The Umbrella Academy – 743

By: Ujjyani Banerjee

Klaus (Robert Sheehan), Diego (David Castañeda) and Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) hide behind a desk to save themselves from Vanya’s (Ellen Page) energy whilst discussing who should go first. They each take a turn but fail to reach Vanya. Ben (Justin H. Min) takes a chance and approaches her without getting affected by her emanating powers. He grasps her hand and possesses her body thereby gaining access to her hallucinative world. At the same time Harlan (Justin Paul Kelly) zaps out of his unresponsive state but still has the white pupils which freak his parents out.

Luther (Tom Hopper) tries calming both the Fives down as they turn against each other due to the effects of the seven-stage psychosis. Soon both reach the homicidal stage and things get ugly. Before Luther can intervene, Five (Aidan Gallagher) kicks him in the balls and resumes his brawl with the older him (Sean Sullivan). Meanwhile, at the Commission Lila (Ritu Arya) informs her mom about Diego being M.I.A. but as it turns out The Handler (Kate Walsh) already knew. Apparently, she threatened Herb (Ken Hall) regarding the switchboard anomaly and learned about Diego’s vanishing act. The Handler is hopeful that her daughter would keep the end of her deal, as promised. However, Lila doesn’t really want to murder her love interest. In the background, Herb notices AJ spelling “743” in the fishbowl. He immediately tracks the respective file.

Harlan speaks for the first time in his life and utters the word, “Vanya.” Sissy (Marin Ireland) is shocked while Carl (Stephen Bogaert) is scared that Vanya ruined her son. He picks Harlan up and shoves him into the car to take him to an institution. However, Sissy stops him by blocking his way and aiming a rifle at him. After walking out of The Handler’s office, Herb runs into Lila. She threatens him to spill the beans about Diego. Herb tells her everything, along with the noble cause of his quest. Before Lila rushes to find Diego he gives her the “743” file. She glances through it and is left devastated.

After entering Vanya’s mindscape, Ben sees the cursed white violin and then at one corner he sees Vanya weeping, terrified of what she’s become. He assures her that it’s not her fault and that their dad (Colm Feore) should’ve taught her ways to control her power as opposed to keeping her drugged out all the time. Vanya feels better and is ready to take control of the situation. Ben is glad to have helped and seems to be reaching the end of his stamina as he starts to disintegrate away in her radiating mindspace. Before ceasing to exist, he asks Vanya for one last favor- a hug. Vanya embraces him and weeps in his arms. Ben asks her to tell something to Klaus and whispers it in her ears. Soon, Ben is gone.

Back at the farm an enraged Carl gets out of the car and asks Sissy to simply be content with the life he’s given to her. However, Sissy is in love with Vanya and hasn’t loved her husband in a long time. She refuses to settle for his antics anymore and unlocks the rifle, still aimed at him. Harlan gets out of the car in support of his mother. Worried about getting shot, Carl tries to snatch the ammunition from Sissy but in the tussle he lets out a bullet aimed at Harlan. As the bullet approaches the boy he emanates a force field similar to Vanya’s and the bullet rebounds, only to pass through Carl’s chest killing him on the spot.

Upon reaching a fenced area across the infamous grassy knoll, Luther snatches the gun that Old Five would’ve used to kill Kennedy and aims it at Five. Right before he pulls the trigger, he shifts the aim at Old Five and knocks him down with a swift jolt. Luther grasps the briefcase, passes it on to Five and asks him to open the time portal. Meanwhile at The Commission, Lila approaches The Handler and reveals that she now knows who is responsible for her parents’ murders. Tensed but still wearing a mask of parental concern, The Handler gets hold of a pocket knife. She soon lets out a sigh of relief as Lila blames Five and AJ for the exterminations. In order to best utilize the situation, she turns Lila against Diego by implying that he came to The Commission to get hold of that file and clear out Five’s name. Lila leaves in an upset mood and The Handler shifts her attention to the pesky fish who leaked out “743” on purpose. She smirks at AJ and swallows him in a single giant gulp.

Vanya powers down, the energies die down with her and it finally seems like the doomsday has been averted. She wakes up and reunites with Diego, Klaus and Allison. Diego rushes to save JFK as he realizes that the assassination would still be on now that there’s no explosion happening anymore. He runs across the grassy knoll to stop dad who seemingly remains standing in an all-black attire with the familiar black umbrella, just like the photograph from the Frankel Footage. Just there, opposite the fences, Five gives Old Five the correct calculations as promised and he’s about to enter, but a fire extinguisher thrown by 2019 Klaus flings out of the portal knocking down Luther thereby giving Old Five another chance at grasping onto the briefcase. Both the Fives fight again while the portal starts to diminish. Before it disappears, Luther kicks Old Five into the time conduit along with part of the briefcase. The remaining portion gets left behind but it’s useless now. Exhausted and confused, both siblings peer from the fences as they figure out that Kennedy’s car is about to take the ill-fated turn around the corner. Simultaneously, Diego leaps on dad and knocks him to the ground only to realize that it was simply a decoy as he hears a thunderous gunshot and the next moment, Kennedy gets killed. Diego notices the decoy holding a note. It’s from his father and it reads, “Told you so.” The whirlwind turn of events breaks Diego emotionally.

Upon learning about JFK’s assassination, Reginald marches back to the Majestic 12 demanding explanation about the killing. It turns out that he never wanted the president dead and was always on his side. However, the leader of the group threatens Reginald and forces him to share his crazy rocket technology as planned so that they can get their moon mission to fruition otherwise his truth shall be out. Having had enough, Reginald strips off his human skin revealing his true beastly self and devours the entire group. Back at The Commission, The Handler is intimated about an “off the charts” anomaly in the infinite switchboard room. After getting assurance that she’s the only one knowing about it, she kills the switchboard operator and declares war on The Commission.