"The End of Something" is the tenth episode and finale of The Umbrella Academy's second season.
Following the Kennedy assassination, the Hargreeves siblings are suspected to be involved and are wanted by several law enforcement agencies. As the siblings bicker over what to do next, Vanya realizes that Harlan is in trouble and she can help him. The siblings eventually agree to help Vanya.
At the farm, Harlan is causing several weather disturbances as he has a meltdown in the barn. Vanya tries to reach out to him, while the others are distracted by the arrival of the Handler and Lila. The Handler has set Five up as the fall guy for the assassination of the Commission board, and has brought every Commission field agent to attack the siblings. Five and Diego rush for cover, but with her powers, Vanya is easily able to take out the entire army of agents. This just leaves the Handler and Lila, who survive because Lila turns out to be superpowered as well. Lila handily beats the siblings and confronts Five about her parents' deaths, but Diego and Five realize that she was actually born on the same day as they are, and that the Handler is only using her the way she is planning to use Harlan.
Just as it looks like Lila might be having a change of heart, the Handler guns down the siblings and Lila. However, the last remaining Swede arrives and shoots her dead. As he's bleeding out, Five remembers Reginald's advice of starting small with time travel, and reverses time to a few minutes earlier. He intercepts the Handler, the Swede guns her down, and the siblings, Lila, and the Coopers live. Lila grabs the Handler's fallen briefcase and disappears before anyone can stop her.
Herb and Dot arrive, announcing that they will be rebuilding the Commission, and that the siblings are free to return to 2019. Sissy refuses to come back with Vanya, as given what she has just witnessed there's no way she can still live a normal life, but she will try to raise Harlan somewhere better and parts with no hard feelings. The Hargreeveses travel back to the future, but arrive in a 2019 much changed — Reginald is still alive, and has formed the Sparrow Academy in lieu of adopting them, consisting of other mysterious characters... and a very much alive alternate Ben.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Armor-Piercing Question: Five asks Lila why the Handler would turn up at her house right after her parents were murdered.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: During the news report at the beginning, Klaus is reported as a suspect in the Kennedy assassination, a controversial cult member, and a tax evader.
- Blood from the Mouth: Lila, after getting shot by the Handler. Then the Handler herself, after getting killed by the Swede.
- Brick Joke: Klaus mentioned way back in "Valhalla" that Texas is lousy with old cowboy ghosts. In this episode, two of them save him from falling.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: When Lila mentions the names of her dead parents to Five, the latter doesn't remember them straight away since he has killed so many people over the years.
- Call-Back: Lila deliberately puts her foot on Five's neck to pin him down, the same way Five did to Lila when they first fought and Lila even notes how the situation's been reversed.
- Cliffhanger: The season ends with the Umbrella Academy arriving home with Vanya's apocalyptic breakdown prevented... only to discover that due to their time-traveling hijinks, their father is still alive and he instead formed the Sparrow Academy, a team formed of different children (and a cube) that he found, including an alternate and alive Ben.
- Conscience Makes You Go Back: The Hargreeves siblings initially refuse to help Vanya help Harlan and Sissy because they believe hiding from the Commission and several law enforcement agencies who all want them dead or alive is much more important. However, before Vanya drives off to the farm, Klaus climbs into the car and says that he's coming with her. The other siblings quickly join them.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: An entire army of Commission agents rushing at the siblings is no match for Vanya's powers.
- Continuity Nod: The episode title is a reference to when the Handler asserts in the first season that the apocalypse isn't "the end of everything, just... the end of something."
- Distant Prologue: From an audience point of view (as it's technically in the future from the present setting of 1963), the cold open takes place in 2006, during Ben's funeral.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Raymond is drinking as he listens to the report about Kennedy before finding Allison's letter.
- Emergency Temporal Shift: The entire Academy ends up being gunned down by the Handler, killing all but Number Five. However, just as he's about to be served a coup de grace, Five decides to take Reginald Hargreeves' advice by travelling just a few seconds back in time instead of decades - landing himself in exactly the right time and place to avert the crisis.
- "Eureka!" Moment: As the siblings muse on Lila being able to copy all their powers, Vanya offhand remarks "she might as well be one of us." After a pause, it hits them all that's exactly what Lila is.
- Flashback Cut: Vanya has swift flashbacks to situations with Harlan which made her realize that she gave him her superpowers.
- Frying Pan of Doom: Lila uses one against Five.
- Go into the Light: According to the Distant Prologue and a conversation between Vanya and Klaus, Ben stuck around for so long because he was scared to 'go to the light'. Helping Vanya accept herself in the previous episode spurred him to finally do it.
- Help, I'm Stuck!: Diego gets stuck under a tractor and needs to be saved by his siblings.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: The siblings end up becoming wanted by several law enforcement agencies because they're suspected of being involved in the Kennedy Assassination for various reasons. Luther has ties to the Mafia as a former underground boxer, Diego is an escapee from an insane asylum and has been openly talking about somebody wanting to kill Kennedy, Allison is a local African-American Civil Rights leader and the news media (run by racist whites) already views her with suspicion for her role in the Stadtler's lunch counter protests and riots, Klaus is a controversial cult leader and a known tax evader, and Vanya is a suspected Soviet spy who is responsible for the deaths of several FBI agents. Meanwhile, the news paints Five as a boy being held hostage by the "terrorist network".Five: Well it's true. I do feel like I'm being held hostage most days.
- I Choose to Stay: Implied with the oldest Swede, who lost his brothers, his time-traveling job is in shambles, and has given up on revenge against the Hargreeveses. He is last seen remaining in 1963 and getting on a bus carrying Klaus's cult members, bemused at his new station in life.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: In an open field, hundreds of highly-trained agents with rifles don't manage to land a single shot on any of the siblings.
- Instant Death Bullet: Everyone shot down in this episode seemingly dies instantly, except for Five.
- It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Inverted; Sissy refuses to follow Vanya back to 2019 even though society would be a lot more accepting of their relationship because she realizes that Vanya's powers make her a target for a lot of dangerous people, and she doesn't want Harlan or herself to get put into any more superpower-related danger.
- Kiss of Life: Luther lays one on Allison who is grasping for air.
- Lesser of Two Evils: Diego notes that the Handler adopting Lila to raise her as a weapon was exactly what Reginald did to the Hargreeves siblings. The difference is that Reginald didn't kill any of the superpowered babies' birth parents to get his hands on the siblings.
- Love Cannot Overcome: Sissy refuses to follow Vanya because she fears for her son's safety.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The revelation that the team created an Alternate Timeline at the end of the episode has the team reacting this way.Ben: Dad, who are these assholes?
The Umbrella Academy: (Beat) Shit. - Movie Superheroes Wear Black: In a callback to the opening of the season, the final fight sees the full Academy sans Five are coincidentally wearing black. Alison especially looks super-heroic.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands:
- Five doesn't just travel through time, he rewinds it.*
- Diego suddenly can slow down and divert bullets. He did do it in the first episode of the second season, but that was a different timeline and there's no indication that Diego in this timeline figured out how he could do it.
- Nothing Personal: Five assures Lila that killing her parents was nothing personal.
- Not Too Dead to Save the Day: After Lila sends a shockwave at all of them, Klaus is saved from a bad fall by two ghosts who catch him in mid-air.
- The Reveal: Lila was one of the superpowered kids born on October 1, 1989, like the Umbrella Academy members, and she has the ability to Power Copy. This is combined with an Internal Reveal, since while the audience has known from the start of the first episode that there were 36 others out there, it turns out that Reginald hid this fact from the team.
- Sheathe Your Sword: After the final Swede kills the Handler to avenge his brothers, he and Five end up in a Mexican Standoff. Then Five puts his gun down and declares "enough". After a moment, the Swede lowers his gun, also declares "enough" in Swedish, and leaves the barn.
- Sequel Hook: The siblings getting confronted by a Similar Squad at the end begs for more.
- Voiceover Letter: Allison's farewell letter to Ray is voiced by her.
- We Can Rule Together: The Handler tries to smooth-talk Harlan into joining her.
- Wham Shot:
- Harlan is revealed to still have powers even after Vanya was established to have removed them when the camera pans from Sissy to his toy bird levitating in his hand.
- A portrait of Ben is on the mantlepiece instead of Five's portrait, followed by the group being greeted by a very much alive Sir Reginald.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: In regards to the characters the siblings leave behind in the 60s as most of them don't plan on coming back to see them again any time soon:
- Raymond finds Allison's farewell letter and contemplates their relationship.
- Dave is shipped off to military training.
- The last Swede is picked up by Keechie and Destiny's Children who have left Dallas on a new pilgrimage.
- Jack Ruby is off to kill Lee Harvey Oswald as per real-world history.
- Sissy and Harlan drive off to New Mexico, with the latter revealed to still have a power of telekinesis, silently contemplating what this means for him.
- World-Wrecking Wave: Vanya creates one to kill off all agents.
- Wrong Insult Offense: When the news report reporting the Hargreaves as wanted criminals in connection to the Kennedy assassination, Diego takes offense at it referring to him as Cuban.
- You and What Army?: The Handler proclaims that all seven siblings are dying today. Diego points out that it's seven against two upon which the Handler does a Badass Fingersnap to make her army of agents appear.
