As soon as a narrative introduces the concept of time travel, it opens itself to a lot of questions. Each fictional universe has different rules about what can and can’t change. In most examples, changing anything results in an entirely new timeline.The Umbrella Academypresents a great example, which sports two main timelines and several smaller ones.
The central plotofThe Umbrella Academyfollows the Hargreeves family, a group of seven superpowered siblings who must overcome their abusive upbringing to save the world. As fans know, it doesn’t work out the first or second time. When the end is nigh, the only way out is to go back and try again.
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The Apocalypse Timeline
The unaltered flow of time thattechnically starts the story. Reginald Hargreeves, an alien in disguise fleeing his destroyed home planet, arrives on Earth in the early 1900s. He becomes fabulously wealthy, builds a massive corporation, and seeds the world with mysterious golden particles that produce superhuman infants. In 1989, his spores result in the birth of 43 infants, all to mothers who weren’t expecting. He scoops up seven of them, trains them to use their powers, and turns them into the Umbrella Academy. Unfortunately, he also ceaselessly abuses them, causing most of them to abandon crime fighting.His seventh charge, Viktor, is gaslit into believing that he had no power for thirty years. In 2019, he discovers the treachery of his father and destroys the Earth with his newfound gift.
This is the fated outcome of the world and the end of mankind, but Five fights back. In 2002, an argument with Reginaldled Five to attemptto use his time travel powers for the first time. He messes it up, landing himself on the day of the apocalypse. As a temporal anomaly, the time-hopping Temps Commission snags Five and puts him to work as an assassin. Five is strategically deployed to kill people to fix the timeline. After years of work, Five steals a Commission time travel briefcase and uses it to travel back in time to prevent the apocalypse.
“The Day That Wasn’t”
The timeline is irrevocably changed by Five’s presence and foreknowledge. The first new timeline is short-lived, as it only lasts until the sixth episode. Five doesn’t know what caused the apocalypse, but he does know that he only has eight days to stop it. He fails outright. His family is unwilling to listen and too distracted by their own lives. Theday ends with Viktordiscovering his powers, the beginning of the end. Five winds up back at the headquarters of the Temps Commission, where he steals another briefcase to restart the day. With a fresh take on a new day, Five valiantly fails again. Once again, everyone discounts Viktor, he discovers his powers, and he uses them to end the world. Facing the world-ending meteor he tried to stop, Five pulls out his Hail Mary. He sends the entire family back with no clear destination, scattering them throughout the sixties.
The Dallas Timeline
Left randomly wandering early sixties, the Hargreeves do what they do best; get distracted by their complicated personal lives and fail to stop the end of the world.Viktor shows up inOctober 1963, wanders into the street, and gets hit by a car. He loses his memory in the crash and winds up in the custody of the FBI. As they torture him, he unleashes his powers, causing an explosion that prevents the assassination of President Kennedy. The blast also causes the Cold War to escalate, resulting in a nuclear war that ends the world again. As depicted in the first few minutes of season 2, Five shows up right on time to see the apocalypse once again, then jumps back to prevent it.
The “Handler Victorious” Timeline
This timeline contains most of the big events of season 2, but its ending places it in a separate category. Five now arrives ten days before the new apocalypse, Jun 14, 2025. He once again gathers his siblings in an attempt to stop the end of the world, again withoutknowing that Viktor caused it. They succeed in stopping Viktor, mostly thanks to Ben. Unfortunately, they also set the Temps Commission against them. The Handler and her adopted daughter Lila corner the Hargreeves family in a farmhouse and set an army of armed assassins against them. They survive, even managing to convince Lila to join their side by informing her of her real origin. The Handler wins by ambushing the Hargreeves family with a machine gun. Five, barely breathing, takes some sage advice and uses his power to jump back a few minutes, rather than a few years. This small jump creates another new timeline.
The Sparrow Timeline
In their mission, they approach Reginald Hargreeves, demonstrating the flaws in the Umbrella Academy pitch. As a result, he chooses seven different kids and renames his superhero group the Sparrow Academy. The only memberin both groups is Ben, who Reginald didn’t meet in 1963 because he’s still a ghost. He even recognizes the tactical error that resulted from his alternate self’s cruelty, causing him to treat his kids better. This is effectively the 2019 that resulted from the events of the new 1963. The Umbrella Academy members are the odd ones out in this new timeline, operating in a world that has replaced them. Their presence causes the kugelblitz, another new apocalypse.Time hopping the old-fashioned waywon’t fix this mess, so Reginald proposes another solution. He has a reset button for the entire universe, but it’ll take the entire family to get to it. The Hargreeves succeed, resulting in a final timeline.
The New Timeline
The kugelblitz is averted, everyone’s wounds are healed, and the family is still alive. Unfortunately, this new 2019 is marked by Reginald Hargreeves taking an even more prominent role in the world.The Hargreeves siblings additionally discoverthat they have lost their powers. Fans will have to wait and see what the newest timeline holds for everyone’s favorite dysfunctional family of former superheroes.
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