Aidan Gallagher’s Five best acting moments from The Umbrella Academy

Aidan Gallagher (Five) is the breakout star of Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, and great acting moments like these help explain why.

Five is my favorite character on Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy. He’s a rambunctious, inquisitive child/man who can time travel, teleport, crack a joke and kill without batting an eyelash. Everytime he’s on screen, I know I’m going to be very entertained.

None of this would be possible without the stellar performance from young actor Aidan Gallagher. Five is a middle-aged man trapped in the body of a young teenager; it’s a tricky balance to pull off, but Gallagher makes it look easy. He looks young, but there’s no question that there’s an ornery, slightly embittered mannequin-loving old-timer beyond the wheel.

In short, Gallagher has absolutely killed it over the past two seasons of The Umbrella Academy, responsible for some of the show’s best moments so far. As we await a third season, we thought it’d be a good time to look at his five best acting moments on the show.

5. Episode 109, “Changes”: Five says goodbye to Dolores

It’s a tale as old as time: a boy/man time-travels 50 years into the future, gets stuck in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and falls in love…with a mannequin named Dolores. We’ve all heard that story before, haven’t we?

Playing being in love with a mannequin is tricky for any actor, let along one as young as Aidan. Five’s interaction with Dolores requires him to take on her persona. She’s not responding, because she is a mannequin (although I’m totally on board with the fan theory that she was once a human who got stuck inside a mannequin, but that’s a topic for a different day), so Five has to pick up the slack.

Gallagher makes their relationship feel almost believable, so much so that when Five returns to the present and says goodbye to Dolores, it tugs at your heartstrings. Dolores was Five’s companion during all the time he spent in the future alone, and even though we know it’s absurd, their parting is very sad and painful to watch.

I know it seems silly to think of this relationship as genuine, but Gallagher’s performance reels you in. Dolores may be fake, but Five’s pain is real.