The second season of Netflix’s hit series The Umbrella Academy is almost here, and we’re certainly excited to see the Hargreeves siblings back on our screen! The series is based on Gerard Way’s graphic novels and the first season aired in February 2019 with it starring Ellen Page (Juno), Tom Hopper (Black Sails), Emmy Raver-Lampman (A Million Little Things), Robert Sheehan (Misfits), David Castañeda (Sicario 2: Soldado), Aidan Gallagher (Nicky, Ricky, Dicky and Dawn), Cameron Britton (Mindhunter), Mary J. Blige, Colm Feore (House of Cards).
On the same day in 1989, forty-three infants are inexplicably born to random, unconnected women who showed no signs of pregnancy the day before. Seven are adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves, a billionaire industrialist, who creates The Umbrella Academy and prepares his “children” to save the world. But not everything went according to plan. In their teenage years, the family fractured and the team disbanded.
The first season essentially follows the six surviving thirty-something members reunite upon the news of Hargreeve’s passing. Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Vanya, and Number Five work together to solve a mystery surrounding their father’s death. But the estranged family once again begins to come apart due to their divergent personalities and abilities, not to mention the imminent threat of a global apocalypse.
If you’ve not had time to rewatch or perhaps forgotten certain parts of the season, we bring you an episodic recap and if you want even more details, click on the episode title to read each episode’s full recap.
1.01: ‘We Only See Each Other At Weddings & Funerals’
The first episode 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 destined 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 he brings a warning that the world will be ending in eight days time.
1.02: ‘Run Boy Run’
We learn how Five ended up in the future with a flashback, along with him telling Vanya his story. Five enlists Klaus’s help in obtaining more information about a fake eye manufactured by MeriTech, while he later heads to a department store in search for his beloved Dolores and winds up being shot at by Hazel and Cha-Cha. Meanwhile, Vanya gets an adult violin student by the name of Leonard; Pogo tells Klaus to return the goods he stole; and Allison finds something on the surveillance tapes that she’s surprised by.
1.03: ‘Extra Ordinary’
Vanya and Leonard spend more time together; the Hargreeves siblings must decide what to do with their mother, Grace; and Hazel and Cha-Cha break into the Academy causing a fight, which ends with them capturing Klaus.
1.04: ‘Man on the Moon’
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.
1.05: ‘Number Five’
The Handler and The Commission are introduced and they are who employed Five for a period of time until he returned to the Academy, while Klaus returns from his little time travel trip, except he isn’t the same man that he once was as he travelled to 1968 Vietnam. It’s revealed that Vanya isn’t so ordinary, and that it has something to do with being off her medication and Leonard is all for it. In exchange for his siblings lives, Five agrees to work for The Commission once again, but he most definitely has some kind of plan…
1.06: ‘The Day That Wasn’t’
Five began working for The Commission and The Handler, but he had other plans and ended up stealing a time travel briefcase and jumping backwards so we ended up losing a whole day and the episode really. The episode saw Luther and Allison kiss, Klaus recalled his time in Vietnam and attempted to sober up with the help of Diego, and Vanya fell out (again) with her siblings and seemed to cause a little destruction and also found that Leonard has Hargreeves’ notebook.
1.07: ‘The Day That Was’
The siblings relive the day again thanks to Five going back in time, but everything is different as he convinces them to help stop the apocalypse and find Harold Jenkins. It’s revealed Harold Jenkins is actually Leonard Peabody and he seeks revenge as he wanted to be part of the Academy since he was born on the same day. Leonard whisks Vanya away to a cabin and ends with Vanya’s powers surging and accidentally killing two of the three men that were attacking Leonard. Meanwhile, Luther went on a bender and ended up at a rave and Klaus tried to help him, but ended up communicating with Hargreeves who informed him that he killed himself to bring the siblings together.
1.08: ‘I Heard A Rumor’
Leonard and Vanya worked on controlling and exploring her powers, along with seeing flashbacks of a young Vanya using her powers under the tutelage of Hargreeves. As for the Hargreeves brothers, Luther gets laid for the first time while Klaus tells them how Hargreeves planned his death to bring them together. The brothers then team up to go after Allison as she went to investigate Leonard/Harold Jenkins and to find Vanya. Unfortunately for Allison, she winds up getting her throat slit after remembering Hargreeves making her use her power on Vanya so she’d believe she was ordinary.
1.09: ‘Changes’
Vanya is distraught over what she did to Allison, but winds up killing Leonard for his lies and manipulation. The Hargreeves brothers manage to save Allison, however, she won’t be able to talk for some time. Hazel and Cha-Cha go head to head until The Handler appears while Vanya returns to the Academy, but since her siblings know what she did to Allison, they lock her up in a cell. However, Vanya’s powers flare and she is seen escaping at the end of the episode.
1.10: ‘The White Violin’
Vanya, with her pale skin and blue eyes, recalls various negative memories of her and her siblings, which leads her to gradually destroying the Academy and also killing Pogo. The Handler tells Hazel and Cha-Cha to protect Vanya at all costs, but Hazel later sends Cha-Cha flying through the car window and he then kills The Handler. Meanwhile, the Hargreeves siblings are attacked by a group of agents from The Commission.
The siblings approach Vanya during her concert and she begins to unleash her power, while agents from The Commission arrive, as well as Cha-Cha. Klaus makes Ben manifest, who is able to take down some agents. Allison takes Vanya down by shooting a bullet near her ear, but this causes a beam of light to shoot into the moon and now asteroids head towards Earth. Five then decides he will use his abilities to take them away, including Vanya, in hopes they can fix her. The theatre disappears, along with others such as Cha-Cha and Beeman, while Hazel and Agnes are seen leaving in a blue light with a briefcase in tow!
This is a depressing show with mostly unlikable characters, and a lot of bad acting.
I watched season 1 but I forgot most of the details. I did enjoy the characters and will definitely watch season 2.