The Umbrella Academy season 4 ending and post-credits scene explained

Season 4 was revealed to be the last outing for the show when it was announced back in 2022, with showrunner Steve Blackman since admitting that there was a chance not everyone will be on board with the show's ending, explaining: "I think some will love, some will maybe hate and some will have opinions, but I want to hear their opinions."

Sure enough, the ending has proven divisive among fans, with some expressing disappointment and even outrage over the season finale.

Cast member David Castañeda recently expressed his pride in the controversial ending during a recent appearance on the I've Never Said This Before With Tommy DiDario podcast.

"When [I got] the pages, I was kind of hoping they were dummy sides," he recalled, before adding that, despite his initial shock at the ending, he is "very proud of how this whole thing played out". "I'm really happy with the work that we all did during season 4."

Wondering what went down in the season 4 finale, or simply need a recap? Read on for everything you need to know about the finale and post-credits scene.

The Umbrella Academy season 4 ending explained: Why did the Hargreeves siblings sacrifice themselves?

The Hargreeves siblings sacrificed themselves, allowing themselves to be wiped from history because their existence was causing the original timeline to shatter.

Explaining why he settled on that ending, showrunner Steve Blackman exclusively told RadioTimes.com: "I always wanted to ask this question early on, can you be a superhero if no one ever knew you existed? Like, is a superhero someone because everyone knows who they are, or is it because they know who they are? How does that work?

"So I thought, what happens when they're gone and no one ever knew they existed? Who were they really? And do we still love them as much as we do?

"So that's just a sort of a philosophical question, how would they feel if no one knew what they did? And I think that's a great way to end it – to say, 'What was this family? And did they matter?' And I think they did matter."

Let's break down what happened. Fresh from his fight at the CIA, Diego is seeing his marriage in a new light – but, after Lila and Five's romance, is it too late for them? Diego and Luther arrive home for Christmas but Lila is nowhere to be seen. Lila and Five return home from seven years of timeline jumping, and Lila reunites with Diego and their children, with Five clearly pained by the interactions.

Meanwhile, Viktor and Reginald (Colm Feore) find Ben and Jennifer. Viktor convinces his father to refrain from shooting the pair of them immediately in a bid to stop The Cleanse. They attempt to negotiate with Jean (Megan Mullally) and Gene (Nick Offerman) to get Ben and Jennifer back but, being Abigail (Liisa Repo-Martell) in disguise, Gene starts to sound a just a little weird, bickering with her husband Reginald.

As we get a glimpse inside the building, it quickly becomes clear that Ben and Jennifer are rapidly transforming into monsters due to the durango in Jennifer combining with the marigold in Ben.

Viktor convinces his father to let him talk to Ben. He poses as a Keeper, joining the mob, before sneaking into the building. He's caught mid-way, but uses his powers to eviscerate one of the Keepers attempting to stop him. When Viktor finds Ben, he's unrecognisable, with bulbous growths on what was once his skin.

He insists he won't leave Jennifer and, as Viktor attempts to convince him, his voice distorts, making it clear that he's turning into something that's not quite Ben Hargreeves any more.

Viktor explains to Ben that The Cleanse is changing both him and Jennifer and that staying together will only make it worse. As Reginald phones Viktor, Ben uses his tentacles to lash Viktor out of the way. Ben orders Viktor and his siblings to leave, saying he can't control it and doesn't want to hurt them.

Viktor attempts to drain the durango from Ben and he sees a vision of a lush green park. It's later revealed that this was Ben attempting to show his brother the original timeline and tell him what he needs to do. Reginald's snipers take a shot and Ben pushes Viktor out of the bullet's path, taking the shot to the chest instead. As time goes on, Ben and Jennifer run into a gigantic monster, also known as The Cleanse, which is set to devour everything in that world.

Elsewhere, Klaus, Allison and Claire (Millie Davis), also arrive at Diego and Lila's family home, fresh from Klaus being rescued after being buried alive and Luther tells the gang they need to find Ben and Jennifer (Victoria Sawal) before the Keepers do. Diego senses something's going on between Five and Lila and they recount what happened in the subway – and why they decided to stop running after a while. Diego asks Lila if she loves Five and she doesn't get a chance to answer before they see Ben's location broadcast on TV.

The siblings try and fail to inconspicuously arrive to save Ben, with the mob of Keepers guarding the building raining fire on them. Despite his reluctance, Five manages to blink the group of them away from the scene – and into the building with Ben and Viktor.

The siblings attempt to fight Ben in their own ways – Diego goes in all guns (or knives) blazing, while Five blinks himself and Lila to cover. Luther attempts to distract Ben, and Klaus discovers he can fly as he levitates himself and Luther to safety. Allison drags Viktor away and Five attempts to shoot Ben. Lila uses her eye lasers to cause an explosion – but that only fuels Ben.

Diego and Five get embroiled in a fight over Lila, while Allison still sees Ben in the monster. Lila and Viktor combine their powers but again, to no avail. Allison is knocked out, with the siblings giving up on the monster to check on her.

We see Five back in the subway system and he sees a version of himself wandering outside the train. Following, he stumbles across a deli full of different versions of himself. He establishes that there's only meant to be one timeline, and that the Hargreeves siblings originally shattered it, resulting in an infinite amount of timelines – and an infinite loop as the siblings attempt to save the world.

He realises that the Hargreeves have attempted to save the world 145,412 times and sees all the ways they've caused oblivion. It's revealed that one of the Fives created the Commission in an attempt to get back to the original timeline, but that the family is the problem. As Five says, "We're doomed to save or destroy the world over and over again, ad infinitum." Our Five insists he needs to get back to his family and stop the problem from ever happening.

The family reunite with Claire and Lila's family as Five returns and reveals that they're the problem. The marigold that infected their mothers and caused their births had the unexpected side-effect of shattering the timeline and the timelines are bleeding into each other (hence the Keepers finding all of those artefacts). He says they need to go back to the original timeline.

Five says they need to let the marigold inside their bodies merge with the durango inside The Cleanse – and in doing so, they will cease to ever have existed and solve the problem. Diego tells Lila to save herself and the children (despite Five pointing out that won't work as the marigold is in her body too). Allison tells Claire to go with Lila and she blinks her family to the subway. Five follows her, urging her not to leave. She steps onto the train – but at the last minute steps off, leaving her family and Claire to travel alone to a safer timeline. As Lila breaks down, Five holds her, and the pair return to the rest of the siblings.

The siblings say their last words to each other (some of which were improvised, David Castañeda revealed to RadioTimes.com), as they prepare to sacrifice themselves. They hold hands as The Cleanse takes them and, just like that, the Hargeeves siblings are wiped from history.

As we say goodbye and see the additional timelines removed, we see an emotional montage of their adventures over the past four seasons, before arriving at the lush green park we saw from the original timeline.

Of course, the siblings are gone, but Lila's family and Claire seem happy. As the series ends, we hear Reginald Hargreeves saying: "On the twelfth hour of the eighth day of August 2024, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary occurred. You might say it was just a normal day."

Finally, we're shown various characters we've known throughout The Umbrella Academy happily living their lives in the park – proving that the sacrifice was worth it. They include:

• Grace, the Hargreeves siblings' mother (played by Jordan Claire Robbins), wheeling a baby in a pram
• The Swedes, the triplet assassins hired by the Temps Commission to kill Number Five (played by Jason Bryden, Kris Holden-Ried and Tom Sinclair) playing frisbee
• The Handler at the Commission (Kate Walsh) speaking on the phone after a workout
• Hazel (Cameron Britton), the kind-hearted agent from the Commission and Agnes Rofer (Sheila McCarthy) – the owner of Griddy's Donuts and Hazel's love interest – wheeling along bikes together

Speaking recently with Collider, Blackman explained why he chose to end the series with the Hargreeves siblings sacrificing themselves.

"Early on, I wanted to challenge the notion of, can you be a superhero if nobody knows you ever existed or knew who you were? I wanted to have an untraditional ending," he said.

He added: "I didn’t want them to die, per se, but this was a way to get them to a worthy ending where they’re saving the world, but they’re saving a world that they caused to go kablooey themselves. Not directly, but they were the reason things were going bad anyway.

"This was the ending I really wanted. I did talk about some other endings, but I always came back to this one in my mind."

The Umbrella Academy season 4 post-credits meaning

But that's still not quite the end. As we return to the park in a post-credits scene, the camera pans down to show eight marigold flowers (clearly a reference to the element that infected our Hargreeves siblings) blooming.

That moment is open to interpretation, but we like to think it means the Hargreeves siblings aren't quite erased from history altogether as their memories will live on in the form of the flowers.

Exclusively speaking to RadioTimes.com about the meaning of that moment, showrunner Steve Blackman refused to give anything away, saying: "It’s a little something something!"

He continued: "It’s for the fans to decide what that means – I’m not gonna give my interpretation but everyone can have their own interpretation of what that means."

What happened to Jean and Gene in The Umbrella Academy season 4?

By the end of the season, Jean and Gene Thibedeau end up dead – both by the hand of Abigail. As a reminder – as we go into this episode, Gene (Nick Offerman) is already dead, with his body being worn as a disguise by Abigail. So, when we refer to Gene in this episode, it's Abigail in Gene's body we're talking about.

The episode begins picks up after Jean and Gene ordered the Keepers to "play the song" – in other words, to gather their troops and call for The Cleanse to begin. The song in question? Map of the Problematique by Muse – there's that glorious soundtrack once again!

Members of the Keepers stop in their tracks – with one even leaving a baby behind – and gather weapons, marching together down the streets. Jean and Gene give an impassioned speech, telling their followers that The Cleanse must happen – despite others trying to stop it.

Jean and Gene argue, as Jean knows something's changed with her husband. She claims the "non-believers" have got to him and, in front of their followers, undermines Gene. Gene suddenly slashes his wife's belly open, killing her instantly and tells their horrified followers that she betrayed them all.

Gene hears Ben's growls from inside the building and declares that The Cleanse has arrived. Later in the episode, we see Gene sit next to Reginald and reveal he's been Abigail in disguise.

Who was Abigail and why did she want the Cleanse?

Abigail, the wife of Sir Reginald Hargreeves, wants to put things right after unleashing the elements marigold and durango onto the world.

So, she takes on various disguises throughout the series in order to thwart Sir Reginald's plans and ensure that Ben and Jennifer do in fact cause The Cleanse, wiping out the alternate timeline. First she disguises herself as Sy Grossman, aiding Gene and Jean in their mission, and then disguises herself as Gene himself, killing Jean.

As the monster begins to wreak havoc on the city, Sir Reginald gives up, asking himself why he waited to take the shot instead of taking Ben out. Gene sits next to him, and assures him he's a good man. Still with no idea that Gene is Abigail in disguise, Reginald asks him if he has any idea what he's done and he answers that he's ended the world, adding: "And that's a good thing, my love."

Abigail takes off her disguise, revealing to Reginald that it's been her all along. She says that dying was her penance for creating something so deadly (the marigold).

She reveals that Reginald loosed the marigold on this world after theirs was destroyed, and Reginald says because he was lonely without her, revealing the marigold brought her back to life.

She tells him it was her duty to set it right, revealing it was her who thwarted all of his plans to keep Ben and Jennifer apart. The monster then comes for the pair of them as they accept their fate.

How does The Umbrella Academy season 4 finale compare to the comic books?

Discussing how the fourth and final season deviates from the original comic book series, showrunner Blackman said: "Well, for starters, there's no graphic novel for what we would call season four and while our series is coming to a close, Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá are actually working on their next volume, and they have a pretty good roadmap of where the story is going for many years to come."

He added: "That said, we have deviated from their version and, in a wonderful way, they're making changes based on what we're doing in the TV series.

"So, we're symbiotic in some ways. But there are major elements - like The Cleanse and The Jennifer Incident - that are entirely from Gerard and Gabriel. I've done my interpretation of these events in season four, but these are both things that are forthcoming in the graphic novels in slightly different way."

The Umbrella Academy seasons 1-4 are streaming now on Netflix.

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