Welcome back to The Umbrella Academy! The first episode of the Netflix Original series introduces us to the seven children that Sir Reginald Hargreeves adopted as their mothers weren’t pregnant when the day began and ultimately these children were to have gifts. Now approaching their 30’s, the siblings come together once more after the death of their father and sees Number Five return from the future after being stuck there for 17 years and with a warning that the world will be ending in eight days time.
The Story of Five
We begin 17 years ago with the family all sitting down for dinner. Mid meal, Number Five (Aidan Gallagher) asks if he can time travel since he’s been practising his spatial jumps, but Hargreeves (Colm Feore) says he’s not ready yet and it’s far too unpredictable. With that, Number Five runs out of the Academy to the sound of Woodkid’s ‘Run Boy Run’ and tries jumping through time. The first two work, but on his third jump, he sees the destruction of the world and he is unable to jump back.
Number Five continues to tell Vanya (Ellen Page) his story, except Vanya thinks perhaps the time travel messed up his mind like their father said it could. She offers him the couch so he can rest up, but he soon leaves after he looks at a glass eye that says MeriTech on the back. Five visits the MeriTech headquarters and wants to find out who the eye belongs to, but they won’t give up the information. Vanya returns to the Academy looking for Five and finds him in his room. She apologises for not understanding and it seems he may be questioning his sanity a little. After she leaves, Klaus (Robert Sheehan) comes crashing out of the closet and it appears he is going to pretend to be Five’s father.
Speaking of Klaus, when he tries to sleep, he hears constant voices and will wake to find Ben there who seems to be a conscience-like figure for Klaus by prompting him to better his life. Pogo (Adam Godley) enquires about a missing box and we flashback to the previous day where Klaus disposes of the contents, including a diary, and heads to the pawn shop to get some money for drugs.
Klaus and Five try to find out who owns the eye and when it seems to be failing, Klaus steps in and plays the protective parent. He claims the man gave Five a swollen lip and then proceeds to punch Five’s mouth and then also smashes a snowglobe into his own head and claims they were assaulted. The MeriTech employee then gets the file for them, but it appears the eye hasn’t got an owner, nor has it been manufactured yet. Afterwards, Klaus wonders why Five is so uptight and thinks perhaps it’s due to lack of sex, but it appears he had someone named Dolores in the future and quickly abandons Klaus and the discussion.
Hazel and Cha-Cha
We’re introduced to Hazel (Cameron Britton) and Cha-Cha (Mary J. Blige) who are checking into a motel. The package that awaits them is filled with guns and masks, and it appears they’re hitmen with the same tracking device as the group that went after Five. It appears they are also after Five, except they have an image of what he looked like in the future. Meanwhile, the police are investigating what happened at the diner. Detective Patch (Ashley Madekwe) talks to the waitress about what happened and she also says she already spoke to another detective. Patch then heads outside and tasers Diego (David Castañeda) and based on their banter, they were a thing at one point.
At the police station, they get results back for fingerprints left on the knife, and they match an old cold case from 1938. Patch lets Diego go with the warning that he’ll get jail time next time he interferes.
Meanwhile, Hazel and Cha-Cha find the man from the diner and torture him as they think he’s Five at first. He tells them about the kid he saw and how he asked for directions to a department store. They then think the kid may be Five as “time travel is a bitch, especially without a briefcase”.
Secrets, Students, and Shootouts
Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) and Luther (Tom Hopper) talk the next day and she hopes that one day he’ll be able to meet Claire and he’s surprised to learn that Claire knows of him. Luther then heads to a boxing ring in search of information, and it turns out Diego trains, works, and lives there. Diego returns home and realises someone has been in his room and throws a knife into the room and nicks Luther’s ear. It seems Diego had an alibi as he was fighting the night Hargreeves dies.
It appears Vanya also teaches violin and has a new student by the name of Leonard (John Magaro) who is about 20 years older than her usual students. After their lesson, Leonard gives a bit of a sob story about his father that resonates with Vanya…
Later on, Pogo finds Allison who is upset over Claire and he tries to cheer her up by showing the surveillance recordings from when they were younger. She realises how they didn’t include Vanya and perhaps they should change that now. Pogo leaves and Allison keeps watching the tapes, and she seems shocked by something she see.
As for Five, he heads to a department store at night and finds his beloved Dolores, who is actually a mannequin. Cue Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ as Hazel and Cha-Cha don their masks and begin shooting up the place, along with Dolores. Hazel gets briefly distracted by an elastic wrist splint, but the shooting continues and then Five manages to save the upper half of Dolores when the police turn up causing them to all flee.
Detective Patch finds the tortured man, while Diego heads off after hearing about the shooting on the radio. Meanwhile, Luther tries apologising to Allison but she shuts him up as she wants to show him the tapes. Five returns home and we see a flashback to him finding the eye, which was in Luther’s hand and he’s very much dead, along with Klaus, Diego, Allison, and Pogo.
Overall Thoughts?
While not as exciting as the first episode, I must say Aidan Gallagher expertly manages to portray an older man trapped in a teenage body. Hazel and Cha-Cha are a welcomed sight as they’re definitely going to be bringing some action into the fold, and they seem like quite the odd pairing, but their scenes together are marvellous. As for Vanya’s new student, it’s clear something will be happening there with his very relevant sob story, so looks like Vanya will be facing some trouble very soon.
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