Umbrella Academy

[lunabee34]

Episode 2

This is the first episode where I really notice that Vanya takes medicine. Unclear why at this point.

Hazel and Cha Cha are so much fun. I love that you can tell already in the first encounters with them that Hazel is just done with the job.

Klaus and 5 gaming the prosthetics manufacturer is gold.

Diego has an alibi, so he didn't kill their dad.

Dolores is a mannequin. Did not see that coming.

And 5 sees his family dead in the rubble in the apocalypse. Except Vanya, right? I think she's notably missing.


Episode 3

So Vanya wrote her tell-all much more recently than I thought, just 5 years ago. I think it's interesting that fascination with her and with the book is shown to wane fairly quickly. I don't know if I buy that, especially if Allison is as famous as the show implies.

I really love everything with Mom (Grace). Just how sentient is she? Is she glitching? If so, what's wrong with her? I also like the question that I think Diego asks about whether Mom was ever doing anything of her own volition or if all her actions are actually an insight into the father who programmed her behavior. Very intrigued by what Mom means when she tells Diego to remember as she's powering down.

Poor Vanya. The 1st chair of the orchestra is so mean to her. I feel like this reality is sorely lacking in kindness (which is maybe why Leonard is so suspicious for me LOL). He's just too good to be true. Something is up with him.

Really, really like the reveal of what Allison did to estrange her family. I could never, ever have the kind of power she and Professor X have. I would abuse the hell out of it. I love that what she did isn't evil; it comes from a very real place of frustration and exhaustion. What parent hasn't been in that place (go to fucking sleep! OMG stop talking back to me, you shit! or whatever)? And I can see how easy it would be to slide down that slippery slope. Really interesting choice for the show to make.

Love all the physical comedy with Luther and him being so massive that starts in this episode and continues throughout the series.

I really like that even though this is not the last time that Allison will argue with or say something unkind to Vanya that she apologizes and is genuinely sorry for it.

Hazel and Cha Cha not knowing about the Umbrella Academy pings me as really weird. I guess that highlights how little time they stay in any reality and makes me think they probably don't have a very good grasp of history beyond what they're told for particular assignments.

I realize that this is not the case, but here's our initial reaction to the reveal about Luther: Is he some kind of werewolf and that's why he's been on the moon?

And now our first suspicion that Vanya's meds are actually suppressing the powers she's not supposed to have appears.


Episode 4

Luther is the only kid who decided to stay behind. That scene where the dad still calls him a number. Sheesh. Hargreeves is so awful to all those kids. What an asshole.

So now, we realize that whatever Hargreeves does to save Luther actually turns him part ape. Which changes my whole understanding of the chimp in the house. I assumed that he is a monkey that Hargreeves somehow turned sentient. Now I think he's a man who was dying, and Hargreeves's cure turned him fully into a chimp. I'm guessing that Luther didn't fully transform because of his powers or whatever.

Vanya has been taking the medicine since childhood. Yep, medicine is officially suspicious.

Every single second of Klaus being tortured is spectacular.

Leonard has formally crossed all the way over into suspicious territory. No way he's in Vanya's house to pee or to deliver flowers. Dude has an agenda. Which involves taking her meds.

So my theory now is that Vanya ends the world because she does have powers and these meds have been suppressing them.

And now Hazel and Cha Cha realize that doing their job makes the world end. Hazel is clearly not on board with this which makes absolute sense to me. What makes way less sense to me is how blase Cha Cha is about it.

I also love the reveal that Hazel has been half-assing his end of the job for quite some time now. I'd like to think it's not because he's lazy but because his appetite for killing has waned.

I hate that they kill the detective.

I really disliked Hargreeves before this episode, but watching him torture bb!Klaus is extremely upsetting. What an abusive horror show of a human.

Ben's ghost makes a really interesting remark--being dead is being stuck. I can imagine that part of the terror for Klaus is just that, knowing for sure that there's life after death and that it's being trapped with mostly no one around who can hear you or interact with you. That's existentially terrifying.

Luther and Allison were in love.

The way that woman smiles at Klaus on the subway makes my day.


Episode 5

I see what you did here with the title. :)

This episode answers at least one of my questions because we see 5 living in the apocalyptic future and Mad Maxing it up. The Handler and the Commission are intriguing. She says that not everything is destroyed. I don't know if that means that other parts of the world are unscathed or if a moon colony survives or if these are the descendants of the inhabitants of an underground bunker, but some people have to survive the apocalypse or else there can be no Commission.

So 5 becomes a time assassin like Hazel and Cha Cha. I can't tell if he was supposed to kill Kennedy and doesn't (meaning that someone else came in and killed Kennedy) or if he was supposed to kill Oswald and doesn't.

So Klaus went back to 1968 and was clearly conscripted to serve in Vietnam. I hope we find out more about his year in the past and about Dave. :( I absolutely love that Diego comes back for him and believes him (although I could give all the characters of this show a very stern talking to about the way they do not efficiently share info with each other).

Hazel continues to really intrigue me. I like his quasi-romance with the diner waitress. He has no home, no connections. He's clearly really sad that this woman who makes good donuts and watches birds and is saving for a life outside of waitressing will never get to realize her dreams. I hope he becomes a good guy or at least good guy adjacent.

And Leonard is now 100% in what looks like bad guy territory. He doesn't want her to take her meds because they *are* suppressing something although what they're suppressing is unclear. And he's killed the 1st chair so that she can become more confident? Be happy? IDK

I was really aggravated with how mousy and quiet and aggressively blah Vanya is to start with, but I see that's because they needed her to blossom. The acting is so fine on this, all the small ways she's coming out of her shell and becoming more expressive and confident.

All the acting on this show is really fine, but 5 especially is awesome. He blows me away. Get this kid on Stranger Things. LOL

So, questions and theories: I don't want Leonard to just be a generic bad guy from the future (and he's clearly from the future since Allison finds out that he doesn't have a past). I want him to be someone who has a connection to the characters in the show. Josh thinks that Leonard is actually 5. They look really similar to each other and have similar speech patterns. He thinks that unleashing Vanya's power actually saves the world instead of destroying it. We've also seen that 5 has zero problem with killing people if it helps in the big picture way. I can't figure out exactly how that would work since kid!5 and Leonard are present at the same time in the same reality, but it's an interesting and compelling theory.

What is Vanya's power? It seems like it has two parts, some kind of manipulation (they go from ignoring her playing to finding it compelling) plus a physical force (like a wind, powerful enough to shake tree branches, crack the window, and rattle the gate).

How did Hargreeves discover she has this power, and how did he figure out how to suppress it? She had to have been really little or else she'd remember a time when she did have power.

Just what is 5 getting himself into with the Handler?

What are mom and the monkey keeping secret?

Comments

[nyctanthes]

Great review. I watched a few minutes of the first episode recently and am definitely due a rewatch sometime soon.

Yes to allison! And to five's actor being a real standout.

[lunabee34]

I just looked it up, and he's actually 15.

I was certain he was some sort of Ralph Macchio and actually 42 or something.

He's just so good.

[nyctanthes]

Oh, and I also think ellen page is doing a really good job with what is a kind of thankless role. Especially, let's face it, for a woman.

And did you notice that curling iron moment? Ouch!

[lunabee34]

Yes! I agree re: Ellen Page. I think it's hard to unfurl as gradually as she's doing. Definitely good acting.

I don't remember the curling iron. Remind me!

[nyctanthes]

Cha cha burns her upper arm with a curling iron. You can see the blood on her shirt later in the episode. Yikes! [I think this happens in the first couple of episodes.]

[lunabee34]

That's right! She's cauterizing the wound with the curling iron. I forgot about that. Cha Cha is hard fucking core. LOL

[jackandahat]

Ben = the other fan favourite I didn't quite mention in your last post. Because I couldn't remember when we found out although he's dead, that doesn't stop him being an interesting character. Apparently there's been such an outpouring of fan love that even the people in charge are aware of it.

[lunabee34]

That's cool! I like Ben a lot, too.

And Hazel and Cha Cha are awesome as well.

It's a pretty damn good cast.