"I can't imagine how hard it is for you to hear this how you feel right now, but I love you, and I just wanna be here for you, as your sister."
"...he asked me to do something I never understood until now."
— Allison
"I Heard a Rumor" is the eighth episode of The Umbrella Academy's first season.
Leonard discharges himself from the hospital; Vanya is shaken by the fact that she killed two of the attackers. Guided by Reginald's notes, he continues to try and awaken Vanya's powers. Allison finds Vanya's scarf outside the diner and convinces an officer at the scene to let her tag along on the investigation. The surviving perp reveals that Leonard hired them to rough him up. Vanya dregs up memories of her father training her to use her powers. Allison finds her in the cabin channeling her powers through the violin and informs her that Leonard is a murderer. Allison remembers that Reginald once made her convince Vanya that she was ordinary. Enraged, Vanya lashes out at Allison and slashes her throat by accident.
Klaus and Pogo tell Luther and Five that Reginald's death was a suicide. Accompanied by Diego, who got out of jail thanks to his officer acquaintance, they shake Luther out of his funk. The brothers drive up to the cabin only to find Allison's body bleeding out on the floor.
Meanwhile, Cha-Cha burns down the doughnut shop out of spite and tries to follow Agnes and Hazel. The latter, however, leaves Agnes at a motel to wrap up unfinished business.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Accidental Murder: Vanya didn't mean to do so, but two of the three men who attacked Leonard died when she lost control of her powers to protect them.
- Actor Allusion: The song playing in the beginning as Allison drives through the rain is "Stormy Weather (Keep Rainin' All the Time)", which was performed by her actress Emmy Raver-Lampman.
- Admiring the Abomination: Leonard's triumphant look at Vanya after the latter sliced the throat of her sister.
- Angry Collar Grab: Diego does it to Patch's partner from within his jail cell.
- Book Ends: The episode starts and ends with the tragic results of Allison using her powers on someone she loves.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Inverted; it's rather, neither side is right. Vanya is in denial that Leonard is bad news, and when she realizes Allison Rumored her, she accuses Allison of doing it because she was fearful of what Vanya could do and wanted to be more special. Allison tries to explain that Reginald made her do it, and Allison didn't know any better because she was four; these points are true, but doesn't really help Allison's case when she's a grown adult who has spent her life abusing her powers and is visibly terrified of Vanya's anger.
- Cat Scare: When Allison first investigates the cabin, something shoots up by her head — it's a bird.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The scene of Patrick finding Allison Rumoring their daughter plays out like he caught her smacking Claire or belittling her. Just as Claire falls in an induced sleep, Allison notices Patrick is watching. He stands in the doorway, looking at her with a mix of horror and anger, and walks away as she tries to say I Can Explain.
- Foreshadowing:
- Allison Rumors her daughter when Claire unreasonably asks for another story and is on the verge of going into another tantrum. It shows Allison isn't good at calming people down. At the end of the episode, she tries to do the same thing when Vanya has a screaming anxiety attack, with more tragic results.
- Leonard tells Vanya that the doctor has released him, only for the nurse to state a few seconds later that Leonard hasn't been discharged yet. This is an indicator of how easily he can lie to Vanya.
- Glass-Shattering Sound: Vanya is shown in flashbacks to be able to break champagne glasses by amplifying the sound of a tuning fork. She even breaks Reginald's High-Class Glass this way.
- Hangover Sensitivity: Luther shows sensitivity to sound the morning after his binge.
- Hope Spot: For a moment, it seems that Vanya believes Allison about Leonard being a killer since Allison has the police report in the car. Vanya needs a moment to sit and process this because despite hearing this, she loves Leonard. Even so, she's willing to listen and seems like she'll get in the car, to safety. Then Allison reveals, at the worst time, that she brainwashed Vanya as a child because Reginald made Allison do it. Vanya, already in a state of emotional turmoil, lashes out and screams at Allison to leave. Allison makes things worse by trying to Rumor Vanya again, and Vanya slashes her throat.
- It's for a Book: Allison convinces a cop to let her accompany him by saying that she's researching the role of a small-town cop.
- Modesty Bedsheet: Luther and his one-night stand awaken in his bedroom with the sheets covering their bodies.
- Must Have Caffeine: Five takes the coffee Klaus puts in front of Luther and gulps it down.
- Mythology Gag: Claire asks Allison to tell her the story about the Eiffel Tower, a reference to the first comic, where the children fight the Eiffel Tower itself.
- Not Helping Your Case: Allison finally has proof that Leonard is no good and a liar. Also, she's worried that he is endangering Vanya. But in the middle of her trying to convince Vanya, she reveals that she Rumored Vanya as a child. As Vanya puts it, why should she believe the sister that did a Mind Rape on her? Allison says she did it because Reginald asked and she didn't know any better. But as Vanya gets agitated, Allison tries to use her powers again.
- Papa Wolf: It's revealed that Allison's husband divorced her and got custody of Claire because she compelled Claire to behave with her Rumoring.
- The Patient Has Left the Building: Leonard leaves the hospital in a hurry, but not without signing the voluntary discharge papers.
- Pull the I.V.: We don't actually get to see it but when Vanya awakes from her Unbroken Vigil, Leonard has already gotten up from his hospital bed with the IV remaining on the sheet.
- The Reveal:
- Leonard paid the three guys to rough him up in front of Vanya in hope to invoke a Traumatic Superpower Awakening in her. It worked out.
- The reason Vanya had no memory of her training as "Number Seven" was that Reginald ordered Allison to use her powers to brainwash Vanya.
- Allison lost custody of her child over the abuse of her Compelling Voice.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: Defied by Five who tells Klaus not to answer his rhetorical question:Five: So how'd the crazy bastard actually know to kill himself a week before the end of the world?
Klaus: Well, you know...
Five: Don't answer. That was purely rhetorical. - Slashed Throat: Vanya accidentally slashes Allison's throat with her powers.
- Suicide for Others' Happiness: Klaus and Pogo confirm that their father killed himself to bring them together to stop the apocalypse.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Leonard tries to leave the hospital before the doctor clears him. A nurse stops him and tells him he has to sign voluntary discharge papers first since he's of sound mind.
- Allison's Compelling Voice makes her dangerous in the field and builds her acting career. When she uses them on her toddler daughter, the courts deem her unfit as a parent and mandate she must attend therapy sessions before she can have visitation rights.
- Allison tries to ride along with a cop. When he finds out she lied about having a movie role, he says he could lose his job until she reveals that she knows who the perpetrator of the "accident" is and can help catch him. When their main witness goes missing from the ICU, the cop tells her to stay in the hospital rather than go after her sister because it's dangerous going after a criminal alone and he'd be abandoning his civic duty letting her do that.
- Unbroken Vigil: Vanya spends the night by Leonard's bedside at the hospital.
- Unflinching Walk: Cha-Cha walking away from the exploding diner without looking back.
- Was It All a Lie?: Along with the other truth bombs Allison has dumped on Vanya, she and Vanya remember that Allison Rumored Vanya when they were both four. Vanya lashes out and asks if Allison really cares about her, or was it a front for jealousy about Vanya being special.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- The police cop chews out Allison for lying to him about researching for a movie role, since the truth that she's trying to find Vanya would have sufficed and she has valuable information on the case.
- Diego comforts Luther on the lie Reginald told his brother, but also tells him that he needs to shape up and find Allison because she needs help.
- Vanya doesn't react well on hearing that Allison Rumored her as a child. As she puts it, "You ruined my life!"
