The Umbrella Academy season 2, episode 9 recap – “743”

This recap of Netflix series The Umbrella Academy season 2, episode 9, “743” contains significant spoilers.

Access the archive of all episode recaps.

How does The Umbrella Academy season 2, episode 9, “743” open?

Vanya continues to activate her powers as the trigger to end the world is close. Allison crawls to the room where Vanya is and screams her name but ends up getting hit by an energy blast; Diego then heads towards the room but he fails; it’s all up to Klaus now to save the world but he fails. It’s now up to Ben — we always forget about Ben.

The Fives

Luther is trying to handle the Fives. Child Five is paranoid that adult Five is trying to kill him — Luther tells Child Five the plan. Luther feels Child Five is struggling with paradox psychosis. Well, Luther, they both are because they are the same person.

Lila’s agreement

Herb tells Lila what Diego has done so The Handler reminds her of their agreement — to kill Diego. This is Lila’s ultimate test. Meanwhile, Herb is looking for file 743. Lila finds Herb and asks where Diego is. Herb shows her a document that reveals what happened to her parents.

Ben tries saving the world

Ben enters Vanya’s body — meanwhile, Harlan’s eyes are still lit up blue and he keeps saying “Vanya”. Sissy and Carl are panicking; Carl puts Harlan in his car and drives off but Sissy points a shotgun at the car and tells him to stop. Meanwhile, adult Five is preparing his gun to save the President. Child Five wants to stop him and Luther tells the Fives to pull it together. Child Five kicks Luther in the balls and then the Fives fight each other. Season 2 gets crazier with each episode — it’s absolutely bonkers.

Ben’s sacrifice

The Umbrella Academy season 2, episode 9 brings a rather emotional end and potentially the end of one of the family members of The Umbrella Academy.

Ben meets Vanya in her mind and his sister is upset, believing that it is happening again where she destroys the world — “I don’t deserve to live”. She believes she will keep destroying the world and that she’s a monster. Ben reassures her and explains her father treated her like a bomb but that doesn’t mean that she can’t control her anger — “You aren’t a monster. You are my sister”. Suddenly, Ben starts to deteriorate inside Vanya’s mind — he asks Vanya to hug him as he goes. Ben is gone for good this time but he’s grateful for his years following Klaus and seeing his family. This is a sad moment and a sacrifice we were not expecting by Ben, adding an emotional layer to Season 2.

Ben leaves her mind and Vanya returns to normal — Harlan’s eyes stop lighting up. Hopefully, Season 2 fleshes out the link between Vanya and Harlan before it ends.

Harlan has to choose which parent

Meanwhile, Sissy tells Carl to let Harlan out of the car. Sissy admits to loving Vanya and that he should let her go. Carl insists he was good to Sissy and stayed but Vanya doesn’t want to hear it. Harlan gets out of the car and goes to his mother which is a significant moment — he picked his mother over his father. Carl grabs the shotgun and shoots, and with the struggle over the weapon, the bullet goes towards Harlan; but Harlan uses his powers to deflect the bullet and it hits Carl — he’s now dead. Good riddance.

Five killed my family

Lila confronts The Handler about case 743 for the murder of her parents and says adult Five killed her family and AJ Carmichael (The New Handler) gave the order. The Handler seems relieved as she puts the knife down and tells Lila that Diego is trying to bury the evidence. Lila is now convinced that Diego is a traitor. As she leaves, The Handler eats the goldfish — the goldfish is AJ Carmichael. It’s clear that The Handler was responsible for Lila’s parent’s death but she may have got away with it, for now.

Choose a Five

Both Fives continue to fight each other and Luther needs to pick who he kills. He knocks out adult Five and asks child Five to open the portal.

With the world saved, Diego still wants to save President Kennedy and heads out as he sees the crowds below. Meanwhile, Reginald heads out and at this point, we presume he is off to assassinate President Kennedy.

Trying to save Kennedy

With the chapter nearing to an end, adult Five asks child Five for the maths to ensure he doesn’t turn back into a child — child Five says the math had a typo with the decimal point. Suddenly, a fire extinguisher shoots out of the portal and knocks down Luther so adult Five grabs the briefcase — the Fives fight over it. Luther kicks adult Five through the portal but it snaps the briefcase in half. This is another opportunity lost to go back to 2019.

President Kennedy’s car turns around the corner and Reginald is there. Diego runs after what he thinks is his father but it was a decoy and the motorcade is shot at. The old man that Diego tackled to the floor gives him a note that says “Told you so…”. After all his efforts, Diego failed in his mission.

How does The Umbrella Academy season 2, episode 9, “743” end?

President Kennedy is dead, but in a twist, Reginald is angry at the secret society for lying to him when he heads to a meeting. One of the men states he had to go, one way or another they all got what they wanted — “The rocket technology you supplied us with will enable us to beat the Russians to the moon. And in turn, when we do arrive, five or six years from now, your interests in the dark side of the moon won’t be affected”. Reginald asks the men not to contact him again.

The man says if Reginald doesn’t continue giving them the rocket technology, they’ll tell the world who he really is. Reginald walks up to the table and shows his true alien form and then kills them all. The noises sound gruesome.

Meanwhile, there is an anomaly at The Commission. The Handler kills the man who alerts her about it and then she recalls all personnel from the field — “We are going to war”. Episode 9, “743” almost feels like a finale with the fast-paced scenes and a feeling of closure, but it leaves the door open for a show-ending chapter.