10 Reasons Why ‘The Umbrella Academy’ Season 4 Was A Disappointment

Be it the unique combination of different genres, likable oddball characters engaging in silly antics, incredible meme-making potential, or important social and psychological issues the series often addressed, Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy was a hot favorite binge-worthy series among netizens. With steadily strong reception throughout the first three seasons, it was expected that the fourth and final season would end with a proper send-off to the beloved characters, bringing much-deserving closure to their arcs in the process. However, in reality, the fourth season has turned out to be hastily put together without a head or tail. Right from a storyline that makes little to no sense to the atrocious treatment of the characters and an unsatisfactory conclusion to the overarching story, every major and minor aspect came together to make the final season the worst one to date. So much so that fans are willing to deny its existence altogether. 

Let us take a look at the major drawbacks of the fourth season of The Umbrella Academy, and in the process, we may speculate a little about how the showrunners could have presented a better, more memorable end to the series. 

Spoilers Ahead

Reginald Hargreeves’ Background Remains Unknown

The past life and true background of Sir Reginald Hargreeves, the manipulative father figure of the eponymous team, was a central mystery in the series, and it was expected to be explored in the final season. The fact that Reginald belonged to an advanced alien species with vicious physical abilities and knowledge about higher dimensions and reality-recreating mechanisms was quite clear from the teases and events in the second and third seasons of the series. Fans had hoped that the showrunners had carefully kept the character’s origin under wraps for so long to thoroughly expand upon the plot point in the final season, adding to the existing world-building in the process. Contrary to fans’ expectations, the makers refused to show even a glimpse of Reginald’s past or his true form as an alien; instead, a boring, exposition-heavy Marigold-Durango plot was inserted as a McGuffin, which nobody really wanted, and that too without a flashback sequence. 

Haste Leads to Waste: Major Blooper 

One of the scenes in the fourth season features a rather funny blooper, which leads us to question whether the makers were even serious while making the final season at all. In the fifth episode, during the scene where Ben and Jennifer stop at a gas station, the entire camera rig in the backseat of their car was clearly visible, which makes us wonder how none of the creators noticed this blunder during production. Surely this will remind fans about the Starbucks cup blooper in the Game of Thrones final season, and both series share similarities in ending their run in a disastrous way. 

Ben’s Arc Was A Snoozefest

The fourth season trailer and early updates had teased Ben Hargreaves playing a crucial role in the final chapter of The Umbrella Academy. While the truth about his death in the original timeline at the hands of Reginald Hargreeves was a rather important moment in his character arc, it ultimately didn’t factor in how the story ended. In fact, it could be argued that any one of the Hargreeves siblings could have replaced Ben in the creation of the Cleanse, as their Marigold essence would have reacted with Jennifer’s Durango essence quite similarly. It would have been a much better narrative choice to connect the eldritch creature summoning portal in Ben’s body with Reginald’s home planet; it would have made for a better spectacle than the show following an edgy runaway couple at the very least. 

Abigail’s Plan Makes No Sense

Abigail Hargreeves’s arc was shoved in the final season in a way that left much to be desired. Disappointed at her husband for bringing Marigold to earth as well, Abigail went to extreme lengths to teach a lesson to Reginald by taking the guise of Sy Grossman and delivering Marigold to the Hargreeves siblings, leading them to Jennifer, aiding the Keepers, and ultimately setting off the Cleanse to reset the timeline. However, the funny part is, in this recreated timeline, Marigold didn’t affect anyone, to begin with until Abigail decided to use it to return the powers to the members of the Umbrella Academy—in a sense, she created a crisis out of nothing, as Reginald didn’t spread Marigold in the final timeline to begin with. 

What the Hell Was The Love Triangle Arc?

For a final season that consisted of a lesser number of episodes than usual, the makers quite inexplicably decided to loop in an extremely tedious, cringeworthy, and uncharacteristic love triangle plot involving Five, Diego, and Lila, for no reason at all. The cliched ‘stuck in time—fall in love’ trope with Five and Lila made absolutely no sense, nor did we understand what was the necessity of pitting Five and Diego against each other for love-related affairs of all reasons. This wrecked the personal arcs of all three characters beyond recovery, and the most irritating part is that none of them gained any sense of closure at the end. A dejected Five died knowing Diego hated him; Diego met his end in mental agony, and Lila passed away with remorse and guilt in her mind. We will be happy to know if there was any justifiable reason for making this nonsensical decision. 

Klaus Never Knew About the Truth About Ben’s Death

Klaus Hargreeves, who was the closest to Ben both in life and the afterlife, never even got a chance to learn the actual reason behind the death of his brother. Instead, he was put into a weird séance plot, a poorly contrived altercation with Allison’s family, and basically everything else possible instead of getting much-deserved solace. Ben’s death had sent Klaus down a slippery slope, which led him to a hedonistic, careless lifestyle, ruining his mental state for a long while. From that context, not even allowing him to have a heart-to-heart with his brother in the final season is sheer sloppiness on the makers’ part.

Luther Didn’t Even Care About Sloane

In the final moments of the third season, Sloane was shown to be absent in the new reality, leading to her husband, Luther, anxiously looking for her. Naturally, fans had expected Luther to go on a personal journey to find Sloane, but in the final season, it seems Luther has moved on quite easily, and only a single mention of her character is made by him. Other characters don’t even care about the fact, to begin with, that the Sparrow Academy member who fought by their side during the climactic moments of the Hotel Oblivion arc was never found in the recreated reality. As if Luther’s arc wasn’t shambolic enough, he was denied the ending he deserved as well. 

Poor CGI

This is a bit of a nitpick, but the fourth season had terrible CGI when compared to the first three seasons, despite having way fewer VFX sequences in the lesser number of episodes. The series has offered some phenomenal scenes erstwhile, especially the White Violin scenes from the first season and the climactic battle in both the second season and third season, and from that standpoint, the Cleanse Monstrosity was a poorly made VFX scene that acted as a nightmare fuel, and not in a good sense at that.

There Was No Reason To Omit Pogo

Pogo the sentient, talking chimpanzee was easily one of the most favorite characters among series fans, and in every season, viewers were excited to see a different iteration of the humble, caring simian. This is why the reason behind the showrunners completely ignoring the character’s presence in the story in the final season remains a mystery to us. In the final scene of the fourth season, all the major characters who had appeared in the series earlier were seen in the original timeline, living a peaceful life—everyone except Pogo, whose absence surely stuck out like a sore thumb. 

The Makers Simply Forgot Unresolved Plot Points

As if ruining character arcs wasn’t enough, the makers in the fourth season conveniently forgot major plot points, which were supposedly leading up to a major arc in the final season. The bicycle girl in the afterlife/Void, who was seemingly God in disguise, is never mentioned once in the fourth season. The third season ended with the post-credit scene of Ben traveling in a Korean subway, and the scene presumably hinted at a major connection to be established in the final scene. This ends up going nowhere in the fourth season and serves up as another example of mismanagement.

Final Words

The Umbrella Academy had a strong run in the first three seasons, which makes the disappointing end of the series even harder to accept. Aside from writers’ strikes and budget issues, it seems a lack of source material assistance became the major reason for such a botch-up in the final season, a similar problem that Game of Thrones faced in its final season as well.