A final sacrifice: The Umbrella Academy season 4 ending and post-credits scene explained

Since 2019, the Hargreeves family have been a beloved part of our Netflix binges, but today is the day we finally say goodbye to their story. After four seasons, the ending episode of The Umbrella Academy arrived on the streaming platform this morning and explained many mysteries of the show, but fans still have many questions left unanswered.

We were promised that it “ends properly” by Robert Sheehan, who has played hedonistic Klaus Hargreeves in the show since 2019. He expressed that “I felt fairly at peace about it. It certainly had a kind of book closed feeling to it.”

via Netflix

Lila actress Ritu Arya was asked about her feelings on the finale: “I was an emotional wreck! That was very hard for me. I just love this cast and I love this show. So I guess it was easy in terms of bringing emotion – it was real.”

However, many fans were left confused and dumbfounded at the show’s wrap-up. Here’s a rundown of everything that happened in The Umbrella Academy season four ending, in a very fitting finale episode titled End of the Beginning. Spoilers ahead!!

The Hargreeves siblings wiped themselves from history because their existence was causing their original timeline to collapse

via Netflix

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So, the Hargreeves siblings realised that their mysterious births, all on the same fateful day in 1989, and the acquiring of their powers, shattered their own timeline and created many alternate ones which began to bleed into each other and cause an apocalypse. They needed to erase marigold from the universe to stop the world from constantly ending, and by doing so, use the Cleanse to erase the Hargreeves from existence.

Five is the one to learn this information, and once he does, he relays it to Lila and his siblings, who realise their sad fate: They must sacrifice themselves for the sake of the universe. Claire, Diego and Lila’s kids are sent to the subway with Lila’s parents so they can travel to another timeline and be saved from the Cleanse. Lila tries to go with them but she also has marigold in her, which means she risks shattering the universe too, and she’s ultimately convinced by Five to stay with the others.

via Netflix

They all gather in their old house and let the Cleanse take them.

The final shot of the show is a scene of people having a lovely day in a park: Among them are Claire, Diego and Lila’s parents and children. It’s the 8th of August, and “just a normal day”. Now I’m emotional.

Wait, what is marigold?

via Netflix

In case you missed it, marigold is the reason that the Hargreeves siblings have their powers in the first place. It was made by Reginald Hargreeves’s wife, Abigail. We also learn in the show that she accidentally invented durango, another substance, that is inside Jennifer. When marigold and durango combine together, they cause a total extinction of the universe, otherwise known as the Cleanse.

So the Cleanse is an extinction level event?

Yes, it’s basically the end of the world. The Hargreeves siblings have spent most of the show trying to stop different apocalypses, so really it’s nothing new for them to deal with. The Cleanse is caused by Jennifer, who of course has the durango particle in her.

What was the Jennifer incident?

via Netflix

Fans have been DYING to know what the Jennifer incident was since it was mentioned but not explained in season three. All we knew was that it was the cause of Ben’s death.

In season four, episode three, we finally get to the bottom of Jennifer’s backstory. When she was a girl, she was discovered inside a massive squid. When asked how she got there, she just replied with “the Cleanse,” which makes her so interesting, especially to Gene and Jean who are doing everything in their power to avoid the extinction level catastrophe. They both end up dead BTW, at the hands of Abigail.

Reginald Hargreeves eventually reveals he built New Grumpson to protect Jennifer from the gifted children. He also says that the reason none of them can remember exactly how Ben died is because he wiped all memories of her.

So, the Jennifer incident ends up being that the siblings are told to locate and destroy a weapon which is actually Jennifer. When Ben hears her inside a box, he goes against his orders to get her out and destroy her. When their hands touch, there’s an energy shock, which we now know is the marigold and durango combining. Reginald finds out and shoots them both dead. Mystery solved – and a crazy ending to a crazy show.

What about the post-credit scene?

via Netflix

The post-credit scene kind of suggests that the Hargreeves siblings may still be alive, but how? Well, we return to the park in a post-credit scene, and the camera pans down to show eight marigold flowers blooming, which just has to be a reference to the siblings. Although they’re probably dead as humans, it’s a nice touch to think that they still exist somehow.

Showrunner Steve Blackman remained deliberately ambiguous about this moment, and said “It’s a little something something! It’s for the fans to decide what that means – I’m not gonna give my interpretation but everyone can have their own interpretation of what that means.” I guess that explained it all – it means the enigma of the Umbrella Academy ending lives on.

Will there be a season 5?

It’s very unlikely the show will return for a fifth season, since it seemed to wrap itself up nicely. Netflix hasn’t put out the green light on any spinoffs or further seasons so for now we’ll take this as a goodbye.

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