Warning: spoilers for The Umbrella Academy season 4.

Summary

• The Umbrella Academy season 4 provided big reveals about the Hargreeves' origins and ended with a twist about Earth's technological development.
• The Handler was shown in season 4's final scene using a cellphone.
• The absence of cellphones in The Umbrella Academy added to its mysterious vibe but also added complications for the Hargreeves' urgent communication needs.

The Umbrella Academy season 4 solved some of the biggest mysteries left by previous seasons, and its shocking ending finally explained why there were no cellphones throughout the whole series. The Umbrella Academy has now ended with its fourth season, and it was packed with twists and big reveals, especially about the origins of the Hargreeves. After landing in Reginald’s custom-made timeline at the end of season 3, The Umbrella Academy season 4 caught up with the Hargreeves and Lila (Ritu Arya) six years later, as they all lived the most normal lives they ever had.

The Hargreeves were brought back together for a rescue mission, but this led them to reunite with their father and learn some disturbing truths about Ben’s (Justin H. Min) death in the first timeline, their origins, and the source of the apocalyptic event known as “The Cleanse”. To Reginald’s surprise, it was his wife, Abigail (Liisa Repo-Martell), the one who moved all the pieces to trigger the Cleanse, which ended up restoring the main timeline. The final scene in The Umbrella Academy showed the main timeline, and it made one subtle but important reveal.

The Umbrella Academy's Ending Implies Sir Reginald Halted Earth's Technology

The Umbrella Academy’s Ending Was A Total Reset

What stands out about the Handler’s appearance is not just that she’s a happy and normal woman, but that she’s using a cellphone.

The only way for the Cleanse to succeed and avoid more apocalypses across the multiverse was if the Hagreeves and Lila sacrificed themselves, as the Cleanse needed all the marigold particles. Unfortunately, this also meant that the Hargreeves would be completely erased from history, and so they wouldn’t return in the main timeline. The final scene in The Umbrella Academy took the audience to a park in the main timeline, where Lila’s family and Allison’s daughter were alive and well. This scene also showed characters from past seasons living completely normal and happy lives, among them The Handler.

It seems as if technology had stopped developing after the Hargreeves’ unusual births in 1989.

What stands out about the Handler’s appearance in the final scene of The Umbrella Academy is not just that she’s a happy and normal woman, but that she’s using a cellphone. Throughout The Umbrella Academy, not one cellphone was shown, and the overall technology seemed to be stuck in the late 1980s/early 1990s as if technology had stopped developing after the Hargreeves’ unusual births in 1989. Cellphones existing in the main timeline, where none of the marigold children and Reginald are present, suggests Reginald’s presence and influence were to blame for the strange development of technology on Earth.

How The Umbrella Academy Not Having Cellphones Improved The Show

No Cellphones Made The Umbrella Academy Better

At multiple times throughout the series, the Hargreeves needed to each other urgently, but a world without cellphones made that more complicated.

The lack of cellphones and other modern technology in The Umbrella Academy was pointed out since season 1, which was set in 2019. The second 2019 timeline (also referred to as the “Sparrow timeline”) and Reginald’s timeline in season 4 didn’t have cellphones either, but this actually improved the show in subtle but important ways. No cellphones added to the mysterious vibe of the show, which was futuristic in some ways but also somewhat retro in others, and helped establish that this was a timeline very different from the real one.

The lack of cellphones in ​​The Umbrella Academy also added difficulty to the stories of the Hargreeves. At multiple times throughout the series, the Hargreeves needed to each other urgently, but a world without cellphones made that more complicated. The world in The Umbrella Academy no longer has to worry about that, as the Hargreeves’ sacrifice also allowed technology to advance as it should.