They’ve got powers. They’ve got baggage. They’ve got eight days to save the world. Welcome to the Umbrella Academy. The Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba series comes to Netflix, introducing the world to the eccentric Richard Hargreeves and his superpowered progeny, who themselves have become less than superpowered adults.
It’s the first day of work for Five, while everyone else works through matters of the heart. Put on a pot of coffee and let’s dive in to “The Day That Wasn’t.” As always, spoilers within.
1. First Day on the Job
Five starts his new job at The Commission (all the way back in 1955) and he already does all the things you’re not supposed to do on the first day at a new job: ask for special favors, suggest improvements to operations, and sneak confidential files into the men’s room for some lunchtime reading. As this is an organization whose mission is to control the amount of free will in the world, it’s no surprise that The Handler is soon quickly on to her new star’s schemes.
Can Five outwit her? You’ll find out in a bit. Will she look fabulous doing it (because say what you will about the 1950s, the clothing is sublime period fashion)? Of course.
2. Look at the Flowers, Hazel
With Five now working for The Commission, the orders for Hazel and Cha Cha to terminate him go out the window. But our favorite assassins are not out of the woods just yet: Cha Cha gets the order to terminate Hazel. She tries to pull a “look at the flowers, Lizzie” moment but just can’t bring herself to do it. There’s a bond there that she doesn’t want to break, even with all their differences.
Or perhaps it’s something she wants to make into something more, based on her reaction to seeing Hazel and Agnes the Donut Lady at the donut shop. Too little, too late, Cha Cha. This is what happens when your blind loyalty to your work makes it your life.
3. Luther’s Loyalty
And further on the topic of blind loyalty . . .
Luther’s own blind loyalty to the Academy and the family is admirable, but finally gets tested. Turns out his multi-year mission to the moon was a cover from Dad after his failed mission (the one that nearly killed him, remember?). Mr. Hargreeves never opened up a single sample sent back from the moon. The revelation breaks him; the Academy is all he knows and ever knew. And that’s their father’s fault for emphasizing mission above all and restricting fun. Kids gotta kid, you know?
It takes the most emotionally developed Hargreeves (Allison) to get Luther to see himself as more than the mission. One fantasy sequence dance and one kiss later, and I want Allison taking Luther back to L.A. with him on that plane. Fortunately, she does. (Yes, I know. This whole thing is awkward because they’re siblings.)
Oh, and I saw what you did there Gerard Way and Netflix with Allison and Luther’s dance: to a cover of King Harvest’s “Dancing in the Moonlight.”
4. Klaus in ‘Nam
This episode also reveals the backstory of Klaus’s trip through time to Vietnam. It wasn’t just the horrors of war that broke him. It was love for a fellow soldier named Dave, who tragically died in battle. At the end of the world, all Klaus wants to see is his love one more time, just what we would all want. The difference is that he has the ability to make that happen.
I make no secret about my membership in the Klaus Hargreeves fan club, but Robert Sheehan brings a new level of emotional depth here. From the quiet meet-cute of Klaus and Dave to the pain of death to working through his PTSD and withdrawal so that he can use his gifts to see Dave one more time before the end of the world, his journey in this episode shows he’s much more than witty party boy.
5. I Need to Finish My Own Saving of the World, I Quit!
This has to be the greatest “take this job and shove it” moment in the history of modern employment.
Continued belowFive finds an order to terminate a “Harold Jenkins,” a name he calculated in the previous episode to be the person that brings about the end of days. He steals the order, invents a new one to terminate Cha Cha (guess that’s one workplace friendship that won’t be repaired) and prepares to send off that order through the pneumatic tubes himself (a big no-no, think of Dot and her pension). The Handler catches him in the act, but Five gets the upper hand: jumping through time to rewind the entire events of the episode (hence the title) and interrupt the family meeting about “Our Little Psycho” to reveal to everyone how to save the world: Howard Jenkins.
But who is Howard Jenkins? Vanya may have found a clue . . . under Leonard’s bed.
Afterthoughts
– At the end of the last episode, we see that someone (Pogo?) has revived Grace, but she doesn’t remember anything of the events of the last week. Diego is very suspicious of this when he sees his mother up and walking about the mansion. Stay suspicious, Diego.
– How did those cans of soda that Luther and Allison drank last at least 15 years? They should have burst by now!
– If you enjoy the music of the show, we finally have a Spotify playlist of the songs featured in each episode (but be careful of spoilers!)
We’ll see you next week for “The Day That Was” and let me know what you thought of the episode in the comments!
