Kindest Cut
Episode 5 of Umbrella Academy Season 3 starts with Klaus waking up in a black and white world, save for shades of yellow which is a nice touch. In this perceived version of purgatory, Klaus wanders on to a strange doorway on the beach, which opens up to show a young Klaus with Reginald, who continues to experiment on him. Given Klaus’ abilities, we see a montage of his “actual-death” experiences, ending with the harpoon gun incident that ended last episode. Meanwhile, Viktor and Harlan continue to disagree about the past, eventually displaying their raw power and blasting each other across the room. Viktor is livid about him destroying those 27 women, but for Harlan he was just reaching out but he ended up connecting to each of them. Their screams prompted him to try and sever the connection but it didn’t work. Since that day, Harlan has hidden himself away and tried not to use his powers. Of course, until the hallway incident. Harlan decides he should come out of hiding and admit to what he’s done before the Sparrow Academy. Viktor is not so sure that’s a good idea, and heads down to the ground floor, promising to deal with this himself. Only, just like that, Lila and Five come smashing back through time to the hallway lobby. Whilst there, Allison and Diego come in with cuts and bruises, after they head into the bar and beat up a whole bunch of guys at the end of the last episode. Diego finds Stan in the hallway, shocked and moving chemicals across to try and dissolve Klaus’ body. Klaus not moving, and that’s because Klaus is actually in purgatory, as we know. Diego wraps up Klaus’ body in the rug and starts taking him downstairs. Only, Klaus suddenly regains consciousness after speaking to his mother in the afterlife, who instills some words of wisdom to help him with his journey. Elsewhere, the group try to concoct a plan about dealing with this Kugelblitz. They’re joined by a recently-returned-alive Klaus, Diego and Stan. As they try to work out how to stop the universe from being destroyed completely, down in the Sparrow basement, the remaining Sparrows try to use Grace’s eye to see what’s inside the Kugelblitz. Unfortunately, it causes another blast to knock out half the people in Hotel Obsidian. Speaking of losing people, Allison continues to spiral out of control. After losing her daughter, finding herself hopelessly lost and unable to quell her anger after knocking out those people in a bar, Luther tries to connect with her. Allison points out she feels alone and can’t keep doing this with the timelines, believing they’re always getting worse. “I can’t keep losing people, that’s not fair.” Luther comforts her but when Allison leans in for a kiss, he pulls away and points out he wants to see Sloane. Allison is unhappy and as such, decides to use her Rumour powers to make him stay and want her instead. I’m not quite sure why emotional music is being played here, given Allison has pulled a Wanda Maximoff, but there we go. Alison eventually changes her mind when Luther gets a bit too forceful and Rumours again for him to let her go. Allison hurries away, leaving Luther shocked. In the hallway, she finds Viktor sneaking Harlan out. Allison decides to take over, as the whole family shun Viktor when they find out what’s happened here. At the bar, Klaus and Five discuss death, with both of them talking about what they’ve found. It turns out Klaus recognizes the tattoo Five has grabbed from his older-self, informing them that it’s actually a mark of the Mothers of Agony, who are a biker gang. Five shows up at the bar, where he finds a room marked “Members only”. Inside, he finds…Pogo!
The Episode Review
A lovely little surprise at the end sees Pogo back in the thick of the action, as this Mothers of Agony appears to be a crucial part of the timeline going forward. That’s probably just as well given the timeline seemingly has no hope from this incoming Kugelblitz. That certainly poses problematic for our characters, as everyone is more fractured than ever before. Nowhere else is that more evident than in Allison. Her character has been in pain and grieving through much of this season but she’s actually turning quite villainous with her actions. That’s something we’ve seen a lot of recently with our female “hero” characters, and it’ll be interesting to see if her actions are actually held accountable or not. Interestingly, it would seem that this White Buffalo room may actually be the key to what’s happening here too, especially if that blinding bit of blue-white light at the end is anything to go by. Either way, the midway point of this season marks an intriguing development with this show, which leaves the door wide open for where this one may go next.
