Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for The Umbrella Academy Season 4.
AlthoughThe Umbrella Academy’s plot can become quite repetitive and convoluted, each season delivers another apocalyptic event the Hargreeves siblings need to deter, and the show always manages to link narratives together cohesively. Season 4 is filled with ground-breaking revelations — including the mysterious circumstances behind the first Ben Hargreeves' (Justin H. Min) death, a hidden detail that has plagued the show since the first season. However, the fourth and final season ofThe Umbrella Academydoes seem to drop the ballin some respects, leaving us with unanswered questions, one of which pertains tothe Season 3 finale’s mid-credits scene.
The Umbrella Academy
A dysfunctional family of adopted superhero siblings reunites to solve the mystery of their father’s death and prevent an impending apocalypse. As they confront their past and battle external threats, their fractured relationships and unique powers drive a mix of action, drama, and dark humor.
What Happens in ‘The Umbrella Academy’s Season 3 Finale’s Mid-Credits Scene?
Season 3 introduced us to the Sparrow Academy,where we meet Sparrow’s version of Ben Hargreeves. With another apocalyptic event on the horizon, this time in the form of the Kugelblitz, Reginald (Colm Feore) convinces the Umbrella Academy alum plus Sparrow Ben to reset the universe using a button at Hotel Oblivion. After Reginald’s plans are partly foiled and the button is pressed anyway, the siblings find themselves in a newly created timeline where Reginald and Abigail (Liisa Repo-Martell) oversee their cities in towering skyscrapers, andwhere the siblings have lost their Marigold-induced powers. Afterthis cliffhanger of a revelation, the credits roll, only to be interrupted by a seemingly inconsequential scene.
The mid-credits scene begins in a subway, where the voice and destinations called on the intercom suggest the location of Korea. The camera pans through the commuters and lands squarely on Ben. He is wearing a crisp suit and professional frame, with his hair slicked back and a calm, poised expression on his face. There’s a poetry book open languidly in his hands as he gazes off into the distance — overall, it is a fairly enigmatic scene.
‘The Umbrella Academy’ Showrunner Hinted That This Mid-Credits Scene Would Be Meaningful in Season 4
This is the first mid-credits sceneThe Umbrella Academyhas added to the show, with its second one being after the series finale. As such, it is understandable that we would believe that the scene would be of greater importance — especially considering how suspiciously innocuous it is. ShowrunnerSteve Blackmanhad also previously confirmed that this scene was meaningful and would connect to Season 4, tellingNetflixthat it’s the Sparrow version of Ben that we are watching and that viewers should be asking the question: “what the fuck is he doing on a Korean subway train reading a book about pottery?” Blackman went on to elaborate:
“As every goodUmbrellafan knows, no moment in the show exists in isolation. Everything we see has meaning. And this moment is no exception. Ben has a reason to be there… but you’ll have to wait until Season 4 to understand why.”
Though Blackmanteased this story, there — disappointingly — doesn’t seem to be any overt connection in Season 4. This may be due to the limited number of episodes in the final season, which was onlygreenlit for six episodes instead of the show’s usual ten by Netflix.Blackman told The Hollywood Reporterthat though he would have preferred eight, the six episodes were enough to portray the key stories he needed to tell during this season. He also mentioned that some of the stories “got jettisoned along the way,” including Luther (Tom Hopper) and Sloane’s (Genesis Rodriguez) relationship. As such, this connection around Ben may have also fallen victim to the six-episode-arc.
‘The Umbrella Academy’ Cast Breaks Down That Final Apocalyptic Fight
They also share memories of filming and talk about the season’s best needledrop.
What Version of Ben Hargreeves Are We Seeing in the Mid-Credits Scene?
If we were to enforce a possible, yet tenuous, link between Season 3’s mid-credits scene and Season 4,we could potentially be seeing Ben during his con artist phase in between seasons.The Umbrella AcademySeason 3’s closing scenes saw the proverbial band break up and go down their separate pathways, all at varying degrees of excitement about figuring out life with powers. At the beginning ofSeason 4, Ben finishes up his prison sentence and begrudgingly goes to live with Luther in his derelict home. We learn that Ben had essentially been scamming people by luring them into investing in his cryptocurrency scheme, leading him to be charged with his white-collar crime.
As such, the scene in the subway could be a glimpse into Ben’s life as a con man. Withhis suave demeanor and classy appearance, it could easily point to him conning Korean investors out of money— the ensemble certainly looks the part. While this is a somewhat reasonable interpretation — though we’re not sure why he would have run over to Korea for his scheme — it doesn’t seem asmeaningful and ground-breakingas Blackman’s comments led viewers to believe.
Does Ben’s Mid-Credits Scene Link To ‘The Umbrella Academy’ Season 4?
Alternatively, there may be a more symbolic interpretation of the link between the mid-credits scene and Season 4. There have been theories thatthe subway Ben is seen on is related to the train in Seoulthat we saw in the opening scene of Season 3.The Umbrella AcademySeason 1 opened with the tale of how our belovedsuper-powered Hargreevescame into existence, where 43 women were touched by golden Marigold particles and immediately went into labor. In Season 3’s alternate universe, these mothers are brutally killed, and only 16 super-powered children are born, with several going on to the Sparrow Academy. One such mother was on a Seoul train that may be the one Ben is on, suggesting that Season 4 would go into his past.
Ultimately, Season 4 does go into Ben’s past by finally revealing the elusive circumstances around the death of the Umbrella version of the character. It may also hint at how Ben plays an instrumental role in Season 4with the Cleanse— Ben is even the one who tricks the Hargreeves into reclaiming their powers. The setting of the subway could also allude to the time-traveling subway system that Five (Aidan Gallagher) stumbles upon. Though we never see Ben actually in the underground subway tunnels, it could be referring to the symbolic connection between the Cleanse and the multiversal subway as well. These associations are a bit of a reach, and it may just be a case of the mid-credits story not making the final cut due to time restrictions. Either way, the viewing experience ofThe Umbrella Academy’s final season is not at all affected by the mid-credits scene, rendering it meaningless in hindsight.
The Umbrella Academyis available to stream now on Netflix in the U.S.
