Let’s conclude Netflix Month 2 [and get back on schedule] with the last 2 episodes of season 1 of The Umbrella Academy
Changes
In 1993, a young Vanya, refusing to eat her oatmeal
accidentally attacks and seemingly kills various nannies. Reginald builds Grace
as someone who can withstand these attacks. In the present, Vanya and Leonard stop at his house
but they know where he lives so they can’t stay long. Vanya is completely
beside herself with guilt over what happened with Allison.
Vanya thinks that she may be able to explain what happened
to her family but Leonard is warning her against it. Allison is taken back to
the house; Grace will be able to save her life but will need blood.
Unfortunately, Luther’s isn’t compatible given his alterations and Klaus’ is
too polluted, which means it’s up to Diego, or Five but Five doesn’t even
volunteer, hope they have the same blood type, they’re not biological siblings
so that’s not a guarantee. Five faints at the first sight of a needle, ha.
Klaus is about to dig into drugs again, despite Ben warning
him not to, and when Klaus tries to take some pills, Ben manages to make
physical contact and punch the pills out of his mouth. They still don’t know
about Vanya but Five assumes Harold Jenkins to be their priority. Vanya gets a
drink of water and knocks over Leonard’s bag, when she tries to clean up, she
notices Reginald’s diary and begins to read it.
Leonard notices and tries to explain his way out, Vanya
turns the subject to Harold Jenkins and Vanya realises this guy has been
exactly what Allison said he was the whole time. He goads her telling her she’s
weak and nothing and I have no idea whether it was an accident on his part or
deliberate but he created a noise to incite her powers. And she uses those
powers to have every sharp object in the house go through his chest, killing
him.
Agnes is just back from her trip and is confronted by
Cha-Cha who knocks her out. Diego, Klaus and Five find Leonard’s body and Five
confirms that the eye was meant for him. Allison has stitches, but her vocal
cords were badly damaged, it’s unclear whether she’ll be able to speak when she
recovers. Diego plans to pay Hazel and Cha-Cha a visit.
Luther makes his romantic speech to Allison, and Five
answers the door to Hazel. He’s not here to kill, and fanboys out over Five for
a moment before he’s attacked by Diego. Five keeps out until Diego starts
biting, then knocks him out. Hazel had arrived to volunteer to stop the
apocalypse. Five now believes he knows for certain it’s already been averted.
Poor deluded fool.
But when it comes to exonerating Diego, it just so happens
he has the Cha-Cha’s gun, so he can clear it, though his fingerprints are
probably also all over it so, hope you don’t need your fingerprints any time
soon. Vanya listens to her voicemail. Nothing we didn’t know except that Vanya
asked for tickets for the concert to be left for her family. We also hear Allison’s
message, just to rub salt in the wound.
Allison wakes up and whilst she isn’t able to talk, she is
able to write, Pogo says it’s time for the last of Reginald’s secrets to come
to light. Diego comes too, and he and Five talk about Patch and what it is
Diego saw in her. Vanya arrives at the Academy and is greeted by Luther. Vanya
explains herself and a rather and cold and distant sounding Luther.
All seems ok, until Luther and Vanya hug and Luther uses his
strength to choke her unconscious. Vanya wakes up in the isolation chamber, and
is really desperate not to be there. Diego argues they have little evidence to
hold her there was Klaus argues compassion to someone who doesn’t have full
control, even Allison comes down and wants her released, claiming the incident
was her fault. Vanya screams as the others leave.
Hazel arrives home and finds Agnes in a contrived death
trap. He and Cha-Cha fight to Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows of all things.
Cha-Cha ultimately prevails and is about to activate the trap, but time stops
as the Handler arrives. Now with a sizable scar on her neck. Luther’s
pig-headedness has got him in Allison’s bad graces. Diego gets a treat of
blueberry pancakes from Grace and Klaus practices interacting with Ben. Five
returns the dummy back to the mall, which looks pretty pristine for somewhere
that had a shootout less than a week ago.
Vanya is forced to confront her younger self who’s basically
her evil counterpart. She’s having trouble breathing in the room and decides to
do something about, using the sound of her own heartbeat as a focus and
blasting her way out of the isolation chamber.
This episode is there to wrap up most of the lingering plot
threads and set the stage for the finale. And it does a decent job in
accomplishing those goals and honestly not much else.
Rating 7/10
The White Violin
We open long ago with a flashback where Reginald must say
goodbye to his wife, he makes a dying promise to find someone who loves the
violin as much as she did. He takes a boat to America and is inspired by a DS
Umbrella manufacturer.
Back in the present, Vanya is causing the house to shake and
everyone evacuates. She enters all of their rooms, remembering a time they were
rude to her and blows them up. I don’t think we ever got one for Klaus so go
him. Pogo tries to stop her but she asks if he knew and of course he did, so
she impales him. Ben manifests through Klaus again and saves him from falling
debris however they’re unable to save Grace form the same fate.
The entire mansion comes crumbling down and this further
rocks Diego’s world. And making matters worse, Five has found the newspaper and
come to realisation, despite not even knowing anything about Vanya’s situation up until
right now, that Vanya is the cause of the apocalypse. Speaking of which, the
Handler clears the air with Hazel and Cha-Cha, giving them a new assignment and
promising them both what they want if they complete it. Protect Vanya at all
costs. Agnes will remain the Handler’s prisoner until that happens.
Vanya gets the violin from her apartment and prepares to
head out for her concert. It’s becoming a debate over what needs to be done
against Vanya. Luther and Five think that killing her is the only option,
especially given what’s at stake. Diego is less sure and Allison does not want
to. Klaus is offered a voice but saying that Ben was responsible for saving
Diego only further makes him sound crazy to the others. They know that he can
communicate with the dead, right, it’s not that far-fetched.
Whilst they argue, Five gets a message from the agency,
they’d tracked him thanks to a toffee he took from the Handler’s office. He
gets an invitation to the motel. Hazel and Cha-Cha discuss, Hazel believes the
Agency’s offer isn’t real. They have no briefcase so no means of escape when
the apocalypse happens. The watch as Vanya gets on the bus. She has a
flashback, the team were on a long-term mission and Vanya catches the sight of
the violin, which Reginald just lets her have.
Allison asks to use Luther’s voice to speak for her to her
daughter. It starts off well but she drops the notepad, and there’s not a lot
of room to pick it up, especially given Luther’s bulk. Luther manages to speak for
her in a different way. Vanya arrives at her destination and Hazel decides to
crash the car and send Cha-Cha flying. Amazingly, the car still works well
enough for him to drive away.
The rest of the family are ambushed by more agency shooters.
They’re pinned down but some accurate knife-shots from Diego and accurate headshots
from Luther, they thin the heard enough to make their escape. Five is basically
being called away as a distraction, he soon realises this and heads back. The
show begins and Vanya begins to play.
The family arrive and Allison wants to approach Vanya alone,
Luther agrees to this but in truth is just using her as a diversion. Klaus is
given lookout duty. Hazel arrives back at the motel and shoots the Handler
dead, rescuing Agnes. And she isn’t at all mad about it. Allison approaches
Vanya from the audience side whilst Diego and Luther are backstage. Her playing
is quite beautiful. Diego and Luther and make their move but Vanya sees them
coming and blasts them away. They’re fine and the audience abandons the theatre
as time agents begin swarming the place. So much for the lookout.
He’s busy having a pastrami sandwich as he notices Cha-Cha
limping in his direction. Everyone is pinned down, Klaus uses his powers and
psychically manifests Ben, who uses his tentacle powers to f*cking annihilate
the time agents. Diego gets to fight Cha-Cha and in her injured state he can
defeat her. He spares her, to honour Patch’s memory
With the end of the concert likely beginning the end of the
world, they decide to surround her and try to approach, it may not end well for
all, but if even one of them makes it, they might have a hope. To no-one’s
surprise it’s Allison that has to make that choice as none of the others make
it. She has a gun to her head, but instead of shooting her, shoots just to the
side, disrupting her hearing. Unfortunately, that sends a beam of energy from
her right up to the moon, it begins cracking it apart and destroying it. Chunks
of the moon begin impacting the Earth, causing the apocalypse.
Five has a way out for them, he can use his ability to
time-travel and theoretically he can take them with him. Vanya too as helping
her is necessary in the long run. Hazel and Agnes escape using the briefcase
the Handler was using. Cha-Cha is killed in the inferno. They just about manage
to make the jump before the apocalypse.
I am not usually fond of this kind of ending, but from the
beginning this was inevitable. Vanya was overlooked and ignored as she got on
with her subplots which gradually increased in importance till she becomes the
focal antagonist. Her personality is all but gone after the mansion scene, not
sure if that’s intentional but… It’s got some awesome action moments and even
some nice character bits sprinkled in.
Rating 8/10
As of this review I haven’t actually watched season 2 yet, but rest assured doing this retrospective has reignited my interest in this show and we will cover season 2 at a later time.
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