The Umbrella Academy ending explained: Who dies in the fourth and final season?

The Umbrella Academy trailer for the final season on Netflix

WARNING: This article contains spoilers from The Umbrella Academy. 

The Umbrella Academy season four has landed with the finale proving far more emotional than anticipated.

Netflix subscribers have been waiting for two years for the comic book adaptation to return one last time, wrapping up the Hargreeves siblings’ stories for good. And as well as concluding The Umbrella Academy as a whole, the remaining episodes also uncovered the truth behind one of its biggest mysteries, how Ben Hargreeves (played by Justin H Min) died.

None of the Hargreeves siblings remembered the circumstances surrounding Ben’s death as their memories were wiped by Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore).

But as fans found out from the last outing, Ben’s demise had a lot to do with how the show was to reach its tear-jerker ending.

Fans finally learned more about Ben's demise (Image: NETFLIX)

In this fourth outing, it is shared that Reginald had ordered the children to recover a weapon inside a container but Ben found a girl called Jennifer (Victoria Sawal) was inside and he helped her out.

For assisting her, Reginald shot both of them dead with viewers later finding out that them making contact could lead to the end of the world.

This is because within Jennifer, there is an element called durango with the Hargreeves siblings having an element known as marigold but when the two opposites are combined, they can cause an apocalyptic-esque event known as The Cleanse.

So the problem begins again for everyone as Ben and Jennifer are once again drawn to one another in this reset universe, putting the world in danger once more.

Their connection is destructive with the pair developing growths all over their bodies before merging, growing bigger and bigger until they become the Cleanse monster.

Viktor is portrayed by actor Elliot Page (Image: NETFLIX)

The Hargreeves initially try to fight their sibling-turned-monster when they come to the conclusion that the Cleanse has to happen.

Five Hargreeves (Aidan Gallagher) previously followed a version of himself into a deli which was full of him from a plethora of different timelines.

He discovers that there is only meant to be one timeline and the original Hargreeves siblings shattered it, causing the countless timelines and an infinite loop where they try to save the world.

They have tried to save the world more than 140,000 times and have caused destruction no matter what so it is the family that is the problem. So, to try and condense all of the timelines into one, it is agreed that they need to cease to exist in order to get rid of the marigold inside them.

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The universe was in danger because of Ben and Jennifer's connection (Image: NETFLIX)

The Cleanse monster consumes the siblings and they disappear with the world now a peaceful one.

An idyllic park scene then shows that their sacrifice was worth it with previous characters now living normal lives, including their mother Grace (Jordan Claire Robbins) with a baby in a pram and The Handler at the Commission (Kate Walsh) on her phone after a workout.

What’s also interesting is the post-credit scene once again at the park but the camera zooms in on a bunch of flowers growing which turn out to be eight blooming marigolds.

Showrunner Steve Blackman has commented that he wants to leave this moment up to audience interpretation, keeping quiet on what he thinks this clip means.

The Umbrella Academy is available to watch on Netflix.

The Umbrella Academy ending explained: Who dies in the fourth and final season?

The Umbrella Academy ending explained: Who dies in the fourth and final season?

The Umbrella Academy ending explained: Who dies in the fourth and final season?

The Umbrella Academy ending explained: Who dies in the fourth and final season?

The Umbrella Academy ending explained: Who dies in the fourth and final season?