This article, “who is The Founder,” contains spoilers regarding the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy season 3.
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During season three of The Umbrella Academy, Five and Lila travel into an icy future where The Commission has been well and truly desecrated thanks to the time paradox. Here, they meet an unusual character known as The Founder, who may be able to help solve their apocalyptic Kugelblitz dilemma and save the entire universe in the process. This enigmatic character provides many answers and further mystery, all in one single appearance.
Who is The Founder in The Umbrella Academy season 3?
Once inside Commission HQ, Five and Lila head towards a hidden operations bunker in the hopes of finding an answer to their problems. They want to rectify the time paradox and reset the universe once and for all. The Founder may just be the individual to help with this. He is situated within the bunker, resting inside an iron lung. This aging man is merely skin and bone, although Five instantly recognizes him. It is his future self.
Sporting a crazy, white mane of hair and beard, this dying man lays in his isolated chamber, awaiting his own end. The room itself is paradox-proof, which has helped him survive for so long, possibly waiting for his encounter with the younger Five. Our Five has absolutely no recollection of this, he doesn’t remember founding The Commission and appears utterly perplexed by the insane situation he finds himself in. Surprisingly, The Founder also has a rather intricate tattoo on his chest and is missing his left arm, which has been amputated.
The Founder states that he created this safe bunker as a panic room in case of a collapse in the time continuum. Within the room, any version of Five can exist, canceling out any of those pesky paradoxes from reoccurring. Younger Five asks how to stop the Kugelblitz, and The Founder just laughs at him. He informs them that you can’t stop this black hole from terrorizing and completely destroying the universe, you just have to let it happen, don’t try and stop it. Again, Five is totally confounded by the scenario. The iron lung releases The Founder from within the sealed chamber, he tells Five not to save the world with his last breath and then dies.
After watching the entire season, the pieces start to fall in place. The Founder says, ‘all that will be left is oblivion,’ hinting at the portal Hotel that evades the end of the world. Five continues the time cycle accurately by acquiring the tattoo from Pogo and losing his arm in battle. He will eventually become The Founder, it is an inevitability. The mystery, though, lies in how he became The Founder and why he is totally unaware of his own past. This will surely be saved for another season.
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