With The Umbrella Academy officially over, the unconventional superhero series left fans with lots of unanswered questions. The most shocking plot twist of Season 4, that literally no one saw coming — not even the actors playing the characters — was the romance that grew between Five (Aidan Gallagher) and Lila (Ritu Arya). In Episode 5 of the finale, titled "Six Years, Five Months, and Two Days," Five and Lila get lost in an interdimensional subway as they try to save their timeline. The pair is shown stuck together for long enough that they start to depend and emotionally lean on each other. As time passes, an unexpected romance blooms between them. For many viewers, this romance might be difficult to digest given that Lila's relationship with Diego (David Castañeda) has been foundational to both characters' story arcs. But, on a character level, Lila and Five's relationship did have the potential to work, but unfortunately, the execution didn't work out.
A dysfunctional family of adopted superhero siblings reunites to solve the mystery of their father's death and prevent an impending apocalypse. As they confront their past and battle external threats, their fractured relationships and unique powers drive a mix of action, drama, and dark humor.
Five’s unique predicament of being stuck in a 13-year-old’s body while mentally being over 58 has always been at the crux of his character development. A sense of alienation and isolation comes with this lack of harmony between his mind and body. After spending decades in a post-apocalyptic world, completely separated from any human companionship, Five's most significant relationship is with a tattered mannequin he names Dolores. During Season 1, Five finds a shop mannequin under a pile of rubble, and desperate for any sort of company, he keeps it with him. In a way, Lila takes Dolores' place when Five once again gets stuck outside the timeline.
On an existential level, he doesn’t know his place. He’s lived through every time period and not really had good human connections with people, so he just feels very isolated from everything and is drifting through existence. His family is fine. And then, when they get lost in the subway and he finds himself with somebody who he relates to, it becomes the purpose in his life to be there for that person. I think that’s a really relatable thing and it was a nice arc to get to play for the character.
Although this theme reflects Five's journey this season, when he finds out how to return to their timeline, he tries to keep Lila from returning to her old life because he is scared of losing what they have developed. But what they have is far from what's real, and it was a relationship doomed from the start. Five realizes his mistake when Lila ends things with him after they escape the subway and return to their timeline.
When we last saw Lila before the time jump, she was walking off with Diego to happily start their family after finding out she was pregnant. But by Season 4, the suburban life is something she's struggling to adjust to. There is a jarring difference between who she became after her time with the Commission and the "normal" life she has with Diego. As Lila tries to balance her old life and her new one, she fails to communicate with Diego about this need, and Diego doesn't pick up on what is actually happening to Lila, and the two grow apart.
Before hopping on the subway with Five, in the episode "The Squid and the Girl," Lila tells Diego she wants to take a break to reassess their marriage after Diego confronts her about the lies she's been telling him. Her trip with Five, which was supposed to be a short adventurous break, becomes a secluded reality of six long years. However, unlike Five, Lila snaps out of the fantasy bubble when she finds out there is a way back to their timeline. Her return is motivated by the fact that she wants to see her kids, and not because of a desire to return to her marriage with Diego. When she comes clean to Diego, even he understands and lets it go.
Gallagher also talks about how they shot that scene at Max's Delicatessen, and what it was like to wear Five's mustache.
If Lila and Five had hinted at this romance earlier in the series, one that built up over time, their romance could have felt natural. It's not like the characters lacked scenes together, since they have always had a competitive dynamic with each other. Five and Lila were both highly skilled assassins who came from the Commission. Not only was Lila raised by Five's boss (Kate Walsh) at the Commission, but he was also the one who was sent to kill her parents all those years ago. These two characters already have a deep connection, but The Umbrella Academy mishandled the execution.
Rather than leaning into the already established chaotic frenemies relationship that Lila and Five have, we get a pair of exhausted and beaten down people trapped in a place where the other person is their only company. You could make a case that Lila and Five simply settle for each other out of loneliness. It is a disservice to these characters that we've fallen in love with. Moreover, one and a half episodes didn't give the show enough time to execute this newly introduced and highly complex relationship dynamic between Lila, Diego, and Five. The show had multiple opportunities in previous seasons to gradually develop Lila and Five's relationship on screen. However, they chose to rush it at the last minute.
Compared to previous seasons, Season 4 was shorter overall. T he time devoted to this sudden romance should instead have been used to address the core plot of Season 4. There may have been subtle hints during the Season 3, Episode 3 bathroom fight scene between Five and Lila. Still, rather than leaning into this, Season 3 focused more on Diego and Lila's relationship. This is not the first time this series has blindsided viewers. In Season 3, Allison was suddenly turned into an antagonist who was actively willing to sacrifice her siblings in a plot that also felt rushed, andit received zero closure by the end of the series . It's almost as if story elements that seem to "come out of nowhere" are usually a sign of poor writing. So, while The Umbrella Academy absolutely could have made Lila and Five's relationship work, they did not lay the groundwork soon enough in the show.
The Umbrella Academy is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.
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