningless credit scene, included to give fans some comfort, or if it hints at an open ending suggesting the rebirth of the Hargreeves siblings.
