The Umbrella Academy – The Frankel Footage

By: Ujjyani Banerjee

The Handler (Kate Walsh) is in her hotel room. Hazel (Cameron Britton) comes in and shoots her on her forehead. An embedded metal piece saves her life and two months later she struts back to The Commission only to learn that new field executives have been put in place of Hazel and Cha Cha while she’s been demoted under her former subordinate, Mr. Herb (Ken Hall)!

At the burlesque Five (Aidan Gallagher) begs Luther (Tom Hopper) to reconsider “saving the world,” but the Moonman’s happy with his new life as a bodyguard to Jack Ruby (John Kapelos), the gangster who killed Oswald and owns the very bar. Soon Luther gets summoned to take care of a hammered Carl (Stephen Bogaert). While getting dragged out, Carl drops his wallet. Five discovers a “Frankel Footage” tape shoved in his own coat. He remembers Hazel stuffing it into his pocket just before he died. Vanya (Ellen Page) is still trying to locate her folks, but hasn’t had any luck yet. Sissy (Marin Ireland) hurriedly looks for her keys as she needs to drive her drunk husband home, but Harlan (Justin Paul Kelly) doesn’t want her to leave. Vanya offers to pick Carl up. Diego (David Castañeda) and Lila (Ritu Arya) are still on the run, evading the police. They change out of their sanitarium clothes to fit in with the masses. Lila robs a car and they flee. Vanya picks up Carl from a phone booth outside the burlesque. He reveals that he’s worried about Sissy losing interest in him and that he’s jealous of Vanya’s do-over opportunity that she got from life. Just then Luther comes out of the bar to return Carl’s wallet and notices Vanya. She stares at him blankly.

Meanwhile, The Commission’s new field executives- the Scandinavian trio who attacked Hazel, Five and Diego – are now outside the Chestnut residence. Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) and Raymond (Yusuf Gatewood) are charged for assaulting a man earlier that day outside Odessa’s. While Raymond’s taken in, Allison manages to get free thanks to her superpower. Axel’s (Kris Holden- Ried) trio looks displeased seeing Allison escape yet again. Five asks Elliott (Kevin Rankin) to develop the “Frankel Footage” tape and soon rushes to save Diego after hearing about a code 3-15 at the Holbrook Sanitarium on Elliott’s radio. Parked outside Oswald’s office Lila and Diego discuss how to capture the future assassin. Just then Five pops up on their backseat scaring Lila and threatening to oust Diego to the police. Finally, both of them tag along with Five to Elliott’s. Allison is at the police station to talk to Raymond but she’s kept waiting. The police put a former professor- turned political activist, Keechie (Dov Tiefenbach), in the cell for handing out flyers without any permit. Keechie finds his guru Klaus (Robert Sheehan) there and starts to fangirl. Klaus gives him some pearls of wisdom and then separates from him. He immediately bonds with Raymond who’s in the adjacent cell. The police bail Klaus out as per the Governor’s orders. Raymond coaxes Klaus to help him, if possible.

A hyperventilating Elliott is shocked seeing the contents of the Frankel footage and is now scared of Five and his troop. Five and Diego capture him and along with Lila start watching the footage closely. It’s the Frankels’ home movie from the infamous “Kennedy speech” day. Five and Diego spot their dad, Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore), in there and that too at the exact time when Kennedy got murdered! Meanwhile ,enjoying the simple pleasures of life, Harlan, Vanya and Sissy play a game of hide n’ seek on the farm. Luther, who has come with a loaded gun to kill Vanya, surreptitiously walks up-to the barn where Vanya is searching for Harlan. She sees him but has no memories at all and doesn’t recognize him. However, Luther doesn’t believe her story and simply lets out his apologies and all the anguish that he’s been harboring since the pre-apocalyptic days. Soon Sissy comes into the picture holding a rifle. Luther simply hands over Carl’s wallet to her and leaves. The three field executives seek shelter at an old cat lady’s house after murdering and beheading her. Axel makes dinner while the rest two executives have fun darting each other with knives. They soon get a new task of hunting down Vanya.

Although Five considers their dad being at the assassination site just as an odd coincidence, Diego wonders if he was the signalman to Oswald. They decide to confront dad and look up the telephone directory for a contact number. They find dad’s umbrella company’s contact details. Before leaving Diego checks on Lila who’s secluded herself worrying that she’s lost it again, especially after watching the footage and anticipating a doomsday. Diego believes that it’s useless to search for logic in everything and the best way forward is to do what needs to be done. Lila feels better, they pinky swear and Diego leaves with Five. Allison promises Raymond that she’ll bail him out, but he’s more worried about the sit-in being executed as planned. He is also confused as to why Allison kept repeating “I heard a rumor” the earlier night, but before she can explain the officers summon her out. Before leaving Allison spots cryptic Hellos and Goodbyes inscribed on Keechie’s palms. She realizes that he worships Klaus! Meanwhile, an exhausted Klaus breaks into a giant abandoned house ready to pass out but Ben (Justin H. Min) won’t let him sleep. It turns out that it’s the same house where Klaus was once worshiped by his devotees.

Vanya is wracking her brains to connect the dots between her and Luther but isn’t getting anywhere. She’s confused as to why he apologized to her. Sissy suggests avoiding him as he himself claimed to have caused harm to her. Seeing Vanya suffer from an identity crisis, Sissy offers to check for clues on her palms. She notices calluses on her fingertips but says nothing. They retire for the night. In her dream, Vanya gets visions of Luther and can hear the violin. She wakes up and goes out for a drive while Sissy watches her from the living room window, tired and concerned. Diego and Five reach the D. S. Umbrella Manufacturing Company. Five is nervous to meet their dad after forty-five years. They enter and split up. While Diego checks out dad’s office only to find empty yellow files, Five enters a room and finds seated mannequins, camera setups and an invite to the Mexican Consulate gala. He keeps the invite with him. Suddenly, Diego hears footsteps and upon following it he sees a man briskly walking away. The man’s silhouette resembles Reginald’s, but Diego isn’t sure so he follows him. Meanwhile, Five hears some clattering and finds a very young and scared Pogo staring at him. Pogo attacks him and escapes while Five screams in pain.

Diego reaches a dark alley and loses the man while following him but soon gets attacked from behind. Both have an intense combat session. At the end, when both come face to face, Diego is both shocked and relieved to see their dad but Reginald stakes him with a pocket knife calling his future son an “Amateur” and walks away. Diego bleeds out profusely and lies unconscious in the alley while Reginald signals Pogo and both walk away hand-in-hand.