The Umbrella Academy – Valhalla

By: Ujjyani Banerjee

Back in 1962 Grace (Jordan Claire Robbins) and her team of scientists brought in an ape for experimentation. Soon, Reginald (Colm Feore) made “Pogo” a part of his ambitious moon project, but a rocket launch ended up in a disaster causing Pogo to get some fatal burns. Reginald brought him back by injecting a live-saving serum and since then, he and Grace treated him like their own child from reading him bedtime stories in ancient Greek to getting him custom-made onesies.

All these memories come rushing back to Reginald when he hears the boy speak ancient Greek. Five (Aidan Gallagher) wonders if dad’s ignoring them on purpose. Lila (Ritu Arya) suggests heading home as it’s already late. Diego (David Castañeda) concurs but refuses to accompany her. He’s hurt that she didn’t save him, even when he begged her to. Although Lila compares and stresses on his and Five’s age difference, Diego senses lies and decides to go solo. Five too warns Lila to never show her face again as he doesn’t buy her innocence at all. Klaus (Robert Sheehan) is hungover and lying flat on the kitchen floor which worries Ben (Justin H. Min) and Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) alike. When Allison starts to judge him, Klaus hits straight on her disturbed home life which gets Allison to start day-drinking too. Ben looks disappointingly at the siblings.

Vanya (Ellen Page) and Sissy (Marin Ireland) wake up after a night of sex and wonder how it’d be to leave the farm behind and elope away along with Harlan to some place safe. Sissy is ready and she kisses Vanya. They sink under the sheets again. Back at Elliott’s (Kevin Rankin) Luther (Tom Hopper), who’s cooking breakfast for himself, discusses the impending doomsday with Five and Diego. Five points at that talking to dad is the only logical way forward, but until now, they’ve had no luck. Luther doesn’t want to confront dad as he had a sour encounter with him the first time he got to Dallas post-apocalypse. It turns out that Luther took a long bus ride home only to proudly introduce himself to dad as his future son. However; upon their encounter Reginald Hargreeves, a seemingly social creature back then, humiliated him for being disproportionate, smelly and probably a cheap CIA or KBG personnel. He also stated his hatred for children in general and made it clear that even if he had kids of his own in the future they’d be nothing like Luther. After listening to Luther’s story, Diego and Five realize that dad hurt him more than anyone else. Five decides to get the Umbrella Academy back together. Soon all the siblings arrive and exchange pleasantries. Five talks about how all of their new lives and the situations are in are somehow related to JFK’s assassination, which could lead to the doomsday. He insists on talking to their dad as he’s the only one who’d know a way out. Having had a bad experience the last time, Luther walks out while Diego follows him in order to put some sense into him.

Lila goes to meet The Handler (Kate Walsh) who had tasked her with retrieving one of Diego’s knives. Lila gives her the knife she stole but is upset to have been kicked out of the group after Five started suspecting her of something. While attending to Lila’s laceration, The Handler admits to have lied about things like the Swedes and the Commission but she only did it to not confuse Lila. The Handler adds that her primary goal is to rectify what’s been happening the wrong way in the system for a very long time. Both mother and daughter go to the place where the Swedes are staying at the moment. and The Handler makes Lila climb up a pipe to deliver a false mission to the Swedes, under the pretense of The Commission. Meanwhile, Diego is strolling with Luther. Both discuss their purpose in dad’s life. Diego wants to be a hero. Luther explains that “being the hero” is an idea that dad instilled in him which may even be over exaggerated. Diego calls him an overtly sensitive soul inside the ripped ape-body. Before they can bicker further a car which Diego had been noticing since long pulls up alongside them to deliver a fancy invitation from Reginald himself for his “pursuers” to meet him for a light supper.

Meanwhile, Allison, Vanya, and Klaus decide to go dine out and have some fun instead of waiting for Luther and Diego in silence. They end up crashing Allison’s beauty parlor where they get drunk, groove and gossip about their complicated lives. Klaus reflects upon how messed up their lives are. He points out Allison’s feelings that she’s been harboring for Luther ever since her adolescent days and then moves on to his own sad love story involving Dave. He finally shines light on Vanya’s current love interest who is way better than the earlier psychopath that she dated before causing the apocalypse. To Klaus, the only guy who succeeded in loving was Five who remained content with his mannequin girlfriend. They finally conclude that in order to embrace peace, Allison must confess everything to her husband, Vanya must confess her feelings for Sissy and Klaus must break up his cult who’ve been really looking forward to 2019 and are in the dark about doomsday! However, later when Vanya decides to act upon her decisions, Sissy displays a stark change in her behavior, especially when her husband is around. She is no more interested in eloping with Vanya and reminds her that those were just fantasy talks and not based in reality.

The Swedes go to the forest as told and end up getting trapped in an ambush that was originally setup by The Handler. One of the Swedes explodes upon hitting a tripwire. The Handler purposefully keeps Diego’s knife in the scene so that it looks like he was the mastermind behind this attack. The remaining two Swedes mourn their brother’s demise by collecting his bodily remains on a boat and lighting it on fire. The brothers now have a death wish against Diego. Five follows Lila into a warehouse and confirms his suspicion about The Handler being involved. Five and Lila have an intense fight and, ultimately, Five wins as he holds Lila’s throat under his foot firmly. Just then The Handler appears and looks like she has a negotiation that she can make with Five. Allison approaches Raymond (Yusuf Gatewood) and now promises to tell all of the truth to him. Meanwhile, Klaus returns to his mansion only to get swarmed by his devotees once again!