Summary
The Umbrella Academy Episode 2 still offers more questions than answers, but it identifies the need to develop the characters, giving more snippets to the audience.
This recap of The Umbrella Academy Season 1 Episode 2, “Run Boy Run”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
The first episode demonstrates an introduction to the characters, but The Umbrella Academy Episode 2 reins in the main story; the mysterious death of their father and the reason for the world ending in 8 days. The chapter opens up with the explanation to why “Number 5” (Aidan Gallagher) got isolated 25 years in the future; when younger he had a rebellious nature and while having a heated argument with his father he decided to scattergun with his time jumping powers. We soon learn that while scavenging in the future, he comes across an eyeball labeled “Meritech” and he makes it his mission in Episode 2 to find out from the company who the eyeball belongs too.
The unknown group of people who are trying to kill “Number 5” in present-day is not explained in “Run Boy Run”, but we do become exposed to what kind of characters we can expect. Despite their professional looking nature and delivering the odd funny line, they are accustomed to violence, torturing a man in his garage believing him to be “Number 5.”
The Umbrella Academy Episode 2 sees Diego (David Castañeda) trying to investigate what happened at the Diner due to his vigilante tendencies that he’s refused to let go of since he was a child. Early on in the episode, Luther (Tom Hopper) is on his case, continuing the story that he is making his dad’s death his mission.
We learn more about Vanya (Ellen Page) in The Umbrella Academy Episode 2; after a heated conversation about parenthood with Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), she blurts out that the reason she is so reserved and often disconnected from trying out a relationship with anyone was because of her father, who persistently ignored her as a “non-special” child. Regardless, a few of The Umbrella Academy still have a problem with Vanya due to her published memoir about growing up. This notion that she refuses to develop any relationship is confirmed later when an older man visits her for violin lessons, and she declines an offer to meet him at his workplace.
Due to “Number 5” struggling to get information on the eye, Klaus (Robert Sheehan) helps get information from the company. Meritech claims no-one has bought the eye yet, and it will most probably be purchased in the next eight days, leading to the end of the world. After learning this, “Number 5” decides to visit the shop he frequently visited in the future, where he fell in love with a mannequin, which is oddly familiar to Will Smith in I Am Legend. He is once again attacked by a group of people and narrowly escapes. This was a well-sequenced moment in “Run Boy Run”, with his escape accompanied by the soundtrack to Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now”.
The Umbrella Academy Episode 2 leaves more questions than answers, however; we still do not know why Allison and Luther have such a strange, meaningful relationship. Also, Pogo (Adam Godley), the talking house Ape, reveals some tapes to Allison that reveals a secret about their father, but unfortunately the episode leaves that on a cliffhanger. The second chapter was considerably stronger than its pilot, offering hopefully a new Netflix series worth sitting through.
You can check out our thoughts on the next episode by clicking these words.
