Friday, August 14, 2020

The Umbrella Academy - The Swedish Job


Their real lives come crashing down on both Alison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) and Luther. Raymond Chestnut (Yusuf Gatewood) has many, many questions for his wife after learning that Klaus (Robert Sheehan) was the one who got him out of prison, and he's Alison's brother? But that's far less confusing than returning home to find the gigantic lovelorn Luther on his front lawn looking for his sister as well (or seeing Alison use her powers to save his life from a brutal police attack). Discovering Alison is married doesn't help Luther either who throws his next underground fight by begging his opponent to knock him out and make his pain go away.

Given the current Black Lives Matter protests, the sit-in proves to be the episode's most timely sequence as Alison and her friends peacefully take up seats in the white-only diner and refuse to be moved despite being berated by the staff and other customers. The sequence, featuring no cosmic threat or time-displaced death, still fits perfectly within the themes of the season while showcasing ugly truths that still have not be rectified decades later. When her husband is forcibly removed, and it looks like the officer may beat him to death, she chooses to use her power for the first time since arriving in the past. Elsewhere, Five (Aidan Gallagher) locates Vanya (Ellen Page) after she's attacked by time agents, and Diego (David CastaƱeda) and Lila (Ritu Arya) get much more intimate although that could be complicated given the episode's closing reveal about her connection to the Handler (Kate Walsh).

No comments: