The Umbrella Academy Cast Share Reactions to Bittersweet Season 4 Ending: 'That Was Very Courageous of the Show'

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the series finale of The Umbrella Academy. Read at your own risk!]

The Umbrella Academy's Season 4 finale confirms what many have suspected: It's the Brellies themselves who are the problem. Yes, they saved the world many times across the first three seasons of Netflix's superhero drama. But in Season 4, it becomes clear that without the Hargreeves siblings, there wouldn't have been these apocalypses to start with. That's why Five (Aidan Gallagher) announces a devastating solution to save the world one last time: The Umbrellas must "let the marigold in our bodies merge with the durango inside the Cleanse." In The Umbrella Academy terms, that means sacrificing themselves. And not only will this dysfunctional family die, but they will be erased from history. 

"There's something quite spiritually freeing about it — going, 'Oh no, we're in fact the problem,'" Robert Sheehan, who plays Klaus, aka Number 4, told TV Guide. "There's a romantic sacrifice in [the ending]." 

Sheehan shared why the story's conclusion is brave in his eyes. "I think the dramaturge in [showrunner] Steve Blackman would have been really wanting to leave it on a big crescendo, dramatic twist, as he does so brilliantly," Sheehan said. But that's not at all what happens in The Umbrella Academy's final moments, which are instead more muted than what most fans expected. "It's the complete opposite," the actor said. "So I thought that was very courageous of the show."

ALSO READ: The Umbrella Academy Season 4 review: Netflix's biggest superhero drama has lost its zany appeal

Emmy Raver-Lampman, who stars as Allison, said she had anticipated this ending. "Halfway through filming, I was like, 'I think we're all gonna die,'" Raver-Lampman said. "I was like, 'I think that's the only way out of this mess — is that we aren't here.'" 

The actor recalled not receiving the final script until days before filming the Brellies' last scene together. "It was withheld from us on purpose by Steve for a while — I think he wanted to save the heartbreak," Raver-Lampman said. "Almost every season, he's withheld the last couple pages so we don't know how the final episodes end until really close to shooting it. But this especially, because it's sad, and it could have gone so many different directions." 

Still, Raver-Lampman believed it to be a proper ending. "They all get to be together," she said.

She was referring to the Brellies' last scene, in which Allison and her siblings, as well as Lila (Ritu Arya), gather in a circle with hands clasped together as the Cleanse swallows them up. Of course, one of the super-powered characters is missing: Ben. And even though it's Sparrow Ben and not Umbrella Ben in The Umbrella Academy Season 4, there's no doubt that Sparrow Ben has developed bonds with the Brellies. But Sparrow Ben is not a part of this sacrifice because he's already been absorbed into the deadly marigold-durango Cleanse.

Justin H. Min, who plays Ben, joked that he was relieved his character wasn't the only one to meet his end. "I was glad that at least you all died because I was dead, so I wanted you guys to die with me," he told David Castañeda, who portrays Diego. Min also had some thoughts about the final shots of his character, where Ben's face is barely recognizable thanks to the Cleanse. "I was like, 'They really just wanted to send me off with a beautiful bang. Make me look as ugly as possible,'" he laughed. 

Castañeda agreed. "It was like the Michelin Man from Ghostbusters."

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The Umbrella Academy Season 4 is now streaming on Netflix.