In The Umbrella Academy season 4 episode 3, dysfunction is at the heart of the Hargreeves family. The failure of the Jennifer (Victoria Sawal) search-and-rescue mission brings old resentments to the surface once more.
Working together as a team has only got them so far, and while they all survived the van crash physically unscathed, the same is not true for their relationships. For instance, Klaus (Robert Sheehan) is furious with Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) for giving him the life-saving marigold because he thinks his powers will cause a relapse.
Old grievances aren't the only issue, as Jennifer was kidnapped by Gene (Nick Offerman) and Jean (Megan Mullally). Everyone has different ideas about what to do next, which makes the group split up again. Plus, the way the Umbrella Academy's version of Ben (Justin H. Min) died could crack open this mystery.
The squid and the girl
In the opening scene, an old news report from 1996 about two fishermen catching a giant squid is incredibly revealing. Inside the squid is a little girl who says that "The Cleanse" is how she came to be in the squid. It doesn't get noticed that Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) is standing in the background, as he is always at the scene of any event of great importance. It seems likely this little girl is Jennifer, which explains why she has no idea about her origin.
In the present, Five (Aidan Gallagher) tells his siblings that Gene and Jean lead an extremist group called the Keepers, who believe they have memories from an alternate timeline and call it "The Umbrella Effect."
Klaus doesn't want to stick around, leaving the scene of the crash after he tells everyone some hard truths about their particular issues, which primarily relate to their parents.
Splitting up
While the van receives much-needed repairs, the rest of the team devises a plan. Luther (Tom Hopper) mentions that everyone in the town where they rescued Jennifer wore Hargreeves Enterprises attire. Could Jennifer be one of them?
Going to see Reginald is a top priority, but Ben's arm has been burning with a glowing rash that links him to Jennifer. He decides to go off alone to find her rather than head to Reginald's with Luther, Allison and Viktor (Elliot Page). Thanks to this cosmic bond, Jennifer can also feel Ben and is equally confused by its meaning. When Jean and Gene ask her about the Cleanse, Jennifer is mystified.
Lila (Ritu Arya) and Five will continue to pursue the Keeper angle, and Diego (David Castañeda) insists on joining them. Lila admits to her husband she isn't having an affair, but she has been secretly looking into the Keepers. Diego can't seem to grasp that the former assassin needs something beyond being a stay-at-home mom.
Connecting the many dots
Keeper HQ has been cleared out, but Diego thinks Jean and Gene might have left something behind in the rush. While Diego continues to search the trash, Lila asks why Five can't blink. Five demonstrates he still can, but the "janky marigold" limits his scope to a strange subway station. Lila wants to explore the subway network. The first train that arrives takes them to the timeline of Five's original apocalypse. So they are not jumping forward or backward but to alternate versions of the present.
A version of Five shoots at himself and Lila, so they flee and blink back to the Keeper HQ. Diego hadn't noticed they were even gone, but he found a very useful redacted document dated October 14, 2006. This was the date their Ben died in a "tragic accident." It refers to these events as "The Jennifer Incident."
Elsewhere, the Sparrow version of Ben encounters the mysterious Sy Grossman (David Cross), who seems to be pulling all the strings. Sy looks pleased when Ben says he can't stop thinking about Jennifer and that Ben should listen to what his body tells him. Everything Ben needs to find Jennifer he has within, suggesting that this glowing connection is the key to locating Jennifer. Sy is unphased when Ben says he knows that Sy isn't Jennifer's father, but Sy does not reveal why he sent the siblings on this mission.
Gene and Jean tell Jennifer she is the key to destroying the false timelines and restoring the real one. To motivate Jennifer, they lock her in the barn with the corpse of the giant squid, confirming that Jennifer is the little girl from the news report. Later, Ben comes to rescue Jennifer using his tentacle power, and Gene and Jean let them escape.
Tea with Abigail
Instead of meeting resistance at Reginald's home, Luther, Viktor and Allison are welcomed with open arms by Abigail (Liisa Repo-Martell), who has laid out afternoon tea for them. Abigail thanks Luther for looking out for her when she was on the moon. In The Umbrella Academy season 3, it was revealed that Abigail's cryogenically frozen body was what Luther was protecting. She knows all about the siblings' achievements. When Reginald joins them, it's clear she has the power in this dynamic.
Klaus is not present as he is now being held captive by a drug dealer he owes a lot of money to. This dealer killed Klaus' dead, but realizes there is money to be made from Klaus' unique immortality abilities.
Reginald wants to know how they got their powers back and explains that he was protecting Jennifer from them as she is their complete opposite and more powerful than all combined. Five, Lila and Diego arrive and bring up the Jennifer Incident, which occurred the same day Ben died.
Everyone parrots the same line about it being a tragic accident, suggesting that their Reginald wiped their memory of how Ben died. Neither Viktor nor Five were present when it happened, but when they are offered the chance to restore their memories via the technology Reginald possesses, Viktor joins his siblings. What secrets will they unlock?
All episodes of The Umbrella Academy are now available to stream on Netflix.
