#umbrella academy 2x03 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tomeandflickcorner · 4 years ago

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Umbrella Academy Recap 2x03

1x01 1x02 1x03 1x04 1x05 1x06 1x07 1x08 1x09 1x10

2x01 2x02

The Hargreeves Siblings are still more-or-less scattered in 1963 Dallas, but they’re slowly starting to come together. Number 5 and Diego are now teamed up, with a new ally named Lila. While Luther has been contacted by Number 5, he’s currently adamant against joining his brother in restoring the timeline and preventing an apocalypse from occurring. Vanya’s current location has also been discovered by Luther, but he has seemingly decided to leave her be in light of her amnesia (although her memories seem to be starting to come back). As for Allison and Klaus, while they’re currently still on their own, last episode showed Allison learning of Klaus’ whereabouts, so a reunion between them seems imminent.

But first, a flashback of what Klaus got up to after he and Ben wound up in 1960. After getting thrown out of a diner for not being able to pay for his meal, he immediately gets taken in by a wealthy old woman who felt pity for him. In time, this somehow results in him gaining a cult following. It’s not exactly clear how this happened, though. However, we see that Klaus would sometimes wow the old woman’s social circle by forming parlor tricks and seemingly levitating himself off the ground when he was actually being lifted up by Ben (whom nobody else could see on account of him being a ghost). We then see Klaus in the company of a group of hippies. Not sure how he went from rubbing elbows with rich old ladies to hanging around with hippies, though. I guess we’re supposed to conclude that they started to believe Klaus was the next messiah or something because of his supposed ability to levitate himself. Of course, Klaus eventually got a bit sick of being glommed onto by his legion of followers, as he managed to give them the slip one day, leaving them behind in a field somewhere while he and Ben made a getaway in a nearby car. Which probably brings us full circle to where we found him in 2x01.

We then jump into where the last episode left off. It turns out Lila had secretly followed Diego and Number 5 when they went off to meet up with the Reginald Hargreeves of 1963, a meeting that didn’t go well as it resulted in 1963 Reginald stabbing Diego and leaving him to bleed to death. Upon discovering the injured Diego, Lila dragged him back to Elliot's apartment and managed to cauterize his wound with a curling iron, thereby saving his life. Which was rather resourceful, though I’m not sure how sanitary that would be. Number 5 eventually returns as well, nursing the less-severe wound he got from Baby Pogo. And poor Elliot is still tied up.

Elsewhere, Vanya is driving along aimlessly, having left the farmhouse when she was unable to sleep due to her memories starting to resurface again. Unfortunately for her, this gives the three white-haired temporal assassins from The Commission the opportunity to corner her. Because it seems The Commission sent them orders to take her out. In an effort to evade them, Vanya runs out into a nearby corn field and the temporal assassins pursue her. But when one of them catches up to her and attempts to shoot her, Vanya’s powers emerge, disintegrating the bullet in midair and throwing the assassin backwards. Vanya, not pausing to react to this, takes the opportunity to escape.

Of course, this doesn’t go unnoticed. Back at Elliot’s place, Elliot has finally been untied and is now helping Number 5 in monitoring a bunch of machines he’s set up. When one of them, the atmospheric radar, starts going off, Number 5 is pleased, as he’d been using the atmospheric radar to track sound waves. He naturally concludes that Vanya had been the one to set off the atmospheric radar, and he teleports off to investigate. Number 5 eventually makes it to the cornfield where Vanya has been hiding out all night and quickly locates her. He tells her that she’d better come with him unless she wants the white-haired temporal assassins to find her. Vanya is understandably confused as her memories haven’t completely returned, but she nevertheless consents to follow Number 5, who comments that it’s nice to see her powers are still intact. And as he says this, they make their way through a crop circle that Vanya unwittingly made.

Meanwhile, Allison, having followed the lead she got from Keechie, makes it to the mansion where Klaus is staying. When she gets no answer after ringing the front doorbell, she decides to look around herself. As such, she finds Klaus lounging around in the pool out back. They are visibly excited to see each other again and take the time to catch up on what they’ve been doing the past few years. In the process, Klaus learns that the man he briefly met in jail was Allison’s husband, Raymond. Allison vents to Klaus how Raymond was arrested on a jumped up charge. He asks her why she didn’t simply rumor him out, and Allison states she hadn’t used her powers since that disastrous moment when her attempts to use them to calm an enraged Vanya down resulted in her vocal cords getting damaged. It took her a year before her vocal cords had healed enough for her to speak, but in that time, she’d built a life for herself. And Allison likes the feeling that comes with knowing she’s actually earned the things she has now.

As for Luther, we catch up to him while he’s out for an early morning run. Which is something he seems to do regularly, as a group of little boys seem excited to see him. Of course, Luther is thrown for a loop when he just happens to jog by a woman he briefly mistakes for Allison. Of course, it’s not actually her, so he sheepishly continues on his way. Although he’s still a bit shaken when he returns to Mr. Ruby’s place. Mr. Ruby is quick to take notice of Luther’s mood, so, not wanting his prize fighter to wander around like a sad puppy, he offers to use his connections to locate Allison for Luther. Mr. Ruby eventually does manage to locate Allison in South Dallas, passing Luther her address during dinner.

Oh, and The Handler is also lurking around. Not sure how she managed to travel to 1963 as she’s now supposed to be working a desk job at The Commission, but I’m sure that will be explained eventually. Anyway, we see her interacting with a little boy in a pet store. When he refuses to stop tapping on fish tanks despite The Handler telling him not to, she whispers something in his ear that frightens him enough to wet himself, and he runs off.

Since Raymond is still in jail, the Black community of Dallas is questioning what to do in regards to the planned sit-in. It seems Raymond was one of the prominent leaders of their group, so many of the people in the civil rights organisation feel it wouldn’t be right to hold the sit-in without him, and that it might be best to postpone it. Allison, however, disagrees with this, stating that President Kennedy is to arrive in 5 days, so it’s imperative that they not wait. She suggests putting the matter up to a vote. However, some of the members of the movement insist that they can’t vote on this, as that’s not how this works. But one of the women, whose name is apparently Odessea, overrules this sentiment, asking them if they’re really going to decide how things work in the beauty parlor that she runs. In the end, thanks to a passionate speech from Allison, the vote is held in favor of holding the sit-in as planned, with or without Raymond.

Of course, it looks as if Raymond might be able to make the sit-in after all. Now that Klaus knows that man he met in jail was Allison’s husband, he manages to convince Ben to help get him out of prison. To accomplish this, Ben takes advantage of his status as a ghost to frighten the desk into letting Raymond out with typical haunted house shenanigans. Upon being released, Raymond is greeted by Klaus, who takes credit for getting him out by reminding him that he’d previously claimed to have friends in high places. Klaus then reveals that they’re brothers-in-law. Raymond, as you might expect, responds to this news with realistic bemusement.

We then return to Number 5 and Vanya, who have convened to a diner somewhere. There, Number 5, realizing that Vanya really doesn’t remember anything before she landed in that Dallas alleyway a year ago, gives her an abridged version of her own history, about how she was bought by an eccentric billionaire as a baby and was raised alongside six other siblings, each with extraordinarily powers. Until the year 2019, when they jumped into a time vortex to prevent the apocalypse but got scattered throughout the 1960s. Vanya takes this surprisingly well. She doesn’t even remark on how crazy this sounds. She does, however, ask what caused the apocalypse. To this, Number 5 simply tells her it was an asteroid impact, deciding to gloss over the part Vanya played in the whole matter. Though he does tell Vanya that the apocalypse ended up following them through time, and that in 8 days, the world will end in a nuclear doomsday. Upon learning of this, Vanya panics and immediately heads over to a nearby payphone to call the farmhouse, where Harlan is having a particularly bad meltdown because of a record player breaking. Sissy, in spite of her need to try and calm her son, manages to reach the phone in time. Vanya tries to explain that she’s sorry she took Sissy’s car, but that she found her younger brother and will be back to help take care of Harlan as soon as she can. But the phone call is brought to an abrupt end when Number 5 shoves the phone cradle down, much to Vanya’s annoyance. Ignoring her irritation, Number 5 tells her that there’s no time for her to worry about her friend, as the men who attacked her in the corn field are still coming after them. He goes on to say that, whoever it is that Vanya was talking to, they can’t be more important than stopping the end of the world. After a brief hesitation, Vanya relents and hangs up the phone.

Back at Elliot’s place, Diego is trying to head back out to go after 1963 Reginald again, convinced that he has something to do with President Kennedy’s upcoming assassination, which Diego still wants to prevent. However, Lila stops him by jabbing his bandaged injury with a broom handle, demonstrating that he’s in no condition to do anything right now. They then seem to have a moment, with Lila admitting that when she found Diego lying injured, it made her remember how she also found her parents dead in their living room when she was four. It turns out that Lila’s parents were the victims of a home invasion. Lila then asks if it’s okay if she doesn’t hate Diego the way she hates most people. Diego insists it’s okay with him. But then, when he moves in for a kiss, Lila slaps him across the face. However, they then proceed to make out with each other anyway before progressing to having sex, while Elliot works at garnishing his tuna mold in the other room.

Elsewhere, Luther has made his way over to the address he’d gotten from Mr. Ruby. But instead of seeing Allison, he meets with Raymond, who is just arriving home after being released from jail. Luther is shocked to learn that Raymond is married to Allison. Immediately, they cut to the kitchen, where Luther and Raymond continue to interact. Raymond says that Allison never mentioned having a brother. Especially not a brother who looked like him. Of course, Raymond has to head out at this point to join the others at the sit-in, but he asks Luther if he wants to pass on a message to Allison. Luther simply states that he wants to talk to Allison, and Ray agrees to let her know. We then see the sit-in taking place, with Allison and the other members of the civil rights movement entering a ‘Whites-Only’ diner and insisting on being served. Needless to say, their presence is not appreciated by the staff and patrons, but they refuse to leave.

Across town, Klaus makes his way into a hardware store. While his reasons for doing so aren’t clear right away, it becomes obvious when it’s revealed that Dave, the man he fell in love with during the Vietnam War, works there. Klaus is visibly elated to see him. Ben, on the other hand, makes it clear that he doesn’t approve of this, telling Klaus that this is his dumbest idea yet. Which isn’t exactly unwarranted, considering this is pre-Vietnam War Dave. And while it is sweet that Klaus still is deeply in love with Dave, it’s arguably creepy that Klaus is seeking out someone who hasn’t met him yet. Still, Klaus, trying to come up with a reasonable excuse as to why he came into the hardware store (because telling Dave that they met and fell in love in the middle of a war that hasn’t even happened yet probably wouldn’t go very well), claims he’s redoing his bathroom and is looking for some paint. When Dave activates the paint mixing machine, Klaus has a flashback to how Dave will die in the war. (I suppose they put this flashback in as a reminder to the viewers who may have forgotten about who Dave was to Klaus.) To his credit, Klaus is able to hold it together until he’s able to return to his car. Immediately after he does so, however, Ben doesn’t hesitate to lay into him. He tells Klaus that he’s being selfish in seeking out Dave in 1963, and that he’ll only end up confusing him. In response to this, Klaus tells Ben that, while they were on leave in Saigon, Dave had told him that he’d enlisted in the army on the same day President Kennedy was assassinated. Klaus is hoping that he can convince Dave to not sign up for the Vietnam War. Because if Dave doesn’t go off to war, then he won’t die on the battlefield and his life would be spared. Upon hearing Klaus’ motivation, Ben eases up on him. He asks Klaus to promise him that he can handle this. Klaus insists he can.

At that moment, however, he and Ben spot police cars going by, their sirens wailing. Immediately, Klaus realizes they’re responding to Allison's sit-in. As you might imagine, it’s getting quite the response from the angry White patrons. But the protesters take everything in stride, especially when Ray finally is able to join them. As the protest continues, Allison notices that Ray seems distracted by something. When she asks him about it, he tells her about his encounters with Klaus and Luther, who both claimed to be Allison’s brother. Allison is shocked by Ray’s description of Luther, realizing for the first time that he’s also around. Unfortunately, while she’s distracted, one of the staff at the diner takes the opportunity to dump a cup of hot coffee onto Allison’s lap. Allison reacts by reflexively jumping up, which gives one of the cops the opportunity to grab her. And this sets off a chain reaction that results in the cops dragging off the dozens of Black protesters in handcuffs. Amidst the confusion, Ray is dragged out of the diner and a cop proceeds to violently beat him. A frantic Allison runs out after her husband and, after a suspenseful moment, she grabs onto the cop’s arm. When he turns to face her, Allison declares ‘I heard a rumor that you walked away.’ So the cop proceeds to head off with a dazed look on his face, much to Ray’s confusion. His confusion quickly gives way to fear. Because no White cop would simply walk away just because a Black woman told him to. Allison tries to tell him that she’ll explain everything later once they’ve gotten out of there, but Ray is too shaken up and backs away from her in fear. Before Allison can even try to smooth things over, Klaus appears on the scene, dragging her away from the turmoil that’s still raging. (Well, you sure took your time to get here, Klaus! It was still sunny out when you saw the police cars driving past, and now it’s nighttime.)

Meanwhile, Luther is in the middle of his underground fight, which Number 5 and Vanya have snuck in to watch. But his concentration is broken when he remembers how Allison got married to Raymond. This leads to him giving up and throwing the fight, allowing himself to get beaten up, much to Mr. Ruby’s annoyance. The implication is that he wanted his physical pain to match his internal pain, I guess. Before long, Luther is lying beaten on the ground. But he seems happy about it as his vantage point allows him a clear view of the moon.

As the episode wraps up, Lila slips out of the bed where she and Diego had sex, leaving Diego sleeping. She makes her way to the same pet store we saw earlier in the episode. As she looks around, she reaches into a fish tank and pulls out one of those bubble treasure chests. Inside, she finds a motel room key that she makes off with. With this key in hand, she makes her way to the motel in question, using it to enter Room 217. As she enters, she announces she knows she’s late and proceeds to make herself at home. After a few moments, The Handler emerges from the bathroom. And Lila addresses her as ‘Mum.’

Closing thoughts/questions:

Wait, what? Lila is The Handler’s daughter? Does that mean she’s actually an enemy of the Hargreeves Siblings? And was that story about her parents dying in the middle of a home invasion made up?

If she is an enemy, that stinks big-time for Diego. And I was actually starting to like their dynamic. I’d be very upset for him if she was playing him the whole time.

Speaking of which, I guess Diego is completely over Detective Patch now. Granted they weren’t together for a while, but it was clear Diego still cared for her. Of course, I guess it’s possible the fact that he allowed Cha-Cha to live was him moving on from her.

Well, that’s rather unfortunate that Ray reacted like that upon seeing Allison’s power in action for the first time. Still, I can’t really blame him. He was already in an emotional turmoil over the revelation that the woman he’d been married to for almost a year suddenly had two White brothers she’d never even mentioned, which suggested there might have been other things she’d kept from him. Now all of a sudden, she’s somehow able to make a White cop stand down in the middle of a racially charged situation? It’s only natural that he’d respond poorly. I’m sure that, once he’s had a chance to collect himself, he’ll be wiling to hear Allison out.

I personally think this might have marked a breakthrough for Allison in regards to her powers. While it was admirable that she was refraining from using them and actually earning the things she wanted the right way instead of obtaining them through manipulative ways, it doesn’t mean she had to completely bury away that part of herself. And the situation that arose in this episode was a good example of how her powers could be used for good. Because it’s very possible that Ray might have been beaten to death if she hadn’t used her powers on that cop.

On the other hand, Luther continues to frustrate me. Oh, boo-hoo-hoo. Allison went and married someone else. Get over it! Sorry, not sorry. Luther should not be having any sort of romantic feelings for Allison. She’s his sister, for crying out loud! Did he react like this when she married Patrick, too?

While it might seem like a strange thing to focus on, I rather liked how Number 5 and Vanya are grouped together now. While it’s been a while since we were last reminded of this, I do remember it was implied that Number 5 and Vanya had been particularly close as children.

I’m once again getting the impression that Harlan is meant to be autistic. While it’s great that they’re including an autistic character, there’s also a part of me that’s wondering if the way they’re handling him is a good representation of actual autistic people. Because autism can display itself in various ways. And I’m wondering if it might actually be damaging to have the autistic character be portrayed in a potentially stereotyped manner.

Klaus’ mission of trying to keep Dave alive is also interesting. While there are some similarities to Diego’s quest at preventing the assassination of President Kennedy, their motives are as different as night and day. Diego is motivated by an obvious hero complex while Klaus simply doesn’t want the man he loves to die so violently. And while it could be said that Klaus and Dave would probably never meet if Dave never enlisted and fought in the Vietnam War, perhaps Klaus already knows that. If so, it suggests he’d be fine with never actually meeting Dave, as long as he’s alive and safe. If that’s the case, then that’s very noble of Klaus. Still, the question of whether or not he can pull this off remains to be seen.

#umbrella acedmy #umbrella academy 2x03 #tua

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