The more things change, the more they stay the same. The Hargreeves kids are still their same weird selves, but the world around them? Even more weirder than before. Welcome back to the world of the super dysfunctional superheroes of Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba’s The Umbrella Academy.
When we last left the Hargreeves, Five confronted his adoptive father at the consulate (where we saw his involvement with a deep state conspiracy), and Vanya and Sissy confronted their attraction. Is everyone on the road to “Valhalla” as we hit the halfway mark of Season 2? Or is it all just going to go to pieces? As always, spoilers within.
1. Major Pogo
Standing there alone, Pogo is waiting, all systems are go, he’s not so sure. Pogo is not convinced, but the scientists have the evidence, no need to abort. The origin story starts . . .
Bad parodies of German synthpop aside, “Valhalla” opens with a look at how Pogo came to be in Florida in 1962: part of the fledgling American space program. Grace is working there as a scientist (and rather attached to her simian charge) and Reginald Hargreeves is there too (in what capacity, it’s not clear). The mission goes wrong and the capsule with Pogo comes back to Earth in flames. With a familiar syringe (if you recall last season) Papa H brings Pogo back to life. Grace is grateful, and the three come together as a family.
It doesn’t lend anything immediately to the proceedings at hand in the rest of the episode, but does show that Reginald was at one point, a family man. What happened from 1962 to 1989 to change his attitude from doting to disciplinarian father is unclear.
2. Road Trip
Five and Diego weren’t the first ones to confront their father in Dallas. That was Luther, who landed in Dallas and immediately left for the Academy to confront Reginald. Reginald, believing that Luther’s presence is courtesy of the FBI or CIA (confirming his deep state ties), dismisses his son. That certainly explains Luther’s initial reluctance to stop the apocalypse in 1963: he tried, and no one seemed to care.
Now the fact that Luther was able to go to the Academy itself is intriguing: we were led to believe the Academy only came into existence in 1989, founded for the sake of the children’s education. What is this 1960s Umbrella Academy? (I should also clarify that I haven’t read the UA comics yet, so this may be an Easter egg from the comics. If that’s the case, tell me in the comments!)
3. Family Reunion
The long awaited Hargreeves family reunion in Elliot’s store doesn’t result in any sort of plan to save the world (certainly to Five’s chagrin), but a realization: everything that most of them have done in their Dallas lives somehow connects to Kennedy: Diego’s hunt for Oswald, Luther’s employment with Jack Ruby, Klaus’s cult, Allison’s civil rights work. That’s better than nothing. I figure they’ll get to how to use this information eventually.
One of the joys of this season has been seeing Hargreeves siblings who didn’t have much time together in season 1 spend time with each other, such as Allison and Klaus. There’s a natural chemistry between Allison’s level headed nature and Klaus’s free spirit. And in spite of Vanya’s throat slashing, Allison greets her sister with open arms. It almost makes you sad that the world has to end in less than a week.
And that revelation of the apocalypse (again) prompts those three to seek joy instead of a solution to the problem at hand (Five will not like this). Which then leads to . . . another amazing dance party sequence set in Allison’s salon to Sam Cooke’s “Twisting the Night Away.” Seeing all three of them twisting the day away, when compared to last season’s dance party in isolation, gives you hope that while they may think Five’s gone off his rocker, they’ll manage to work together somehow.
4. How Do You Solve a Problem Like Lila?
After the showdown at the consulate, Five and Diego both make their distrust of Lila known, though Five finds his suspicions confirmed later. (Good for Diego, not letting his heart get in the way again.) This leads Lila to start questioning her own upbringing, which reveals that The Handler has gone rogue in her search for Five (as I predicted). But there’s still the problem of the Swedish assassins, which adoptive mother and daughter make work of in short order, leading to a Viking funeral for a severed foot.
Continued below5. Vanya the Country Girl
I knew this was not going to end well for Vanya.
Despite their post-coital bliss, Sissy returns to the closet and to her husband, and Vanya is nothing short of heartbroken. I had no doubt it would be hard for the two of them to remain together in 1960s Deep Southern America, but the romantic in me had to hold out some hope.
All season, I had been waiting for some sort of trigger for Vanya to come to grips with her superpowered past. There had been fits and starts of the use of her powers (including here where her anger towards an abusive Carl makes itself known in a broken kitchen window) but it’s a non-powered moment that may open her eyes.
In fact, that is what seems to be happening for most of the Hargreeves kids. Diego and Luther receive an invitation to “A Light Supper” (roll them opening credits for the next episode) from their adoptive father, Allison decides to come clean to Raymond, and Klaus returns to his cult but there’s an empty look in his eyes. They built their own lives here, but they still are built on each other.
Notes Found in Five’s Old Commission Desk (our Afterthoughts section)
- Not so much an afterthought as it is the best line of the episode, from Klaus naturally, on the will-they-or-won’t-they nature of Allison and Luther’s relationship from last season: “If you have to use the word ‘technically,’ we’re already in trouble.”
- Klaus also predicted to his cult the world would end in 2019.
We’ll see you next Tuesday for “A Light Supper” and let us know what you thought of the episode in the comments!
