Time travel and the notion of being perpetually stuck in the Gordian knot of a temporal loop seems to have only risen in popularity in a well-timed (no pun intended) reflection of the current state of existence as COVID-19 has continued to put the world on hold. Accordingly, the likes of two shows, extremely rooted in the effects of alternate realities as a result of changing something in one timeline, have also garnered increasing popularity in 2020: Dark and Watchmen. While The Umbrella Academy’s first season debuted several months before HBO’s Watchmen in 2019, the graphic novels and film it was based upon came out long before, with TUA’s own comic book origins appearing well before Dark (also a Netflix series like The Umbrella Academy) in 2007 with Volume 1: Apocalypse Suite.
The proverbial apocalypse is at the root of all three of these narratives, with each of its slew of main characters trying to rewrite a moment in time that will shift the unavoidable outcome of mass destruction (oh why oh why can’t the apocalypse really be like this instead of the flaccid slow fizzle that it has proven to be be by way of coronavirus havoc?). And yet, as Watchmen points out, even when an apocalypse comes, “Nothing ever ends.” Existence is but an ouroboros feeding upon itself, no matter what forms remain left on Earth to carry out the same vicious cycles.
Even in film of late, with the likes of Palm Springs, the notion of time (both its redundancy and its far-reaching aftermath with only a slight shift) and an emphasis on the “Sliding Doors meets Run Lola Run philosophy” of just one small second being able to shift everything that happens in the future is more prevalent than ever. For the Hargreeves family, a ragtag group of superheroes adopted by an eccentric billionaire named Reginald (Colm Feore), time always seemed to be on their side in their youth, especially for Five (Aidan Gallagher)–all the children, by the way, are referred to as numbers by their patriarch, with Five being the only one who doesn’t seem to have a “Christian name” to be used in a more “everyday” context, unlike the rest: Number One a.k.a. Luther (Tom Hopper), Number Two a.k.a. Diego (David Castañeda), Number Three a.k.a. Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Number Four a.k.a. Klaus (Robert Sheehan), Number Six a.k.a. Ben (Justin H. Min) and Number Seven a.k.a. Vanya (Ellen Page, taking inspiration from her Inception era in this role).
As seven of forty-three children around the world “spontaneously” born (as in none of their mothers had been pregnant when these supernatural children were sprung from them), each one has unique powers that Reginald aims to strengthen in order to wield his new “products” as a crime-fighting outfit he’s decided to bill as The Umbrella Academy. He’s initially quite faithful in Luther’s superhuman strength, Diego’s ability to bend the trajectory of anything (his preferred weapon being knives to do that), Allison’s gift for “rumoring” someone into doing whatever she wants them to, Klaus’ knack for communing with the dead, Five’s semi-deftness at traveling through space and time, Ben’s aptitude for summoning eldritch creatures through a portal inside his body and Vanya–oh wait, according to Reginald, Vanya doesn’t have powers. In fact, the suppression of her powers from an early age is what causes such a bitter rift between her and her siblings, constantly treating her–whether they mean to or not–as “lesser than” for her perceived weakness of having no “talent.” Other than, of course, playing the violin (hence her other nickname: The White Violin).
And yes, it is fitting that someone so pitiable and self-pitying should take comfort in playing the violin on the regular. Perhaps that’s what initially appears to attract Leonard (John Magaro)–an equally as nebbish and insecure type–to Vanya, showing up to her apartment to request some lessons on how to play the instrument. On the heels of Reginald dying, therefore reuniting all the members of The Umbrella Academy as they grudgingly come together to “mourn” his death, Vanya is in a particularly vulnerable state. While Allison (now a famous actress who has renounced use of her power after it caused her to be limited in her visitations with her only daughter, Claire) can see there’s something shady about Leonard from a mile away, Vanya refuses to be swayed–so easily wooed and manipulated once Leonard starts waxing on about how special she is, when no one else has ever told her that, or even remotely seen her that way.
Leonard, naturally, has plenty of ulterior motive in playing the part of doting love interest, for he’s come across the tossed-into-the-trash journal of Reginald (Klaus threw it out after kifing the hock-worthy box it came in to score some drug money–because you’d need drugs all the time too if you saw the dead). In it, the sentimentally void alien (yes, he’s literally an alien) documents how he curbed Vanya’s powers early on, fearing they would take a dangerous hold of her as her destructive tendencies were tied to her emotions–something Reginald couldn’t deal with. Having a young and unwitting Allison rumor her into believing she’s ordinary, paired with putting her on emotion-numbing meds, Vanya really does buy into not being of the same stock as her siblings.
Leonard uses this divide to his advantage as he spurs her to bring on the very thing that Five has traveled back in time to stop: the apocalypse. After a botched attempt at time travel when he was thirteen, Five returns in the same body he was in when he left–granted his aged self was in the midst of killing Kennedy back in 1963 when he entered the portal. For in the forty-five years spent wandering the post-apocalyptic earth alone (save for the companionship of a mannequin named Denise), he was recruited by The Handler (Kate Walsh), a head honcho in the organization known as The Commission, guardians of ensuring the “correct” timeline always goes forward. Kennedy dying is a major part of that “correctness,” and Five is enlisted to make sure it happens. Alas, he’d rather focus on stopping the apocalypse in 2019 than finishing his assignment in 1963.
Inevitably, “fate” cannot be stopped and Vanya heralds the apocalypse despite all of The Umbrella Academy’s best efforts to pinpoint the trigger. At the end of season one’s cliffhanger, this sends them back to 1963–well, some of them, as season two reveals… for Five still hasn’t mastered time travel well enough to keep them each from being staggered in the years from 1960 to 1963–but at least they’re all in Dallas, once again “Kennedy assassination” territory.
Like Watchmen with the constantly highlighted difference between the U.S. winning the Vietnam War and not, the difference between Kennedy being shot versus not is integral to the course of everything both general to the world and specific to The Umbrella Academy. Diego, who ends up being locked up in a mental institution where he meets Lila (Ritu Arya), a girl he has obvious contention-based chemistry with, becomes increasingly obsessed with preventing the shooting from happening, particularly when it comes to their attention that “The Umbrella Man” (the subject of many conspiracy theories) on the grassy knoll is actually their father. Thus, Diego becomes ensnared by this angle of preventing another apocalypse, which Five accidentally happens upon in real time as he searches for his siblings, catching sight of his brothers and sisters using their powers in a nuclear attack from Russia (always Russia being the villain throughout the U.S.’ modern history). Because everywhere the Academy goes, there the apocalypse follows.
Vanya, who really shouldn’t have showed up to the 60s with a Russian name (but still, she’s not as bad off as Allison, subject to the harrowing “Whites Only” Jim Crow laws), finds herself on a farm with a married woman named Sissy (Marin Ireland), her alcoholic and neglectful husband, Carl (Stephen Bogaert), and their autistic son, Harlan (Justin Paul Kelly). With no memory of how she arrived or where she came from, Vanya takes perhaps more comfort than she should in “the bosom” of Sissy after the desperate housewife runs her over.
Klaus, in all of his hippie-dippiness, fittingly starts a cult called Destiny’s Children (oft quoting the lyrics of, among others besides Destiny’s Child, TLC). Having already accidentally time traveled back to the Vietnam War in season one where he met the love of his life, David (Cody Ray Thompson), Klaus is quite at home in the 60s, arguably more so than he is in the present, when drug-taking and the space cadet side effects thereof are so often frowned upon. The character of Klaus, indeed, seems most closely modeled after the creator of the series himself, My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way (hence, un certain Goth Lite quality). Ben, dead long ago but forever lingering around Klaus, falls for one of his cult members, gradually seeing an opportunity to possess Klaus so that he might get to know her better.
Luther, the most emotionally lost of all (possibly even more than Vanya), has decided to put his physical freakdom to some use by becoming Jack Ruby’s (John Kapelos, once upon a time the “oily bohunk” of Sixteen Candles and then Carl the Janitor in The Breakfast Club) bodyguard/boxer-for-hire on the gambling racket. Allison has met and married a civil rights activist named Raymond Chestnut (Yusuf Gatewood)–don’t confuse him with Morris. So it is that the majority of the Academy members have roundabout ties to Kennedy and/or the events that will unfold on that November 22nd, which doesn’t bode well for a number of reasons, namely the risk they’ve taken in somehow being linked to the crime (treason, really). The Kennedy assassination serves as the single event raveling all of them into the unavoidable destiny seemingly doomed to be repeated no matter what timeline they’re in (as is the case in Dark, with both Jonas and Martha forever trying to stop one another from a certain action on the day of the apocalypse, creating an impossible knot that can’t be untied–granted, the web of Dark is far more intricate than the one in The Umbrella Academy, making it look rather like child’s play–and, of course, Five is the main child at play).
Unless, of course, they find a way to outsmart the Guardians of Time comprising The Commission, which is what Five has been trying to do for most of his life. As season two comes to a close, however, it becomes apparent that no matter how “slightly” one thinks they’ve interacted with something or someone in another time period, it will always have a massive ripple effect on the future of the new timeline that’s thereby created. So yes, if you’ve already seen Dark and/or Watchmen, you’ll feel right at home in the timeline quagmires (and the alternate outcomes generated thereof) of The Umbrella Academy.
