"Seven Bells" is the ninth and penultimate episode of The Umbrella Academy's third season.
Flashbacks to Luther's time on the moon show that on the other side, Reginald's deceased wife Abigail is cryopreserved.
The day after the wedding the siblings wake up hungover. Reginald and Allison manage to wrangle them into hearing the plan. Reginald tells them the Hotel Obsidian holds a portal to another dimension, and they can defeat the kugelblitz by defeating the guardian on the other side and ringing seven bells. The kids take it to a vote. Allison, Lila, Klaus, and Ben vote to go, but are outvoted by the others. Reginald murders Luther to spur them into action. Five remembers it was Allison he saw cutting a deal with Reginald.
The kugelblitz consumes the hotel and the others flee down the tunnel, save for Klaus, whom Reginald pushes back. With seconds to spare, Klaus impales himself on the buffalo horn.
Tropes:
- Apocalypse Wow: Reginald and Five can't help but admire at the world burning and disintegrating around them.
- Batman Gambit: To get everyone to agree to going through the doorway, Reginald kills Luther in a similar manner to the Guardian to capitalize on their newfound close bond with him.
- Call-Back: Before he slashes Luther the second time, Reginald says that the best way to get a family together is at a wedding or a funeral. Now remember the title of the pilot episode in this series.
- Combat Tentacles: Apparently, Reginald's true alien form has tentacles with protrusions sharp enough to act as blades
- Face Death with Dignity: Chet, who has been nonplussed the entire season even as the world burns around the Hotel Obsidian, accepts his death by kugelblitz by calmly spreading his arms and closing his eyes.
- High-Pressure Blood: When Reginald slashes Luther's chest as the killing blow, blood sprays out of the wound.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently, Reginald has seen numerous endings of worlds that would "blow [Five's] socks off".
- Precision F-Strike: The usually composed and stuffy Reginald says "bullshit" and "son of a bitch" during his heart-to-heart with Five.
- Rule of Seven: There are seven bells that need to be rung on the other side of the portal. Reginald discusses the trope when telling the kids about it.Reginald: The Norse had seven sleepers. The Blackfoot, seven stars. As a boy, I heard the legend of the seven bells. All these stories are the same.
- Tentacled Terror: This Reginald turns out to be even worse than the one in the old timeline, and uses a tentacle to kill Luther.
- Time-Passage Beard: Early in his moon mission, Luther is clean-shaven. Two hundred days later he has shaggy hair and a beard. Two years later his hair and beard are both shaggier and longer.
- Traitor Shot: Allison is seemingly sincere when making up with Viktor, but her face cools notably after they hug. So it's unsurprising that she was the one Five saw cutting a deal with their evil father.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Having achieved his seven warriors, Reginald thanks Klaus for his work in bringing the group together and leaves him to die in the apocalypse, telling him he is too much a liability.
