Photograph: Christos Kalohoridis/Netflix
The Jennifer Incident has bedeviled Umbrella Academy followers for practically so long as The Umbrella Academy has been round. It was first teased in one in every of creator Gerard Means’s earliest comics as an inexplicable headline framed on a wall. “I don’t know what it even refers to. I simply got here up with one thing that sounded attention-grabbing and could possibly be thought-provoking,” he later confessed.
Greater than 16 years later, the Jennifer Incident appears poised to repay in an enormous approach. Following a pair extra teases in season three — most notably, sketches of a girl present in Ben’s room with the identify “Jennifer” written on them — Jennifer herself, who it seems was hiding in New Grumpson underneath the identify “Rosie” all alongside, is trying like the important thing to The Umbrella Academy’s endgame.
“The Squid and the Woman” — a reference to the enigmatic flashback that opens the episode, but additionally perhaps to the bond between Jennifer and the many-tentacled Ben — is your traditional filler episode, spending a lot of its run time shifting the items across the board to arrange larger issues down the street. However that doesn’t make it uninteresting to look at. Following the automobile crash and the kidnapping of Jennifer by Jean and Gene within the final episode, the Umbrellas are left with out a clear path ahead. In order that they make one up. 5, Diego, and Lila will head to the Keepers’ headquarters and see if they’ll flip up new data on Jean and Gene; Luther, Allison, and Viktor will confront Reginald Hargreeves and see what he has to say about New Grumpson. (Ben, being Ben, goes his personal approach. We’ll get to him later.)
As for what every trio learns? The reply, on this episode, is … not a lot. Lila follows 5 into his bizarre alternate-universe subway. That leads them into a short, enjoyable detour into season one’s Apocalypse Suite future, the place that timeline’s 5 tries and fails to kill them. In the meantime, Diego digs up information revealing Jean and Gene’s obsession with what they name the Cleanse, which is tied to the universe during which Ben died on October 14, 2006.
In the meantime, Luther, Allison, and Viktor present up at Reginald’s mansion prepared for a battle and obtain … a heat welcome. Due to a détente negotiated by Reginald’s spouse, Abigail (who, due to the shenanigans within the season-three finale, is alive on this timeline), this half of the household sits down for a comparatively civilized dialog during which they notice that they, like us, don’t know what the Jennifer Incident is. They’ve been delivering the identical banal platitudes about it for therefore lengthy — “it was a tragic accident; Ben died as a result of we failed as a staff” — that they by no means realized that none of them even keep in mind how Ben died. Somebody’s been taking part in round of their brains, and the episode ends on a cliffhanger, as a lot of the Umbrellas strap themselves right into a machine designed to revive no matter reminiscences have been stolen.
However Ben doesn’t have time for all this. He feels a deep, emotional connection to Jennifer, however it’s apparent that there’s extra to the story. We knew that already, type of; earlier than this episode, one of many few issues that was clear concerning the Jennifer Incident was that it resulted in Ben’s dying. However their bond is outwardly bodily as nicely: All through the episode, they concurrently expertise the identical unusual burning impact on their arms and faces.
It’s this charged relationship that conjures up Ben to go full Beast Mode, exploding into Jean and Gene’s compound and killing anybody between him and Jennifer. They handle to flee however solely as a result of Jean and Gene betray their very own guards to let it occur. They’ll do something, apparently, to get to the timeline they like.
And, as new as they’re to The Umbrella Academy, it’s Jean and Gene’s facet of this story that pursuits me probably the most. For all their grandiosity, Jean and Gene are simply two losers satisfied the universe dealt them a nasty hand. They don’t wish to be professors at New Mexico’s Golden Mesa Group School; they need Harvard tenures and MacArthur fellowships. It appears to me their lives on this timeline aren’t so dangerous; they’ve a loving marriage, a compound with a military of goons, and a strong sufficient euchre ability set to win some native tournaments. But when there’s one lesson The Umbrella Academy has hammered residence, it’s that the data that there’s extra on the market makes folks need extra — irrespective of how a lot injury they do to themselves or others within the course of.
• In the meantime, Klaus — as soon as once more superpowered, as soon as once more self-destructive — steals some stuff from Allison’s home, blows up his relationship along with her daughter Claire, and reconnects with an embittered former vendor who shoots him within the head. (Klaus, being Klaus, wakes up simply high-quality.) I’m not bought on the thought of stranding Klaus in a narrative line completely separate from his siblings, particularly one which’s so bleak, however I assume we’ll must see the place that is going.
• As was true final season, I’m not fully certain what to make of what The Umbrella Academy is doing with Allison. In the course of this episode’s intrafamily squabble, she angrily asks if anybody else must get something off their chests, then snarls “I’m finished being the dangerous man on this household.” I get why she’d be pissed off by that, however, uh … isn’t she? A lot of her arc in season three was about screwing all people over in methods the present acknowledged (killing Harlan, secretly teaming up with Reginald, playing her siblings’ future to get Ray and Claire again) and in methods it didn’t (assaulting Luther). Given all that, I’d say the Umbrellas are extremely trusting and forgiving of her. It’s potential there’s an even bigger plan within the works right here — Allison because the present’s true remaining boss can be one attention-grabbing technique to spin issues, particularly since we now know Ray is out of the image — however the present’s grasp on her character feels hazier than any of her siblings, which makes it more durable to make an informed guess about whether or not there’s any actual payoff on the horizon.
• What The Umbrella Academy does appear to be doing is teeing up a love triangle between Diego, Lila, and 5. It’s potential that’s a purple herring — Lila simply laughs at Diego when he mentions the person with the mustache within the diner — however the present is spending an terrible lot of time increase 5 and Lila’s distinctive connection if there’s no plan to do something with it.
• A lot of previous faces are briefly glimpsed on this episode, together with 5’s postapocalyptic model “girlfriend,” Delores; Pogo, the supersmart chimpanzee; and Grace, the Umbrella Academy’s robotic mom.
• There’s a short shot of Abigail giving a bizarre look when Reginald says he doesn’t know Sy Grossman. Does she know greater than she’s saying? Most likely.
• In case the final episode didn’t drill it into your head sufficient, “The Squid and the Woman” additionally provides us a “Child Shark” reprise.
• Different songs on this episode: “Cash (That’s What I Need),” by Barrett Robust; “Leap Into the Hearth,” by Harry Nilsson; and, unforgettably, “Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves,” by Cher.
• For anybody feeling as adventurous as Jean and Gene, right here’s a primer on alpaca milk.