June 2022 was a long time ago, but it might feel even longer for Umbrella Academy fans who binged season three in a couple of sittings and then moved on to other pop-culture obsessions. The show is a lot of fun and season three was killer—but it’s been over two years since the Netflix series dropped new episodes. Are you ready to dive into its fourth and final season?
We’ve already peeked at the “previously on” montage that kicks off season four, and frankly, it didn’t clear all that much up. So here’s a crash course in what you need to remember going into season four, which runs just six episodes and premieres August 8 on Netflix.
When Umbrella Academy—based loosely on the Gerard Way-Gabriel Bá Dark Horse Comic series about the super-powered and dysfunctional adopted Hargreeves siblings—kicked off its third season, the main characters were bouncing back from averting an apocalypse at the end of season two. (They did that in season one too.) Season two involved a lot of time travel, and it ended with the characters in 2019—but in an alternate reality where the Umbrella Academy, here called “the Sparrow Academy,” had mostly different members. One is a still-alive version of their deceased sibling, Ben (Justin H. Min).
There’s instant hostility, and the Umbrella kids decamp to the quirky Hotel Obsidian. There are fights between the factions (and between the siblings), but also occasional outbursts of teamwork—and even a romance between Umbrella Luther (Tom Hopper) and Sparrow Sloane (Genesis Rodriguez). Throughout the season, characters grapple with the fallout of their time travel, both on a personal level (problematically, all of the Umbrella kids’ mothers died before they were born in this particular timeline) and on a more “the universe is freaking out due to all the anomalies” level, thanks to a powerful Kugelblitz in their midst.
Notably, Umbrella Academy season three addressed leading actor Elliot Page’s coming out as a trangender man by simply having his character, Viktor, follow the same path; it was handled seamlessly within the story. The season also saw Klaus (Robert Sheehan) dying and returning to life, repeatedly; Five (Aidan Gallagher) meeting an older version of himself; Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) nearly succumbing to the grief of losing her daughter from the season two time-travel story; and Lila (Ritu Arya) and Diego (David Castañeda) almost figuring out how to be co-parents.
Throughout the season, there’s a growing sense that Umbrella/Sparrow patriarch Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore)—who’s actually an extraterrestrial being of unknown age from another dimension—is up to no good, even more than usual. It’s all tied into the Hotel Obsidian, the setting for Luther and Sloane’s wedding and where all the surviving characters gather as the Kugelblitz begins decimating reality around them.
Reginald revealed that the Hotel Obsidian is really a machine in another dimension, built by whoever created the universe, and couching a portal that will reset that universe; there’s a mirror-image hotel called the Hotel Oblivion on the other side. The Hargreeves have to work together to figure out the machine’s elaborate puzzle, which (in typical fashion) is a trying task. At last, though, Allison manages to seemingly kill Reginald, who’s draining the super-powered life force from his “children” to power the machine, and start the reset process.
At the very end of season three, we see that Allison’s daughter and her husband from season two are alive—as is Reginald, along with his long-deceased wife Abigail, who are bigwigs in this brand-new timeline. While other characters are restored to health (Five, who’d lost an arm along the way, is now healed), Luther is distraught to realize that Sloane, his new wife, is missing. Also: nobody has their superpowers anymore. Most are totally freaked out, and all scamper in different directions. In a mid-credits scene, we see Ben—the only remaining Sparrow—on a train in South Korea—perhaps the same train where he was shown being born in a flashback at the start of season three.
Here’s the word from Netflix: “The Hargreeves siblings have scattered after the climactic showdown at the Hotel Oblivion led to a complete reset of their timeline. Stripped of their powers, each is left to fend for themselves and find a new normal—with wildly varying degrees of success. Yet the trappings of their uncanny new world prove too hard to ignore for very long. Their father Reginald, alive and well, has stepped out of the shadows and into the public eye, overseeing a powerful and nefarious business empire.
A mysterious association known as the Keepers holds clandestine meetings believing the reality they’re living in is a lie and a great reckoning is coming. As these strange new forces conspire around them, the Umbrella Academy must come together one last time—and risk upsetting the shaky peace they’ve all endured so much to secure—to finally set things right.” New characters this season will be played by Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, and David Cross.
All six episodes arrive August 8 on Netflix.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Elliot PageNetflixThe Umbrella Academy
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