mashable-rss
Elliot Page and ‘The Umbrella Academy’ cast reveal what their characters must sacrifice in the final season
Elliot Page is joined by Ritu Arya, Robery Sheehan, Justin H. Min, Aidan Gallagher, Tom Hopper and David Castañeda to discuss their characters’ relationships to ‘sacrifice’ in the final season of ‘The Umbrella Academy’.
Elliot Page is joined by Ritu Arya, Robery Sheehan, Justin H. Min, Aidan Gallagher, Tom Hopper and David Castañeda to discuss their characters’ relationships to ‘sacrifice’ in the final season of ‘The Umbrella Academy’.
‘Saturday Night’ trailer: Watch Lorne Michaels try to get SNL off the ground
Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Willem Dafoe, and more star in Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night,” about SNL’s first-ever live show.
Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Willem Dafoe, and more star in Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night,” about SNL’s first-ever live show.
‘The Umbrella Academy’ finale: A guide to everyone in that last scene
In the last scene of “The Umbrella Academy”, a bunch of characters returned. Here’s who they are.
The Umbrella Academy is over, friends. And in the very last moments of Season 4, we got to briefly reunite with some of the series’ characters beyond the core Hargreeves.
In the final scene of the series forever, we find ourselves in a utopian park, listening to the sounds of Tommy James and the Shondells’ original 1967 version of “I Think We’re Alone Now” — a perfect final song for The Umbrella Academy. We see a family blowing bubbles, a group of blonde men playing frisbee, and two people playing backgammon while being sketched. It’s all very lovely and meant to show the results of the Hargreeves’ final act.
“We wanted to make the final moment really special and say that in this final timeline, things have all come back to normal. All the other timelines don’t exist and it’s just a normal life,” series creator Steve Blackman told Netflix’s Tudum blog. “So we brought back in as many of the returning cast as we could.”
But who was that guy? And why do I remember that face? We’re here to help identify every familiar face in the final scene, and there’s some spoilers in here so beware.
The family on the lawn
Blowing bubbles and having tea parties on the lawn, Lila (Ritu Arya) and Diego’s (David Castañeda) family have made it, including Lila’s parents (Geet Arora and Shiva Safari), Uncle Inny (Sylvan Valladares), Aunt Banu (Gurbir Bal), Cousin Ronnie (Devanshu Narang), and their daughter Grace (Ciara Rose Feeney). They’re joined by Allison’s daughter Claire (Millie Davis). They were all put on a time-travelling subway train by Lila to ensure their safety before the Hargreeves made their final sacrifice — so, it worked.
The three guys playing frisbee
Remember the Swedes? The assassins from Season 2? They’re not dead, nor will they be as they don’t foolishly try to kill the Hargreeves siblings in the future! Triplets Otto (Jason Bryden), Axel (Kris Holden-Ried), and Oscar (Tom Sinclair) were assigned to kill the Umbrella Academy members by the Handler of the Temps Commission, and they all died instead.
The two people walking their bikes
That’s Griddy’s Doughnuts owner Agnes Rofa (Sheila McCarthy) and time-travelling assassin Hazel (Cameron Britton) who fell in love in Season 1.
The lady pushing the pram
No longer a Kugelblitz worshipping android, the Hargreeves’ robot mother Grace (Jordan Claire Robbins) pushes a pram holding a baby presumably without powers.
The jogger
Stopping to stretch, that jogger is The Handler (Kate Walsh), Lila’s adoptive mother and a big cheese at the Temps Commission in Season 2. She’s the main villain in that season, so it’s nice to see her more centred.
The sketcher
That’s none other that The Umbrella Academy‘s comic book co-creator, illustrator by Gabriel Bá. “I hope people scream a little if they catch me there because it was fun for me,” Bá told Tudum.
The backgammon players
Being sketched by Bá is Herb (Ken Hall) and Dot (Patrice Goodman) from the Temps Commission. Hall also did the motion capture for chimpanzee caretaker Pogo in earlier seasons.
Can you see more characters in the scene? Blackman told Tudum that Five’s beloved mannequin, Dolores, from Season 1 is somewhere in there, but I can’t see her. Maybe you’ll have more luck.
‘The Umbrella Academy’ ends with the perfect final song
“The Umbrella Academy” ends with the perfect final song: the original version of “I Think We’re Alone Now”. Why is it important?
The Umbrella Academy has finished forever, and to end it all, the Netflix series blasts a musical throwback to the very first episode.
In the final moments of Season 4, we find ourselves in a utopian park filled with characters we’ve met across the series (some are missing for spoilery reasons). But as we’re careening through this verdant picnic ground, the sounds of Tommy James and the Shondells’ original 1967 version of “I Think We’re Alone Now” will be an instant delight for longtime fans.
It’s a perfect nod to the 1987 synthpop cover by Tiffany that won hearts in Season 1. If you’ll cast your memory back to 2019, when we first met the Hargreeves in the series, there’s a moment in the first episode when the siblings need a timeout.
Luther (Tom Hopper), the leader of the bunch, decides to play the song in his room loud enough for the rest of the Hargreeves manor to hear, and Diego (David Castañeda), Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Klaus (Robert Sheehan), and Viktor (Elliot Page) all can’t resist the temptation to dance. The scene cuts between the siblings, eventually panning out to reveal the whole house throwing down a move, unbeknownst to each other.
It’s the dance scene that would ensure an Umbrella Academy dance scene every season, including Season 4. Viktor, Klaus, and Alison muck around to Sam Cooke’s “Twistin’ The Night Away” in Season 2, and the season-opening “Footloose” dance-off from Season 3 is a series highlight.
The Season 1 “I Think We’re Alone Now” moment proved such a hit with fans the cast recreated the scene during lockdown — including Number Five (Aidan Gallagher) and Ben (Justin H. Min), who weren’t in the original. The video was used to promote Season 2’s date announcement, and it’s brilliant:
So, to finish the entire series with the song that started it all? 11/10. Yes, there’s a different song for Season 4’s end credits (Talking Heads’ “This Must Be The Place”), but this is the real finisher. Crank it up.
‘The Umbrella Academy’ saves one perfect last dance scene for Season 4
“The Umbrella Academy” saves one perfect last dance scene for Season 4 with Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally moving to Cher.
The very promise of real life lovers Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally starring as a dastardly dream team of conspiracy theorists and cult leaders in The Umbrella Academy‘s fourth and final season is exquisite enough.
And then they hit you with a choreographed dance to Cher.
In one of the very best scenes of Season 4, in episode 3, the Fargo-like villains and kidnappers throw down some folk-rock boot-scootin’ stylings to the icon’s 1971 classic “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves,” wearing matching aviator spectacles, western shirts, bolo ties, and their hair in braids. Honestly, I can’t tell you whether Offerman and Mullally had this routine ready to go, show or not, but it absolutely slaps.
The Umbrella Academy has long championed the dance scene, whether the Hargreeves are blissing out privately to Tiffany’s cover of “I Think We’re Alone Now” in Season 1, Viktor, Klaus, and Alison “Twistin’ The Night Away” in Season 2, or the season-opening “Footloose” dance-off from Season 3, brilliant work from stage choreographer John Heginbotham.
But in the final season, the Hargreeves are benched from the dancefloor for the series’ villains, Gene and Jean Thibedeau.
Credit: Netflix
In a sequence that involves a daring rescue, the show needs a legitimate reason why Gene and Jean aren’t surveilling their kidnapping victim for three minutes or so. And because we’ve spent the last few episodes watching this dynamic duo team up for everything from Euchre tournaments to casual carpark murder, it’s not out of character to have them practicing a little somethin’ somethin’ for their own amusement: a dance routine.
During the rescue sequence, the camera alternates between henchmen getting brutally owned and Gene and Jean absolutely tearing up their home’s floorboards with sweet moves. Their chosen tune, Cher’s “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves,” could only be an old favourite of this conspiracy theory loving pair, who perhaps listen less to the lyrics about teen pregnancy and sex work, and concentrate more on that sick beat.
It’s not the first time Offerman and Mullally have appeared on screen together by any means: Offerman appeared in Mullally’s realm Will and Grace back in the day; Mullally played the only weakness of Offerman’s Ron Swanson, his ex-wife Tammy, in Parks and Recreation; they’ve voiced animated characters in Bob’s Burgers, Axe Cop, Hotel Transylvania 2, and the English dub of Ernest and Celestine together; and co-starred in You, Me and the Apocalypse, Speaking of Sex, Smashed, and The Kings of Summer. So we can add this glorious dance scene, and their run on The Umbrella Academy, to the pile.
Luckily for us, The Umbrella Academy saves its last dance for Mullally and Offerman, and it’s one of the highlights of the season. Get it, Gene and Jean.
A24’s ‘Look Into My Eyes’ trailer teases a documentary about psychics in New York
A24 has released its trailer for Lana Wilson’s new documentary “Look Into My Eyes”, which follows psychics at work in New York.
A24 has released its trailer for Lana Wilson’s new documentary “Look Into My Eyes”, which follows psychics at work in New York.
‘Cuckoo’ is Hunter Schafer’s first movie. How that helped ground her performance.
Hunter Schafer had never made a movie before. But the ‘Euphoria’ alum feels like that helped shape her performance in ‘Cuckoo’. Here’s how.
Hunter Schafer had never made a movie before. But the ‘Euphoria’ alum feels like that helped shape her performance in ‘Cuckoo’. Here’s how.
‘The Umbrella Academy’ Season 4 ending, explained
We’re about to dive into the ending of the finale of “The Umbrella Academy”, so brace yourself for extreme spoilers.
It’s hard to say goodbye to the Hargreeves, but with the fourth and last season of The Umbrella Academy, they’ve taken a final bow.
In a short and bonkers six-episode season, Netflix’s truly undefinable, superpowered adaptation of Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s comic book series has ended. But not ones to live a regular ol’ human life, Luther (Tom Hopper), Diego (David Castañeda), Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Klaus (Robert Sheehan), Number Five (Aidan Gallagher), Ben (Justin H. Min), Viktor (Elliot Page), and honorary Hargreeves Lila (Ritu Arya) spend this season trying to save the world — yep, again.
The series takes a look at some of the show’s biggest unsolved mysteries — though it leaves most behind — with the most prominent being what exactly happened to Ben all those years ago. And what exactly are the plans of Gene and Jean Thibedeau (Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally), Umbrellaphiles and leaders of extremist conspiracy theorist organization The Keepers? And where do we leave the Hargreeves?
We’re about to dive into the ending of the finale of The Umbrella Academy, so brace yourself for extreme spoilers.
What happens at the end of The Umbrella Academy?
Credit: Netflix
What doesn’t happen in the finale?
At the end of episode 5, Jean and Gene (actually Abigail (Liisa Repo-Martell), alien Reginald’s alien wife, revealed to have been wearing Sy Grossman (David Cross) like a suit, now wearing Gene, keep up), put out the call to begin The Keepers’ major plan. This is to ensure the apocalyptic event known as “The Cleanse” happens. In the finale, that call comes in the form of a broadcast of Muse’s “Map of the Problematique”, which snaps the organisation’s followers into armed mob-like ranks. The Keepers converge on the dilapidated department store where kindred apocalyptic spirits and lovers Ben and Jennifer (Victoria Sawal) are holed up having been taken over by The Cleanse, actually an oozing virus that threatens to envelop them and subsequently the world.
Remember, we learn this season that Ben and Jennifer were actually murdered by Reginald in the original timeline, shot when Ben rescued Jennifer from her cage as teens — Reginald says he was trying to stop their combustible connection which would destroy the world (brutal but kind of accurate?). But he meddled with their memories so they’d never know.
We also learn that Abigail thwarted all Reginald’s plans to keep Ben and Jennifer apart, in order to enable The Cleanse and destroy everything Reginald created.
Credit: Netflix
Meanwhile, in one of the biggest curveballs of the season, Lila and Five, who fell in love during their seven years lost in a time-travelling subway system, have returned to the real timeline to face the music — and it all comes out at Christmas at Diego and Lila’s place (honestly, Luther, Alison, and Klaus on the couch in this scene are all of us).
Back to the big storyline, Viktor tries to save Ben and Jennifer by using his power to extract their marigold (more on that below), but before he can finish, Ben is shot by Reginald’s sniper. So, the Umbrella Academy must fight the Ben/Jen monster together, but they eventually retreat to the Hargreeves manor.
What’s the deal with the scene with Five in Max’s Delicatessen?
During the battle with The Ben/Jen Cleanse, Lila makes it clear to Five “it’s over.” So, he returns to the subway solo, to live out his days presumably either travelling mindlessly or to return to the strawberry-filled greenhouse he and Lila spent their happiest days in. But glimpsing another Five on the platform, he finds his way to a subterranean diner called Max’s Delicatessen, filled with alternate versions of Five from different timelines, all of whom have ended up in the delicatessen trying to solve the problem like Five is right now.
In a conversation over pastrami sandwiches and coffee with himself, Five realises that there’s only supposed to be one timeline after all, and that the only thing that shattered the original timeline was…the Umbrella Academy itself.
The Umbrella Academy broke the original timeline (guyyyys!)
Credit: Netflix
Yup, the Hargreeves siblings, who have both caused the end of the world and saved it multiple times over four seasons, broke the original timeline by being born. Five finds out from himself that their births — remember, when 43 women around the world simultaneously gave birth on Oct. 1, 1989 — started an infinite loop of them trying to save the world while being the cause of its destruction.
“The family is the problem. We’re doomed to save or destroy the world over and over again, ad infinitum,” Five realises gazing around at all the deli’s photos of apocalypses past.
“The family is the problem. We’re doomed to save or destroy the world over and over again, ad infinitum.”
Five takes this knowledge to his siblings, who have converged on the original Hargreeves manor, and he goes multiverse-explainer on them all.
“We are the reason that this is happening,” says Five. “The marigold that infected our mothers, bringing forth our births, had an unexpected side effect. It shattered the timeline, and it broke it in to an infinite number of alternate timelines. The timelines are bleeding into each other.”
Five explains that’s how The Keepers were able to find the artefacts (Umbrella Academy merchandise, news clippings, paraphernalia from the first three seasons) which led them to realise there were multiple timelines and start their cult — again, they were…right?
“So we need to go back to the original timeline before any of the other ones were created,” Five explains. How? The Umbrella Academy needs to let the marigold in their bodies merge with the durango in The Jen/Ben Cleanse monster.
Wait, what the hell is the marigold and the durango?
That glowing substance Ben spiked everyone’s drink at the teppanyaki restaurant with in episodes 1 and 2? The stuff that gave them back their talents? That’s marigold, a particle that gives the Hargreeves their powers in the first place. All the women who gave birth to the Hargreeves siblings were infected with it, then passed it to their instant babies. Durango is another particle, one that lives inside Jennifer, and the physical reaction between Ben’s marigold and Jen’s durango created the monster that is “The Cleanse.”
SO, to undo The Cleanse, save the world and stop the extinction of humanity, the Hargreeves make a decision — they need to cancel out the monster by letting their marigold merge with the durango inside it. “They should cancel each other out,” is the idea. But it will erase them too.
Why do the Umbrella Academy know their sacrifice will save their loved ones?
In the finale, the Hargreeves have more than each other to worry about — namely Diego and Lila and their family, and Alison and her daughter Grace. They’re not sure whether their loved ones will be safe in the timeline with their monster-merging sacrifice, but Viktor remembers he had a vision when trying to save Ben, showing a park where their families (without the Hargreeves siblings) were living happily. So, they make it?
In a heartbreaking scene, Lila puts her family and Grace on a train back to the original timeline and stays behind, ensuring that the Umbrella Academy’s sacrifice won’t erase the existence of their children.
Do the Hargreeves siblings die in The Umbrella Academy finale?
Credit: Netflix
By sacrificing themselves to The Cleanse, the Hargreeves cease to exist at all. In fact, they never did — everything we just watched, done. Gone. “We’ll be erased from history,” Five explains, saying that no one in any other timeline will have a memory of them at all.
Gathering in a circle as the oozing Cleanse seeps into the Hargreeves manor, and powering up their marigold, ready for engulfment, the family say some pretty hilariously crap final words to each other. Alison genuinely saying “I’m sorry you left Canada for this,” to Viktor gets an 11/10 from me.
“Fuck you” are literally the last words anyone says to each other. And it’s perfect.
Then, in the final scene, we’re in the park that Viktor saw, with basically every character from the show’s four seasons having a lovely time, as Tommy James and the Shondells’ original version of “I Think We’re Alone Now,” the iconic song from The Umbrella Academy Season 1. Even the Swedish assassins from Season 2 are here! And of course, thanks to Lila’s train delivery, all the Hargreeves’ loved ones are here too.
So yes, the Hargreeves are dead, but thanks to their sacrifice, they were never actually born in this, now the original and only timeline.
Essentially, the Umbrella Academy never existed. OK, I’m going to go stare at a wall now.
‘Daily Show’ mocks Trump’s confusing reaction to Tim Walz
“Daily Show” host Michael Kosta has mocked Donald Trump’s reaction to Kamala Harris’ appointment of Tim Walz.
“Daily Show” host Michael Kosta has mocked Donald Trump’s reaction to Kamala Harris’ appointment of Tim Walz.
Disney+ will actually crack down on password sharing next month
We knew it was coming, but Disney+ is going to start cracking down on users sharing passwords in September, CEO Bob Iger confirmed.
We knew it was coming, but Disney+ is actually, really going to start cracking down on users sharing passwords next month.
Disney’s streaming service started rolling out its focused shutdown on password sharing in the U.S. in February, but the company specified in April it would really ramp this up in June in “just a few countries”, then roll out to all paying subscribers in September. The company first announced account sharing restrictions in August 2023.
In a Q3 earnings call Wednesday, Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed Disney+’s password sharing crackdown “kicks in, in earnest, in September.”
We still don’t have any information about how much shared Disney+ accounts will cost. Disney’s Subscriber Agreement, updated in September 2023, says “additional usage rules may apply for certain Service Plans,” but the current Disney+ pricing page doesn’t have any further details on how much users might have to pay to add extra users outside the household.
Once the crackdown rolls out, you won’t be able to share your Disney+ subscription outside of your household, defined by Disney’s Subscriber Agreement as “the collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein.” Disney’s agreement says the company “may limit or terminate access” to your account if you’re caught sharing.
Disney is also hiking prices for its streaming services including Disney+ from Oct. 17, with the company burying the announcement in a blog post on Tuesday.
Disney+’s crackdown follows Netflix’s crackdown on password sharing last April, and similar moves by Hulu and Max. If you want to share streaming accounts nowadays, you’ve got to pay.