Spoilers for The Umbrella Academy season 3 lie ahead.
Season 3 of The Umbrella Academy includes a plethora of WTF moments, but the finale really takes the cake. Between its multiple timelines, the character’s unbelievable powers, and some unexpected plot twists, the third season will have your mind doing mental gymnastics long after it’s over. So what exactly happened in the season 3 finale?
The third season of The Umbrella Academy pits our favorite superhero siblings against members of the Sparrow Academy. Much like the Umbrellas, the Sparrows were adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves after 43 super-powered babies were born on October 1, 1989 all over the world. In this timeline, Reginald adopted a completely different group of children, with Ben being the only member of both groups.
Much of the drama takes place inside Hotel Obsidian, where the original Hargreeves siblings stay after finding themselves in a timeline in which they don’t exist. Soon, the gang discovers a strange tunnel, which turns out to be a portal, that leads to Hotel Oblivion. While Oblivion is a mirror image of Obsidian, it’s revealed that Reginald built the hotel. It’s suggested that he did so to conceal the portal, that’s guarded by several supernatural and somewhat deadly warriors.
As the season comes to a head, the Umbrellas and the Sparrows (or what’s left of them) must join forces to fight off the guardians and gain access to the portal. Here’s what happened in The Umbrella Academy‘s season 3 finale.
The remaining team members explore Hotel Oblivion.
After Reginald leaves Klaus on the other side of the tunnel, the remaining members of the Sparrow and Umbrella Academies make it through to the flipped White Buffalo suite in Hotel Oblivion. Five, Viktor, Allison, Diego, Lila, Sloane, and Ben make it through alive, along with Sir Reginald, who declares, “This place is a test and a trap and a means of salvation all at once.”
Reginald announces that they must find the sigil in order to reset the universe, by way of a machine that’s hidden inside Hotel Oblivion. The Sparrows and Umbrellas split up and search different floors of the hotel, but it soon becomes apparent that the building is playing tricks on them.
Klaus and Luther wake up in the afterlife.
Meanwhile, Luther and Klaus wake up in the afterlife together, after Luther’s murder and Klaus’ suicide at the end of episode 9. Luther tries to convince Klaus to return to save the rest of their family. However, Luther’s means of persuasion don’t work here—when he punches Klaus, it’s revealed that there’s no pain felt in the afterlife.
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They travel through several different locations. After landing on a bouncy house, Klaus remarks, “This is someone’s idea of heaven?” This suggestion could be a major clue about where one character ends up.
Klaus returns from the dead, and the guardians attack.
At Luther’s request, Klaus returns only to be killed by Reginald again, who proceeds to ring the bell in the lobby that summons the hotel’s guardians, knowing they’ll attack his children.
Allison reveals to Viktor that she’s working with Reginald, and made a deal with him to get back to their original timeline. However, she says she had no idea Reginald would kill Luther in the process.
Ben, Five, and Sloane work together to defeat one of the guardians. Lila mimics Viktor’s powers, and the pair destroy another guardian. The final guardian jumps through the ceiling of the lobby and attacks the entire group, injuring them in the process.
Luther returns… but not for long.
During their battle with the final guardian, Luther returns to save his wife, Sloane. However, it’s soon revealed that he’s merely a ghost being summoned by Klaus.
Ghost Luther berates his father for leaving him on the moon for so long, and then killing him. Reginald reveals that Luther was, in fact, guarding something precious during his mission on the moon (more on that later). Luther disappears when an injured Klaus can no longer hold his apparition.
Reginald manipulates his children and reveals his plan.
Five discovers the sigil is on the hotel lobby floor. The sigil features seven stars, and Reginald instructs seven of the Hargreeves children to stand on the markers. Reginald stops Allison from standing on a star, presumably as part of the deal they’ve made. Diego, Lila, Five, Viktor, Sloane, Ben, and Klaus take their places on the sigil, immediately switching a giant machine on, which kills the remaining guardian.
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The machine starts extracting energy from those standing on the sigil. When Allison tells Reginald he’s hurting the others, he explains that “the particles inside their bodies are the only things that fuel the machine.” As for what that machine might be, Reginald says, “The hotel was just a facade. We’re stuck inside a machine in another dimension. Whoever created the universe built this place.” Justifying the fact that “he’s killing them,” Reginald tells Allison, “Everything in life has a price.”
Allison kills Reginald, and ends up in… heaven?
Allison shouts for Reginald to stop, employing her strong powers of persuasion, but it doesn’t work. She picks up a sickle left by one of the guardians and hits her father with it, slicing through his brain. Seeing his anatomy, it’s revealed that Reginald isn’t human (something viewers already knew), and he falls to the floor dead.
The seven Sparrow and Umbrella teammates fall down, no longer being drained by the machine. A red button appears on the screen, and despite her family begging her not to, Allison presses it.
In the next scene, Allison arrives via taxi at her old house in Los Angeles. She lets herself in with the spare key, goes upstairs, and wakes up her daughter, Claire. It looks as though she’s made it back to the original timeline, and Allison says, “I’m just so happy to be home.” Then her husband from the 1960s, Ray, appears in the doorway and says, “It’s where you were always meant to be.” Obviously, as Ray isn’t Claire’s father, this begs some questions.
It’s possible that Allison manages to rescue Ray from a past he’s set to die in, and convinces him to return to 2019 with her, where she can also be with her daughter. However, it seems much more likely that Allison is dead, and this is her version of heaven. After all, Klaus suggests earlier in the episode that heaven looks different for everyone, and Allison has made it clear that her life is nothing without Claire and Ray. Only time will tell what has really happened to Allison, though, as anything can happen in The Umbrella Academy.
Everyone else ends up in another timeline, and decides to split up?!
Following Allison’s decision to press the big red button, an elevator door opens, and the remaining members of the gang find themselves in Obsidian Memorial Park. A statue of their father sits at the center and reads, “Graciously donated by Sir Reginald Hargreeves this 1st day of October 1989,” which just so happens to be the birthday of each of his adoptive children.
It soon transpires that this reality isn’t home. Five suggests that Reginald was successful in resetting the universe. Luther walks through the door, somehow alive again, and his body no longer has its ape-like muscle tone and statue. Instead, he’s just a normal man. Viktor, Ben, Five, Lila, Diego, and Klaus all enter the square too, but Sloane has disappeared. All of the ailments caused during their fights with the guardians are healed, but their superpowers are also gone. They all decide to split up.
Reginald rules the world.
The camera pans to reveal that, in this timeline, Sir Reginald Hargreeves rules. At the top of a skyscraper with his name on it, Reginald surveys the city. He’s joined by his wife Abigail, whose story was told in the finale of season 1. After Abigail passed away on their home planet, Reginald left her body in stasis on the moon. In episode 9 of season 3, we see Abigail’s body preserved at the space station, and Luther nearby, seemingly unaware of what he’s guarding. It would seem that Reginald hatched a convoluted plan to reset the universe, and bring Abigail back to life.
In a post-credits scene, Ben is seen riding the subway, but which Ben is it?! Please don’t make us wait two years to find out.
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