Summary
Predictable but entertaining and emotionally-charged, The Umbrella Academy Episode 10 delivers a worthwhile finale, leaving things open-ended for Season 2.
This recap of The Umbrella Academy Season 1 Episode 10, “The White Violin” contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
After nine full chapters, The Umbrella Academy comes to an action-filled close. We finally get to see what all the fuss is about after listening to “Number 5” (Aidan Gallagher) harp on about the apocalypse repeatedly amongst entertaining family dysfunctionality. The Umbrella Academy Episode 10 duly delivers, and in conventional TV fashion, ends open-ended, giving Netflix the opportunity to allow the buzz to form another season.
The finale of Season 1 opens with a flashback of Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) with the caption “long ago”. He is saying goodbye to a woman, presumably his wife, and in the distance, various rockets are leaving the planet. Hargreeves releases undescribed energy from a jar. In the next scene, which I assumed was on earth, he appears excitedly engaged by an umbrella store. If you have read the comics, please can you confirm the meaning of this flashback – my conclusion is that he’s from a different planet?
Vanya’s (Ellen Page) powers are worsening in “The White Violin”. Her character appears entranced by her past and present, fully activated by her spiraling pain. She walks around the mansion reliving memories of misplaced rejection and abandonment when she was younger. Despite the proposed danger, this was tragic – I felt sorry for her.
As Vanya starts ripping apart the mansion, the others start escaping. Pogo (Adam Godley) tries to stop Vanya, tentatively explaining that her siblings bear no responsibility to what happened to her during her disorientated and often abused childhood. As an audience member, you fully understood Pogo’s words were not going to work. The loyal house servant was merely buying time. Vanya keeps on uttering the question “did you know?” and with Pogo’s confirmation, she delivers him a brutal death.
As predicted, “Number 5” confirms that he was painfully wrong, with all his efforts in previous chapters now undone. The end of the world is coming, and Vanya is the cause. The family show their strangeness in dealing with the predicament, arriving at a bowling alley to discuss options. Despite the finale-feeling, The Umbrella Academy keeps it dysfunctional, with the family bickering until they conclude that Vanya will be playing at the concert where she will lead on the first chair. To savour their possible final moments, Luther (Tom Hopper) offers to call Allison’s (Emmy Raver-Lampman) daughter, in an emotionally charged scene – both characters have naturally reached a consensus on their feelings for each other.
While The Commission send out a squad to try to kill The Umbrella Academy, The Handler is not in the mood for games. It surprises me that for a character with so much assumed power and knowledge, she does not appear to assert it aggressively. She gives Hazel (Cameron Britton) and Cha-Cha (Mary J. Blige) a new mission, to protect Vanya. Hazel, disconnected from the entire experience of manipulating timeline events, forces a car crash and kills The Handler back at the hotel so he can have his last moments with the doughnut lady. Love conquers all.
It’s almost like The Umbrella Academy wanted to relive the Suicide Squad ending in a similar setting, with the villain gaining more power. Vanya makes her way to the concert, reliving more memories of her emotionally unavailable father. She plays the violin with ease, and as Allison tries to engage eye contact with her, she smiles but Luther foolishly runs on stage, prompting Vanya to use her power.
At this point, Vanya is glowing entirely white, with hope almost lost and more of The Commission opening gunfire. Klaus’s (Robert Sheehan) second power comes into effect as he uses Ben to kill the gunmen. In the end, the tactic is amateur – “Let’s just rush her”. Of course, it fails but gives Allison the opportunity to creep up behind her and shoot a bullet past her ear.
The irony is served on a cold plate for Luther in “The White Violin”; as Vanya falls to the floor from shock, a massive beam of energy leaves her and hits the moon, leaving it to explode with the remains heading to earth. “Number 5” suggests they all time travel with him, and try and fix Vanya – as the world ends, The Umbrella Academy disappears.
Surely season 2 is on the cards?
