I Think I Know Why The Umbrella Academy's Christopher Was A Cube After Watching Season 4

Warning: spoilers for The Umbrella Academy season 4.

The Umbrella Academy season 4 answered the biggest questions left by past seasons but left many others unanswered, and thanks to one big reveal, I think I now know why the Sparrow Academy’s Christopher was a cube. After three seasons of time-traveling, chaos, drama, and many twists, The Umbrella Academy ended with its fourth season. The final episodes were packed with shocking reveals and an ending that’s equal parts heartbreaking and hopeful, and some of those necessary reveals might have answered a big mystery for me.

The Umbrella Academy season 4 caught up with the Hargreeves and Lila (Ritu Arya) six years after season 3, revealing that they had all been living normal lives for the first time. The team was brought back together for a rescue mission, but this task came with unexpected turns. The team had to reunite with Reginald (Colm Feore) as they needed answers, and thanks to him, they regained their memories about the death of Umbrella Ben (Justin H. Min) and Abigail (Liisa Repo-Martell) explained the new apocalypse to them – and thanks to that, I think I know why Christopher was a cube.

The Umbrella Academy Doesn’t Show The Sparrow Timeline’s Jennifer Incident

The “Jennifer Incident” Wasn’t Exclusive To The First Timeline

In The Umbrella Academy season 3, the Umbrellas mentioned the “Jennifer incident” for the first time. This referred to the death of Umbrella Ben when they were 16 years old, but the details behind it weren’t revealed until season 4. All that was known was that Ben died while on a mission with his siblings and that the latter had failed as a team. Season 4 Reginald helped Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Viktor (Elliot Page), Luther (Tom Hopper), and Diego (David Castañeda) regain their memories of Ben’s death, revealing that Reginald killed his own son and a young Jennifer.

The young Umbrellas were on a mission to destroy a container that kept a dangerous weapon but were instructed by Reginald not to look inside it. Ben heard Jennifer inside the container and took her out of it, touching hands and thus activating the marigold/durango reaction that would have triggered the end of the world. Reginald suddenly appeared and shot Ben and Jennifer in the head, killing them on the spot, and later messed with the team’s memories so they wouldn’t remember he killed them.

The Umbrella Academy season 3 saw the Umbrellas and Lila in a different timeline where Reginald’s team was the Sparrow Academy, and their Number 2 was none other than Ben. All members of the Sparrow Academy were alive, but it was revealed that this timeline had its own “Jennifer incident”. Ben had various sketches of Jennifer in his room but the details about their “Jennifer incident” weren’t revealed, and I have a feeling it wasn’t Ben who was involved in it: it was Christopher.

Christopher Becoming A Cube Might’ve Happened Because Of Jennifer

Christopher Might Have Had His Own “Jennifer Incident”

The Sparrow Academy’s Number 7 was Christopher, a telekinetic cube of unknown origin but who was adopted by Reginald like the rest of the team, as he was one of the 43 superpowered children, somehow. Christopher could create sounds that his siblings understood and emitted a light that seemed to be linked to his emotional state. Christopher’s powers were electricity generation, inducing cold by manipulating the temperature of the room, inducing fear into others’ minds, and paralyzing them with fear.

In season 3, Christopher was used to contain the Kugelblitz, but this was only temporary as he later exploded and re-released the Kugelblitz, killing him and his sister, Fei. This, his unique physiology, and the mystery around the “Jennifer incident” in the Sparrow timeline make me believe that he was the one who came into contact with Jennifer, not Ben. Season 4 showed what happened to Ben when he touched Jennifer, so Christopher might have been a normal, human boy when they met Jennifer, and he was the marigold host that Jennifer’s durango needed.

However, Sparrow Reginald had a very different way of dealing with this than the original Reginald. I’m thinking that Sparrow Reginald, instead of killing Christopher, found a way to contain the reaction of the marigold/durango interaction and that’s why Christopher was now a cube. The reason why this Reginald didn’t kill his son was because he desperately needed seven superpowered children to power the Oblivion machine, so he had to save him at all costs, even if that meant turning him into a strange cube.

Christopher’s Origin Is One Of The Umbrella Academy’s Biggest Mysteries

The Umbrella Academy Left Various Mysteries

Although The Umbrella Academy solved many of the show’s biggest mysteries, it also left many others that won’t be solved now. Among them is Christopher’s origin, which the show never bothered to address. As Christopher died in The Umbrella Academy season 3 along with most of his siblings and season 4 took place in a completely different timeline, there was no reason to explain why Christopher was a cube, and season 3 didn’t have time to do so, either.

Christopher being the one who had the “Jennifer incident” in the Sparrow Academy seems the best explanation to me about why he was a cube, why Ben was still alive, and why he knew Jennifer existed, more so as there’s no way The Umbrella Academy can solve this mystery now.

The Umbrella Academy

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The Umbrella Academy is based on the comic book of the same name created by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá. The Hargreeves — collectively known as The Umbrella Academy — were born with superpowers, and their adoptive father utilized their abilities. However, as they grew older, the siblings grew apart as they dealt with their trauma. They are brought back together after their father dies and Five returns from the future with grave news: The world will end, and The Umbrella Academy has to stop it before it happens.

Cast

Colm Feore , Cazzie David , Genesis Rodriguez , Robert Sheehan , Aidan Gallagher , Elliot Page , Emmy Raver-Lampman , Jordan Claire Robbins , Jake Epstein , Mary J. Blige , David Castaneda , Justin Cornwell , Justin H. Min , Britne Oldford , Adam Godley , Tom Hopper , Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton , Ritu Arya , Cameron Britton , Sheila McCarthy

Release Date

February 15, 2019

Seasons

4

Showrunner

Steve Blackman

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