743
Vanya
With Vanya losing control, episode 9 of The Umbrella Academy Season 2 sees Allison deciding to sacrifice herself. Unfortunately, the shock-wave sends her hurtling back too. With the end near, Klaus turns to his brother and offers him a cheeky compliment, “You look like Antonio Banderas with long hair,” He says, as Diego finds himself trapped against the ground with his knifes. With the Academy out of ideas, all eyes turn to Ben who seems to be the only one who can withstand Vanya’s power. Taking control of Klaus, he staggers toward his sister and manages to jump over and possess her. Harlan, still somehow inexplicably linked to Vanya, starts muttering Vanya’s name at the farm. Carl has seen enough though and snatches his boy up, bundling him in the car and ready to leave. However, Sissy confronts him and holds a shotgun up to his face. Stuck in the recesses of her mind, Ben finds Vanya trapped inside a violin. She weeps, repenting for her sins and calling herself a monster. Where the others were unable to get through to her, Ben most certainly can. He delivers some really heartwarming truths and eventually calls her his sister. He also reminds her she’s not alone at the table. The moment is interrupted by Ben’s ethereal form fading from existence. Just before he disappears completely, he asks Vanya to hug him and whispers something inaudible to tell Klaus. Just as he does, Vanya stops using her powers and doomsday seems -at least for now – to be over. Harlan wakes up and immediately steps up alongside Sissy. As Carl and Sissy wrestle over the gun, the shotgun fires. Only, the bullet ricochets off a force-field that seems to be consuming Harlan and hits Carl square in the chest.
Luther, Five… and Five
Luther is unable to lie to Five who figures out older-looking Five is plotting to kill him. (For the purpose of this recap, we’re referring to the younger version of Five, who actually looks older as “Older Five” while “Five” is just our Five. Phew!) As Five sets up to the grassy knoll, stage 4 of psychosis starts to manifest itself. The Academy are running out of time but, after kicking Luther in the groin, turn their attention to one another and start fighting around him. As Luther regains his composure, he manages to trick older-Five and opens the portal. Only, that portal seems to lead to The Umbrella Academy way back in season 1 when they first met. It’s here Five reveals what really happened that day with the decimal places in the equation. As the two Fives finally talk, the portal starts to shrink smaller. The fire extinguisher we saw thrown through the portal last year? Yep, that hit Luther in this time period square in the face. The result sees Luther kick older-Five through the portal and thus, continue the cycle and preserve the timeline. It’s a lovely little paradox and one that’s certainly welcome here.
The Handler
Lila visits her Mother and asks about Diego. Given Diego is her responsibility, Herb feeds back exactly what’s happened. However, while The Handler and Lila talk about Diego, AJ spells out “743” in the goldfish bowl. That 743 refers to Case 743 and Herb immediately realizes this and rushes to gather the evidence. On the way up the stairs, Lila confronts Herb. There, he admits that Diego escaped and, realizing she’s not going to kill him, hands over a letter containing information about Case 743. That Case confirms that Lila’s parents were actually executed… and that Five was the one who assassinated their parents. While that may be true, his motives were very different from what The Handler claims happened. She distorts the truth and tells her Diego is working with Five against her. On the back of this, she tells her daughter to stop them before it’s too late.
The Kennedy Assassination
With the threat of apocalyptic Vanya quelled for now, Diego spies Reginald standing with his umbrella. Unable to contain his rage, Diego goes rogue and knocks his Father down to the ground. Only, as he does he realizes this isn’t actually Reginald. To rub salt in the wound, the man has a note on him that says “I Told You So.” Gunshots suddenly fire just as before and Kennedy’s assassination takes place, preserving the timeline and thus making sure the apocalypse doesn’t come to pass. Reginald arrives at a secret meeting with – presumably – the shadow government. He bitterly reveals that they all lied to him as he wanted to keep Kennedy unharmed. As he turns to leave, he tells the men not to contact him again. Only, one of them antagonizes him and reveals that Reginald’s going to keep sending the tech or they’ll reveal what he really is. Moments later, Reginald removes his face to show a monstrous alien lurking underneath. As he pounces at the others, we hear their blood-choked screams in the distance.
The Handler
An anomaly causes the sirens to wail at The Commission. The Handler kills the lone witness to this inside the Switchboard and recalls all personnel back. As we cut to the barn, it looks like the apocalypse isn’t over after all as ominous blue light starts pulsating from the barn. Is this Harlan?
The Episode Review
After so much drama over the past 9 episodes, The Umbrella Academy delivers an episode that finally starts to pay off some of the big set pieces. The lovely fight sequence with Luther stuck in one spot as the camera rotates around him is definitely one of the highlights. This scene is then followed up by a wonderful little paradox playing out as we see Five preserving the timeline and sending his older-looking self through to the past. It’s such a simple gesture but one that really helps to elevate this and compliment the great writing in this season. The Kennedy assassination works well here too and Ben’s final goodbye is really touching; a great way to send off his character. However, all of this pales compared to the shock reveal of Reginald being an alien. It is a bit left-field but also explains some of his tough love and the distance he’s kept with the others. All eyes now turn to the finale though which promises to be quite the dramatic affair.
