This story contains spoilers from season 3 of The Umbrella Academy.
The Umbrella Academy saved the world again — this time from collapsing unto itself. But while the Hargreeves siblings all successfully returned to the correct timeline after resetting the universe once more (thanks to Allison’s impulsive decision to push the mysterious button), it isn’t business as usual for the main heroes.
Left quite literally without powers and uncertain of the repercussions that await them, the Umbrella crew — all with very different priorities on their minds — splintered off at the end of the season 3 finale, huge questions looming over what their new(ish) reality as mortals may look like. “We leave them in a darker, sadder place this year,” showrunner/executive producer Steve Blackman tells ET of the state of affairs by season’s end.
With Allison newly reunited with her daughter and 1960s husband (somehow), Luther desperately searching for Sloane, Klaus going after him following his otherworldly death experience, Diego and Lila warming to the idea of normalcy (and impending parenthood), Viktor angry at Papa Hargreeves and Number Five embarking on his own plan, it’s difficult to imagine how and when the family will reunite after finding themselves broken.
Following the season, Blackman hopped on the phone with ET to break down the final moments of the season, what his plan for a possible season 4 looks like now that the gang is without powers and what the mysterious bonus scene with Ben tees up for the future.
ET: Let’s break down the end of the season because a lot happened in the finale. Allison heeds everyone’s warning not to press the button and presses it, resetting the timeline and reuniting with her daughter, Claire, but also her husband from the 1960s, Ray. On the flip side, they’re all powerless. What can you tell us about where we find them at the end of the season as they literally and figuratively part ways?
Steve Blackman: It’s a great question, and it’s a little different than in other seasons, where it was a full [cliff]hanger where we do a hard pickup of right where we left off. This season’s slightly different because they all walk away from each other in the end. What happened is, to be clear — because a lot’s going on those last 10 minutes — Hargreeves has reprogrammed the universe. He’s made the deal with Allison that, if she backs him up, she’ll get what she wants. We don’t see what the deal is made privately, but the deal is “I will give you back your daughter and husband.” They should not exist in the same timeline. One lives in ’63, one’s from 2018.
But in the end, we see that Allison does get them both back in the same timeline, that Allison is not dead. Allison’s alive and well, and so are Claire and Ray, but they’re all together in her house at home. She’s not with our family, but she doesn’t quite complete her bargain with him, because she does not let him finish doing what he’s doing. Hargreeves is playing with this machine that we don’t understand. There clearly will be repercussions to not letting him finish for next season. She has no idea what buttons she’s pressing — the other siblings [are warning her,] “Don’t press the button.” Five says, “You don’t know what that is.” She presses it anyway. And then, the kids find themselves back in the right time period. But now, they’re powerless.
People look at the season and say Hargreeves was so cruel and so mean. You could argue from Hargreeves’ point of view that he’s given them a gift that he knew that no matter what he’s getting them, he was going to reset the universe and they’d all be alive again. And he’s given them the greatest gift, which is he’s taken away the thing they complained about the most, which is having the powers. The question is the saying, “Once you have a thing and you lose it, can you be OK with it?” Can these siblings having powers, now that they’re, quote unquote “normal,” can they go on with their lives that way? Can you go back? [That] clearly is going to be part of next year’s season, if we’re lucky enough to get picked up. I think it’s a good guess to say they will eventually get their powers back somehow, but can you live your life without them? And how will that matter?
And Hargreeves is with his wife again, something that he’s wanted for a hundred years. But does he really get what he wants? And is she going to be the woman that he thinks he left behind a hundred years ago? There are a lot of complications. Also, if you look very closely at the world, when we go up to Hargreeves and his wife, it’s a different looking, slightly altered world again where Hargreeves Enterprises is very out in the open. It seems much less like he’s the Howard Hughes, now more like the Elon Musk. He’s much more vocal and out in the world. Something has to be altered there. But we leave them in a darker, sadder place this year.
They all have different priorities at the end of the season. Luther, for instance, fell in love with the enemy, met Sloane and got married. What is his mindset now?
His priority is finding her.
How do you bring the family back together because they’re quite broken at the end?
I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do for a fourth season. I don’t want to give it away but I will say that, obviously Luther got married as the world was ending. But he did get married and Klaus feels the need to look after him, so he goes out after him. Lila and Diego are having a baby. I mean, she really had quite the Stan fiasco, kicking the tires to see if he’s a good dad or not. Five has his own agenda. And Viktor is in a place with his own challenges and has to come into his own now, and he is pretty angry at Dad. And obviously, we still have one Sparrow left, Ben, who still hates these people, still hates his siblings. So he’s not going to stick around. How this group comes back together again will be a lot of fun in season 4. What will that look like? I have a plan. If we’re lucky enough to get the season 4, all these great questions you’re asking me will be answered.
Allison had quite the journey this season. She was far more reckless and unhinged this season than we’ve ever seen her, some of it due to the circumstances of her situation. What’s your take on how her arc progressed this year?
Let me just say a little bit about that. Emmy and I talked about — after season 2, we both agreed Allison was literally in Jim Crow South, a woman of color, 1963 and for the first year she literally, physically had no voice because her throat was cut. And when she did have a voice, no one listened because she was a woman of color. So she has gone through this experience. She’s now left her husband, thinking she’s going to get back her daughter, comes back and her daughter’s not here. She’s lost two people she’s loved. She’s definitely trying to find her voice, but she’s in so much pain. And Emmy and I talked about that she should have PTSD from this experience from being in the South. I read some of the people online saying that Allison is so angry this year, and I wrote back and said, “No, Allison is in so much pain this year, it’s coming out as anger and frustration,” and she’s unraveling.
She’s devastated by a loss of the two people she loved. She took a gamble to leave Ray for her daughter and it was a bad gamble. She didn’t like what she’s seeing in front of that mirror and trying to remember herself. That is Allison at a low point. She’s desperate to try to make this pain go away in her heart. I love her story this year. I love that Allison is coming apart and is so broken by the loss of these loved ones that she’s willing to make a deal with, quote unquote, the “devil Dad.” Ultimately, she stops him but the question is, is it too late? She does save [her siblings’] lives because I’m not sure how well they would’ve done if they kept going in the machine, but I loved her during this year.
There is a tag at the end of the season with Ben on a train in South Korea. Is that the same Ben from this season?
I can tell you the answer to that. He is the same version of Ben that we saw and we’re seeing something that will probably happen in next season. It’s sort of a little hint of what’s coming. But that is our Ben. That’s not the Ben from another timeline. That is Sparrow Ben, and that’s all I can tell you. He is definitely in Korea. That is a Korean subway car — you can hear by the voices. But how that fits into the next season, I’m not going to tell anybody. That’s a secret!
When the question was posed to Justin H. Min, he had no clue.
I love torturing the actors on certain things. It’s better that way because sometimes, they go down a rabbit hole. They’re so smart. They’ll look at layers. I’m like, “Don’t go that deep into it.” So, this is one of the ones I’m saying, just got to trust me. Trust me, it’ll all make sense when you read scripts next year if we get a fourth season.
Javon Walton was also a great addition to the season as Stan. He disappeared as part of the kugelblitz, but is there a chance he’ll somehow be back?
I cannot answer the question. I just want to say that he’s a phenomenal actor and me and the other producer, Jeff King, we’d seen him on Euphoria. They said, “He is phenomenal, but you think he can do comedy?” And we’re like, “Of course he can, he’s a phenomenal actor.” And he is a lovely young man. His parents are lovely. He came and he did his stuff and he became super close in real life to David Castañeda. They would go boxing every weekend, together. He was so wonderful, that kid.
So you won’t divulge if there’s a possibility for his return?
I cannot. I can neither confirm nor deny.
Now that people have had time to watch the episodes, is there anything you want to set the record straight on in terms of fan theories?
It’s early days. The one thing I want to make sure people understand is that I think there are a lot of people who believe that Allison, Ray and Claire are ghosts. They’re not. She did get them back. Ray and Claire now exist in this timeline, which is not meant to be. Even though she’s not with the siblings in that park, she’s in L.A. with [Ray and Claire] in the exact same period of time. I got a few fans who said, “No, no, that’s the void,” and that they’re dead. I’m like, “No, no, they’re not dead. That is real.” And Ray is just as real as Claire is real as Allison’s real.
Tom Hopper must be a little relieved he doesn’t have to wear the muscle suit every day potentially…
Can I tell you what he said to me the other day? You’re the only person I’ve told this to. He said he’s torn. “Next season, if we didn’t have you in a suit as much, how do you feel?” He goes, “Well, except… I hate this suit,” he says, “except for, when I put it on, I kind of become Luther now. It’s part of how I embody the character. I think it’s going to be weird if I don’t have it.” So, I thought that was a wonderfully honest answer from Tom Hopper, who’s just a gentleman.
The Umbrella Academy is streaming now on Netflix.
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