The Umbrella Academy – The Seven Stages

By: Ujjyani Banerjee

Special FBI Agent Willy Gibbs (Morgan Kelly) takes Vanya (Ellen Page) in for questioning. Sissy (Marin Ireland) and Harlan (Justin Paul Kelly) have been released. When Vanya cannot furnish any ID, William assumes her to be an Russian infiltrator. Vanya starts harming Gibbs by manipulating the sounds from the glass of water kept in front of her. Before the agent collapses, the nurse (Julia Chantrey) knocks Vanya unconscious with Chloroform. Back at the alley Five (Aidan Gallagher) lashes out on his irresponsible sibling and locks himself in a room. A worried Luther (Tom Hopper) follows him. Klaus (Robert Sheehan) finally comes to his senses and revokes all “possession” rights of Ben (Justin H. Min) who doesn’t regret a thing. As ordered by Luther, he goes on to check on Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman). She is busy calming down Raymond (Yusuf Gatewood) who’s freaked out about having a dead white man on their couch. Klaus shows up, notices the Swede and wonders if they must burn or bury the guy. Disgusted at himself for murdering Otto (Jason Bryden), Axel (Kris Holden-Ried) decides to chop his arm off but right before he swings the axe a “Mission” canister catches his attention. It smells of lavender and Axel gets reminded of The Handler (Kate Walsh) from the sauna session. He now knows who is responsible for his brothers’ deaths.

When Lila (Ritu Arya) presents Diego (David Castañeda) as her first choice for Team Security, The Handler starts radiating animosity. After hearing Lila sing praises for the man, The Handler agrees only on one condition which is that her daughter must be ready to kill Diego if he ever steps out of line. Lila agrees and takes Diego to orientation. Pondering over Diego’s accusations from that day, Grace (Jordan Claire Robbins) searches for clues at Reginald’s (Colm Feore) office. She finds JFK’s pictures and related documents. Soon Reginald catches her sneaking around. Grace asks him to explain, but she’s simply asked to trust him until the right time comes. Grace declines the long wait and leaves. The next day Luther learns that Five is planning to track his 1963 self (Sean Sullivan), snatch his briefcase and use it to get back to 2019. Back then he’d apparently been sent down by the Commission to ensure JFK’s assassination. Five adds that he’d suffer from a “seven-stage psychosis” while executing his plan; it’s a side-effect of being in close proximity to another version of yourself in the same timeline. After listing out all the seven stages, Five asks Luther to be his “spotter” who’d keep his focus on the job.

Carl (Stephen Bogaert) informs Sissy about Vanya’s arrest and her KGB connections but Sissy remains in denial. He then suggests for her to seek reverence and speaks about taking a long family trip which would be beneficial for Harlan. The boy overhears Carl. Meanwhile, Vanya’s being tortured on a makeshift electric chair and is being forced to hallucinate with the help of LSD eye drops. When interrogated about herself and her native place, Vanya starts to lose consciousness and sees visions of her childhood where all the Hargreeves children are having dinner with dad heading the table. Elsewhere at an Irish pub, Five and Luther spot the “Old Five.” Seeing Five exhibit the early stages of psychosis already, Luther decides to meet the old man first. Luther introduces himself and Old Five clutches onto his briefcase in uneasiness. However, he seems indifferent upon meeting the pubescent version of himself.

Lila arranges for Diego’s orientation. She briefs him about The Commission. Diego’s interested to know how it is that they control the time. Upon reaching the orientation room, he finds the instructor (Dale Boyer) hit the Play button on a ninety minute video before dozing off. In the video an animated Mr. Briefcase tries to sell the varied job opportunities available at The Commission: Analyst, Operations, Infinite Switchboard Operator, etc. The third job piques Diego’s interest and he stealthily escapes the room. Luther and Five sit down with the Old Five and reveal how and why the two versions are co-existing at the same time. Old Five gets scared upon learning that a time travel calculation error would result in future him being stuck at adolescence for decades. The duo present an offer where they get to have the briefcase while Old Five gets to know about the correct calculation and land in the right year. Before saying yes, Old Five takes a strategic biobreak and this makes Five uneasy. Luther follows old Five to the bathroom and blatantly suggests killing the other Five, returning to 2019, making amends with Vanya and restoring peace in the world.

Diego sneaks into the empty infinite switchboard room to check on the JFK assassination day but gets caught by Herb (Ken Hall) who surprisingly is his fan. Diego exploits his adoration and convinces him to show footage of November 22nd, 1963. To his utter shock, Diego learns that Vanya causes an explosion in the FBI building which prevents JFK from being assassinated. However, it resulted in a nuclear World War, ergo, doomsday. He decides to rush to Dallas and Herb gets his “resourceful” team to help him in the quest. Meanwhile, Vanya’s hallucinations begin to intensify. She now sees that brains are being served at that dinner and dad’s forcing her to eat it. She takes a bite and all her memories come rushing back. Vanya becomes unresponsive and explosive on the outside. Simultaneously, Harlan has the same physical reaction. Both got connected the day Vanya resuscitated him back to life at the lakeside.

Elsewhere, while Allison and Raymond are struggling to wrap dead Otto in a rug, Klaus is chatting about the ‘possession experience’ with Ben. Soon, Diego and Herb come unannounced and fill the team on what they just learned at the Commission. Raymond is freaking out but realises that Allison needs to go save the world now. After bidding him a goodbye, Allison joins her brothers for their visit to the FBI. Meanwhile, Lila realizes that Diego’s missing. With Gibbs torturing her more and more, Vanya gets deeper in her hallucinations and loses control over her powers. The massive energy emanating from her kills all the officers and causes a welcoming havoc to her three siblings who just reached the floor on the elevator.

At the same time, Harlan too continues to suffer with his pupils whitened and unresponsive just like Vanya’s.