The fourth and final season of The Umbrella Academy is coming round the bend. This offbeat superhero series based on the comics by Gerard Wayne and Gabriel Bá found a passionate audience invested in the ongoing adventures of the dysfunctional Hargreeves family, who always seem to find themselves needing to stop one apocalypse or another. The show may never have blown up into a full-scale phenomenon, but I'm glad Netflix is giving it a final season to go out on its own terms. (Also, the fact that the comic is written by the lead singer of My Chemical Romance will never stop being a fun FYI.)
The final episodes won't drop until next month, but we know the episode titles already. Plus, showrunner Steve Blackmun (who has been accused of creating a toxic work environment on set, another fun FYI) provided Tom's Guide will coy descriptions for all of them. Check them out below:
- Episode 1: “The Unbearable Tragedy of Getting What You Want” — Who doesn’t love a good birthday party?
- Episode 2: “Jean and Gene” — They both wear the pants in the relationship.
- Episode 3: “The Squid and the Girl” — Two paths cross, one squid enters.
- Episode 4: “The Cleanse” — There’s not enough sage in the universe, apparently.
- Episode 5: “Six Years, Five Months, and Two Days” — The Hargreeves siblings find themselves doing the impossible: teaming up with their father.
- Episode 6: “End of the Beginning” — What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger … right?
We probably won't know what most of the titles mean until we watch the episodes, but some can be easily decoded. "Jean and Gene" refers to two new characters: a pair of married community college professors played by real-life marrieds Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally. Apparently they're going to be investigating the wonky timelines created by the non-stop string of near-miss apocalypses the Umbrella Academy has dealth with over the past few seasons. Somebody should.
As for "The Squid and the Girl," that almost definitely refers to Ben Hargreeves, who has tentacles in his torso. And also he's a ghost sometimes. As we can see in the trailer, the fourth season will investigate the persistent mystery surrounding his death:
All will be revealed when the final six episodes of The Umbrella Academy drop on Netflix on Thursday, August 8.
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