The fifth episode of Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy marks the halfway point for the series, and it certainly will pique your interest with some new information about what happened with Five in the future, Klaus’s trip into time, and whether Vanya is really as boring and useless as she is made out to be.
In the previous episode, how Luther ended up with an ape-like body is revealed, while Hazel and Cha-Cha torture Klaus in order to find out more about Five. Meanwhile, Diego and Luther look after Five; Patch decides to head to the motel in search of the hitmen and ultimately winds up being killed; and lastly, Klaus escapes with the time travel briefcase and gets zapped to somewhere in time.
The Past, Present, and Future
‘In The Heat of The Moment’ by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds sets the tone as Five (Aidan Gallagher) pulls Dolores along in a wagon through an apocalyptic wasteland. From ash falling to snow, Five ages to a middle-aged man, and then another scene sees him sporting some long white hair and sitting and drinking in a destroyed library having a chat to Dolores. Five hears a noise and he’s shocked to see a real human standing in front of him.
Flash to the present, Five is talking to Luther (Tom Hopper) about the apocalypse and Luther seems angered that Five didn’t say anything sooner, while Five tells him they all died in the future. Diego (David Castañeda) comes storming in and he blames Patch’s death on Five and they both want to know what’s going on. Five explains that Hazel and Cha-Cha work for his ex-employer, who is known as The Handler, and they’re there to stop Five.
Returning to the future, Five meets The Handler (Kate Walsh) for the first time and she works for The Commission, who look after preserving the time continuum, and they want to recruit Five for five years. At the end of his contract, he can return to the time and place of his choosing. We see a montage of Five ‘correcting’ and ‘manipulating’ time, including the time of JFK’s assassination. It seems Five was biding his time to figure out how to return and so he broke his contract and returned.
With a flash of blue light and to the sounds of Big Thief’s ‘Mary’, a bloodied and sad Klaus (Robert Sheehan) appears on a bus again. He gets off the bus and destroys the time travel briefcase with many tears and screams. Meanwhile, Hazel (Cameron Britton) and Cha-Cha (Mary J. Blige) are looking for the briefcase when they receive a violation message and it seems Klaus travelled to 1968. Cha-Cha wants to head back to the Academy, but they’re going to do some research first.
Bloody Time
Klaus enjoys a long bath back at the Academy and it seems he may be suffering from some kind of PTSD as he hears sounds and sees lights. Five checks in on Klaus and notices the dog tags and new tattoo on Klaus and realises he time travelled. According to Klaus, he was gone for a year and Five was hoping he’d have the briefcase so he could go back and start over to prevent the apocalypse. Five then works on an algorithm to see who might have the greatest impact on time so he can kill them. Luther won’t let Five kill just anyone, so he threatens Dolores, which causes Five to give up.
Pogo (Adam Goodley) is trying to repair Grace (Jordan Claire Robbins), while Klaus wanders the Academy looking at the damage. Klaus goes for a ride with Diego and he gets dropped off at the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and he finds a photograph that he tears up over. Diego wants to know what’s going on while one of the veterans starts to tell the brothers to get out and ends up with a bar fight. A close up of the photograph shows Klaus serving in the army back in 1968.
As for our hitmen, Hazel returns to the diner for some more doughnuts and he joins the waitress for her lunch break and it seems she enjoys bird watching. Hazel opens up about his dislike for his career and the pair end up holding hands. Meanwhile, Klaus opens up to Diego in the car that he loved someone when they notice Hazel leaving the diner, so they decide to follow.
Hazel and Cha-Cha return to their motel, and Diego places a tracker on their car, but Hazel spots him. The hitmen then receive a note from Five who claims to have the briefcase and wants to meet with them, but they need to avoid Diego who is watching them. Klaus pulls Diego out of the line of fire just in time, but now their car has slashed tyres.
Hazel and Cha-Cha meet with Luther and Five and it seems Five wants them to get in touch with The Handler. While they wait, an ice cream truck approaches and a smiling Klaus waves out of the window and drives right towards Hazel and Cha-Cha. Time freezes for everyone but Five and The Handler appears. Five wants her to stop the apocalypse and instead she offers him a job and the chance to be older again, so in exchange for agreeing, Five wants all of his family to survive. He agrees and leaves with her causing time to resume where everyone escapes to the sounds of Gerard Way and Ray Toro singing ‘Happy Together’.
An Opportunity
Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) brings breakfast to Vanya (Ellen Page), but she’s heading off to see Leonard, and Allison expresses her concerns once more as she thinks he seems too perfect. Vanya ignores the concerns and meets with Leonard (John Magaro) at a cafe where Fiction Factory’s ‘Feels Like Heaven) plays in the background. Leonard notices her happiness and Vanya thinks perhaps she might be fine off her medication, along with telling him about Allison’s concerns. Apparently there are now auditions for first chair as the other girl stopped turning up and Leonard is all for Vanya trying out…. Hmmm.
Allison heads to the library to see if she can find any information on Leonard and later goes to see Vanya to tell her that she could barely find anything on Leonard, but Vanya won’t have a bar of it. Allison heads to Leonard’s to search his house, meanwhile, Vanya auditions and while she’s playing the violin, it appears something is happening as the people become interested and a light emanates from her instrument.
At the end of the episode, Vanya goes to see Leonard after her audition and says she’s never played without her medication. The pair then kiss and well, the aftermath seems to cause Vanya’s powers to emanate from her once more and we see the other violinist dead in his attic along with Hargreeves journal.
Back at the Academy, Grace is functioning and Pogo asks if she remembers, which she does, and that she cannot tell the siblings…
Overall Thoughts?
Definitely a step up from the previous episode with it mostly due to Robert Sheehan’s performance, but also, the whole concept of The Commission and learning about Five’s role in it was quite interesting and certainly adds to the series overall. For those rolling their eyes over Leonard, it was clear from the start that it wasn’t good news for Vanya, but we didn’t know how or what he would do to her, and it’s only the beginning…
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