The fourth and final season of The Umbrella Academy landed on Netflix the other week, and while we generally enjoyed it, a great many fans had issues. (Beware SPOILERS below.)
One of the big issues fans had was that the relationship between Diego (David Castañeda) and Lila (Ritu Arya) petered out; between seasons, their marriage became stale and passionless, and we catch up with them around the time Lila and Diego's brother Number 5 (Aidan Gallagher) have an affair. Even Castañeda was ticked about it when he first read the scripts. "I was pissed off,” the actor said earlier this month. “I was angry. I talked to Steve a few times. I was like, ‘Hey, does this really have to happen?’”
But some time has given him perspective, as has the wave of online criticism directed against the show. In a more recent interview on the I’ve Never Said This Before With Tommy DiDario podcast, Castañeda defended the season's bold choices. “I really love that they are always taking chances,” he said. “I love that they’re like, ‘Oh, you think it’s going to be a buddy-buddy thing, and then you flip it on Five and Diego, and it gets people angry. I saw it and I was like, ‘Oh my God, people are getting really angry at this.’ And I think that’s good. It’s good to have some sort of reaction to something that things can be flipped upside down.”
Basically, he's happy the show got people thinking and talking. “Why does that make you angry?” he asked. “What about these characters made you feel comfort, and also, what are they showing about ourselves?”
The Umbrella Academy stars share their reactions to the ending
The other big thing that ticked off Umbrella Academy fans was the ending, when the superpowered Hargreeves siblings learned that their very existence was the reason why they kept getting caught up in so many apocalypses, and sacrificed themselves so the universe could rest without them in it. The ending hints that they may exist yet in some form, but it was a little bleaker than fans were expecting.
Once again, it sounds like Castañeda was thrown when he first read this twist in the scripts. “When the pages, I was kind of hoping they were dummy sides,” he said. But again, time grants wisdom. “I’m very proud of how this whole thing played out. I’m really happy with the work that we all did during season four.”
"I am happy [with] how it ended, and I’m happy because the experience of shooting the whole season and the whole series. It was the funnest season to shoot. … There was a lot of effort and a lot of love and a lot of creative output that came through."
Speaking to Decider, Elliot Page (Viktor Hargreeves) said he, for one, wasn't surprised by the ending. “When I first read it, of course, I was—I mean, I guess I wasn’t shocked,” Page said.“The ending actually made sense to me.”
Does it make sense to you? You can stream all four seasons of The Umbrella Academy now on Netflix and decide for yourself.
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