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.
Five channels his inner Rocket Raccoon because first off, he’s gonna need that fake eye. But he’s not the only one with it in their sights (pun intended). Put on a pot of coffee and let’s dive in to “Run Boy Run.” As always, spoilers within.
1. First Off, I’m Going to Need that Fake Eye
The majority of this episode is Five’s story. He wants to practice his time travel and asks Papa Hargreeves for permission at family dinner, which Father flatly denies. (Not only is Five not ready for time travel, he also broke one of the cardinal rules of family dinner, which is no talking.) Five decides, fuck this shit, and a few minutes later he’s off jumping through portals to minutes into the future to months into the future to . . . the end of the world. And once he gets to that end of the world, he can’t easily get back: hence his recently concluded “disappearance.”
The time travel has certainly messed with his mental state, showing us what could be an extension of that infamous Twilight Zone episode “Time Enough at Last.” He paid the price for teenage rebellion with decades of solitude (his one “girlfriend” Dolores is actually a department store mannequin), a severe lack of Twinkies (for they are not the culinary cockroaches we think they are) and that traumatic glimpse into his dead siblings. For all his bravado about certainty of the end of days, one is left wondering just how strong his mental state is . . . and even he’s starting to give up on the ability to save the world by hour’s end.
Five’s got to MacGyver his way out of the end times, and one possible clue is a fake eye from cybernetics company Meritech that he found in those apocalyptic remains (in Luther’s hand). There’s just one small problem: that eye hasn’t even been manufactured yet. It kicks the “world’s going to end” can down the road a bit, because in this present, he’s going to have two other problems to deal with.
2. That Assassin Life Does Not Come With an Expense Account
This episode introduces us to Hazel and Cha Cha, two assassins on a mission under the auspices of a very underfunded organization, seeing as they have to share a hotel room. Travel budget cuts aside, they both have to deal with “taking out one of their own,” so it’s safe to assume whomever they’re after is one of their ranks, a fellow assassin. Hey, no one said you had to like your coworkers.
But it’s in a quite painful torture/interrogation of a poor mechanic (were the jumper cables on the nipples really necessary?) that we find out that they’re looking for, along with what they are: a time traveler. They’re looking for Five. Five is a wanted 58 year old man in a 13 year old’s body. Their first attempt, a shootout at a donut shop featured in the final act of the first episode, was unsuccessful – – because they were looking for an old dude, not a teenager.
So if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Except when they do, in a scene best described as “Shootout at the TJ Maxx,” it’s still not successful. Problem being they’re looking for a man in his late 50s. Five is . . . very much not a man in his late 50s. So Five’s able to use his smaller stature to his advantage, dodging bullets under clothing racks and saving his “girlfriend” Dolores from certain death.
3. “Don’t Turn His Death Into a Mission.”
Luther’s still on the hunt for who killed his father, with the trail leading him right to Diego. Diego’s day job is in janitorial services for a local gym where they also let him live – – which also provides the alibi for where he was on the night his father died (he was boxing). Convinced of his brother’s innocence (and taking Allison’s advice from earlier not to turn their father’s death into a mission), Luther’s ready to head home and try to reunite his fractured family.
Continued belowExcept . . . Allison’s not taking her own advice. In an attempt to cheer her up after a spat with Vanya about their upbringing, Pogo dug out the Hargreeves equivalent of home movies – – surveillance tapes – – for Allison to view. They start to provide understanding to the adult Allison as to Vanya’s psyche towards her siblings when she sees how they treated Vanya. But something else in those tapes disturbs her, and she’s ready to kick open that door that Luther started to crack open.
(Pogo also makes a not-too-offhand comment about how so many of those tapes are disappearing lately. Hmm.)
4. Vanya’s Getting Served
Vanya gets served a very important truth early on in this episode: the way you were raised does not define who you are as an adult. Clearly this is one of the main theses (if not the main one) of the entire “Umbrella Academy” franchise (along with very useful life advice for all of us, superpowered or not). In other words: Vanya get over yourself. Yes, your father deliberately isolated you as a child but as an adult, you have the agency to reject those behaviors. So it’s comforting to see, tentative as it may be, a bit of a friendship/romance brewing with one of her students, Leonard. They bond over being just ordinary and attempting to understand their late fathers, and it’s sweet.
But, a character such as this is introduced for a reason, and one thing TV has taught me: it’s never a good reason. Prove me wrong, Netflix. Because I like this guy.
5. Klaus
Klaus is what is keeping this entire show from getting maudlin, and for that I’m very grateful. His superpower may be communicating with the dead, and while it would be great to see that in action, I’m finding his real superpower to be biting, filterless humor. From a carefully crafted backstory to present himself to Meritech as Five’s son (complete with details on the “great sex” that led to conception) to clever manipulation of Meritech’s Lance (or whatever his name is) to get information on that eye with a flash forward to him being in prison passed around like a chicken, you don’t want to count out this flamed out party boy. He does not miss a beat in this episode, and if you thought extinguishing a cigarette in your father’s ashes was crossing a line, Klaus is ready to push those lines farther and farther away.
Now let’s see this talking to the dead in action. Maybe some quality time with Dear Ol Dead Dad to hash out all that baggage? It’ll no doubt shock the monocle off of Mr. Hargreeves, but provide for a lot of fun television.
Afterthoughts:
– The more we dig into the rigid Hargreeves life (silent dinners, surveillance cameras), the more we should be very grateful that Richard Hargreeves only was able to adopt six children. Extremely questionable parenting aside, I hope the show explores – – either in this season or in future seasons – – the motivations of this man who is complex at his best and a dictator at his worst.
– The music selections remain on point. This week we have everything from Queen to Adam Ant to the neofolk of Woodpop (that song providing this episode’s title). And in scanning a list of other songs featured throughout the season (quickly of course, to avoid spoilers), it’s going to go uphill from here. It would be disservice to Netflix not to release a companion soundtrack or at least a Spotify playlist.
We’ll see you next week for “Extra Ordinary” and let us know what you thought of the episode in the comments!
