The Umbrella Academy – A Light Supper

By: Ujjyani Banerjee

Back in 1961, when Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) landed on the back alley after the post-apocalyptic space-time jump headed by Five (Aidan Gallagher), she got thrown out of a racist diner, got chased by perverts finally sought shelter at Odessa’s (Raven Dauda) beauty parlor where she also ended up working. She started taking interest in S.J.C.C. and as time went by Raymond Chestnut (Yusuf Gatewood) fell for her. Coming back to 1963, when Allison discloses it all, what Raymond’s most in awe of is that the future sees a black president seated in the White House! He asks Allison to prove her powers. Elsewhere, The Handler (Kate Walsh) makes an important negotiation with Five. She wants him to assassinate all the board members of the Commission who gather for quarterly board meetings anywhere across the timeline at a secret “unrepeated” location. In exchange she’d send all the Hargreeves siblings back to 2019 and to their regular settings with both apocalypses taken care off. Releasing Lila (Ritu Arya) from under his foot, Five decides to give the negotiation a thought.

Diego (David Castañeda) wants to speak to his dad (Colm Feore) at the supper where they’ve all been invited to. Vanya’s (Ellen Page) on board but Luther (Tom Hopper) isn’t. He smells ambush and even tries talking Vanya out of it by mentioning how she got prejudiced throughout her childhood but his efforts go in vain. Diego assures Luther that this time they’ll be facing dad as a stronger group and not weak individuals. At the mansion, Ben (Justin H. Min) asks a disinterested Klaus (Robert Sheehan) to tell the truth to his dedicated cult. Klaus takes Ben’s advice and reveals that he’s a fraud. Even though it causes some stir, Keechie (Dov Tiefenbach) considers it as a golden teaching and soon the cult starts to call itself a fraud in unison.

Allison takes Raymond formal wear shopping in order to showcase her powers. As a colored man, he is denied trials without making a purchase as usual, but a “rumor” later the Chestnuts are treated as free-willed VIPs. The couple has fun shopping. On their way back Allison spots the Whites Only restaurant and then goes on to repeatedly rumor the racist manager to pour her coffee until his hands get blistered. Seeing Allison lose control Raymond asks her to stop. Lila is upset that mom chose Five over her for the Board Member assignment. The Handler asks her to calm down as she’s got bigger plans for her. Lila inquires about Diego. The Handler realizes that her daughter is in love with him, no matter how much she denies it. At the mansion Ben asks a drunk Klaus to seek help. Klaus calls him “dad” as an insult and in retaliation, Ben dashes into him momentarily possessing him. Just then, Klaus gets a fellow visitor. It’s Dave (Calem MacDonald). He wants to know how Klaus knew about his plans. He doesn’t buy the prophet facade. Reflecting on his own past, Klaus feels that one joining the military won’t stop his family from treating him like an outsider. Dave still doesn’t believe him. As a last resort, Klaus gives him the honorary locket that future Dave wore at the time he died. Irked, Dave stresses that he ‘wants’ to die for the country and that his uncle already got him enlisted in a hurry, thanks to that diner brawl. Due to be shipped in a week, Dave returns the locket to Klaus, asks him to fool someone else and leaves. Keechie approaches a visibly broken Klaus and delivers the supper invite from Sir Reginald Hargreeves. Allison and Raymond get home in silence. Raymond wonders if she ever rumored him and if she did, would he ever know. Allison says no. Soon she too receives the supper invite from dad.

The Handler joins the remaining two Swedes at a sauna. She converses with them in Swedish and pities the loss of their third leg. She offers them a negotiation where they would keep Five out of harm’s way and in return she’d share Diego’s exact location with them. When Axel (Kris Holden-Ried) wonders what’s in it for her, The Handler reveals that Lila has fallen for the wrong guy. The Swedes accept her offer. One by one, all the siblings come for their dad’s supper. They meet at the elevator where Luther suffocates them with nervous farting. They reach the floor and argue about who should speak first. Soon, their dad enters the scene. He accuses them of following him despite not belonging to any detective agency. Five reveals that they’re his seven children from the future with one of them being dead. They’re the superpower-bearing The Umbrella Academy. When Reginald asks for evidence, Diego bends the trajectory of a knife closely by his side, Five space jumps to stop him, Allison rumors Diego to punch himself in the face, Klaus causally speaks to an invisible Ben and Vanya blows up the fruit plate with a single tong against her glass. Diego brings up the topic of JFK assassination and furnishes the picture from the Frankel Footage.

Shocked to see his plan ousted, Reginald abuses him for being a wannabe hero who thinks too much. Diego is hurt. Five discusses doomsday. When asked for a solution, Reginald simply asks them to band together and stop it. Ben too wishes to speak to dad; so he enters Klaus’s body. Klaus starts to seizure and collapses just after uttering “I’m Ben.” Before Reginald leaves, Luther tears open his shirt to show what he did to him! Sensing Five to be the wisest, Reginald decides to speak to him in private. They go to a bar and as Five’s technically older than Reginald at the moment, they share cognac. Reginald learns that Five quoted Homer at him the other day because he apparently forced the kids to learn it in ancient Greek. Five jumps to the doomsday situation and wonders if he knew about time travel. He reveals that the last two times that he tried he shuttled between a future apocalyptic world and the past and to make it worse he carried his siblings along with him in the second attempt. Reginald asks him to start small, in seconds as a lot can be accomplished in the humble unit of time. Wishing that dad had more to offer, Five apologies to him for all the grief he caused as a kid and retires for the night.

Disappointed by the lack of unity among his siblings, Diego approaches Grace (Jordan Claire Robbins) and shows her the Frankel Footage picture. He discloses about dad and the Majestic 12’s conspiracy to assassinate JFK. Grace is in disbelief and is told to ask Reginald for herself. Sissy (Marin Ireland) locates Vanya with the help of the delivered supper invite and wishes to speak in private. Elliott (Kevin Rankin) returns to his apartment after a grocery run and soon realizes that his place has been invaded. It’s the Swedes. They torture him to learn about Diego’s whereabouts. Vanya and Sissy are inside a car. Sissy weeps that even though they want to be together that society wouldn’t allow them to do so. Vanya promises to protect her and Harlan (Justin Paul Kelly), adding that she’d take them to some place where they’d be accepted with full dignity. They start making out and Carl (Stephen Bogaert). who had followed his wife down from their farm, notices their passionate saga from a distance.

Diego and Luther get home to Elliott’s and immediately notice blood on the floor. They find Elliott’s tortured dead body and “Öga for Öga” smeared on the floor; meaning “an eye for an eye” in Swedish.